Originally posted by: Cowclops
Hi. I'm the one that made "The TR47" set and I'm the one making the new one. So far, the in movie video is finalized for the new set, and this week I'm finishing up the extras. One thing that TR47 said (he's sort of the executive producer of this little project... I sold him a set back when I was selling them on ebay in March 2003 and he liked it, so thats how he ended up on this) is that I would use the actual Definitive Collection chapter stops. I may not be doing this because I think it has an unnecessary number of stops per movie... something like 60 i believe. I'd prefer to do less than 30, as this actually makes it easier to navigate the movie (and frankly takes less effort to author). I might just do every other stop, or "the most important ones" but anyway, I didn't use the original stops for the so-called "TR47" set and it works. As long as they're not arbitrary, I can't imagine anyone complaining.
As far as using PCM audio on a single layer disc, there has been talk of the video quality suffering far too much. This is not the case. Because the Laserdiscs are so much softer than a true film->dvd transfer, it actually makes it very easy to compress. The average bitrate I'm using on the new set (which is actually a little less than I used on the old set because I'm making room for menus) still produces a maximum Q level (as reported by bitrateviewer) of LESS THAN 5, and an average of less than 3. While this doesn't imply that the final video quality is perfect, it DOES imply that the quality lost due to compression is extremely minimal. As a comparison, I popped in the theatrical version of Fellowship of the Ring, and the average Q was around 4 and it peaked all the way up to 8 for a max. The point is, because of the nature of the source, it is very compressable... so you lose just about nothing when comparing single layer to dual layer versions. For those who don't believe me, I did actually compress it twice and I will keep the "dual layer" version archived for future purposes if necessary, but right now, it just isn't necessary.
They will be anamorphic, so that people with 16:9 sets can watch them without black bars on the sides. The one thing that might be an issue is that while the subtitles in the Jabba the Hutt scenes aren't cut off because of the resizing process, they well almost certainly be in the overscan area on typical 16:9 CRT sets. This shouldn't be an issue for LCD/DLP projection and it won't be an issue on a PC monitor, however.
For those that think the color saturation in the original set is lacking, I've picked up a lot more knowledge on color processing in the last 2 years, so hopefully people should agree that the color on the new set far exceeds the quality of the previous set.
If you have any more questions, you can get me on "Cowclops" on AIM.
For those wondering about the previous version, you can find my crappy leftover "faq" site on the original version at http://www.cowclops.net/sw.htm
Feel free to continue referring to it as the TR47 set, as he is going to do most of the "promotion" work anyway, as you've probably already noticed.
Enjoy.
Hello Cowclops and welcome to the board.
You did a very good job with your DVDs and I am looking forward to your new set.
I agree with you that 30 chapter stops are enough for a movie, but I also understand the people that prefer the original LD chapter stops.
I am also pleased to read taht your next set will be anamorphic, because this will increase the quality a little.
However using PCM on a single layer DVD is just plain stupid IMO. (No offense.)
Of course you are right if you say that because of the LD-source the video is easy to compress, but the video quality could still be better with a higher bitrate. I think video quality should always be first, especially because the difference between PCM and ac3 sound is extremly minimal if noticable at all. If you choose a high bitrate for the ac3, lets say 384 Kbit, there is no way anyone can hear a difference. You would save more than 1 Mbit that could be used for the video track. 1 Mbit will make a big difference in scenes with high motion. Another factor is that instead of 1 PCM track you can easily add 3-4 alternate audio tracks (other languages, music, DC LD commentary, 2004 DVD commentary).
Greetings
Grisan 
