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ZombieFlanders

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Join date
15-Jul-2004
Last activity
2-Sep-2011
Posts
41

Post History

Post
#65269
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/65269/action/topic#65269
Time
Yeah, the Official and DrGonzo screencaps really should be adjusted to the proper AR. An important thing to remember is that the LDs that the rips come from are ~2.35:1, but the Official DVDs are actually closer to 2.40:1. You'll notice a bit of extra picture on the sides and a tiny sliver of picture (1 or 2 lines from the top) missing. It's not much of a change, certainly not the mangling that is full-screen, but for those who are doing a comparison, it explains picture size differences.
Post
#64892
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/64892/action/topic#64892
Time
Rikter: I'd love to see a picture of your DVD rack, or at least the Star Wars portion of it. Your wife must have the patience of a monk.

MeBeJedi: Damn, I didn't realize how much you've put into these discs. I tried the same thing with my Definitive Set for a couple months, but I just couldn't get the quality I wanted, not even to the level of DrG(onzo)'s Anamorphic set. Some of the things you did (29.97fps video to 23.96fps film for instance) I hadn't gotten around to trying before I gave up. HDD space was an issue, since I was limited to 140GB. During a hard financial period, I had to get rid of my original LD player (Pioneer CLD-D505) and the Definitive Set on eBay. Later, I ended up snagging a Mitsubishi clone of the CLD-D704, which is probably the 4th or 5th best LD player made, and certainly the best American, non-Elite. I envy those who have the HLDs, those are some serious machines, excellent quality. Oh, and if you ever need a guinea pig for the set, I'd be willing to help out. Seriously! I've got a couple of systems to try it out on, from a regular old 27" analog set with stereo speakers to an HTPC for upconverting video, calibrated digital projector at 110" , and a nice 7.1 surround system, also calibrated.

Again, I congratulate you on your efforts.

ETA: Niiiice. Did you have to any work on color balance, or was the Faces Set that good to begin with? These encodes look less washed out than the Definitive versions/
Post
#64771
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/64771/action/topic#64771
Time
Thanks, MeBeJedi! It's been pretty cool watching part of the process unfold here. Kudos to you and all the people who helped out with advice. A couple more questions:

1) Am I correct in assuming that Rikter will be the point of contact for these when they're done?
2) Do you have all 3 encoded, or just ANH?
3) Will there be a supplemental features disc?

Keep up the excellent work.
Post
#64724
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/64724/action/topic#64724
Time
Looks good to me! You did a good job of matching font, size, and placement. There did seem to be some interlacing with the wipe you used, but better that it appear in the credits than the film itself. Based on the clip's aspect ratio, I'm guessing your set isn't anamorphic? Of course, that doesn't make me want it less, I just want to set up my player correctly.

ETA: On repeated viewings, the "B" and "J" seem to look a little different (i.e. a little blue-green) than the rest of the text, but that might be the fact that it's at a lower quality than the final.
Post
#64535
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/64535/action/topic#64535
Time
Wow, MeBeJedi, I think Rikter's going to pee himself a little over your copy.

I'm really excited to see what all he's gushing about. My projector and receiver are getting a workout from the official DVDs on Friday (yay for early shipping!), but I'm saving space in the queue for these. Do you have the specs for the discs for people to put on custom covers? I think the folks over in the custom cover thread might like the challenge of a new set to work their magic on.
Post
#63848
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/63848/action/topic#63848
Time
Whoa, Kris, you can let go of the buttons now...

If you read the auction, it says that he "found it at a yard sale" or something like that, not that he bought it straight from Paul. He then goes on steal Paul's images and bandwidth without giving credit to Paul. If he had stated somthing like "This is a Paul Champagne tin box" or something similar, or had used his own pictures he took with a digital camera, I'd be more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but since he doesn't acknowledge Paul and steals his images and/or costs him a ton in traffic costs, he deserves to be shut down.
Post
#63332
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/63332/action/topic#63332
Time
cardaway: I'd definitely go with Rikter, as he'll send you the set, with cases and covers for a little more if you ask him. There's several different covers for all of the different varities of OOT discs, although the TR47 7-Disc Set might only have one. Get in touch with him for all the details. He's a busy man with a family, so it might take a couple days, but I can easily recommend him, since I have dealt with him in the past.
Post
#60736
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/60736/action/topic#60736
Time
DanielB, you're still not understanding what the review says, partially because it's worded really badly. Oh, and before I continue, I have personal experience with the Panasonic RP91, so I know what it can do. I'm also very familiar with scaling, interpolating, and resizing DVDs, usually using an HTPC.

When he says "It automatically scales 4:3, letterbox, anamorphic, and non-anamorphic movies to their correct aspect ratio," what he means is that it will detect whether or not the image being shown is within the aspect ratio--fullscreen (which should actually be referred to as 4:3 or 1.33:1) and widescreen (16:9 or 1.78:1)--set by the player. When it comes to letterboxed and/or non-anamorphic films in widescreen (they might be 16:9 Enhanced but missing the anamorphic "flag" command switch), the player zooms or resizes the image and uses a scaling algorithm to sharpen and clean the image. My HTPC does the same thing with a freeware program called FFdshow, but uses the much more powerful processing power of a computer and video card to do it a lot better. The important thing to remember here is that anamorphic transfers are not interpolating by adding lines. That is what scaling and resizing are for. There is no extra information in an anamorphic transfer outside of what is inside a 16:9 frame, it's the monitor using the full information from that frame.

As an example, let's use TR47's Collection. If I put the TR47s in the RP91 (or your friend's JVC, or my HTPC, etc.) set to output 16:9, the player notices that the image is non-anamorphic, however, it is letterboxed within the 16:9 frame. The RP91 (JVC, HTPC...) zoom (or resize in the case of the HTPC) the image to fill that 16:9 frame and get rid of the black bars outside of that frame*, run a sharpening and probably a noise reduction algorithm to enhance the image, and voila! A non-anamorphic, letterboxed DVD is presented in 16:9. If the monitor is 4:3 and isn't set to 16:9, it'll look exactly like an unsqueezed anamorphic image. However, it isn't the same as an anamorphic transfer, since it's adding information that wasn't there before, whereas the anamorphic disc (say from the Definitive Collection) retains all of the information because it's already set to fill the 16:9 frame. The players are fibbing, if you will, although that fibbing can make it look better than an anamorphic image from some Walmart POS player. That's why the RP91 (and it's brother the multi-disc RP82) was and is one of the most wanted DVD set-top boxes out there. Panasonic, cruel bastards that they are, woefully underestimated demand and for some reason stopped making them.

So, that's what's happening. Remember, no information is added in an anamorphic transfer! That's a misconception that, in this case has caused considerable and needless debate. And that is the end of that. If there are still any problems, feel free to PM me.

*Keep in mind that SW is ~2.35:1, so there are still bars on a 16:9 set.
Post
#60477
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/60477/action/topic#60477
Time
What is a few extra lines of interpolated resolution going to do for you? Make it look better on limited Widescreen TV's because you don't like scanlines? I for one don't mind scanlines at all. That argument is flawed.
I think you're confused about how anamorphic widescreen works for DVDs. It doesn't add any additional lines, and the DVD player doesn't convert anything. It's the monitor that does that. Most players will downconvert anamorphic to regular letterbox or zoom in, but that's just adding black space, not adding or subtracting extra lines. Like multiple people have mentioned, you give us the model number(s), and we'll take your word on these magical anamorphic-converting players.

I'm with you on the whole audio conversion thing, although when it's done right by the studios (i.e. a good remix and the original soundtrack included) it can come out pretty decent. One thing you got wrong was that the original DVDs were in lossless 2-channel PCM, not compressed DD2.0. I'm not a fan of the 5.1 remixes people have done of the laserdiscs, since only the SE LDs had DD5.1, but the Definitive anamorphic's DD2.0 doesn't sound too bad. Apparently TR47's uses the original PCM, which sounds awesome. I have a clone of the Pioneer CLD-D704, the absolute best non-Elite LD player in terms of A/V quality, and my Definitive LDs sound baaaaad-ass.

ETA: Is the top pic your conversion, MeBeJedi? It looks pretty damn awesome.
Post
#60353
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/60353/action/topic#60353
Time
I agree with you, making the video anamorphic is an abuse of the source material. Make it progressive, yes, make it anamorphic, no. No offense, DanielB, but calling a change from non-anamorphic to anamorphic an "abuse" is pretty misinformed. Even if the source is non-anamorphic, the re-encoding does translate to a sharper picture on a widescreen(-capable) monitor, especially larger ones. Seeing as how Star Wars is shot in one of the widescreen ratios (roughly 2.35:1), the change from letterbox to anamorphic is only natural. And the concept of making something progressive without anamorphic enhancement is ludicrous, unless the title is a full-screen (1.33:1) release, like a TV show/anime series or early film. Perhaps you need to visit some sites like http://widescreen.org or http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/ to refresh your knowledge of the subject.
There are DVD players on the market for these kind of people that will turn non-anamorphic video into anamorphic on the fly.
AFAIK, no DVD player can change a title from non-anamorphic to anamorphic. A lot of TVs, especially DTVs, use a stretch and/or zoom function combined with sharpening, but that's not the same. If you can provide evidence of a model that does, please let us know.

Of course, you sound pretty set in your ways, but almost any home-theater enthusiast will disagree with you. Maybe you're viewing a lot of material on a monitor that is either too small to show any change in sharpness or detail, or is incapable of the anamorphic squeeze. Even on a non-digital but squeeze-capable 32" TV, the difference is obvious to myself and almost everyone I know. On a widescreen large monitor or projector, it's almost night and day. Feel free to visit http://www.hometheaterforum.com for more information and/or discussion.
Post
#56777
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/56777/action/topic#56777
Time
the dvd player im getting from a friend is a Samsung DV-5000N (1991), anybody know anything about these, www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk doesnt have any info on it although im told it doesnt seem to have a digital audio out.
I'm assuming you meant "LD player" here. It doesn't look like any Samsungs had digital audio out, but if you're getting it just for the Definitive Collection LDs, it doesn't matter. They use 2-channel PCM, and you can just use the stereo RCA (red/white) plugs.

also, im scoping out definitive edition laser disc sets on ebay and one of the sellers replied to me that there was no indication that there set was either PAL or NTSC, although they did say it was CAV, does anybody know where on the set it specifies NTSC versus PAL

As far as I know, the Definitive Collection set was a US-only item, which would make it NTSC. If the seller is from the US, it's definitely NTSC.
Post
#55316
Topic
Star Wars DVD Covers
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/55316/action/topic#55316
Time
That's pretty cool, more in the style of the prequel DVDs. Of course, the official DVDs are going to have that style as well. I'm on the fence as to whether I'd want a cover like that for the Originals, or keep them totally artistically separate. Can anyone tell from the menu shots if it's one of the releases widely available or something new?
Post
#55036
Topic
Star Wars DVD Covers
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/55036/action/topic#55036
Time
Hey, first time post here!

I'm loving all the covers people like Dean, Galahad, cerebro, and Rikter are coming up with. You guys have a talent for manipulation, and I totally mean that as a compliment. I'd suggest that anyone who's interested in using more than one cover, do like they do with a lot of anime DVDs and make reversible covers. If you're using nice photo paper, make sure you get it right when you turn over the cover. I'm certainly planning to do it ASAP. I do have a couple questions I'd like to throw out there:

1) Are any of you rarin' to go on remakes of the official DVD set's covers? Judging by your work here and comments on the originals, I'd be excited to see what you come up with.

2) Are you using inkjet printers or color laser for printing? I'm lucky enough to have access to both and only have to pay for the paper.

Keep up the good work guys!