iRantanplan

Akwat Kbrana said:

I suppose because this particular company released the only DVD transfer of a classic masterpiece on a non-anamorphic format, whereas most other companies are releasing anamorphic versions of their films on DVD.

Exactly.

I'm already blaming everyone on the Blu-Ray regioncode, there is only that much room for blame ...

Back to topic. Yes I'm aware that I'm able to basicly improve the DVDs with the help of the community. Actually I could do that only using google. But the point is I shouldn't have to do so, should I? For example I don't have a PC atm, my old one broke down. So for the moment I'm stuck with actual standalones and it's pretty annoying to switch cables and connections for every occasion. And the actual zoom function in my TV isn't really that great (I don't think there is any out there with a good scaler, really) and you can do much better with software scalers. All we're doing could at least have been done by Lucasarts themselves without too much efford. That's what makes me angry the most.

negative1 said:

iRantanplan said:

negative1 said:

iRantanplan said:

Bobocop said:

The 2004 DVD's are a disappointment to say the least, and the 2006 GOUT discs, while they look 'alright' on a standard 4:3 TV, are an insult not only to the fans but also to the achievements of Lucas himself and ILM.

You know the worst part of it? I have my DVD player connected via HDMI to my HDTV and guess what, the damn DRM crap prohibits me to zoom. I need to use a second YUV connection for all letterboxed DVDs to zoom them to their full supposed glory.

 

that has nothing to do with the DVD's, so don't try to blame Lucasfilm for that,

thats a hardware limitation that affects all films..  it has NOTHING TO DO WITH DRM..

later

-1

 

Actually it has something to do with Lucasarts, they could have released the DVD anamorphic. Doesn't matter if it's only an upscale. And it's DRM indeed which prohibits the zoom as this is the fault of HDCP copy protection which is part of HDMI (and optional on DVI).

i think you missed my point,

the DRM is on your hardware, its not on the DVD,

so it would affect ANY DVD you played, anamorphic or not....

later

-1

 

Lucasarts is one of the (many many many many many) labels that insisted on HDCP in HDMI connections so of course it's their fault.

negative1 said:

iRantanplan said:

Bobocop said:

The 2004 DVD's are a disappointment to say the least, and the 2006 GOUT discs, while they look 'alright' on a standard 4:3 TV, are an insult not only to the fans but also to the achievements of Lucas himself and ILM.

You know the worst part of it? I have my DVD player connected via HDMI to my HDTV and guess what, the damn DRM crap prohibits me to zoom. I need to use a second YUV connection for all letterboxed DVDs to zoom them to their full supposed glory.

 

that has nothing to do with the DVD's, so don't try to blame Lucasfilm for that,

thats a hardware limitation that affects all films..  it has NOTHING TO DO WITH DRM..

later

-1

 

Actually it has something to do with Lucasarts, they could have released the DVD anamorphic. Doesn't matter if it's only an upscale. And it's DRM indeed which prohibits the zoom as this is the fault of HDCP copy protection which is part of HDMI (and optional on DVI).

I bet 10 bucks that they'll put it in 1.78:1 instead of 1.85:1 on the disc. Those fools almost always crop the image to get rid of the "annoing black bars"... :(

But I hope they won't put the exact same version on the DVD as mcflys as the "ABC version" could use some tweaking pacing wise espeacially in the action sequences. mcfly said it himself actually.

I thought only the audio tracks have to be baked?

Bobocop said:

The 2004 DVD's are a disappointment to say the least, and the 2006 GOUT discs, while they look 'alright' on a standard 4:3 TV, are an insult not only to the fans but also to the achievements of Lucas himself and ILM.

You know the worst part of it? I have my DVD player connected via HDMI to my HDTV and guess what, the damn DRM crap prohibits me to zoom. I need to use a second YUV connection for all letterboxed DVDs to zoom them to their full supposed glory.

It was never a thread itself, it was in wookiegroomers Blu-Ray thread.

Apparently Universal USA plans to release an extended version on November 4th. It'll be 40 minutes longer than the theatrical cut, but it's still unclear if this is the same as the ABC cut.

For now they'll only release this on DVD.

http://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=956

mcfly89 said:

iRantanplan said:

Where you are completely wrong however is the BTTF example though. Unforgivable ;)
The wrong cropping in BTTF 2 & 3 came because they took a fullscreen master tape (which already had the cropped wide to full composite scenes) and then cropped it. Of course the framing would be wrong then, it's cropped twice now!
When they fixed it they went back to the original negative and took the original widescreen composite scenes which were matted correctly.

Back to the Future 2 & 3 were both shot open-matte, which means the Fullscreen master isn't Pan & Scan, but rather includes more information at the top and bottom of the screen. You may be right that they cropped the fullscreen master, which in theory would work, except for the fact that open-matte fullscreen releases usually do zoom the slightest bit (and thus lose a little off the left and right, see Waterworld screens earlier in the thread), and the guy who was overseeing the crop must have had his eyes closed.

McFly I know they were shot Open Matte. However the SFX & Composite scenes were only done in WS (original 4x3 frame cropped to 1.85x1). For the first edition they took a Fullscreen master which was of course all open matte, except the SFX & Composite scenes. They were cropped because the SFX were only done in 1.85x1. This is why all scenes with SFX were framed completely wrong in the first version.

For the re-released they simply took the SFX & composite scenes from a WS master and switched them with the overcropped scenes.

It's like if I would take your Ulysses Cut and zoom it to WS. All scenes will be fine except SFX scenes, which will then be cropped top&bottom,left&right and top&bottom again.

But be aware that there is a Definitive Set out there missing the Leia wielding scene.

I can agree on the red problem. Very often it seems to be overblown.

I've never seen a VCD that has at least the same quality as a professional produced VHS.

Molly said:

I prefer PAL speedup to PAL telecine since I can just punch "-speed 23.976/25" into MPlayer and reverse PAL speedup.

*RUNS*

Not only that, I bet most people here are ressourceful enough to use "assumefps=23.976" in avisynth and create a NTSC DVD.

Who cares about videoformats and regioncodes these days? Get a player that supports PAL->NTSC conversion. Most of them do nowadays.

MrBrown said:

Max_Rebo said:

as for PAL vs. NTSC I prefer PAL but that's because I'm used to PAL speedup and not used to 3:2 pulldown, but I'll release my versions in both formats.

Cool! Thats really good news for NTSC and PAL Fans :)

I am used to PAL Speedup too.. I just have some NTSC DVDs since I collect DVDs.

My TV supports 24p so does my HD-EP10. No NTSC stutter ;)

MrBrown said:

NTSC is like "Never The Same Color"

In analogue maybe, but in the digital domain that isn't valid anymore. And in HiDef this is history anyway.

*cough*

http://www.amazon.de/Howard-Duck-ein-tierischer-Held/dp/B000UDEFNK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1218994322&sr=8-1

*cough*

Uncensored, anamorphic widescreen, english language track

Just burned the disc. Looks great on my HDTV. All 30 minutes of it. Only the japanese can get away with only putting one episode on the DVD hehe

Okay that was amazingly easy. It worked.

I'll probably have to redo that some day with the Blu-Ray version :D

satanika said:

Well it is still up to the players software/firmware to honor the 'forced' flag I think, similar to region codes etc.

Another option might be in the players settings where you can often set the default subtitle language and whether it is on or off by default.

That's not the problem. If I pop in one of the old german Kinowelt DVD releases I get the forced german subs while watching original english language all the time and I can't deactivate the subs. Neither the Xbox 360 nor the HD-EP10 can deactivate the user prohibitions. I think the real forced subs work differently than the muxman/ifoedit setting.

BTW is it just me or did fansubs get worse over the last 10-15 years? Man they put like 3 subs at the same time in the frame during songs (romanized karaoke subs, kanji, english translation, sometimes another sub with dialog from charakter when they speak during the song etc) or additional information that could probably be better delivered in a text file rather that obstructing me from the episode/movie while watching it.

It's always a pain in the neck to edit them into a watchable version and correct all the bad grammar and -san -kun etc. That coming from someone who's not even a native english speaker....

Hi guys!

I'm currently doing something that is probably a bit different from what you're doing with editing and preserving ;)

If anyone knows the Macross anime legal situation outside Japan, you're probably aware that there was a legal dispute between Studio Nue and Big West some time ago about the distribution rights of Macross and all sequels/prequels.

Even though the legal issues about the original series was enventually resolved, the situation about the sequels and prequels is still unclear and it is very doubtful that I'll ever going to be able to purchase Macross 7, Zero, Frontier or any of the recently remastered editions with english subs.

However, being not too stupid myself, I ordered the Macross DVDs from Japan starting with Zero and subbing them myself using already available fansubs. Of course I don't want to recode the DVDs leaving only the option to softsub them.

Thus far it worked pretty well but the thing is, even that I used the option "forced" with MuxMan (and I double checked with IfoEdit), my HD-EP10, Xbox360 and all the software player still seem to take this as a suggestion rather than an mandatory setting, not showing the subs when I pop in the DVD (I don't use menus yet, the Macross Zero discs have only one Episode per DVD anyway) until I press the subtitle button.

What do I have to do to make them really forced?

PS.
I tried to watch the US release of Macross Plus last night. What a bummer, I've never seen such a dark and bad looking transfer for ages. The only thing that is probably salvageble from that release are the subs. Hopefully they sync up with the Japan remastered box (no frame cuts etc).

resonator said:

Just out of curiosity, but where can one find any of these encodes? Thanks for the PMs. ;)

I'm interested to know too. Maybe on mypleen? I have forgotten my username ages ago though.

I must say that mcfly89 has done a pretty good job at combining the best versions out there. And of course he's right when he says that someone has to do a fanedit because there is just too much in there now.

The little feature about wider is worser is ... well lets just say is disagree with it but I wouldn't have cropped it either, but for different reasons. The funny thing just is, that in every (and I mean every) scene that you listed as an example how much more you see in open matte, you also see that the only thing you see more is dead space ;)
Look at the scene where the girl runs to the camera. You see her being followed by the main supporting actress and only in the Wide version you see that the camera is actually following her. We are supposed to put our attention on her and that just doesn't work in FS because here you also see the face of the other woman.

But on the other hand, the matte isn't centered and even seems to move during the movie and it would be a bitch to keep track of it. Too much work for this preservation project. And also the resolution is already only NTSC, and cropping it and zooming in will just make it Babylon 5-like crappy. So fullscreen is okay but widescreen would be superior - if there was a suitable source.

Where you are completely wrong however is the BTTF example though. Unforgivable ;)
The wrong cropping in BTTF 2 & 3 came because they took a fullscreen master tape (which already had the cropped wide to full composite scenes) and then cropped it. Of course the framing would be wrong then, it's cropped twice now!
When they fixed it they went back to the original negative and took the original widescreen composite scenes which were matted correctly.

However, I did not want to rant or something, just offering my opinion. I like the job you have done, and I didn't even zoom in on my HDTV.