Williarob

Send me a PM

Virtualbox or parallels running windows would definitely work.

The program is compiled with Matlab.

You could just use virtualbox, parallels, or maybe even WINE to run the windows version.

Ouch…pricey…Looked like Viva was more of a editor from the website.

Perhaps you were looking at the wrong software:

https://algosoft-tech.com/pro

Viva Pro costs $11k

NeverarGreat said:

I notice that the original frame has a lot of dirt and scratches, but apart from that the underlying film grain is quite fine. In the cleaned version, there seems to be a noticeable grain that has been added. Is that an inherent part of the cleaning, or has that been added later, such as to help mask film damage?

I added the heavy grain to help hide the missing details and temporal smoothing, and so that it would blend better with 4K77 No DNR if anyone chose to integrate these sequences.

Actually Viva Pro did most of the heavy lifting.

The full Diamant Film Restoration suite starts at a little over $20k. Dustbuster+ is the cheaper, stripped down version which can be had for just under $7k.

Since I do this semi-professionally now, I have bought licenses for Viva Pro and Diamant Dustbuster+, both of which were used here, along with After Effects & Photoshop -the new Genrative Fill feature helped fill in some of the larger areas of black scratches - the ones where there are so many scratches they almost form a black rectangle that lasts for a dozen frames or more:

At least 4 hours of manual painting, cloning, etc.

4K80 is done!

https://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/2024/02/12/4k80-is-finally-done/

Slavicuss said:

Williarob said:

Here’s my quick attempt at restoring the Tosche Station scenes:

https://vimeo.com/912082416?share=copy

Very nice. Bummer about the watermark though.

It’s just a quick test - I only spent a day working on it. I need to spend a little longer to restore some of the details that were scrubbed out. When it’s done, I’ll make it available without a watermark to anyone who wants to use it.

Here’s my quick attempt at restoring the Tosche Station scenes:

https://vimeo.com/912082416?share=copy

It’s very close. Just waiting on some newly restored 35mm optical audio tracks and Release Candidate 1 will be ready - hopefully within the next week or two, 4K80 v1.0 will finally be done!

Sure - Send me a PM.

I did fill the gaps using the Bluray, but there were so many that I didn’t try to color match them, or “Dehance” them to make them blend more seamlessly. Hoping to one day use a scan of a second print to better fill the gaps.

Yes, but the print turned out to have 164 splices, so it’s a bit rough.

Perhaps what he means is that everyone is well within their rights to make their own backup copy of anything they bought - You can buy a DVD and make a copy, in case the original gets scratched or broken. That’s “fair use”. However, any kind of public distribution of that fair use copy is 100% breach of copyright. That’s not a grey area.

Copying prints should be the same way, since prints can also get scratched, colors can fade, or it can develop Vinegar Syndrome and become unusable, so making a digital backup so that you can continue to enjoy the film even if it gets chewed up in a projector, would be fair use, again, so long as it’s not publicly distributed.

However, unlike a DVD, which was licensed by a distributer and legally purchased from a retail outlet, 35mm prints were never supposed to be in our hands. The studios expected them all to either be returned or destroyed at the end of their theatrical run. Unless the studio (or the cinema) threw them in the trash and put them at the curb for pickup, in which case they are once again fair game. I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know exactly how it would play in a court of law, but the FBI Warning at the start of every DVD and Bluray doesn’t mention “Fair Use” as an option, and makes it crystal clear that distribution, even without financial profit is very much against the law.

If I were a moderator on Reddit, I would want to remove all the links simply because by leaving them up, Reddit is clearly allowing the illegal distribution of copyrighted works, and it would be Reddit that receives the first DCMA takedown notices and cease and desist letters from concerned studio lawyers, not the people posting them, who are largely anonymous. You’ll notice that although we discuss all these projects here on OT, you won’t find a single publicly posted link to download any copyrighted works.

Initially I tried merging the two scans, but the faded scan was just so much nicer - much sharper with less noise and more detail. So in the end, I just used the new scan, cleaning it of dirt and dust and restoring the color by using the other, unfaded scan as my guide.

I spent many hours restoring it.

https://vimeo.com/841466994

The IB Tech does have the 81 crawl attached and it has great color, but the stars are pretty much invisible:

Believing it was important to be able to see the stars, we’ve never used this version.

We have actually scanned 8 more 35mm prints of Star Wars (and 3 x 16mm) since that IB Tech was scanned, and all of them have the original '77 crawl. It took us 10 years to find a partial reel on 35mm (which has just the '81 Crawl and Flyover, spliced onto some of Reel 6 - the rest of the print had such bad vinegar syndrome that it had to be trashed). Anyway, we had this new version of the '81 crawl scanned on an LG Scanstation at 5K. It’s faded, but the star field really pops.

One idea is to align and merge the two scans, so that the Luminosity and Star Field from the new scan can be used with the Color from the other one.

Just a few months ago, I also picked up a 16mm print that also has the '81 Crawl:

Interestingly, this is also almost devoid of stars, so perhaps that’s how the '81 Crawl was.

It is on our list of things to do…

In New Zealand, it’s 50 years. Here in the US I think it’s 75. So in New Zealand, American Graffiti should become public domain this year, and Star Wars in 2027.

Well I for one appreciate your efforts to set them straight. For those who still insist that this is just a laserdisc upscale, perhaps this will help:

It’s just a half resolution proxy file, but it clearly shows more picture information on all sides than any laserdisc, the optical stereo soundtrack, and the grey background of the soundtrack proves it is an IB Tech.

I chose “Unauthorized copies of media (music, movies…)”

Another eBay seller profiting from our work… Please report them if you can.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224906436484?hash=item345d77df84:g:oCcAAOSwHHNiP2tp&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&customid=&campid=5337618524&toolid=20008&mpt=6849332

Darth telly said:

here is what I am experiencing, it worked one time then suddenly went back to doing this again.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GtoVpq3FI-4CqB-QLJbwZgcR14Pw275n/view?usp=sharing

After you pick a Test file and the preview window opens to show you the image, close that preview window. Do the same after you open the Reference image.

PM sent.

Sadly 4K80 will not be ready in time for Christmas. The two guys working on Reel 2 had some serious real world issues to deal with over the last few weeks and were unable to finish cleaning that reel yet, but I’m sill hoping we can wrap up this project early in the new year.

Meanwhile, we already have a scan of another Fuji print of ESB which might make for a good v2.0. Previews of this new scan, a grindhouse version of the 4K80 print, and a grindhouse version of Poita’s German print, and several variations on the original ESB Grindhouse scans are available on my site (https://forums.thestarwarstrilogy.com).