They’re not that bad, but not as good as the two AVC versions. They are still available on rutracker. Just look for the ones that are mpeg2 encoded. Star Wars is 15.36 gb and Empire and Jedi are both about 16.5 gb. There are comparable versions of AOTC and ROTS, but no Episode 1. The audio is Russian, though, not that that matters.
There are torrents out there for Cinemax rips of the OT, but not the PT. I think I deleted them, but I’ll check when I get home from work. I think it was discussed in Andrea’s thread about HDTV sources.
Can some of you guys recommend some good registration techniques / software? I always did it in Avisynth but it rarely was “perfect” during the whole video.
The auto-align feature in Photoshop works pretty well, but it would be unwieldy for more than a few frames here and there without creating a script.
I’ve done this to some degree in my HDTV project. My experience with this is that averaging will not improve the detail in any way, and will certainly not remove encoding errors/issues.
The benefit of averaging in an LD capture is that you’re combining 3-5 copies of the exact same master through the exact same capture protocol. The goal is to eliminate analog noise, not increase detail. That’s not really possible. If you’ve tried capturing LD sources, you’ll notice that if you use only a single copy of the film, any defects due to the physical structure of the disc will remain even after averaging. This include laser rot, or dropouts, etc. The only way to remove those types of defects is by capturing from three or more copies of the exact same LD, with the same mastering, and using the median, rather than the average. Using the Median allows the video processor (AVISynth) to retain the most common or middle value for each pixel, which will not include random dropouts and laser rot speckling, that multiple copies of the disc are unlikely to have in common.
As far as the HDTV and Blu Ray versions, the first step is to register the frames, which are not always lined up, even though they hail from the same master. They are different down to the subpixel level, and can require multiple rescaling procedures to register perfectly. This can have a minor negative effect on the detail, in and of itself. Once the frames are properly registered, any averaging will just have the effect of lowering the detail and lessening the impact of encoding errors, not eliminating them. In an average of three sources, the master with the least detail still has one third of the input into every pixel, this applies to frames with encoding errors as well.
In working on version 2 of my HDTV project, I’ve found the best results come by using the highest quality source as the backbone of the project, and replacing damaged frames with the next best source. Ideally, you would get the best results using a method like Mike Verta’s, where you stack the layers and erase damaged areas to reveal info from the frame(s) below. Again this works well where the damage is dirt spots, but takes a lot of skill to match the sources when there are large parts of the frame damaged by the encoding/capturing process. Replacing frame sequences has proven to be much less labor intensive than that ideal, though color correction is sometimes required.
I’ve also seen that the Blu Rays are not more detailed by default. For instance, the Blu Ray of Episode III has more DNR applied and has much less grain than the German HDTV source. Sometimes, especially for the opening crawls, I’ve found that I get good results when I combine the Luma channel from the Blu Ray with the chroma channel from the UK SkyTV source.
Additionally, the colors in different captures are not identical, especially between the blu ray and hdtv versions, though to some extent, different captures are different as well. Averaging and regrading would make this not so big an issue though.
I’ve posted GOUT synced tracks for each mix. They shouldn’t require any work, if the video is synced as well.
-oops 😃 double post
I like the accidental French.
Technically, the NTSC standard is actually 720x486. 640 by 480 is the “effective” size, due to the fact that NTSC doesn’t use square pixels. The DV standard is 720x480. This is used to keep the height and width at mod 16, which works better for digital compression.
Maybe sooner than you think. 😉
Yes, there are two shots not complete in the DVD/HDTV/Blu Ray edit. The shot of the fans cheering for Sebulba is incomplete in the DVD/HDTV/Blu Ray edit and the shot of Watto cheering for Sebulba is absent from the DVD/HDTV/Blu Ray edit.
Thought I would mention that the HD digital releases have been updated within the last week or so. They now include nearly everything available on the Blu Ray release.
After a cursory inspection, the only things missing from the set now are “The Making of Star Wars” and “SP:FX: The Making of the Empire Strikes Back”. I’m not sure why they left those out.
So far the “newer” content is only available through Disney Movies Anywhere and iTunes. Vudu and Google Play, at this point, only have the content that was released back in April.
The concept and production artwork is only available through iTunes Extras.
As far as exclusive content (I’ll post it here since no-one else seems to have ever done it):
Conversations:
Doug Chiang Looks Back
Sounds In Space
The Star Wars that Almost Was
Creating a Universe
The Lost Interviews
The Effects
Discoveries from Inside:
Models & Miniatures
Costumes Revealed
Hologram & Bloopers
Weapons & The First Lightsaber
Matte Paintings Unveiled
The Sounds of Ben Burtt
Other Stuff:
George Lucas On The Digital Revolution (iTunes only)
The Podrace: Theatrical Edit (full 1080p HD)
The Art of Attack of the Clones (DMA only)
The Journey (Parts 1 & 2) (Originally from starwars.com, but here part 1 is a slightly extended edit)
ILM Episode III Siggraph Reel (Originally from starwars.com, and in better quality there!)
Scrap Into Gold: A Conversation with Roger Christian (DMA only)
Dennis Muren: How Walkers Walk (Originally from DC Laserdisc, available free on starwars.com)
1080p Trailers for all six films plus one for the entire saga
They have the UK SKY TV, 25fps, H264 AVC, 1920x1088 video muxed with 448kbps French 5.1 and 448kbps English 5.1 AC3 Audio tracks. They also have french subtitles and forced subtitles.
My guess is that the audio comes from the 2004 PAL DVDs.
More info (in French) here:
http://www.ladylink.org/star-wars-l-integrale-1080p-x264-hdf
Hal, I'm looking for the 5.1 AC3 audio from the 2001-2005 DVD releases. I'd like to limit the audio to pre-Blu Ray mixes only. :)
Here's a little update on my progress: I'm a little more than 90% done with my first pass through Episode 3. I'll be doing a second pass to look for any last visual glitches, encoding problems, etc., but that should be much quicker.
Second, I'd like to include some more language options for my v2.0 releases. However, I currently only have the Region 1 DVD audio tracks, and the German dubs in 5.1. I'd like to include the French, Spanish, and Italian 5.1 dubs as well, if possible. Please let me know anyone could share these for the six films. :)
Third, I have finally found the original SKY TV rips of ANH and ROTJ, thanks to nzbking.com. So, unless the WOWOW rips ever turn up, I finally have the raw materials for the video portion of v2.0.
Lastly, when I finish Ep. 3, I will also encode a theatrical version, and include the theatrical DTS mix.
Don't forget everyone will need the SR plugin -- $39.95
Awesome. I'd love to take a crack at encoding this myself. Just out of curiosity, how specific is the script to Episode IV? Can it be easily modified to work for Empire and Jedi?
Most PAL sources were not pitch corrected. Are you sure you can't just slow down the audio?
"source.AssumeSampleRate(42294).ResampleAudio(44100)"
RandomHajile said:
no doubt then a pro player from say sony/pioneer then would be a better/purer option then
and would have a BNC output :)
am sure a modern composite to sdi converter would have the requisite(improved) time based correction applied with a genlock input prob even more ideal.
I think it's pretty well established that the X0 provides the best image quality. It's debatable whether it's BNC composite provides the better image than its comb filter through the S-video connection. I know I don't have the cash to find out first hand.
That's the benefit of happycube's software. While a better laser would be preferable for reading the disc surface, it's possible that more common and cheaper players may offer similar (or better) quality when decoded this way.
In my opinion, that is the future of this hobby.
If I'm not mistaken any of the newer LD players' composite output is still receiving the digital processing. The players split the signal to Y and C and perform noise reduction, then recombine the signal to composite. In fact most players just recombine the S-video signal to composite. The signal does not come from the demodulator directly. Only the X0 has the option of a clean signal path with its BNC connector, but this still has a TBC applied to it.
Dr. Dre, I wanted to say thanks for all this work. This really is an amazing and useful tool you've shared.
As far as whole films go, I would think the tool would have to be automated somehow. It's one thing for it to take 20 seconds per frame, it's another to have to manually load and process the ~200,000 frames in a 2 hour film.
Ideally you could just import 2 uncompressed avi files and output a third, rather than dealing with giant lists of png or bmp files.
I'm sure this would require much more development. Frankly, I'm just happy with what this version can do.
If there's a way to output a color correction matrix file for each frame, some other avisynth plugin (ColourLike?) might be able to do the color correction separately.
I came to terms with not being able to see Legacy a long time ago, what I'm really hoping now is that Mike's website plans come to fruition. It sounds like it will be a fascinating and amazing resource. It also sounds like a ton of work to implement, but Mike's proven to have pretty good follow-through ;)
I actually thought I was probably wrong. ??
No problem. I've been sitting on these since July. I went on vacation and forgot to upload when I got back. :)
In case anyone is wondering, all releases of Raiders and Last Crusade have the same side change points, so that's why I didn't mention patches for those two films. For Raiders, the CAV versions occur at the same points as the CLV's, for LC, all versions are CLV and have the same side change points.
Ok, it should be up at myspleen now. :) Let me know if you have any questions.
COMMENTS:
I am providing this Audio Archive for the purposes of saving and sharing the audio mixes of the Indiana Jones films presented on LaserDisc over the years. I've included both the raw LD side rips and fully synchronized tracks for each mix. These have been synchronized to the 2012 Blu Ray editions. My intention with all of the completed, synchronized files was to maintain, as much as possible, a bit accurate representation of the soundtracks as presented on LaserDisc. So each is presented at its original bit depth and sampling rate, (16 bit / 44.1 kHz). While these files will not be suitable for direct use in a DVD or Blu Ray project, they will work perfectly within an mkv container, which is how I envision their use.
Should you prefer to use these mixes for a DVD or Blu Ray, they will require resampling to, at minimum, 16bit / 48 kHz. I recommend Izotope RX4 for resampling, as it currently provides the most transparent/best algorithm.
I've included, for interested parties, a 4.0 surround mix decoded using Minnetonka's SurCode for Dolby Pro-Logic 2. This was done in regular Pro-Logic mode, and returns decoded Left, Right, Center, and Mono Surround Tracks. These upmixes were created from the included stereo tracks.
I hope these files will be useful to the entire OT.com community and look forward to sharing them with everyone.
Regards,
-schorman
All audio taken from digital sources is confirmed bit accurate (44.1kHz/16bit for LPCM tracks). Each LD side was ripped three times to ensure accuracy.
Laser Discs sets:
I. Raiders of the Lost Ark
A. Original LD Mix - Japan Fullscreen/CLV (2 Sides) [SF047-1571]
B. LD Remix - US Letterbox/CLV (2 Sides) [LV 1376-WS]
II. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
A. LD Stereo Mix - US Letterbox/CLV (3 Sides) [LV 1643-2WS]
B. *LD Stereo Mix - US Fullscreen/CAV (4 Sides) [LV 1643-2]
*Used for patching side changes only.
III. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
A. LD Stereo Mix - US Letterbox/CLV (3 Sides) [LV 31859-2L]
Hardware Used:
Pioneer CLD-D704 (All LD Playback)
Sony TA-E9000ES (LD ac3 demodulation)
M-Audio Transit (Bit-perfect digital capture of LD PCM soundtracks)
Software Used:
Adobe Audition CS6/CC2015 (Recording / Multitrack Editing)
Minnetonka SurCode for Dolby Pro-Logic 2 (Decoding Dolby Pro-Logic to 4.0 PCM)
wavewizard (Merge mono wave files to multitrack wave file)
riffmask.exe (Set correct channel mask within multichannel wave file)
I have completed bit-perfect digital audio rips of both the US LBX edition LD and the Japanese FS LD with digital sound. I can confirm that the Japanese disc has the original staff-drop sound effect found on the dvd and bd. Both have been synced to the Blu Ray and are ready to go.
Let me know if these are still needed, and I can post them to myspleen, along with Temple of Doom and Last Crusade.