frank678

If there are any demonoid members who would be willing to help me in a very quick test of the site please pm me.

also pm sent

Wow thanks so much for posting about this. Are the Dutch(?) subtitles on the original tape? If so this might mean its got its own unique lineage from the bootlegs found/shared before on this site. The first pleasing thing about these screenshots is theres no pink distortion from dubbing which effected one of the bootlegs and also the detail seems nice.

Feel free to start your own thread with this and post more screenshots or any other differences you have noticed.

Nice job keeping this all that time!

There's no point in NeverarGreat correcting to the Harmy's version though, since it already exists. The challenge/interest to me would be to find a different approach/ interpretation. I'm not knocking Harmy's work at all - I think its outstanding - but it would be nice to see others trying out different things just as Harmy does between different editions.   

If you're still planning on going scene by scene for star wars theres been a lot of collector film cells for sale on ebay (for all three films in fact) recently. Although the consistency is all over the place (hey its star wars what did you expect?) I think they may possibly be useful references. I have grabbed some star wars images, which I can upload if you need at any stage. 

NeverarGreat said:

Brightness and saturation look really good there. One thing I noticed was the blues look a bit too bright, especially in the shadows. I like the grainy nature of this, no sharpening required IMO.

Yes I tried to tone the blues down a bit but it kept throwing off the skintones, which I was trying to get as close as I could to the Technicolor screening still/a film cell still. I got more correct/real balances overall but somehow theres something more exciting to getting just the skintone lifelike, even if its within a bit of a blue haze if that makes sense. 

Like I did this still to match a film cell, and although its not a correct balance overall - the skintone just carries it somehow (for me):

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/67574

I agree about the sharpening I only added it to the 3P0 clip because it seems to help push the reflective gold effect. The downside is it makes it look artificial. 

Add: Another scene https://vimeo.com/95509608

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/133193

The above clip was done using althor1138's 1982 LD preservation. The same with this next one although this has got more processing and some sharpening. The balances on the very first shot of 3P0 and R2D2 seem underwhelming to me on home video releases, loads of others are as well but this sticks in my mind as its one of the first things in the movie. I came across a new film cell reference so was able to adjust it to that, and cut out the guess work. So this is my ballpark approximation of (at least) how gold 3P0 should appear at the start

https://vimeo.com/89794404

http://we.tl/d7rnyjGA2G

Brooks said:

Your version of that shot is gorgeous. I can't even handle how dark that blu ray version is, it's kind of freaking me out.  What were they thinking??

A lot of the home transfers can be too dark also - I'm not sure the tantive corridor has ever been properly represented with clean-enough white tones.

Here's the 1982 LD:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/67555

This is my favourite correction of an old source to date:

https://vimeo.com/89749265

http://we.tl/x0kT5XUMny

>

It's close to GOUT most of the time I think but blue-tinted, but just a bit more vivid or punchy in ways (by being compressed?), I havn't watched the whole thing but I noticed some different effects in places, skipping thru it, like how yoda looks here:

(props to althor1138!)

Return of the Jedi [ATV-10, 15-2-87]

vbangle said:

kk650 said:

Cool, thanks for the feedback.

The balance looks good to me as well across the whole film. Those settings are meant to be for the classic version though, I've got a nice 'matte' feeling going with the SW and ROTJ classic settings, do you feel that it looks a little too saturated?

This clip below uses the same settings as the previous clip but with reduced saturation. Do you prefer how this clip looks to the previous clip for the classic setting?

https://mega.co.nz/#!X8ZTWLzL!wDIQLrUTy045tR_qxhWPNEg9DwBj1b9ZTIxXveKjld8

 Took a look at both, and I think you know what I like by now. I prefer the previous look, not this one with its reduced saturation settings.

I agree with vbangle I prefer the first clip. As far as I know ESB and ROTJ were not deliberately designed to look slightly muted, as Star Wars was.

Slightly off topic - have you checked out the Australian TV broadcast of ROTJ that recently appeared - it seems to have some really punchy colours in it, might be worth cross referencing if you are still trying out different palettes.

I'm not really familiar with ESB, but these balances look pretty good to my eyes.

@althor1138, could you post up some screencaps here or somewhere for the BD-25 release?

oh ok i misread it, but it did sound like an insult and not a helpful suggestion to my sensitive ears

wait people are breaking into each others computers but they don't know how to pm privately?

get a conscience chibimak

i really like the new 'normal' settings, it gives it a really nice matt look, and probably is more accurate to the normal 70s presentation as Poita has described. maybe 'retrograded' is a good name, but 'classic' fits pretty neatly i think.

Feallan I get your frustration about not being able to see this project but I think you are shooting the messenger a bit. It may seem like a tease to post details here, but I would not class it as 'evil'. Mike Verta seems open to making his project available when the powers that be won't sue him for millions of dollars. In the meantime he's sharing the process and likely is helped along in the work by getting feedback by interested people.

I'm finding it hard to see the difference on the esb clips at the moment. I think I may have melted my brain (!) 

kk650 said:

I've got to be honest with you and say that i'm not seeing what you're seeing here, tests 3 and 4 don't look plasticy and shiny to me, they look basically the same as 1 and 2 except for the colours, where 1 and 2 have slightly more green in the blacks and slightly more red in the whites compared to 3 and 4. Most likely it is something to do with your monitor settings.

I'm happy with how the whole film looks now, nice and balanced colourwise, like I'm sure you will be too,  as you yourself said here before about a clip where I used the same settings as in clips 3 and 4: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/kk650s-Star-Wars-Saga-Regraded-and-Semi-Specialized/post/690474/#TopicPost690474 .

Thanks for all the help and feedback on Star Wars, I didn't end up going down the greener path in the end but your thoughts are much appreciated!

 Yes I think either my monitor or more likely my mind is playing tricks on me. Also I still think BOTH results are good= when it comes down to describing subtle differences its easy to lose the wood for the trees (!)

kk650 said:

The contrast of both settings are the same, I imagine the reason why you find clip 2 and 4 less heavy is because they contain more green overall which mutes the colours and makes them less heavy. Perhaps the reason you find clips 1 and 3 heavy is not so much to do with the colours but the saturation?

>>

One of us I think has confused the numbers? Anyway, yes I agree I've found certain colour casts can dilute the balances. I was ignoring colour in favour of the overall effect. Let me post stills from final test 2 followed by final test 4 =

V.

I prefer 2 over 4 because what I'm seeing is a slightly plastic-y, over shiny quality, in 4. I'm looking at the faces as if I was looking at them from a certain distance in real life and what seems to have the most natural texture for the dimensions. However, I have no idea how much any of this is shaped by my monitor settings. So would you would do best to go with what YOU see/prefer.

yep still prefer final clip 2. keep in mind it's what only looks less heavy on my monitor. :)

based on a quick look my taste is for test 1

kk650 said:

@frank678: Cheers, you're being incredibly helpful!

Is it possible you didn't like test 2 because you felt it had too much contrast rather than because of the colour? Can you have a look at this clip below, test 2a, where i've kept the colour settings of test 2 but reduced the contrast slightly and let me know whether you still prefer test 3?

-

Test 2a:

https://mega.co.nz/#!vsRnSaaT!fDSja-9v4vEguH3gcehOMOuQ6faxezsQMpQd6sTC1F0

-

If you still prefer test 3, can you then have a look at this new clip, test 4, and let me know which you prefer:

-

Test 4:

https://mega.co.nz/#!y1wl1QDQ!jKnUX5jOj1Xejjov_EWcDT0zGBbxiYxf-hc4Cdypl1s

-

 Sorry, yes I wasn't really looking at colour I was just looking for the most lifelike effect of the overall mix. I prefer test 2A over test 4. I'm basing it on how naturally the skin layer looks, how it 'sits' within the frame: faces can look too 3D and start to stick out - I prefer them to sit naturally with the surrounding detail for this.

and i prefer 2A over 3 for the above reason