It’s also UK exclusive for Amazon. I tried to get it but that one needed a UK credit card so I couldn’t, but I could see it with my VPN.
Okay, so a few weeks ago I was finally able to start getting back into this project. I was preparing new master sources to start editing with from the Japanese LD, US LD and German DVD, and I was starting to do the matting of the images. Then I decide to check in on this site and see this news about the HD version on UK iTunes. So I got it, and yeah, its legit. It’s still pretty compressed, and you get a lot of block artifacts which in some ways I find more disruptive than the analog video look of the LDs, which sort of blend with the 80s aesthetic better, but it’s hard to argue the picture isn’t overall superior to anything the other three sources are going to be able to offer. The audio is another story…
Something is wrong with that mix. If you compare the first scene in the pilot bar to the audio track from the other three sources, it is totally different. The song completely cuts out at some points. The fidelity overall is also much worse. I believe the US LD is far and above the best audio source.
So I’m going to work on getting the US LD audio synced to the iTunes UK HD picture. I’ll post some stills and maybe some audio samples in a few days. Excited to see this release, and I do hope this is a precursor to a proper Arrow 4k or at least BD. Thanks for sharing about its existence.
I have used the domesday duplicator to rip the Japanese LD. I am working on the decode now. I’ll try to have a high bitrate mp4 available within the week. PM me.
It’s hard to tell without motion, but some of MH’s hair seems to be ghosting, and some of the skin seems a little too smooth. That’s what I’ve been struggling with with Topaz as well. I’ve heard the Avisynth upscaling actually gives Topaz a run for its money, so maybe I’ll try that and compare at somepoint.
It’s not real HD, I just downloaded it. It’s a “1080p” capture from a roku, but the same SD transfer we are all working with. Which only makes sense, as the film was actually shot in 2.35:1. Even the Japanese 16:9 LD crops some, but there is no reason why a proper HD scan from source would ever be 4:3.
grafxuser your NTSC DVD upscales look nice. Whose NTSC release are you working with? I have two, Frontrow and Westlake, and both seem like a worse source than what your upscales seem to come from.
I reached out to several boutique labels and suggested it, so fingers crossed. In the mean time, we soldier on!
Nice! Which application did you use? I have tested a bit with Topaz AI. I find that the Artemis HQ does the best job at minimizing weird AI fakeness. Going to be working with that as I progress on mine. Been working to get the Japanese LD back to a good 23.976 and the ffmpeg IVTC in ld-decode really struggles to put back all the frames and decimate the right garbage ones. I think it’s because there is massive bleed in the red channel that I just can’t seem to fix, so the interlaced frames have a lot of bleed, and the correctly recompiled frames still have something that looks kind of interlacy in them. So I’m trying Vapoursynth VIVTC now to see if it is better. Also just ordered the German PAL DVD. I have the UK PAL one, and it’s probably the same file, but had to be sure. Will keep everyone posted!
Do you know someone with a print?
Hi. I have purchased the Japanese and US Laserdiscs, and ripped them both using a Domesday Duplicator. I am in the process of using LD-Decode to convert them to uncompressed video with accurate pulldown removal/original 24fps restoration. Once that is complete, I plan to use a mixture of upresing, color correction, frame in frame, and video adaptive fill to remove any remaining subtitles and attempt to create a high quality wide screen restoration of the film. I am using the 4:3 US Laserdisc as my primary source instead of any of the DVD releases because it has the fewest degraded/damaged frames compared to the other two DVD transfers I have seen, and should contain none of the block artifacts that the DVDs are full of. I have looked at about 5 DVD versions but they all appear to be from 2 primary masters, each of which seems to be worse in some ways than the LD. I will re-evaluate this though once the rip is converted, and may mix sources if that seems like a better approach. I expect this process will take 6-12 months. I will post updates when I have them. Your enthusiasm will keep me on track. Though I am still shocked that between Shout/Arrow/Via Vision/Scorpion Releasing/Media Blasters someone hasn’t tried to get the original negatives and do a proper BD/4k. Fingers crossed.
I don’t know but I just logged in to ask the same question. Would love that.
I am working on a theatrical cut of Episode I using as much blu-ray source as possible. This means everything except for 2 podrace shots (Watto calling “Sebulba” and the cheering crowd) which I am pulling off the digital release special features so that they are in HD. I will also be color correcting those shots to match the blu ray footage. I plan to use the 5.1 audio off of Adywan’s SD theatrical DVD, which is supposed to be a perfect rip of the laserdisc.
Just 2 questions for the members:
Thanks!