satanika

No I don't have the vhs. It's very possible that muddyknees' audio is better though, or maybe it's possible to combine vhs+dvd audio, though it might be a lot of work.

-

Looking quickly at the CED (and VHS?) screenshots, I will go out on a limb and say the colortiming on the DVD is the more accurate one.. The CED ones look like they have a yellow shift. The bigger difference is the brightness, the old version is several notches brighter, this makes it look less saturated also maybe.

skyjedi2005 said:

Also here is an article with info on the original color that they wanted while making it.  Described as monochrome like.

http://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/27/books/tolkien-hobbitani.html

If that is the case then the bright disney like color job on the DVD is wrong.

Re-read the paragraph, that's not what it says:

"I like monochromatic works," said Rankin, "and I saw the whole picture in a series of monochromatic designs. There are about a dozen major sequences and each has its key color. The Hobbit Hole is springtime greens; the Gollum's cave, purples; the goblins' place, red; Smaug's cave, golden...

I listened quickly to the "Hi Fi Hobbit", it's not very hi fi ;)

Poor vhs quality lacking in dynamic range and rather muddy sounding.

Even if you login it says

Oops! You don't have permission to view this photo.

Can you post some comparison screenshots maybe?

Is this the dvd from 2001?

I don't use vegas, but this simple workaround comes to mind - try deleting all tracks except one (mark as center if needed) then export that, then reload project and repeat...?

Make them from what exactly?

JediTray said:

Well, after trying many methods and getting a response from technical support, the final product will have to be 16 bit afterall.  Sorry for all the back-and-forth, but I'm still learning.

If you tell what the problem is, I'm sure it can be sorted... (Unless you're using some really weird-ass old software or something ;) )

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

A B C said:

Your thread title is still missing the "t" ?

What's the best way to fix a thread title without starting a whole new thread?

Edit it?

;)

Erm, what do you mean PC is in compatibility mode? Compatibility mode is a per-program setting or am misunderstanding something?

If you mean that those programs are running in compatibility mode and you can't turn it of, look here in the registry

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

and find the entries for the programs and simply delete them.

ABC said:

Those French are very good ! ;)

Well, I don't know, it was indescribably frustrating to learn of that dvd a year later, when all the work was done... And it had been out there the whole time. Very unlucky that some French person didn't do a quick search and told me about it.. Oh well...

In any case.. While I still don't know when I will do a v2, or work on the other episodes (need Mandarin->English translators/subbers and English proofreaders/syncers. PM me if interested.), I'm mainly posting to direct any infrequent visitors to the new Nezha preservation project here - http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Nezha-Conquers-the-Dragon-King-1979-BBC-166-1-Theatrical-235-1-preservations/topic/11977/

It is almost complete.

The Monkey King Fan Project presents…

Nezha - Conquers the Dragon King (1979)
AKA
Ne Zha Nao Hai
AKA
Little Nezha Fights Great Dragon Kings (BBC title)
AKA
Le Prince Nezha Triomphe du Roi Dragon (French title)

BBC 1.66:1 & Theatrical 2.35:1 preservations

Three versions of Nezha exists that I know of - the official Chinese 4:3 DVD, the theatrical 2.35:1 version & the BBC 1.66:1 version.

The official Chinese DVD of Nezha is actually (surprisingly) good quality, picture is great and subtitles are good… The only problem is maybe that it is too dark resulting in crushed blacks in dark areas/scenes.
But it’s only the 4:3 version in Mandarin, and while it generally presents the most picture information (like an open matte version), there are some differences in the other versions (besides the language dubs) that I feel make them worth preserving.

However, don’t expect great quality, these other versions are basically only available on VHS or poor (bootleg) DVD’s…

The theatrical 2.35:1 version has different compositions in the intro and in some places in the movie itself.

The BBC version has a different/re-cut intro but otherwise seems to be cropped/zoomed from the 2.35:1 version.

The French (VHS) version is a strange one… It has the Chinese theatrical 2.35:1 video, but the audio dub seems to be based on the English VHS version, complete with VHS jingle… And because the BBC cut has it’s own unique intro, it’s rather strange watching the Chinese intro with the audio completely out of sync, only after the intro the audio fits… Weird. (This makes me wonder if there is a different French dub, since I know Nezha had a theatrical release in France, and why would that be based on the BBC VHS version?)

I know that other language dubs exist, but unless someone else comes forward with them or is willing to hunt them down they won’t be included.

Specs:

Theatrical 2.35:1 version mkv
Video: 704*300 x264
Audio: Mandarin, Japanese AC3
Subs: English

BBC 1.66:1 version mkv
Video: 704*424 x264
Audio: English, French (hopefully) AC3

Bonus material:
HQ scans of the following -
-French theatrical program
-French lobby cards
-French theatrical poster (hopefully)
-BBC & French VHS covers

TODO:
-Sync French audio
-Sync English subs

Screenshots comparing the three versions, in order - official DVD, BBC VHS, 2.35:1 version.
As you can see, the intro was recomposited for all versions (also recut for BBC version), the underwater scene has different background/foreground in these versions, the fight scene shows that the official DVD generally has the most picture information.

Eww, a male plug with women's underwear??

Chewtobacca said:

g-force said:

Chewtobacca said:

Even though you are cropping what looks like part of the picture, you are really not, as that part of the picture could just as easily be black pixels: it would make no difference. 

good point! Just do the top and bottom crop before the stabilization, the sides after the stabilization and you should be fine.

-G

I have actually cropped both before.  I don't see the need to wait after until after stabilization to crop the sides (unless I am missing something, which I might well be).  One might as well stabilize a (slightly) smaller image and 704x288 is still mod16.  Thanks! :-)

You need to crop after stabilization because the whole image is being moved from side to side during that process, which will leave you with a shifting border of black pixels and 'image' pixels. AFAI understand it.

The image is from here - http://gamefan84.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2uht1l

A B C said:

satanika said:

A B C said:

Perhaps someone can suggest the one to be used for this.

 

I guess any of the soundtracks/mixes would do, but you could also use the surrounds from the upmix(es) as the speech is much attenuated in them.

Mmmhh... Keep in mind that the music I would overlay would attenuate these again. The tries I made on Adywan's version were great: the music can be very "loud" in comparison of the film mix and you still can hear everything.

I just meant it might be easier hearing details in the original film mix when some speech etc. are lowered, thus the new layering might be easier..

A B C said:

Perhaps someone can suggest the one to be used for this.

 

I guess any of the soundtracks/mixes would do, but you could also use the surrounds from the upmix(es) as the speech is much attenuated in them.

Maybe I don't understand what you're doing then exactly, for anh for example, are you taking the flunk version and replacing the bad parts?

Would it not make sense to cut/edit the video first, if you're using multiple sources, along with a temp audio track, and sync the 5.1 cap to it when that's done?

I am 99% percent sure I have the Flunk ANH archived somewhere, I will have to look for it though

If you have wavelab then it can measure rms for you I think, but it's probably faster to just try a few different values for dialnorm like e.g. 23 and 19 etc.
Or you could use whatever software that supports replaygain to compare the soundtracks..

..

I don't/didn't know that dts neural upmix proggie, but I'm not opposed to trying new upmixing methods if anyone feels it's warranted, are there people interested in doing a new listening test?

TY's should be easy to find online, if you're in the EU/Europe there a place called nierle for example.

Special codecs?? Sorry, I don't fully understand that sentence.. AFAIK Intenso is just a label, not a manufacturer - meaning intenso discs could be for example ritek or prodisc.. You should always look for the manufacturer, not the brand/label..

Taiyo Yuden CDRs are generally considered the best.

Re: upmixing... Really, it is a pretty complicated/technical discussion.. I am no expert by any means. Interested parties can research for themselves matrix/active matrix; dpl, dplii etc. ..

In the end what I did was try various programs/techniques and gave samples for people to check out & decided on the atsurround active matrix decoding.

It should be similar to official dplii decoding. Similar/different for better or worse? Your mileage may vary... But likely minute in any case..

If there's no power I would definitely try the logic board swap..
Try and find the model no. (something like ST3160215A) to be sure it's the exact same kind.. But it's an older model I think so it might be difficult getting a new/unused drive.

Nice summary/review - http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2010/03/alternative-draft-week-original-empire.html