eurospec19

Definitely intend to minimize compression so 1080p BD50 is the goal.

As for the The Fort scene, I'm using the MGM BD's English DTS-MA track as the source, which I converted to a mono 2.0 track using only the front left, right and center channels. There is sound information in the L and R (e.g. the confederate soldier greeting AE, "Welcome, my friend!") that is not included in the center channel so that's why I used all 3 channels. The next step will be to adjust the volume/gain to match the LD PCM audio.

I'm in complete agreement with you about the voice actor sounding better than aged CE and EW. If The Fort scene sounded as crappy as the other "bonus" scenes I wouldn't have included it.

I'm looking forward to all the new releases next week, as well as the German release of GBU in 2014.

Thanks for pointing it out, I didn't realize I had 2 accounts (eurospec19 and Lil Brutto) on this forum. (Lil Brutto is my username on the Sergio Leone Web Board.) Therefore, project 3 IS 4...or vice versa ;)

My LD PCM audio captures are bit perfect by the way. I captured the audio myself.

Less than a week to go before the new Italian BD is released. I bet it's the same as the Mondo BD. We'll see though.

I'm planning to upsample the LD audio to 48kHz and then sync to the DVD mp3 48kHz audio.

Why would you resample the DVD audio to 44.1kHz? Are you planning to keep the LD audio at 44.1kHz?

Thanks for the positive feedback.

It's been a fun but time consuming project. I have a copy of Rigby Reardon's hybrid cut syncing the (botched) MGM SE audio with the Mondo video. I think it's a great effort but I wanted the International cut (the version I grew up with) of the film.

As mentioned above, I used the MGM 1998 DVD as a template and made a frame-by-frame match. Afterwards, I spliced in "The Fort" scene because it's a beautifully shot scene and, in my opinion, was the only scene (of the additional footage) that would have strengthened the International cut.  If I exclude the "The Fort" scene then I've created a version identical to the International cut using the best video available (i.e. Mondo BD) and splicing in where necessary frames from the MGM SE BD. I have completed this stage and will be syncing the LD PCM audio next.

I'm not on my computer right now so can't confirm right now but the frame jumps in the Mondo BD did not affect the syncing process with the MGM 1998 DVD. I will post a screenshot of my FCP timeline tomorrow to show how I dealt with this issue.

I decided to keep "The Fort" scene in because I love it. So it's technically not the theatrical version but very close.

I'm actually close to completing a project that I've posted about on the Sergio Leone Web Board. Here's an excerpt of my post:

...I converted the Mondo BD and MGM BD into Apple ProRes HQ using Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper at the highest quality setting. This conversion to a high quality editing codec allows me to make frame-specific edits. I also converted the MGM 1998 DVD into Apple ProRes HQ at the same settings as the BD files (overkill). I synced the frames of the Mondo BD to the 1998 DVD in Final Cut Pro 7, using the MGM BD to add any frames that were necessary, for example:

- English opening credits
- English character titles instead of Italian titles (at the beginning and end of the film)
- International cut of Tuco torture scene
- Blondie saying, "Sorry, Tuco"
- Tuco screaming, "...dirty son a biii-AYAYAAAA!!!
- "THE END" instead of "FINE"

Do you have a firewire connection? If so, I can confirm that M-Audio Firewire Audiophile does bit accurate captures. The software I used is Audacity (freeware). I use this setup because I have a macbook so an external sound card was my only option. The M-Audiophile 2496 PCI sound card can also capture bit perfect audio.

You only need a demodulator for AC3 captures. PCM audio is captured using a coaxial cable. No other gadgets required. Pretty sure DTS is also a direct capture.

Interesting, I didn't know that. Have you had a chance to view the cut scenes yet?

You must be "Sensitive Mule" over at SLWB. It appears we're having the same discussion both here and there!

Anyways, I noted all the reel change markers throughout the film but can't find my notes right now. I recall 2 scenes where you can see the oval marker in the top right corner of the film. The first is in the monastery when Tuco is trying to persuade Blondie to tell him the name of the grave and gets a cupful of coffee in the face. An intermission was placed immediately after this scene so I expected to find a reel change marker here. Another marker can be seen when AE's henchman walks back to the rest of his gang who are bivouacked outside of camp and tells them they'll stick around and keep an eye on things.

Thanks for pointing out where the audio/video damage is the same in both LD releases. I'll have a look at this closely.

One thing worth mentioning is that the waveform of the 98 LD is inverted compared with the 90/93 LD. I don't know much about the technical aspects of audio, but it suggests to me that some sort of processing was done that led to this inversion. Here is a screenshot showing the waveforms of the 3 LD releases as well as the Mondo BD:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/trailerparkboy/BBCGBUPCMtracks_zpsff3ef3de.png

The Mondo BD waveform is taken to another level but even the 98 LD (inverted) waveform is beefed up compared with 90/93 LD.

There seems to be subtle differences between most of the various home releases (VHS, LD, DVD, BD). For instance, the widescreen VHS uses English and Italian onscreen titles. The 90/93 LD has a cut opening scene (when the 3 bounty killers walk into town towards the tavern where Tuco's having a hearty meal) and Stephens/AE dining scene is also cut.

captainsolo said:

GBU-Italian Mondo disc from the Italian restoration from correct elements. But we'd have to perform some edits to the Italian cut in order to match the English audio which would be sourced from LD, where it is lossless and unfiltered. In order to reform the Italian release version the cut scenes could have the Italian mono dropped in with the English subtitles. The grotto scene is an extra.

I'm almost positive the print source for the old MGM LDs and DVD is what Triage used to drop in and spot check color timing for the SE cut. It is most likely the IP for the international cut as the initial releases have Italian on-screen captions which were simply excised and replaced with US ones in later releases.

There are actually 2 different sources used for the LD widescreen format.

The early release (1990 & 1993 box set) is commonly believed to have been sourced from an Italian print due to the Italian onscreen titles. However, the opening credits and end title are in English, the beating scene is the International cut, the sequence where Blondie says, "Sorry, Tuco" is intact, and Tuco yells, "Just a dirty son of a bitch!" instead of " "Sei il figlio di una grandissima puttana!" It is indeed a release print as reel change markers are present but it's a cut version of the International cut of the film with Italian onscreen titles for the characters.

The 1998 LD (and DVD) are from a different source; it is not a release print, it's an uncut version of the International film, and English onscreen titles are used instead. One minor difference between the LD and DVD is that a short segment is cut on the DVD of Blondie holstering his pistol after shooting the 3 bounty hunters. It is intact on the LD.

I have lossless, bit-perfect captures of the 1990/93 and 1998 LD audio. At first I was planning to simply sync the audio to the Mondo/Moviemax video. I decided to pull the plug on that (for now) because I'd rather make my own fan edit: International cut plus the fort ("The Strong") scene where AE/Sentenza bribes the soldier for info on Bill Carson's whereabouts.

Since I have a Mac, I will be working in Final Cut Pro to delete from the Mondo BD the other scenes not used in the International cut. Then I will use the MGM BD to insert/substitute scenes that are unique to the International cut (e.g. the Tuco beating scene, "Sorry, Tuco" at Sadhill and Tuco's final line). Lastly, the LD PCM audio will be synced to the hybrid video.

I have already converted both BDs to Apple Prores 422 HD. Now the editing begins...

Thanks!

dark_jedi said:

I am redoing the audio because I have learned a lot since my first attempt, this new software and method will make this sound way, way better...

 

Can you please elaborate on your new and improved method? What software are you using now?

I'd like to improve the quality of my PCM audio track, but don't know how to go about doing it properly.

Thanks for your support, Falcon.

I'm going to need it as this is my 1st project and I have much to learn.

Stay tuned...

You_Too said:

eurospec19 said:

I currently have a similar project but I'm a newb to all this. I have already captured bit perfect PCM audio from my laserdisc. Can you recommend a program (preferably freeware) that does an excellent job of upsampling 44.1kHz to 48kHz?

I'm probably not the right guy to ask but DJ said a couple audiophile friends of his has told him that the upsampling came out best when he used the software Izotope RX 2 with no dithering or noise shaping or anything applied.

Thanks for the info. :)

I'm also restoring the PCM mono soundtrack to the Italian BD video of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but I'll start another thread about this project.

You_Too said:

dark_jedi wanted me to tell you guys that his LD-sourced audio will be redone and synched again later, because some recent discoveries of ours showed that his old method of upsampling and synching audio wasn't the best possible.

I currently have a similar project but I'm a newb to all this. I have already captured bit perfect PCM audio from my laserdisc. Can you recommend a program (preferably freeware) that does an excellent job of upsampling 44.1kHz to 48kHz?

I would also like to get my hands on this.

morgs2 said:

Anyway to download if not registered with myspleen?

Or a way to register with myspleen?

+1