Someone made a torrent of my whole saga; at least the English audio was retained! 😃

Search for

Harry Potter. Collection (2001-2011) [Open Matte, Fundamental Collection] HDTV-Hybrid 1080p [UKR_ENG] [Hurtom]

I didn’t check all, but watching at some screenshots here and here, it seems it has the same aspect ratio problem, too… 😦

Checked the UHD-BD, and it has the same frame size of SE DVD; now, it must be checked if it has the changing aspect ratio or not.

Agree that you have not to use compressed video for this kind of task.
I’d save the movie as uncompressed “as is” - let’s call it 235, and then resize it all, and save it as 221.
Then, painfully, take note of each shot that is good as 2.35:1 or 2.21:1, and assemble the final cut.

There are several ways to manage the different aspect ratios:

• cutting side/s of one ratio, or top and/or bottom of the other
• stretching anamorphically one aspect ratio, leaving the center part untouched, to get same letterbox size
• leave their aspect ratios alone, resulting in Variable Aspect Ratio
• use the SE DVD that has bigger frame size, to compose a combined image for one aspect ratio that will fit the other

First option it’s the worst IMHO, followed by the second; third is the easiest and not very distracting, as the letterbox size will vary not so much; last is the best, but would be a pain in the… neck! 😄

comparison

Personally I’d go with an UAR version, getting more image top and bottom and colors from the TV, while retaining higher resolution from BD; and if you can ehnance the lower quality source with noise reduction, grain, AI upscaling etc. and also pre-colormatching, result may be rewarding IMHO!

The only problem is that you need to use Avisynth, the process could be tedious as sometimes you have to manually correct the image matching or choose different settings for different reels/scenes/shots, and may take long time converting it depending on the hardware.

Quick example (no DNR, grain, AI upscaling etc.):

Needed plugin: Auto Overlay

16mm scan? Here you are!

https://archive.org/details/knickknack_20170601_2K-scan

Have you tried the PaNup technique using both PAL and NTSC DVDs?
https://forum.fanres.com/showthread.php?tid=25

I remember I made some tests with The X Files many year ago - but then HDTV came, and subsequently Blu-ray, hence I quit - but results were quite good; can’t say if better than AI upscale, though, but it may worth a try.

spoRv gauge calculator

As far as I know, the 4K99CS is the best theatrical version of The Phantom Menace so far - I’m not aware of other 35mm scans released or in the making, but I’m not up to date I must admit…

Said so, I thought to improve it just a bit; the 4K99EN would have:

• English crawl and end credits
• English alien subtitles - theatrical version (leaning towards hardsubs)
• English SDDS 8-channel track (if I can afford to get it)
• slight more details than 4K99CS
• bigger frame size than 4K99CS and UHD-BD (depending on shots)
• better color grading (subjective, of course)

This is just a proof of concept, first because I’m not sure if there is any similar project in progress, and second because with my current gear setup (19" 1680x1050 TN monitor and lack of HDD space) I can’t make it now, and frankly I don’t know when I eventually could - so please, don’t hold your breath! 😄

EXAMPLES:

4K99CS

4K99EN

UltraHD Blu-ray

UHD fullscreen comparison between 4K99CS and 4K99EN: http://uar.sporv.com/UAR_comparisons/EP1_1A.html
UHD fullscreen comparison between UHD-BD and 4K99EN: http://uar.sporv.com/UAR_comparisons/EP1_1B.html

4K99CS

4K99EN

UltraHD Blu-ray

UHD fullscreen comparison between 4K99CS and 4K99EN: http://uar.sporv.com/UAR_comparisons/EP1_2A.html
UHD fullscreen comparison between UHD-BD and 4K99EN: http://uar.sporv.com/UAR_comparisons/EP1_2B.html

Moiisty said:

How does this compare to the 4k ?

Color wise? Better.
Audio wise? Better.
Definition? Worst of course; still some shots have bigger frame size.

Sorry, didn’t want to be rude, but as I’m not here any day, and all the time I log in I see a lot of messages asking for links to my projects, sometimes I just forget to answer to some of them.

To be clear: sadly I had an HDD crash some times ago, therefore I lost all projects, along with links to online versions; someone reported that few of them are still floating in the wild, but frankly I don’t know where…

Revised version by bronan:

• Video: New 1080p render using sporv’s settings. No noise reduction or fake grain on this version, trimmed the last 4 minutes of black screen.
• Audio: YT audio corrected to -100ms sync based off VHS reference
• Subtitles: PGS & ASS

https://mega.nz/file/aptkwIqJ#S9Ztqm8Vqrt7ZkVb92SMABa64qeaqNb5wEJCQwoIsME

I had few hours free, so I took it, cut the borders, increase the contrast - that had the welcome side effect to increase the saturation too - then I just corrected the colors a tiny bit and slight denoised; downscaled to 1080p, and muxed to mkv with ac3 sound (just to make it BD compliant, if someone would like to mux to .m2ts).

Have fun!

https://fex.net/s/nped5lc (AVAILABLE FOR JUST A WEEK, SO RUN!)

P.S. Note for the admins/modes: I know that direct links are not allowed, but the source is freely available on youtube, so I thought it is just an exemption to the rule. Anyway, if you think to delete the link, I’ll understand.

Test clip (top untouched, bottom regraded, 60s, no audio, few frames are wrongly regraded due to out-of-sync reference):
https://easyupload.io/vl4nm6 (online until August 8, 2021)

Waiting for feedbacks.

Thanks!

Now, if you want to see it finished, a good soul must step in to put in sync the reference video with the untouched one… 😄 😄 😄

A friend told me he found a… ehr… “theatrical version” that has colors that look very similar to the theater projection, according to him at least.

He provided it, and I tried to regrade the BD using it as color reference.

BD untouched

BD regraded

Now, I don’t know if this color grading is theatrically accurate, and if so, how much; if there is some interest in this regrading, I could do it BUT! I need help: the reference file is 30fps progressive and has quite many blended frames; if someone would step in to de-blend at least the ones in the shot changes, I’ll do the regrading.

Opinions?

erichf69, you did a great job, congratulations!

Now, as I’m more perfectionist than you, there are some really minimal problems - like reflections on Han’s back - but considered what it looked like before, well… I can live with them! 😄

Keep going!!!

I’m curious, is there any difference between those VHS and DVD?

Maybe you misunderstood… what I wanted to mean, is:
if your replaced parts in 5.1 (where there are dialogs, if any)) have the music in L R SL SR but NOT in C, where in C there is only the English dialog and NOT music, it should be trivial to replace the English dialog in C with, for example, French, or German, or Italian, or Spanish, or whatever else language.

Nice project, eagerly waiting to hear it!

About the replaced parts, are the dialogs on the center channel only, and music outside that? In that case, it should be “trivial” to replace the center channel with localized versions!

There is a Criterion version on laserdisc: https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/07786/CC1492L/Pink-Flamingos:-25th-Anniversary - dunno if it’s the same of DVD or not, though.

The web versions are the same, so just try to find them… 😄

I only use Audacity; surely there could be better software around, but as it is free, I’d give it a try!

You can try with AutoOverlay - an Avisynth plugin.

Out of curiosity, could you share the title of the movie?