althor1138

Nope. Here's the script I used. I used qtgmc because there was still some interlacing present, but the frames were progressive as far as I could tell. So yeah, I guess I meant pal -> film conversion instead of pal->video->film.

AVISource("E:\captures\fswtj-pal.avi")

assumetff()

separatefields()

trim(1,0)

weave()

assumefps ("ntsc_film")

converttoyv12()

qtgmc(preset="fast")

selecteven()

Ok it should be available soon (posting now).  Please let me know what you think. I really don't know much about this other than I watched it on tv as a kid and now it's hard to find.

I did a pal->ntsc video->film conversion and the running time is 65 minutes as stated on the internet so I think it all should be there.  The resolution is still 720x576 though.

It seems like I was able to recover progressive frames entirely so I went ahead and did that. It's encoding to x264 now and I'll up it sometime tonight.

EDIT: I'll hold on to the raw capture for sure but it might be awhile before I get around to testing the pal 3dcf on the 750 since I'd like to finish ld-decoding the laserdiscs that only have analog audio first.  When I do though I'll post it in your comb filter thread.

For the moment I've captured it S315 -> 750.  I can capture it with ld-decode later if it proves to be worthwhile.  If the current capture is just for evaluation does anybody have a problem with a good quality x264 encode to save time and bandwidth?

I'm currently capturing my pal laserdisc version.  Now that I'm looking through it, it seems they sporadically decided to add subtitles here and there.  Mostly, they pop up during stock video footage from the movies but occasionally parts of the documentary are also subtitled unfortunately.  The quality seems quite good though but I won't know until the capture is finished if there are blended fields or if progressive frames can be restored.  In any case, I'll post the raw file (no audio) to usenet probably this weekend for others to analyze.

Well the x9 looks pretty good based on this screenshot imo.  Thanks for posting some comparisons. I think that the colors look a bit muted compared to the x0 and r7g though.

Also, I don't know if the site went down but I'm now getting 404's on all of the above links?

SilverWook said:

AntcuFaalb said:

Damn! The eBay guy got back to me and "There Was a Crooked Man" has the 90s WB-in-the-clouds logo on LD.

 I thought you had successfully degraded the logo from the DVD to match the LD? The last test I recall you showing me looked good, being an old Laserdisc guy. ;)

 Yeah. I was going to say you could just take it off the blu-ray and make it fit the laserdisc footage. You could just downscale it, blur it, and noise it up a little bit.

I had to scratch everything last night due to some bad settings but I've got it under control now. Here's a test encode of side 1 of 1130-84 using ld-decode. This has been decoded and run through the software comb filter but no other processing. The audio was also processed with ld-decode's cx decoder.

This should give an idea of how I plan on handling the gout sync'ing.  I just added in black frames with silent audio where frames are missing.  Since these are gout sync'ed it will be easy for anyone to mux in an audio file that doesn't have this.  It sort of gives a visual and audio indication so you know when gout frames are missing :).  This test file has ac3 audio but the final release will have pcm audio.

Side1 <--Good for 7 days.

Maybe somebody with more knowledge can chime in about the x9.  My only experience with it was the x9 project from which i've only seen the rotj cap.  It looks like checkerboard and rainbow city though. From what I've heard from others too is that the x9 is great for muse playback but the comb filter is not that great for normal laserdisc playback.  

You actually have one to play around with though, so if it turns out to be great for capturing, then I'd be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for the script!  I'll check it out.  So far I've found this release to be worse than the jsc!

I think as long as you are using an external 3d comb for the x9 capture it should look great.  The internal comb looks pretty bad imo though. Do you plan on tapping the rf on the x9?  That would be awesome for ld-decode captures probably.

No, that was s-video out to the theater750 card.  The HF9G actually has a stronger RF signal from the test point so I use that for ld-decode captures.

msycamore said:

althor1138 said:

some gout vs PAL-THX laserdisc(French)...

Looking good. Always amazed of how inconsistently cropped this film always have been on video (in a very bad way).

Your JSC is still the best way to watch this film.

@mysycamore: Thanks!

@poita: I think happycube can give you a link to a google doc where I've posted a few pictures of how I modded my players.  It's pretty straightforward.

X0 vs. R7G    

Assuming that the x0 shot is raw I'd say that the x0 wins by a hair in the aliasing department but otherwise the r7g(s-video) looks very good in comparison.  I had ynr/cnr turned completely off for this and the comb filter set at 50%. No other processing. Ld-decode has a lot of potential.  If the disc is clean and free of rot I believe I can get it looking this good or better.

I started this week to capture my old discs that only have analog audio since ld-decode doesn't have digital audio(yet). These discs are old and not the best pressings so I'm going to do what I can with them but the newer and better pressings will probably be on par with the x0/r7g when I get around to them. The best thing is that I am in total control of the whole process so it's kind of up to me and which settings I end up using that will determine the outcome.

The first disc will be 1130-84. I've started gout syncing and am on side 4 so it'll be a few days before I get around to encoding.

It's easy to miss something on a project like this.  If people are posting scripts and saying that frames are messed up it isn't like we are trying to put you down, we just want to help.

Does Reel1 still have duplicate frames?

I have what is probably a late 80's to early 90's vhs rip of star wars and could probably still get the tapes for esb and rotj but I don't have a vhs player anymore.

EDIT: TV4 didn't start broadcasting until 1990 so it's probably an early 90's recording.

EDIT 2: I usually open it in vlc and turn on deinterlacing and choose mean mode instead of blend.  This makes it pretty watchable. Sorry I recorded it with divx.  It was like one of my first captures years ago and I didn't know what I was doing. Anyway, this is on a.b.sw now if anybody wants to snatch it. It's about 4GB and it stutters a bit at the end, so don't expect the throne room scene to be intact.

It is from sweden and aired on tv4.  The person recording it cut out commercials etc by stopping the player and pressing start when the film resumed.  It is therefore occasionally missing frames and sw for example doesn't start until A long time ago....

It could have benefited a lot from going through a tbc before being captured.  I no longer have a vhs player or I'd give another go at it. Anyway, qtgmc fixes it pretty good too.

Here's a raw screenshot or two.

I've noticed that and also that it's not a very good pressing.  It does seem to be free of dvnr but it's not high on my list of favorite laserdiscs because of the poor quality.

This is captured with the theater750pcie.

some gout vs PAL-THX laserdisc(French).

It's like the stretch marks on my stomach.  The smaller my stomach gets, the less I see stretch marks :).

Awesome.  Where do you plan on taking the "dump" ? BTW, that screenshot is awesome.

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

@althor1138: can't remember if you have this:

http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/00008

I wonder if the 11 minute EP2 making of is available on DVD or BD; if not, it will be great to capture it with Happycube method!

 Yup. Picked it up a couple of months ago.  I have listed everything I have on the first post of this thread.  I plan on preserving it all with happycube's software.

I've only watched SW.  I haven't checked out ESB or ROTJ yet.  I've heard that ESB is DVNR'ed worse than the NTSC gout. I think in general though SW is a step up in most areas. It has less DVNR and there is a bit more resolution so the starfields don't disappear or twinkle like crazy. Not sure about EE though. 

A PAL decoder/comb would probably unlock more detail than what the s315 does for sure.  I think it's comb filter is bascially the simplest and cheapest they could find. Have you had any luck capturing PAL RF via a NTSC player yet?  I think my HF9G captures a cleaner signal than the s315.

I guess you could say this is the "FACES" release for PAL-land but the covers were different. It had subtitles for the crawl (out of picture) and a French dub. There is another French THX release which has an english track with french subs for the whole film.

I guess 3-PO looking like a lemon is just the contrast of the pre-thx pressing because it looks basically like the DC/FACES releases except with higher resolution. The pre-thx print also has red fading which largely affects his color. Also, vimeo has smoothed both videos out a bit.  The pre-thx laserdisc has a LOT of noise in the picture and some scenes have pretty severe chroma issues.

If I were going to do a PAL preservation I'd definitely use the THX release for most of it.  I have about 4 or 5 separate pressings of it also which should allow for some good denoising/dropout removal.

Like you said though, the pre-thx laserdisc has things worthy of preserving too such as the original french crawl.  I just noticed that it has no episode IV so that's cool. Perhaps the dubbing is different from the Thx release too?

Here is a comparison clip of the pre-thx french pressing vs. the thx french pressing.  I've adjusted levels,cropped, and adjusted the frame rate to 24fps.  There is no sound.  PW=OT

EDIT: It's probably re-encoded by vimeo but it's just to give an idea of what the two releases generally look like.

That looks like the exact card I'm using. It might be a different revision number but it's the same card with the right chipset so it ought to work.  

I first tried using it on an old 2core amd box i had laying around and it didn't work right with the driver but I threw the card into my 4core amd box and it worked perfectly so be warned that hardware can cause issues.  If you use intel stuff I think you will have less of a problem with that kind of thing. Happycube's setup with an intel proc and mobo I think.