the ugnaught

Reegar said:

Is this series watchable for an adult who never encountered it as a child? I mean, I'll watch the old TMNT series from the late 80's-early 90's, but it's great for reasons rooted in nostalgia. I don't know if I could sit down and get into it otherwise.

Meh.

It is interesting to watch for historical purposes.  And to check out the production design, vehicles, and character designs. The plot is somewhat interesting.  Especially the first 4 episodes.

But the screenplay is very Saturday Morning-ish. The dialog can really dial up the corny to 11.  Especially the C3P0 slapstick.

pittrek said:

What, don't tell me this was the first time you fixed a VHS :-)

I remember back in the day we used to copy hard to find rental tapes and then swap the physical tape from the copy to the rental cassette so we could keep the hard to find, rental only, tape.  Used to look at this as liberating them from the rental store.  Nobody ever checked to see if the little stickers were cut.

I suppose I am not an honorable man :)

No way I would do something like that nowadays. But anywho, we cracked open a few of these guys back in the day and performed surgery.

Thanks for all of the work you did guys!  Love the DVD's!

Ripplin said:

retartedted said:

JVC S-VHS deck

Aha. Any chance you could post the model number? Just curious, as I have one and, well, hate it. :p (turned out to be a bottom-of-the-barrel one)

JVC HR-S9600U 

pittrek said:

Wow ! Meesa wan it :-)

It looks REALLY great! I am planning to do a better version of Ewoks, and your source would be a great help!

BTW, I do have a copy of Ewoks tape 4 from Mexico.  It has these season 2 episodes in NTSC with un-blended frames...

1 "The Crystal Cloak"
2 "The Wish Plant"
6 "The Totem Master"
7 "A Gift for Shodu"
16 "Horville's Hut of Horrors"
17 "The Tragic Flute"
18 "Just My Luck"
19 "Bringing Up Norky"

sennaheu said:

Video Collector said:

There isn't really a better source for the Ewoks series than the PAL tapes, is there?

There is! At least for episode 2 to 13 from series one. Here is a screenshot of my version of episode 1x11 The Three Lessons. It comes directly from a TV station that broadcasted it (PAL) so it is no VHS transfer with its disadvantages:

Interesting...

There is no frame blending on that tape?  Have you run it through frame by frame?

drngr said:

Video Collector said:

Note that the PALs also look horizontally squeezed compared to the NTSC versions, something we saw on the Ewoks tapes as well.

That's only because PAL DVD stores images at 1.25:1 (NTSC stores them at 1.5:1 so "raw" screenshots of NTSC fullscreen DVDs are stretched instead of squeezed).

I didn't crop off all of the black padding but this approximates how your DVD would look on a TV: http://check2pic.ru/compare/28601/

Probably a combination of that and the mp4 files are only 640 horizontal.  All the raw AVI's I worked with are 720, and whenever I get a DVD set together I'll leave them at 720.

We did a couple of experiments around here with a 720x480 MP4 and somebody had issues with their software recognizing the ratio flags.  So I figured 640x480 would probably be easiest to disseminate.

MP4 file

My 720x480 processed AVI

VideoCollectors capture

I would say that the downconversion to 640x480 took a little more detail out of the video than I would have liked.  But I think it is still doable to keep the file size down and to make them as universally playable as possible.

In the end though, Video Collector's PAL capture still has a little bit of an edge on this video.  Maybe something to do with having a PAL native VCR, as opposed to my Universal VCR.

Video Collector said:

retartedted said:

Yeah, the Great Heep got a little bit more than the rest, as well as more color adjustments to look more like the rest of the NTSC episodes.  But to be honest, I really didn't apply all that much.  I think that your particular deck just has some really good sharpening capabilities. 

There is no doubt that there is more detail in the PAL tapes.  It really is a shame about the blended NTSC->PAL conversion. 

OMG, I've been referring to you as Retarded Ted when that's not what your nick is! No insult intended. I really thought that was your nick. Sorry.

Haha, that is my username.  Retarded is spelled wrong, to make it look goofy and match Ted.  I thought it was hilarious back in the early 2000's when I was playing CounterStrike, Unreal and all that stuff.  Now it kind of makes me cringe when I think about it too much.

I use a different username everywhere else but this account at OT.com (and Myspleen for that matter) are older than dirt and still have my old username.   I wish I could change it at both locations to something that isn't so immature.

Oh well.

Yeah, the Great Heep got a little bit more than the rest, as well as more color adjustments to look more like the rest of the NTSC episodes.  But to be honest, I really didn't apply all that much.  I think that your particular deck just has some really good sharpening capabilities. 

There is no doubt that there is more detail in the PAL tapes.  It really is a shame about the blended NTSC->PAL conversion. 

Damn, that artwork looks slick.  I like it.

I'll try and get back on there soon.  I also think it is still up on a.b.starwars if you have usenet access.

Video Collector said:

I'd love to hear some specifics about the work you did. What were the sources for each episode, and what processes did you employ for clean-up etc. What did you use for The Great Heep in the end?

• Episodes 1-8, 10-13 video is sourced exclusively from the Japanese tapes.  The audio is primarily the UK PAL tapes, with occasional snippets from the SciFi airings and Japanese tapes for audio that was cut from the UK tapes.  Mostly around commercial breaks.
• Episode 9 is obviously a home video recording of the original ABC airing.
• Great Heep is from the UK PAL tape.  I used SRestore for the scenes that were animated on 2's and a regular deinterlace for scenes animated on 1's.  Pain in the ass if you ask me.  Then it was just a simple 25fps->23.976fps conversion by slowing down.
• Each episode follows the lineage that I posted in my first comment in this thread.  JVC S-VHS deck-> Hauppauge capture card-> raw avi-> Avisynth (animeivtc) and then into Virtualdub where I did very very slight level and color adjustments. And very minimal noise reduction.  Hardly any really.
• Regarding a DVD release, I don't plan on doing one until I can get some better sources for Coby and Heep.  Hopefully that is within the next couple of years.  Those tapes aren't getting any younger.  Would really love it if some of those people trying to track down the tapes would give me a chance to get a crack at them.  I feel like I should have never mentioned their existence because now people are talking about the Mexican tapes all over the place.  There is even a blurb about them now on the Star Wars wikia page for Droids.

darth_ender said:

So to be clear for the slower readers (me, myself, and I), each episode is complete, unlike the DVD releases?  I know you had sources you didn't prefer as much, but these episodes lack nothing, correct?

Yes, every episode as they originally aired.  Minus the recaps (mentioned just a few posts above) as those haven't been released on any commercial tape that I am aware of.  The only copies are from television airings to include the SciFi channel ones.

darth_ender said:

Which episode?  What kind of error?  Considering you released all the episodes as individual mp4s it seems you could just upload the corrected episode. :)

I'll refrain from pointing it out, as to not ruin it for everyone else.  Once you notice those things one tends to fixate on it. :)

And I don't think that I will do one upload for just one tiny error.  I'll watch through them a couple of more times and make a list.  And I am sure over time people will come forward with a few things here and there as they get through the series as well.

JJJ_Spirit_Of_77 said:

One question: Some of the continuing story-arc episodes had a short narrative recap of the previous ep at the beginning. These recaps aren't on version 1.0. Will they be restored in the finished version?

I have toyed around with it a little and have been thinking about it for when I get around to a full DVD release with bumpers and other assorted clips.  The main problem with the recaps is that they don't exist on any of the commercially released tapes.  So they would have to be recreated.

bah.  No sooner do I upload this to the internet that I go back through one of the episodes and catch a terrible audio editing mistake.

I think version 1.1 might come out sooner rather than later. :P

JJJ_Spirit_Of_77 said:

Hi, newbie here. I'd love to see these, but I don't have a Myspleen account, and I can't seem to determine the appropriate way to ask for an invite. Any help would be appreciated.

Either post in this thread...

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/MySpleen-Invite/topic/8711/

Or message walkingdork who I believe is a mod over there...

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/pm-new.cfm/recipient/8664/post/628104

Version 1.0 is up on Myspleen.

Keep in mind that this really isn't 100% finished.  At least not to my liking. Still looking for other sources for certain episodes.

Another thing to keep in mind is this is sourced from VHS so it doesn't always look so hot.  And the original dubbing/sound effects/animation is so out of sync with itself that it was a huge headache to try and get everything synced up again.  This is seriously 80's animation at it's worst (best?). 

Feel free to leave some feedback here as to any problems you find and anything you think needs to be looked at again.  I'll try and include as many fixes as possible for version 2.0. Not sure when that is coming out but hopefully before I grow grey hair.

Now back to my beer...

I have some pretty good copies (s-vhs) of the SciFi episodes.  The only problem being that they are edited and have a watermark.  At least a good minute or two from each episode is cut in those versions.  Shame really.  But to be honest it cuts out a lot of the slapstick nonsense from the episodes and can make them more watchable.

I have a copy of the original ABC airing of Coby that is decent. I am in the process again of performing an IVTC and slight cleanup with some updated tools.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I should have a torrent up with a majority of the episodes done. 

Sorry guys.  I'll give you an update of where I am at.  Really no excuse for taking this long though.

So originally I had two copies of all of the UK Droids tapes and sent off the best of each looking tape to ringwraith to capture audio/video from a professional service.  This was in the very early stages of the project (before I made this thread).  This is when we discovered the horrible frame blending problems and realized we had to go another route. 

I started to buy my own equipment and track down different sources.  I got the Japanese tapes and was using the UK audio on top of them.  All was good until I got to the UK Droids 3 tape and the copy that I was still holding on to was all chewed up.  I am still waiting on my other copy from ringwraith.  Droids 3 just so happens to be the one I had the hardest time tracking down and haven't seen the UK tape pop up again anywhere else.  Point5 here on the forum sent me a copy of his WAV file but I am having some sync issues with that.  I would prefer to make the capture on my own where I control the whole process.

In the meantime I have a few other sources that are apparently in transit.  I have also been talking to a couple of memorabilia dealers in Mexico about tracking down the Mexican tapes.

This is turning into a looong project trying to track down all of the sources. On top of that I am still pretty busy in my personal life with family and all.

I may just release the episodes I have finished (9 out of 14) on myspleen here soon if that is what everyone wants.  Better to have some than none right?

AntcuFaalb said:

frank678 said:

retartedted said:

What is your capture process? You using VirtualDub?

Nope did try VirtualDub but it kept dropping frames and I couldnt solve what the issue was. I'm using a usb capture device and the program it came with. Might use VirtualDub down the line after I've tinkered some more.

Did you modify the audio-sync settings? The default ones drop lots of frames to maintain sync, IIRC.

The audio playback is a big one too (I think it may be disabled by default though).  I have always had problems with that chomping up the CPU and causing dropped frames.  I just leave it off as it isn't quite necessary to hear the audio while I capture.

AntcuFaalb said:

Is it possible that the AGC in the Panasonic AG-1980P is causing the problem(s)?

If so, does anyone know of any early VCRs produced without AGC circuitry that can be modded for S-Video?

Sorry I am late to the party.  Haven't been on OT.com very much this past year (new to parenthood, and it is crazy!).  At any rate, I would be willing to give it a shot on my deck, and I live in Northern Virginia (about a 45 minute drive to Baltimore from my house).  

I have a JVC HR-9600U.  Generally looked at as one of the best prosumer decks.  

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-restore/1567-vcr-buying-guide.html

It is then connected to my PC via SVHS cable with a Hauppauge PCI card that can do lossless AVI.  I could just make a straight lossless AVI capture and save it to an external hard drive and give it back to you.  It will probably be around 20gb.  So a thumb drive would work too.  I am not 100% sure that the end result will be drastically different from yours, but who knows, might be worth a shot.

I made this preservation if you want to see what I was able to get out of the 30 year old 1982 rental tape. 

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-1982-Rental-Copy-Preservation/topic/14254/

frank678 said:

ilovewaterslides said:

Well, that's pretty weird. In AVI DV uncompressed mode which is the most common codec used for capturing analog sources, it takes about 12GB for 60 minutes.

Yeah I think I'll re-investigate the settings/codecs. :)

What is your capture process?  You using VirtualDub?

I have some copies of all of the broadcast episodes.  They all fit on about 24 DVD's.

Unfortunately there is some terrible frame blending on them.  Likely because somebody tried to make the video progressive without performing an IVTC first.  There are a ton of weird frame errors on the discs too.

I am sure if somebody spent some time, love and care on the discs they could release a decent set.  Although I do have the same problem as Sacrifice up there, in that I don't have the 4 unaired episodes.  But I do have all the rest, with the original Old Indy bookends.  As well as some of the Family Channel re-edits.

If there is somebody out there from the community that knows what they are doing and wants to give it a crack I could arrange a way to get them to you.

I just spoke with ringwraith on the phone last week and he is mailing me my Droids 3 tape so I can copy the English audio.  That is pretty much all I am waiting on.

The video portion for everything is done.  At least for version 1.0

Other than that I only have the excuses of personal life, blah blah blah :)

Darth Mallwalker said:

Now I'm curious to see how retartedted has handled the several 1's in the pulldown pattern.

 

Nothing special.  Just used a standard IVTC from avisynth. 

pittrek said:

How ? Sorry for the offtopic, but I have a few Macrovision-protected VHS tapes which I want to digitize for myself, but I always end with an error message saying that Macrovision protected tapes cannot be transferred. I tried it with a standalone Samsung DVD recorder, and with an PC with a capture card

The standalone DVD recorders generally don't ignore the Macrovision signals, unfortunately.  So it will be next to impossible to copy using that method.

Is your deck a VHS/DVD combo deal?  A lot of those have had issues simply playing Macrovision tapes.  I have one that has the hardest time playing Disney tapes.

But if you have a standalone VHS player, plugged into a PC capture card then it shouldn't be an issue.  I personally have a hauppauge internal PCI card and have no issues with Macrovision. 

A lot of people also go the ADVC110 route http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advc110