rockin

I hope to capture it in the best way that I can, but I am a complete amateur on the whole process and I'm not anywhere near in the same league of knowledge on this compared to people here. Therefore, I have not decided on the best ways yet to do this.

I agree that getting the colour timing to match with the blu-ray would be a fantastic option, but the differences in resolution would be extremely noticeable. The best way that I can think of to attempt to solve this would be to down res the blu-ray to 480p to be of a similar resolution to the laserdisc, and re-colour time both sources (as both are not perfect).

What you suggest is perfectly reasonable and along the same mindset I have for this. I would be more than happy to provide you with the preserved deleted scenes if I am successful in capturing the laserdisc and achieving reasonable results in picture quality.

I'm very impressed with the results. If the mentioned problems are going to be fixed before release of the final version, then even better!

Great news!

stretch009 said:

I'd only be interested if there was also some way to obtain the International cuts of the good Superman movies. (I-III)

 

Sorry, I don't have any of the International Cuts of the first three movies. There is a International Cut of Superman II lurking around somewhere, but it is pan and scan VHS quality I'm afraid.

Tack said:

There's a tiny problem though: The laserdisc is 2:20:1. A full preservation would probably be the best.

 

Thanks! I wasn't aware of that. A full preservation will definitely be best.

I'll see how many people are interested before I decide to invest time into doing this and to see what the options are for capturing it.

I remember seeing this when I was really young in the early 90’s on TV and VHS, but on DVD and Blu-ray the cut became noticeably shorter. Two scenes that I believe were taken out were the tornado scene and the scene where Superman stops a nuclear missile at the Kremlin.

I know that there was a fan edit of Superman IV a few years ago, which aimed to restore the whole film rather than just the original international cut. I also know that the Deluxe DVD and Blu-ray have the scenes that were cut in the form of Deleted scenes, but the optical effects for these are incomplete. The laserdisc on the other hand has these intact still with complete optical effects, as does the VHS, which would be two useful sources for the cut scenes, but the laserdisc would be my preference.

The reason for this whole thread is that I think it would be nice to finally have the International Cut of this preserved, even if it is considered one of the worst Superman films - I still get some enjoyment watching it, and I know that there are some others out there who also do as well.

Listed below are a few of ideas of how to possibly do this:

• Preserve the film using the laserdisc
• Preserve the film using the blu-ray and upscale the scenes from the laserdisc that were cut from the blu-ray
• Preserve the film using the DVD with scenes from the laserdisc.

I know this seems quite an ambitious project, especially one for a film which many people dislike, but I’m not sure how people here feel about this. Currently I don’t have the means of capturing the laserdisc, and I’m looking into ways to do this. If anyone would like to help then that would be great. Really I just want to see if anyone here has any interest in this project happening or not.

dvdmike said:

THe MGM DVD looks like the Sony Blu

The Criterion DVD looks like the MGM Blu

Yes, I believe that is somewhat true. The Criterion has a better contrast compared to the MGM Blu-ray and shares some similarities on overall look, but is still not quite the same. There is some blue in the Criterion in parts, which are not seen in the MGM blu-ray.

I think possibly the most ideal look would be a combination of the Orion and Criterion transfers.

Looking through my collection on the weekend I found it interesting that like the Criterion edition, the Orion edition also has a better all-round picture than the later DVD/Blu-ray releases. The two transfers may be the oldest, but are possibly the most accurate.

Criterion:

US Orion:

cain spaans are you going to get this done? A lot of us here have been desperate for you to get this out but so far, nothing...

Sometimes you just gotta grab a hold of something, bite your lip, and give it hell!

Stop making more work Ronster!

:-(

Thanks Harmy! I'm gonna put this on my list of movies to watch at Christmas with the rest of the family - I always enjoy any one of the original three at Christmas!

Is the project in any way at all going through a colour correction process? I must say that none of the releases on DVD/blu-ray/HDTV have looked particularly great so far. Criterion is the most balanced, but still has its problems. 

There is a good comparison of the DVDs here:

http://sd.caps-a-holic.com/vergleich.php?vergleichID=52

And the blu-ray/hdtv/criterion here:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1266651/robocop-1987-unreleased-sony-vs-fox-blu-ray-comparison-pix

Thanks so much for doing this. 

Wow, that really looks amazing! It really changes the whole feel of the film.

I'd love to also see a preservation of this! Love TWOK!

Akwat Kbrana said:

rockin said:

I finally decided to watch ST: Into Darkness. I watched it with a completely open-mind, even though I love the old movies and knew this was getting some flak. Overall, to me it felt like a lazy rehash of The Wrath Of Khan. Everything they borrowed, they did worse. Not only that, but the way the whole movie went together was so disjointed. Now I understand why so many people felt let down by it. It was more of a sci-fi action movie, than it was a Star Trek one. 

Meh...Star Trek movies have basically been generic sci-fi action movies since 1994. IMO, the major difference between the J. J. Trek movies and Star Trek VII-X is that now they're at least watchable sci-fi action movies.

I'm not totally bashing JJ's involvement with Star Trek. The first 2009 movie is pretty damn good in my opinion. It just felt nothing like the standard set with the 2009 movie in terms of the plot and the way the film unfolded. There's no denying it was a decent action sci-fi movie, just not a great Star Trek one.

I can see why JJ is more suited for Star Wars, in terms of comfort zone.

I finally decided to watch ST: Into Darkness. I watched it with a completely open-mind, even though I love the old movies and knew this was getting some flak. Overall, to me it felt like a lazy rehash of The Wrath Of Khan. Everything they borrowed, they did worse. Not only that, but the way the whole movie went together was so disjointed. Now I understand why so many people felt let down by it. It was more of a sci-fi action movie, than it was a Star Trek one. 

Nien Nunb said:

I am quite sure this has been discussed on other threads before but is there any kind of reliable reference as to what Ghostbusters looked like during it's original theatrical run? None of the DVD or Blu-Ray releases have ever looked right to me.

I have spoken to a few Ghostbusters fans over the years who saw the old film print quite a few times, and they said it was closest to the 1999 DVD and the new 4K Remaster. The laserdiscs can be a good point of reference (but not always), but honestly these days the 4K blu-ray remaster is the best its ever going to look.

This thread needs an enema!

teaser time!

That's great news!

This thread is pure gold - or brown should I say?

Shadows of the Empire game was amazing on the N64. I would love to see elements of that considered for the new Star Wars film.

I have deliberately tried not wanted to watch any of the Terminator films until this is released, much like not wanting to watch Empire Strikes Back again until Ady's ESB: Revisited is complete. It's been a long wait, but will be worth it I think!

I'm not really sure what to make of the Superman movies. Some things do look better in the new colour grading, but I still think the whole teal look has been pushed a bit too far. Superman 2 theatrical blu-ray looks a bit too contrasty compared to the previous DVD. Is the laserdisc supposed to be similar to the DVD? If so, I would say that might be closer to the original look, but it still looks a bit pink to me.

As I said before, a Harmy + emanswfan 70mm filmsized Despecialized Edition project would be amazing. It's up to both emanswfan and Harmy though. I personally would love to see it, and believe it would be one of the best collaborations ever.