Williarob

It works on red faded shots too! Here is a short tutorial: https://youtu.be/5OtaGT3A8Bs

obi-juan said:

I don’t know if Team Negative 1 has a print of the special edition theatrical already, but there is a full 7-reel print of Return of the Jedi SE (1997) on a well-known auction site, ending in less than 2 days.

I assume you mean this one - it looks nice. If anyone has the $$$, I’d be happy to get it scanned, send you the scan and then you could resell the reels on eBay - it would be like renting it! You might even get a few hundred more than you paid for it… I’d do it myself but I don’t have the cash for the initial buy 😦

To celebrate Back to the Future day, Team Negative 1 asked me to post this original 35mm Teaser trailer, so enjoy!

https://youtu.be/Kg_Y28Yl-sM

Harmy said:

I like it!

 I do too.

I'm more interested in what software / technique was used to match the color because right or wrong, it matches very closely. Can you elaborate on that please?

Why are they only releasing a handful of titles in the new Steel Books? If the discs inside are unchanged and even I could have photoshoped the title sequences to make the packaging artwork, why not release them all in this format?

I didn't buy the big 22/23 disc box sets because I had already picked up all of the individual blu-ray titles released in 2008-2009 (Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, Live & Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Licence To Kill, The World is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.). When they finally released all the individual blu-ray titles (with different packaging to the incomplete 2008 set) I was able to grab all the remaining films at Best Buy on a Black Friday for just $3.99 each and complete my collection.

If these new steel book editions don't sell well, will they still complete the set, or will this become another unfinished set? While I don't intend to buy them, if they end up in a bargain bin somewhere for ~$3.99 each they may yet end up in my collection, sucker that I am.

Darth Mallwalker said:

Talking of repeats, I found several repeated frames in the preview last week:
9188 & 9189
15218 & 15219
26022 & 26023
27276 & 27277

I remember you mentioned replacing some dark shots from an Eastman source.
In such a scenario, if the first frame of a shot got repeated somehow
or the last frame of a replaced shot had been repeated ...
[... even then I still wouldn't understand. Who am I trying to fool?]
Those examples given are all from the middle of shots. How bizarro!

Cue the P.R. guy to tell us once again
that all problems will have been solved by your top men.
Just keep repeating it ...

-later

 I think it has to do with framerates and the encoding software used to generate the previews. I know that the team has put together a 23.976 fps GOUT sync'd version of the LPP to see if it was all there, and the only frames that are missing are at the Reel changes. (This happens because most cinemas in the 1980s had switched to a platter system, whereby all 6 reels would be spliced together onto a giant reel allowing the theater manager save some $$ by firing his highly trained projectionist and hiring some spotty teen to turn the machine on and off. Because they couldn't project the Heads/Tails of each reel, the first and last frames of the film would have to be spliced together, and would quickly get damaged and cut off the next time they were spliced. This wouldn't lead to audio sync issues since the audio track was right there on the film.)

  Anyway, since there is no reason to repeat any frames (except at the reel changes, and then only in order to sync to the GOUT). It looks to me like the preview may have been rendered at 24 fps in such a way that frames were duplicated here and there, rather than just slowing down the existing frames, then it was encoded again at 23.976 fps which may have decimated some of those extra frames or may have been simply sped them up. Provided the final render does not go through the same process this should not be a problem, and if it was the watermarking process that did it, then that shouldn't be an issue.

And as you say, I'm sure they will have Top Men working on the final render, ensuring such mistakes won't happen...

DrDre said:

Very interesting! Great looking screenshot btw. What's the source?

 It's from one of the prints in Team Negative 1's collection. Wish I had all of it!

DrDre said:

That might be the case in some instances, but I do not believe it's the case for the example you used ;-). Here's a comparison with the same frame for Harmy's DE:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131458

The door frame and stormtrooper on the right are clearly in focus, and also the stormtrooper on the left is more in focus than seen in the GOUT. 

 But Harmy's is based on the Blu-ray, which probably had all sorts of sharpening applied to it... Here is the same frame from a 35mm print, I think the trooper on the right is a little out of focus:

http://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/image.axd?picture=/2015/06/35mm-Frame-8228.png

Which isn't to say that this is something you should try to fix, I think it looks great, just pointing out that the Blu-ray is not always the best reference ;)

DrDre said:

Tomorrow I expect to put up the 10 min video sample for SRV12. Yep, we're skipping SRV11. Here's a single screenshot comparison at 720p (because it is easier to see the entire frame):

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131202

The video will be 1080p.

 Usually when I look at these screenshots the difference is so subtle that I often don't see it at all, but this one is truly night and day. Good work.

SilverWook said:

Harmy said:

Plus, aren't 70mm prints more cropped on the sides?

http://www.jedi1.net/

 LOL, I forgot I still had that site :)

poita said:

There is a bunch of stuff that looks a little weird, and I don't think it is a compression artefact.

Mostly in high contrast areas, like R2 here against the background, it is like he has after-images to the left and right of him. Any idea what this is?

That ghosting is probably on the original print, because you can also see it on the GOUT. It is just much clearer here...

Team -1: http://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/image.axd?picture=/2015/06/StarWars.Frame.00026265.png

GOUT: http://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/image.axd?picture=/2015/06/StarWars.Frame.00026265-GOUT.png

More on Lowry's Bond restoration here:

https://youtu.be/OPN16G_9H7Q

I think the watermarks are there to easily distinguish their 35mm screenshots from all the other Star Wars screenshots here on OT. I think of them as a mark of authenticity. I'm sure the final release will not be watermarked. The ESB releases weren't anyway.

DavidMerrick said:

...

EDIT: A question for the Team: can you post a clip from one of the reels you've done a first correction/cleanup on? I think two was one of them. Nothing substantial, minute max, just to get an idea of what the finished product may look like?

And like, not a Dailymotion video, but uncompressed 1080p available to download to your hard drive. And yeah, I know you had that bit in the 8mm release, but that was like a few frames of dark, overly-cropped and downscaled footage.

Just think of it as something to tide us over and reassure us.

I guess the team didn't have a 60 second clip ready to go, but they sent me this 30 second clip. Also included is the Before clip so you can see what was removed, and the codec in case you need it. Minor color correction on the After clip (mainly just brightness and contrast tweaks). The aspect ratio is way off, but you can easily correct that, and there is no audio. This clip is from near the end of the third reel, which is considerably dirtier than the middle of the reel. It also contains a really nice effects shot which must have passed through the optical printer a few times, to add the lightsaber roto-scoping, the remote, the holographic game in the background, and the laser blast from the remote. If you brighten the before shot you can really see just how dirty it was. Enjoy!

http://we.tl/lGsZj6EUVR

poita said:

RU.08 said:

They'd have to use a print to show them the structure if there's no negative (i.e. the o-neg is configured to the 1997 SE).

 As far as I know, they still had the three strip seperation masters to work from.

http://www.dga.org/Events/2011/04-april-2011/George-Lucas-on-Star-Wars.aspx

Around the 51 minute mark Lucas explains that the cyan channel was all out of sync and useless so they couldn't use the three strip masters.

I expect Lowry's automated process was cheaper.

well, despite my doubts, I am genuinely intrigued to see what you can achieve, so please keep us posted.

Doesn't Video enhancer (http://www.infognition.com/videoenhancer/) use the same technique? I tried it on a short sample from the GOUT and it did an OK job - it might make it look better on your HDTV than the built in hardware upscalers, but it's never going to create an instant OT Bluray version that I'd be happy with.

team_negative1 said:

Those aren't direct download links, just pointers to the usenet file parts.

Team Negative1

 No, I think Jay's right. That's like saying it's not a direct link because it only points to a .torrent file. Sure you need to install a torrent client to make the link work, but then you're in like Flint. Same here - if you have a newsreader installed, those links are pretty direct. There are now several versions of the files on the usenet and I was trying to point people at the right set. Sorry Jay!

JEDIT:

Team Negative One ESB Deconstructed CC 720p:

[link removed]

Workprint version 0, 1080p:

[link removed]

ESB Deconstructed Misc Files (tests, comparison videos, etc):

http://binsearch.info/?server=&b=ESB-Deconstructed-misc&g=alt.binaries.starwars&p=Yenc%40power-post.org+%28Yenc-PP-A%26A%29&max=250

Looks like this is now on the usenet at a.b.starwars:

[link removed]

Just checked out T1 - looks awesome! Great work Team Blu!

I too, would love to have an invite. Is there a dedicated thread somewhere for invites? I hate cluttering up a thread like this.

Anyone who missed out on the previous YOLT IB Tech print may be interested to know that 11(!) more reels are currently up for auction on ebay:

381154217575


381134727226


381137930014


381134734712


381134754247


381134689055


381134747066


381137964227


201271570871


201271402623


201271633078


Where do they keep coming from?! Some have VS, but most look great. If anyone here wins any reels, let me know and I can get them scanned.