kk650

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

kk650 said:

 I do remember that it took around a week to encode though!

 and I thought that three days encoding was a long time... (-^,)

Yeah it was a little bit nuts, i've never done anything like that since but after seeing that adding the grain was bringing out detail in the transfer that I thought was gone for good, I got a bit obsessed with trying to squeeze as much detail out of the phantom menace blu-ray transfer as I could so I put the quality settings on maximum and just left it encoding.

I would love to see you put your very impressive grain adding skills put to work though on the phantom menace blu-ray, add a 35mm grain plate to it and see how it looks.

If I provide you with a clip from the phantom menace blu-ray, could you give it a shot and add a 35mm grain plate over it so we can see how it compares to my release?

TV's Frink said:

I was trying to ask how you added the grain.

It was a year ago so I don't remember the exact details but I believe I used avisynth with the AddGrain plugin to add the grain to the phantom menace blu-ray transfer. I do remember that it took around a week to encode the whole film though!

DoomBot said:

This is a regraded color timed version of THE TERMINATOR as created by user KingKong650 over on TehParadox.com.  Here is the quote from his upload page:

Quote:

I received numerous requests to regrade the newly remastered The Terminator blu-ray release that everybody was saying had a green tint, so I ordered it two weeks back. After I received the blu-ray a few days ago and checked it out, I could see that everybody was totally right, a blanket green tint is definately there across the whole film, reminisent of Blade Runner and Fellowship of the Ring, ruining the colour palatte of the film, so I went ahead and created a regraded version removing this blanket green tint and bringing the other colours back to life.

This version also includes The Terminator (1984) DTS-HD 2.1 mono mix created by LazySod :

Quote:

It will work with any remastered version of the new Blu-ray released worldwide [2012-2013 releases]. This WILL NOT WORK ON THE OLD MPEG2 TRANSFER from 2006. I've not included the video because I assume you already own the original disc and just want the original mono track.

This is taken from Perfect LPCM rip of the laserdisc's soundtrack, adjusted to the current remastered Blu-ray (including the MGM Lion at the beginning), re-sampled via Sony Vegas at 16bit, 48kHz and muxed with the lossless .1 lfe of the new 5.1 remix, finally re-encoded to DTS HD-MA 1536 kb/s for your listening and viewing pleasure.

This is not exactly what is on the laserdisc. This is better. The mono mix will never sound better (and it will never be available on Blu-ray anyway, so grab this while you can!).

So it's definitely your regraded video kk650

Hmm, it definately sounds like my 8gb version with the mono audio added to it. Did you guys try running it with mpc and vlc and see whether it made any difference to the freeze at the 50+ minute mark?

I'm curious, is there either of the 16gb versions up there on myspleen as well?

frank678 said:

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.

Hmm, its interesting that you like the first clip more, I was pretty sure that most people would prefer the second. Andrea, where are you when I need you haha

I'd love to check that out. How can a get a hold of the Australian TV broadcast of ROTJ? Doesn't it have the same colour palette as the german hdtv stream, i.e. the overall blue tint that the blu-ray also has?

TV's Frink said:

Question about TPM...in the OP you say you added grain and it brought out a bunch of detail.  How did you do this exactly?

Well, the detail was already there, only it was hidden by the layer of DNR. I found to my surprise that when I added the grain it brought a lot of that hidden detail to the surface.

Of course its impossible to bring back all the detail that was lost, i'd love to have access to the master before the DNR was applied but certainly when the grain is added, the transfer appears more detailed than the blu-ray, at least to my eyes. It of course also looks a lot more filmic, which makes it far more enjoyable to watch, at least for me.

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.

haha yes indeed. I'm guessing that you'll prefer the technicolor settings even more, like you did with Star Wars.

DoomBot said:

I believe it's your regraded version on myspleen kk650. 

the 8BG version

Edit:  Terminator.(remastered-regraded).1080p-kk650ville.mkv

Hmm, the ville after kk650 in the filename is most likely who remuxed/reencoded this to include the mono track and make any other changes. Isn't there any information provided of myspleen with the release about what changes might have been done/what audio tracks have been provided?

TylerDurden389 said:

DarthCanoli said:

Does this track sync with the USA remastered Blu-ray release?

 Dude, just find the "re-graded re-scored" edit on the 'spleen. It's the new blu-ray with the proper color timing AND it gives you the choice between the original mono and the 5.1. No need to do the work yourself. I got that sucker about a month ago and I've already watched it like 5 times. It's glorious.

It's the first time one of my releases has been called glorious! I could get used to it haha.

Thank you very much for your kind words! It makes me very happy to hear you're enjoying this release so much, even with the freeze! :D

Flexicon9 said:

kk650's version on the spleen is quite good.  Excellent sound and beautifully restored video.  Just a note, there's a slight glitch at the 50+ minute mark when Sarah's at the police station speaking with Lt. Traxler.  It freezes there and you have to work around it.  Just FYI, and without question it's a damn good presentation.  The 2.1 HD audio is remarkable.

Hmm, that's very strange. I've checked my 8gb release of The Terminator and both the 16gb releases and they don't have a freeze at the 50+ minute mark.

Also another thing I noticed is that the 8gb version doesn't have the mono track taken from the laserdisc included, only the DTS 5.1 audio taken from the blu-ray. I did include the mono track with the two 16gb releases though. Also none of these releases are edits, they include the film exactly as it was on the remastered blu-ray, no edits were made on my part.

If the 8gb release on MS includes the mono track and maybe edits, then it seems likely that somebody has taken the video stream from one of my releases, created this version themselves either by reencoding or remuxing the video stream and then uploaded it to MS. Perhaps that is what caused the freeze? Have you tried playing the file in mpc and vlc so see whether that fixes the problem? It could also be a codec issue of course which would require installing the latest codecs to fix.

This is the first i've heard about one of my releases being up on myspleen. I have no problem with that of course, its great to hear in fact! The more places these releases are shared the better, that's why I shared them in the first place, so as many people as possible could enjoy them. :)

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

TylerDurden389 said:

DarthCanoli said:

Does this track sync with the USA remastered Blu-ray release?

 Dude, just find the "re-graded re-scored" edit on the 'spleen. It's the new blu-ray with the proper color timing AND it gives you the choice between the original mono and the 5.1. No need to do the work yourself. I got that sucker about a month ago and I've already watched it like 5 times. It's glorious.

Can you point me to the release thread of this Terminator regrade that you like so much?

I created my own version of The Terminator, based off the new remastered blu-ray, which I regraded to remove the teal tint, with the 5.1 and original mono audio included. It can be found on tehparadox. I'd like to see how this regrade compares to the one i've done.

Okay, here's a clip using the latest settings, taken from the battle of hoth:

-

https://mega.co.nz/#!rxIUHI6T!5Lac91x19KJLQIYDWb9H7M59YO5het9YO0T6Wa6GVSY

-

Guys, please check it out and let me know what you think of the colours.

Based on the lack of feedback it seems i'm not the only one unable to decide between those two clips in terms of brightness.

It's not important now though because I'm scrapping the colour settings for those two anyway, luke's fleshtones are still too red in the hut IMHO, I only noticed it by watching these clips numerous times. The Empire Strikes Back blu-ray transfer has so much red in the fleshtones that they are really difficult to get right across the whole film, I get them right in one scene, only for the overly reddish fleshtones to appear again in a later scene. I think i've got a hold of the red fleshtones problem now though.

I'll put a clip up from the battle of hoth using my latest settings soon so you guys can let me know what you think of the colours.

I got all three from there. I just checked Star Wars and it definately has audio. So do the other two in case you're wondering.

I see that you went for yub nub over victory celebration at the end of ROTJ, the two special editions are feeling a little neglected haha I'm with the two SE versions on this one, I prefer victory celebration, fits the end of the trilogy better IMHO.

Here are two clips from Empire Strikes Back using the classic settings, please check them out and let me know which one you prefer in terms of overall brightness (they are both much smaller that my previous Star Wars clip, at 300mb each):

ESB Test 1:

https://mega.co.nz/#!Ls5jXBjB!XIAx0uaMTwo46YH51qsEbpHOb0PtcM7tRe-jTtMr6ls

ESB Test 2:

https://mega.co.nz/#!q0YBlYrT!bAplulBCjT_cNPxY1ZLk__DgqR_vZUoNR_pOKdqY_YM

I see what you're saying hairy_hen from but none of those omissions you've mentioned i've ever noticed and i've gone through these films so many times regrading/editing them. Something only becomes an issue to me if i'm able to notice it while watching the film in motion and i've never noticed those omissions you've pointed out.

In this case though I believe that they have improved on the scene in terms of visual continuety so whether it was by choice or omission/forgetfulness/incompetence isn't important to me, though I choose to give Lucasfilm the benefit of the doubt here and assume it was on purpose because there are many other changes that they clearly did on purpose that I consider definate improvements.

I am of the belief that the redone versions of numerous scenes in the OT not only do justice to the original work but also clearly surpass it, like when they enter mos eisley on the speeder in the SE (with the droid and jawa antics edited out of course like I have done with this Star Wars semi-specialised release) and of course the battle of yavin at the end of Star Wars. Both look much much better in the SE than their original theatrical counterparts IMHO. Both scenes no longer look dated and fit in better with the effects work of ESB and ROTJ, which is the most important thing to me, maintaining that visual continuety across the trilogy.

Then there are of course the additions that I feel improve the film like the scene with Biggs before the final battle, which adds a lot more pathos to when he dies during the trench run, making for a much more powerful finale IMHO.

I never watched Star Wars in the cinema when it first came out so I don't have that nostalgia towards the original version that many of you do. Of course I believe that as a fundamental turning point in cinema history the original theatrical versions of the OT should be preserved in as high a quality as possible and made available to everyone on blu-ray, much like Ridley Scott did with Blade Runner and all the different cuts available on the 5 disc blu-ray set.

Many of the original shots of the x-wings moving around during the battle of yavin, which of course were revolutionary in 1977, really do look poor to me now, so much so that I would personally never choose to watch a totally despecialised Star Wars unless there was no other versions with updated special effects available.

Hmm, i've checked althor1138's COLD edition and I see what you mean about the cone of light missing in two shots facing R2D2 on the special edition releases.

However, after watching that scene in the garage numerous times, I think that in terms of visual continuety, the SE releases are an improvement on the GOUT and japanese laserdisc version, the reason being that in all the other shots facing R2D2 without leia in the shot, the cone of light is not visible on all the versions.

So this means that with the GOUT and Japanese release, the cone is not visible when facing R2D2 without leia in the shot for the whole garage scene apart from two specific shots facing R2D2 where the cone suddenly appears out of nowhere, which doesn't make much sense IMHO.

In the SE releases the cone of light is never visible when looking directly at R2D2 without leia in the shot, which in terms of visual continuety makes much more sense. The cone is only visible when the hologram of leia is visible in the SE releases, which also makes sense to me. This looks more to me like a correction by Lucasfilm to maintain continuety in the scene rather than forgetfulness IMHO.

Sorry about the delay in posting back guys, I really needed a break from the OT to regain perspective so I moved on to other projects. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that I haven't been flamed haha

I think i've pretty much got the Star Wars and Return of the Jedi classic and technicolor settings sorted, i'll put up some ROTJ screencaps soon so you guys can let me know what you think.

Empire Strikes Back is a totally different kettle of fish though. Its transfer is certainly the odd one out of the three, the credits at the very end are a lot brighter than SW and ROTJ, suggesting a difference in overall brightness, and the transfer in general is a lot brighter than the other two which suffer from underexposure IMHO. Maybe a slight brightness boost is required but not much more than that, otherwise whites on Hoth start getting blown out and the final showdown between luke and vader starts looking too bright. I think both thematically and visually its supposed to be the darkest of the three films so overall exposure should be less than SW and ROTJ. The real question marks for me though are contrast levels and saturation, especially saturation. Is it also supposed to be the most desaturated and monochrome of the three films? What are your thoughts?

@Hal 9000: I don't know which missing cone of light you're talking about. On my Star Wars regraded encodes there's very much a cone of light. Here's a clip from Star Wars using the 'classic' settings that includes the scene you're talking about. Sorry about the size, it also includes the bit where luke and uncle owen buy R2D2 and C3P0. Have a look and post a screencap of what you're talking about because the cone of light is very much visible to me:

Star Wars regraded using 'classic' settings, clip 1 (from when R2D2 and C3P0 leave the sandcrawler to when luke joins uncle owen and aunt beru for dinner):

https://mega.co.nz/#!vlRXlRpR!3bw3VkRtqGELOyznJD6R018f13-vrN80Z5wBdM6G2v8

Thanks for creating these COLD Editions althor1138!

Chewtobacca said:

To be honest, I don't see much difference.  :-(  Pleasing me when it comes to ESB is almost impossible though because I think the colors that Adywan gave to his reconstruction of the '97 SE were practically perfect.  Just please yourself with the colors for ESB, and I'll wait patiently for Star Wars. :-)

Hmm, I downloaded Adywan's Empire Strike Back a few years back and wrote it to a DVD. I've just found it and put it in my drive. I'm currently looking at his 8gb AVCHD colour corrected release of ESB. I've gone to that scene and can see what you meant about it being different. I have to disagree with you though about his colours being better. The colours in that scene on his version look wrong to my eyes, like he is forcing it to look a certain way, very neutral, the light sources looks off, it doesn't look 'natural' IMHO, only very neutral colourwise. Perhaps he has reference frames that suggest it looked like that on the film print but to my eyes it just doesn't look 'right' or even all that appealing. I know its almost blasphemy here to be critical of Adywan's releases and I expect to be flamed for it but those are my thoughts and I've always been someone to speak my mind honestly.

The last time I was this release was before I had my colour calibrated monitor or knew anything about colour grading so I couldn't really judge, so I remember thinking it looked good, much better than the blu-rays certainly. Now that I have a lot more experience grading I look at it again with my colour calibrated monitor and there are a lot of things I would do differently to him. His fleshtones are too red for my liking, his whites too blue, making the film feel too cold for my liking and the film overall is overly desaturated, all IMHO of course. Hopefully he'll improve the colours when his new Empire Strikes Back Revisited version come out.

If you consider his release 'perfect' it is possible that you will not like my regraded release of ESB. I have to maintain consistency in colour grading across the three films in terms of fleshtones and white balance, I would not be doing so if I did something similar to what he's done, but if you like what i've done with Star Wars, I do hope you at least give my grade of ESB a chance to see whether it changes your mind about what colours look good to you. The fact that you liked the scene after the chamber tells me you liked the fleshtones and white balance on my regrade so try giving the whole film a chance when I release it, you may yet be surprised. How I regraded Star Wars is very much dictating how I regrade ESB and ROTJ because they are all part of the same trilogy and therefore have to share some sort of colour consistency IMHO, so it follows that if you like how Star Wars looks, you'll probably like how ESB and ROTJ look as well.

Okay, feel free to flame away, I'm as ready as i'll ever be haha

@Chewtobacca: How do you find the colours in the screencap below? Do you find it an improvement on the previous colours?

Okay, 'classic' it is then. :)

Looks like everybody that's posted in this thread likes the 'classic' settings for Star Wars which is great news! I can finally move on to Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Don't worry though vbangle, i'll definately be releasing the technicolor version also, I like the way it looks as well, the richness of the colours.

@Chewtobacca: Thanks for the feedback! i'm glad you like the 'classic' settings of Star Wars. :)

As for ESB, did you check the 'normal' clip as well that has reduced saturation or just the first technicolor one? Its sounds like your issue with the amount of blue when luke's in the chamber is simply an issue of saturation, not of the colours themselves.

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

'normal'=perfect balance for my tastes!

Hmm, I really need to change 'normal', perhaps I should change the name to 'theatrical' or 'classic' instead? Anybody got any better suggestions for what I should call the 'normal' settings?

I just checked out your clip in post 2 and wow, very impressive indeed! The grain looks great, nice and organic, and the detail you've managed to extract from the shadows is very impressive, well done!

The screencaps looked good but in motion what you've done looks even better! I thought at first you might have the blacks a little too bright, especially the bit with the predator at the beginning, but once you get used to it it works really well and fits with the rest of the clip. I didn't notice where you'd added the SD footage either so it must have been pretty seamless, great job there as well.

Here are Star Wars screencaps regraded using the normal settings and the technicolor settings, taken straight from encodes rather than the regrader preview so this is what the final releases will look like colourwise:

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Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition normal settings:

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Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition technicolor settings:

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And here are some screencap comparison links where you can see the difference between the two settings more clearly:

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/63483

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/63484

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/63485

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/63487

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/63489