rockin

Yeah I think an AVCHD version stripped down to just the movie would be a good compromise, for those who don't have blu-ray burners. Isn't ESB going to be 720p anyway? 8.5gb AVCHD in 720p shouldn't be that much of a loss in quality but understandably, those who want the best quality and who have a blu-ray burner can also grab the blu-ray one.

The 1997 SE / 2004 SE hybrid with Jabba looks surprisingly good. I thought the quality of Jabba from the 1997 SE inserted into 2004 SE footage would make things look ugly, but it actually looks pretty damn good. I prefer the animations to the 1997 SE version of Jabba - his movements look more natural than the 2004 SE one, where he looks quite stiff in comparison.

Just checked the first page and this version sounds excellent Harmy - I thought the last version was good but you're always finding things to improve. :-P

LeeThorogood said:

Sorry about the compression problems I did try to encode the MKV straight from my ProRes HQ master but unfortunately this was a no go and not wanting to spend too much time on it I decided to use handbrake to encode the MKV from the DL-DVD I had authored for previewing purposes. As for next time, there wont be a next time :p I only plan to release this in DVD format, the MKV was just a way of putting a work print out at 1/4 the size of a DL-DVD.

As far as the DL-DVD I authored up for previewing goes, I used the highest possible bit-rate my MPEG2 encoder supports 7.7mbps VBR with a max of 9mbps.

Sorry I meant final version. I know you said the mkv was just to test things, but wasn't sure if you were releasing the finished thing in .mkv again or DVD. Since you are going with DVD and the MPEG2 encoder will be better than handbrake, it sounds good to me! I was impressed with the colouring Lee, but it was hard to judge it properly with the compression, so I hope you don't take offense.

I checked it out, if very briefly Lee, and it looked good for the most part, but I did see some annoying video compression artefacts on things which were a little distracting. Is there anyway to make it slightly less compressed next time? because for the most part it looks good but is let down by stuff that is flickering in the background on walls and objects.

Not to be a pest Harmy, but can you update the first page with the details of this release? ;-)

I got this a a few years ago (I think). There are many parts to it that I prefer over the GOUT, namely less smear and a few bits look more detailed. The only thing it truly lacks is colour, but it's an excellent version to watch still.

Very nice. Not sure what has changed since the last previews, but it looks great.

It doesn't matter now; Lee has confirmed everything.

But anyway, I have nothing personal against you or anyone. I just can't understand you sometimes. You're posting sometimes rubs me and other people the wrong way. You say one thing, but mean something else. But this is the problem with the internet; not seeing what people actually meant behind their words, other than just seeing words. This is also why I don't really participate with anything internet wise much, other than this site for Star Wars.

dark_jedi said:

rockin said:

dark_jedi said:

I think he used DE's LD 5.1 rips, thanks Ady for confirming what I suspected, I did not want to download any of these until there was feedback, I read that he sync'd these files up so fast and could NOT figure out how he did it, because I was using NTSC LD's and these did NOT sync right out of the box,

Why not ask?!

What the hell do you mean? and why would I need to ask, most people that download files would just post feedback, it is just common courtesy, but if your talking about the sync'ing of the files, I think I read it in his thread how he did it and Ady's comment just added to what I thought, it was not done right, they should have been PAL encoded and then converted to 6 mono wav files and edited in Vegas to the original audio, but whatever, thank you for the "Why not ask?!" that was cool.

Firstly, I don't understand this constant hot tempered nature of yours is in like every thread when someone questions something of yours - a comment/post/work you've done etc etc.

What I meant was you seemed very quick to say that you are gonna hold off, and let everyone know that in his thread. Seems a bit extreme and harsh, if you ask me. There may be a problem with the audio, but all you need to do is ask Lee about it, not be so quick to dismiss something and almost put others off downloading it as well... I know you wouldn't want someone saying "I am not downloading V3 because of..." with you only finding that info out now, and not even sure if it was true, then again you might.. I don't know.. but either way, I think it's unfair to people who may want to download it, and be put off by possible misinformation.

Let the author of the thread confirm the problem properly themselves is all I am saying. I understand feedback is essential, but I find that a bit hypocritical coming from someone that is very quick to shoot people down in their own threads about particular things.

I am not having a 'go' at you but it's not the first time I have seen you do it d_j; it's been in other threads too, that's why I am finally saying something now..

dark_jedi said:

I think he used DE's LD 5.1 rips, thanks Ady for confirming what I suspected, I did not want to download any of these until there was feedback, I read that he sync'd these files up so fast and could NOT figure out how he did it, because I was using NTSC LD's and these did NOT sync right out of the box,

Why not ask?!

I am also certainly all for it.

This sounds like a great idea. I especially like the idea of having lossless audio.

I can test an AVCHD sample on my PS3 also.

:O

You used my screenies :D

Well, I had a go with the script last night, and followed the instructions from that guide but HCenc keeps crashing when I go to add the AVS script.

I am using Windows 7 X64 by the way, not sure if that plays a role in why it's doing that.

I grabbed it, and watched the 720p version. It looks pretty good, although I think there is some weird sharpening going on, which I am not a fan of. The rest of his collection seems to be sourced from an older GFORCE script, as it looks somewhat similar to dark_jedi's GOUT V2, but certainly not as good as GOUT V3.

I think what he has done is commendable.

Hmm, weird. It doesn't stretch mine at all. Could it be the other video settings in the set-up menu, that are set differently? I think mine is set to full upscale.

:O

Shockingly awesome Lee.

I never knew there was more life left in the GOUT source. It almost looks like a totally different source.

corellian77 said:

rockin said:

Out of curiousity what is the average processing time for this script on a quadcore computer?

I'm currently looking at 32 hours.  I'm using an AMD Athlon II quadcore, 2.9 GHz, with 4GB RAM.  I also have an ATI Radeon 5770 graphics card which, under Windows 7, takes advantage of DirectCompute 11 (i.e., the graphics card takes on some of the processing tasks), which is supposed to be beneficial for such things as encoding.

Prior to this system, however, I was looking at a 6-7 day encode.

Edit: Oops, looks like I was only looking at the time for the first pass.  I guess that means I'm really looking at 64 hours :(

Damn. That is pretty long. I have done renders before in both Premier and Vegas which took 15hrs for things but 32?!? Damn. Don't think I could cope with all my processing power being used for 32hrs on a render - need to use my comp for lots of other things as well.

Hmm, all the more excuse to upgrade I guess. This old thing has done me proud for a number of years. It's only logical I also get me something new that lasts me as long.

Has anybody tried this script on an Intel i7/i5/ or AMD Phenom X6? Would be interesting to know peoeple's processing time with those.

Wow!

Cannot wait!

The main difference I have always noticed between ROTS and AOTC, which may also explain the odd look to Palpatine, is the colour differences in each film. AOTC is very saturated and colourful, whereas ROTS is a mixture of muted, colourful and sort of neutral looking colours. I think a colour correction with that scene with Palpatine in AOTC to ROTS level might make a difference as well to his appearance.

They look really good.

But I am wondering Harmy, for this next release are you going to make higher bitrate versions available and offer even more audio?

I know that for ANH, you are using Ady's AVCHD so you are limited there, but Ady has a 13gb ESB that is in .mkv format which is a much higher bitrate than his AVCHD, and for ROTJ you probably already know that there are some high quality bitrate 2004 HD broadcasts. I am just thinking of ways to make this look even better than the previous PDE and give people another reason to get it after having the previous PDE (which alone is excellent).

Also, for ROTJ will you be fixing the brightness thing at the end in the Luke Vs Vader throne room fight? I think they are a few frames in there that make the black bars white/grey from where you tweaked the brightness a bit.

I prefer the details of the first, and the colours of the second. Sorry to be picky. :D

Or just take the crawl from another source and then keep the rest GOUT? But that would defeat the purpose of it being a GOUT project I suppose.

xhonzi said:

rockin said:

Another thing to try, is using the PS3 (if you have one) to upscale it. There are also some video options on the PS3 to make the picture fit to 16:9 and remove some noise. It's not perfect but it's very easy to do and doesn't look as bad as the way some DVD players upscale. :-)

I've never figured out how to make my PS3 zoom in on a windowboxed (Letterbox 4x3 in a 16x9) image.  Stupid non-anamorphic DVDs...

If you can tell me how to do this... I'll let you into the secret OT.com forum Illuminati clique.

You just press triangle on your controller when the DVD is playing and it should give you some options, goto screen mode and press it a few times and it should zoom/shrink the picture to your liking. It's not perfect but I consider the zoom and upscale better than most DVD players.

hairy_hen said:

Well heck, as long as you're talking upscaling, Oppo players are the darlings of the home theatre world, for disc compatibility and picture quality alike, and for much less money than high end products usually cost.  They also have flexible and high quality zoom settings that can be used to deal with non-anamorphic titles.

http://www.oppodigital.com/

http://www.prillaman.net/oppobdp93_review.html

hairy_hen, yeah Oppo is one of the best, as is Denon but they are a whole different tier in terms of quality above the PS3 now, which is also evident with the hefty price tag.

Good to hear Harmy!

It looked really good anyway, but I just wasn't sure. Now that you mention the changes, I have since compared and it's looking waaay better than before.