Perfect!
Now we just need really good full copies of the 3 missing Ewok episodes (other than the SciFi channel ones we already have). We are shaping up really nicely now! Sounds like it will take about another 3 weeks before we get the professionally done transfers. They were sent off last week and just in the waiting mode still at this point.
Sweet! We can incorporate it too.
Does anyone have a good copy of this clip too or do you know how we can get ahold of this guy to get a copy of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf-gBgnUFfI
It would be a good addition to put with the ABC Saturday Morning Fit Test and anything else relevant we can find in an "extras" section if we collectively decide to have one. It would be great if we can find clean copies of the commercials for the toys for both Droids and Ewoks too.
Don't forget we still need to track down the full length missing Ewok episodes too if anyone has any leads on those so we don't have to resort to the SciFi versions.
Is anyone good at making Fan based DVD covers? I found these UK poster images and they may make good fronts for the covers for the restoration project, since it hasn't been used on any other custom (or produced) Droids and Ewoks videos that we have seen. Just throwing it out there to see what you guys think. The posters are available right now through ebay in the UK. Maybe someone can get them and scan higher resolution images for the future.
I have the ABC Saturday morning fun fit test too. None, we need to compare mine and yours and we should go with the best quality. Mine is in NTSC... I think it would make a good addition on the restoration.
Just to give you guys an update, retardedted and I have been talking. We are going to look into seeing if we can have professional transfers of the PAL tapes done. It will be easier for us cost wise, since we live closer and the quality for all of us (not to mention the time involved). Pittrek, we are in no way taking this project away from you but we figured it will be the easiest, quickest and cleanest result and I believe that is what we all want. After the transfers are made (our understanding too is they can adjust for proper color corrections too) then we can collectively decide how we want to proceed to the next step in the editing process. This method will be expensive but I think it is going to really be worth it in the long run since we all have that "oh i want the best" mentality.
Video Collector,
I know you asked before if you can get the opening for Droids... I have never seen the PAL tapes. Does that mean the opening isn't included on the tape?
Video Collector said:
I take it the Sci-Fi Ewoks are edited as well?
Yeah it looks like they edited about 30 seconds off each episode. Things like a frog snatching a fly and such. We do have the lead ins for those episodes though on the scifi copies. Pittrek I have a feeling its going to take a lot of editing to splice all the little things together for each episode like the lead-ins for the Ewoks on the second season mixed with the PAL copies and then the same with the recaps for the Droids episodes we have.
At least I have a goal for the San Diego Comicon when I go this year. Search the floor for a good copy of Coby and the other ones we are missing or find the Mexico tape.
Ted and Pittrek, I sent you guys private messages. I may have found an additional good lead. Let me know what you think.
Ted, you are right. I looked at the Scifi version of Coby compared to the online torrents that have no logo on them, there is approximately 2 minutes shaved off the Scifi version like you said. I was hoping that maybe this episode was the exception. Its good we have a clean copy but it would be nice to find one with the two minutes put back on like you said the Mexico tape should have. Do you have a copy of theontherunvideo.com version? Is it a clean copy? I have noticed and it may be possible to remove the water mark if that is the only thing that it causing a discrepency. I know somewhere out there too has to be a vhs source for the original broadcast, after all the torrents had to originate from somewhere. For what it's worth I did a search for Coby and the Starhunters in Spanish on google...found one site but just reflects a timeline. It's called "Coby y los Cazadores de Estrellas" if anyone can have luck searching for this tape it has to be out there so we can get it and add it to the series.
Good to know.. I didn't realize the Sci-fi channel episodes are edited. So instead of about 21-22 minutes you are saying the episodes are actually longer? I saw that about a year or two ago another guy on this forum was creating a preservation set with all the different language sound tracks. Do we know how successful he was or if he is still in the process of doing this?
I got mine straight from the source as well ok this is good to know that we have multiple copies of the missing episodes as well.
Ted,
From your picture it looks like you have the same copies of DVD's from the Sci-fi channel that i do. I also have a copy of the Saturday Morning fall preview with C3PO and R2-D2 that aired. It may be a nice addition to the final copies. Do you know if yours are in PAL format or in NTSC?
Thank you Moth3r for checking,
I actually tried this script a couple times but I didn't have any luck with it. It still showed the blended fields on the PAL and NSTC clips when I used it. I registered for that forum to ask for help too, a couple days ago but they have a 5 day waiting period before you can post any questions. Go figure.
I stand corrected on the PAL but i have read in animation forums that there is still a need to reduce the number of frames with a form of IVTC or slow it down in the case you are speaking of and not just deinterlace it because it causes an undesirable effect. I wouldn't use the same IVTC for the PAL that is done on the NTSC in that case. I will email you the forum and website that i got my information from and you can pass that onto Pittrek as well. I learned alot from it. It spells out too the dangers of over noise reducing on frames as well but that is not what caused the missing "bolt" part I think that is in the film but i don't have the original caputre to compare it with.
Pittrek,
I am not using deinterlacing I am doing an inverse telecine which can be achieved with Avinsynth. I played with deinterlacing a couple times and it left a "step effect" on curves, it irritated me to no end so I have been researching how to get rid of that effect. These cartoons were originally shot in 23.97 fps (frames per second) .. NTSC adds dummy frames for American tv at 29.97 fps and PAL adds dummy frames to 25 fps... if you don't at least deinterlace them (which i don't recommend now) though you will see a "comb" effect on monitors if you ever watch them on a computer screen...tvs compensate and re-interlace them. Doing an inverse telecine restores the frames back to the way the animators did them at 23.97 fps...yes I have learned alot over the last month just because of me wanting to get it right.
Oh no trust me, I want these done and I want them done right regardless I finish things. I was looking personally at storing them on blu-ray just because i have that capability and to save space... like you said these are going to take several, several DVDs where i could probably get this on 1 or 2 blu rays.
I did crop a little off the edges and I change the frame size to 640x480 so they could be played on the ipod but the White Witch episode was burned back on to a DVD then played so it could be on tv.. it turned out nice. Although, anything compared to those torrents are nice. :) And I agree with you guys the first run on it, yeah it is a little too bright and was thinking about tweaking the contrast to bringing it down since i just figured out how to do that. Its kind of funny how we all jump from.... oh the only thing that is available are those ugly torrents to ..no no I like this copy over this one.
I am good with whatever you guys want to do. Mine are in NTSC and i didn't change the contrast on them. They were from the guy I got them from. We can see about putting them in 1080p but I don't know how to do that or how long that would take. I didn't realize you guys had a deadline in which you wanted this done but we can certainly see what the time frame would take. Just let me know what I can do to add to this.
Hi,
I am new to the forum and signed up after reading what you guys are talking about. I am trying to do a Droids and Ewoks restoration also... I do have all the episodes but I am missing good copies of the opening and ending credits for the just second season of Ewoks. After downloading the torrents available on line (which were ugly as hell with all the "digital artifacts" in them which you can see in the examples in this forum) and then buying a "complete" set which was available on an auction website (which were just as bad) I sent out on a hunt and found a guy who had video taped them back when they were on the scifi channel. These aren't the vcd copies. They are much, much cleaner, complete episodes with the openings, and recap lead- ins. They were expensive but definitely worth it in my opinion. I am in the process of cleaning them up even more using avisynth and reading cartoon restoration forums. I am converting them to progressive format instead of the interlace that is shown on video and will be much cleaner and smoother for LCD TVs and monitors. I can post a couple shots when I figure out how to do it on this forum. It takes a while for the restoration but I am very happy with the results. Ewoks on the other hand are a little bit more difficult there is an very, very slight image echo from frame to frame that is noticeable on rapid movement shots and I am driving myself crazy with my perfectionist mentality. Video Collector, we don't need to resort to the ugly AVI episodes to fill in the missing episodes just so you know, maybe we can work together to get this done. If we can clean the raw video footage from your PAL copies it could look really good. My goal is to be able to burn these on to blu ray for storage eventually when they are done.