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Video Collector

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Join date
22-Dec-2010
Last activity
22-Feb-2024
Posts
382

Post History

Post
#474811
Topic
Star Wars 1977 70mm sound mix recreation [stereo and 5.1 versions now available] (Released)
Time

ChainsawAsh said:

I don't think the Jedi bootleg is a 70mm recording, is it?  And the 35mm mix is already on the V3.

I don't know, to be honest. But I think it's just a regular 35mm anamorphic print. Here's why:

The Jedi taping seems to be from a private screening, as there are no crowd noises etc. Also, the projectionist has obliged by switching from anamorphic to flat lenses on the fly, keeping the opening crawl and the end credits squeezed to accomodate the camcording. I am not familiar with cinema projection, but would such a thing be possible with 70mm projectors? Do they even have flat lenses?

Furthermore, we know this screening is of a UK print (The UK certificate at the beginning). Were there any 70mm prints shown in England?

Post
#474804
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

skyjedi2005 said:

What is the quality of the Droids tapes like the Great Heep for instance ?

Those ewoks caps look fantastic.

The Ewoks tapes were remarkably clean, and the results surprised even me. (See above post w/description of the minute noise filtering applied in the capture). The later Ewoks tapes (#4-6) didn't appear used at all.

So far, the Droids tapes have been in rougher condition. Maybe they were more popular and more heavily used than the Ewoks tapes ever were? Luckily I have more than one copy of some of them, so I can mix and match the best sources. Still have Tape 3 and The Great Heep to go. I've never watched them, so for all I know they may not even play. *Crossing fingers*

I've bought all my tapes 2nd hand on eBay, so it's a crapshoot, really.

Post
#474796
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

LexX said:

Edit: btw, Fritz, what are you using capturing them? They look great so just wondering if I could invest into some equipment.

 

I'm using my trusty Packard-Bell HDD recorder (POS, really). (Those of you with capture cards in your PCs may roll in your graves now.)

It has a so-called "crystal clear" circuit (that's noise reduction filter to you and me) which actually works well with recordings from the inherently noisy VHS system. It's more or less artifact-free, but I still wish it was possible to toggle it off.

Still, it's well suited for animation with large areas of flat colour that otherwise would be filled with noise. It mostly doesn't smear any of the outlines either, remarkably.

Post
#474783
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

LexX said:

Was there a reason not using the official DVDs as video material, aren't they better?

It's a matter of time and convenience, really

At the moment I am only doing simple transfers of the VHS tapes, a preservation, if you like.

I agree that there are advantages to using the available DVD footage and mixing it with any missing parts found on the tapes. However, at this time I am not prepared to put in the work to do so. Anyone else is free to use this project as a springboard to do exactly that*.

I AM going to reconstruct the missing Droids episode from the DVD, mixed with the VCD recording from the Sci-Fi channel broadcast (if needed). The DVD may have the entire episode on there, sans the opening and closing credits, but I have yet to delve into this.    Oops! It seems the DVD doesn't use any footage from episode 9 either. The VCD will be used for this one. Wikipedia states that there are some music substitutions on the Droids DVD as well, furthering the need for a VHS preservation.

 

*LexX, keeping this in PAL territory, would you care to give it a shot for inclusion in this release? Anyone? According to Wikipedia, the Ewoks DVD contains footage from episodes 2, 1, 3 and 9 (The Haunted Village)  & eps 10, 5, 4 and 13 (Tales from the Endor woods). Knock yourself out.

Post
#474415
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

LexX said:

Seconded.

Speaking of which...

LexX, we still need your help with the recaps.

Also, I need a clean version of the Droids opening. The UK tapes all have a voiceover telling you to buy the other Droids tapes as well, and you have facsimilies of the video covers flying across the screen.

Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXlsXHibsEA&feature=player_detailpage

For the Ewoks series I used the opening from my Norwegian tapes that haven't been tampered with. I'm hoping your Finnish Droids tapes are the same.

Post
#473994
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

Success!

All the Ewok episodes are now transferred. That's 35 GB of video, which works out to 7 or 8 DVDs if left at the bitrate they are now. I'm sure they could be compressed quite a bit without sacrificing quality, but that's Pittrek's call.

What to do with the "missing" episodes? Encode the Xvids to DVD and plug them into the continuity, or leave them as DVD-ROM supplements?

Post
#472975
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

I've found sources for the missing episodes from Droids and Ewoks. They are AVIs from taped broadcasts and markedly inferior to the ones I'm transfering.

Anyone have any opinions on wether these should be included for completeness sake, or left out because they are not part of the original tapes and therefore not a "preservation" per se?

I have also reconstructed an OK (not great) version of the original season 1 intro from Youtube sources. The same quandary applies.

It IS possible to reconstruct these episodes to approximate the way in which they were originally presented, but is it necessary? Do we add the same opening and closing credits to every episode just for the sake of it?

Post
#472967
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

LexX said:

I think there's too much comics to put, not sure how many but didn't they have an entire series?

It looks like it's already been done. I found a place selling scans of the entire run on CD-ROM, bootleg of course. That put me off including such a thing with this release.

There's a lot of good stuff on the ewoks/droids already online. It would be pointless to pilfer any of that for these DVDs. I'm scanning an article on the animation house Nelvana from the insider and putting it on there. Along with the Starlog stuff, that should give everyone a sufficient overview of the series and their creation.

I'm including Hi-rez scans of the UK and Norwegian VHS covers, and would very much like to include your Finnish ones as well, LexX. The Nordic countries rule!

Post
#472783
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

LeoneNut said:

I have the 4 Droids and 6 Ewoks UK VHS tapes, they are in a bad state though...

They don't have all the episodes either.

Droids is missing "Coby and the Starhunters"

Ewoks is missing "The Three Lessons" and "Prow Beaten / Baga's Rival"

Another problem is Ewoks uses the season 2 theme music for season 1.

 

 

Okay, then we've confirmed we're not gonna get a complete set using just the UK tapes. Still, we're charging ahead with this "preservation" of them.

I have "Coby and the Starhunters" on VCD from a Scl-Fi channel showing, still slightly better than a DivX. That would be the last episode in the "Mon Julpa" cycle. Strange they left that out?

"Three Lessons" is from season 1 of Ewoks, "Prow beaten/Baga's rival" is from season 2. Anyone know if these were ever released elsewhere?

Now, to find those remaining episodes.

Post
#472709
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

LexX said:

Just remembered... I think the UK videos have the episodes combined together which means they're missing recaps and only have one opening and one ending credits, am I right? So there should be another source for at least the recaps, I guess the credits also differ from episode to episode?

Yes, Indeed they do, so the credits and recaps will be MIA.

AFAIK, the beginning and end credits were identical within seasons. Of, course, when they switched format to the combined Ewoks/Droids adventure hour they were different again. And we're not trying to replicate that combo so specific credits for either Ewoks or Droids don't exist for those.

LexX, are the credits there on your Finnish Ewok tapes? I have yet to cjeck my Norwegian tapes (and I believe at least one of them has Macrovision).

Post
#472407
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

I'm doing a DVD-ROM supplement for this. Does anyone have anything on the animated Droids or Ewoks they could contribute?

I have scanned an excellent interview with series story editor Paul Dini from Starlog Yearbook Vol.3 and an episode guide for both shows appearing in the same issue. It will be on the DVDs.

I also have the Youtube Ewok toy commercial linked to in the other thread.

Looking for:

Scans of interviews with the creators of the shows.

Covers of VHS and DVD releases worldwide.

Images from the shows.

Trailers or any video material for the shows or their merchandise.

Scans of the comics, maybe?

Anything and everything.

 

Post
#471950
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

pittrek said:

Wow, were they really completely released ? So wikipedia is wrong ? (what a surprise :-) )

But I would definitely love to see some raw transfers, I have no problems with video cleanup

Well, I never actually compared the contents of the tapes to any episode guide, but I believe they're all there, Droids and Ewoks.

Would you be interested in getting PAL DVD captures for further refinement? They'd just be the raw, unedited contents of each tape, recorded to single layer DVD on my standalone recorder. You'd have to do the editing, sorting of the episodes, mastering etc.

What the guy on the other thread is attempting seems to be very ambitious, this would only be a simple dump of the PAL tapes.

I need a new project like I need a new appendix, but if there's any interest from the board members I'd happily take one for the team.

Post
#471851
Topic
Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ?
Time

Luckily, both series were released in full in England on VHS. These would provide superior sources to any off-air recording (and no station logos).

They would be in PAL, of course, but some enterprising OT-er could probably convert them.

I happen to have all the tapes (see signature), but am not prepared to put in the time to transfer them all. Maybe if I provided the raw captures, someone else would team up with me for the clean-up and authoring?

Anyone?

Post
#469692
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

dark_jedi said:

It is a menu image from a very old set I did with a former member here, I say former because I have not seen or heard from him in a long time, and now that it is re done I want to use the same images that he made up, but just resizing it makes it look terrible, so I am assuming there is some doctoring up that needs to be done.

Are you re-authoring or do you just want to re-jig the existing DVD files?

If you're re-authoring, grabbing the menu image(s) should be doable from the existing DVD. Repurposing that image into something that would be pleasing in 16:9 without stretching it would require some photoshop extensions or trickery or merely cropping top/bottom. The low resolution of the source image would require some legerdemain to avoid the image looking f-ed up, as you say.

I'd be happy to take a stab at it for you.

Post
#469638
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

This may be very thing you wanted to avoid, but:

I've used IFOedit to set the 16:9 flags on the menu after the fact. That way, the playback device stretches it to fill the screen, and all the button overlays and everything stays in place. Of course, the image appears stretched, and the hardware stretching is uneven and artifacty (in my experience).

Guide here: http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=59409