spoRv

Zyrother said:

That convinces me to at least give the 97 set a shot. Thank you!

Very much looking forward to what you have! Your GOUT upscale work is very convincing, and I think you will have terrific results here!

 Thanks a lot!

Jetrell Fo said:

Aside from burnt in subs is there any reason to think the Japan LD's might not be a better candidate than say the US or French LD's?  I believe the French set had the best picture quality out of the bunch aside from the PAL aspect which seems fairly easy to adjust for.

Don't know if you remember, but I did comparison between LD and Gkar at the time I made my first SET (Special Edition Trilogy) project - Star Wars: A New Hope [SET ruLes 1.0] - AVCHD & BD RELEASED! - and, even if LD is very good, and Gkar has its defects, when the latter is combined with TB, result is superior to LD...

Don't know if this could be considered a change, or just a color regrade... 2004 (top) Vs 1997 (bottom):

I aligned the 97 and 04, and I think that, even if the 97 sources I'm using have not a perfect color grading, this is almost always better than 04 - IMHO!

Thanks! If I'll have some time in the future, I'd like to add covers, too!

Feallan said:

Okay. This is magic.

Thank you very much... tell it to my son, who, after have watched the screenshot comparisons, magnified maybe 10x, showing him the differences, said: "Well, at the end, they are not that different!"... (xx_)

Because source are cropped at the sides - just like laserdiscs - I calculated (when I did my first SE project) that actual image is around 2.25:1; so, the final active size should be 1920x856, to mantain proportions - even if the best would be 1920x840, to have exact double vertical size of the source, hence less upscaling errors; it will be about 2.28:1, closer than 2.35:1

towne32 said:

Very clever. I do hope this becomes available once complete!

We'll see... for the moment, I'm just experimenting; I'm curious to know how good this is in comparison to other preservations, though! Any screenshots?

Jetrell Fo said:

If you're gonna go TB route maybe using the Widescreen VHS set as a combiner source would be better?

Just a thought .....

Nope... the VHS, I must admit, is not that bad... to be a tape source; but it's not even near the TB quality; at least, I'd use the laserdisc, but, again, combined together, the TB and GKar are a step ahead any laserdisc capture - until we'll see a software-based capture, and I'm really waiting for it!

Thanks! Hope to watch it soon, I'm very curious!

CapableMetal said:

I'm well! Just taking a break from messing with laserdisc players and soldering irons and saw you're once again undertaking a Star Wars project.

Happycube project, right?

I'm sure I have Flunk on a DVD9 somewhere. I got it off the spleen a few of years ago, but I guess the torrent might be dead by now.

Still one seeder now and then; if you could find it and seed it, it will be great!

I haven't watched it in ages, but I think it suffers from crushed blacks and a bit too much sharpening. Reivax has a load of frames missing (100+, I believe).

I'm aware of it, but I'd like to watch it neverthell, as it is less cropped than the others.

Gkar generally suffers from excessive compression artifacts and has a washed-out look to the colour palette. The TB version for ANH is fine, I believe, but TESB has a video error and missing frames as a result. All are slathered with the same DVNR. Its the same old story we're used to by now; each source has its issues. Nevertheless it will be interesting to see how you get on with this.

Answered in the previous post, while you were posting in the same time!

Some of the techniques you have developed over the last few years have produced some nice results.

Thanks, I must add that you are one of the many users here that helped me growing during these years; so, thanks also to them!

towne32 said:

Remarkable improvement.

Thanks!

I can only imagine what the actor playing that soldier would say if he knew how much time people would one day spend staring at his eyeballs.

(^^,)

When you say both sources, do you mean for different shots, or somehow using them together for super resolution frames?

I used them together, to average out noise and bring some details; then SuperResolution extract some more details, and filters do their job; at the end, a grain plate is applied.

For the shots with subtitles in GKar, I use same frames of TB, regraded and slightly filtered, to be similar to GKar version, then both are average out - this improves details a bit more than using just TB.

CapableMetal said:

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

Thanka! I'm using DVB TV broadcast as source.

 Which broadcast, or are you using a combination?

Hey, how are you?

You've caught me red-handed... (^^,)

Well, I used both GKar and TB - I'd like to try also Flunk, but still searching it!

Thanks, waiting for the frames!

Thanks! I'm using DVB TV broadcast as source.

Decided to waste some time onto the 1997 SE:

Star Wars 97SE in HD using super resolution & more

some screenshots to watch, waiting for your feebacks there!

Thanks to DrDre inspirational thread - Star Wars GOUT in HD using super resolution algorithm - I thought to do my own upscale - but of the 1997 SE this time; using SuperResolution, some cleaning filters, and a 35mm grain plate added on top to increase the perceived details.

Here you are the comparisons

Gkar Bicubic Vs MagicSR + BasiClean + GrainPlate:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/125306

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/125307

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/125308

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/125310

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/125311

updated comparisons at post #23

waiting for your feedbacks!

I'm sure mine is not WOWOW; it's MPEG4, low bitrate, no WOWOW logo...

Sadly not... wait, is THERE a WOWOW version?!? Do you know anything more about this?

By the way, what do you think about the comparison?

Thanks!

@althor1138: can't remember if you have this:

http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/00008

I wonder if the 11 minute EP2 making of is available on DVD or BD; if not, it will be great to capture it with Happycube method!

I found out that the HDTV version I got has a slightly different color grading than BD, so I regraded the BD to match it; I’d like to know what do you think:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/125242

which one is more right - or less wrong?

Please do not reveal which is the BD and which is the regraded, as I’d like to receive unbiased answers.

Thanks!

It's very good, but I wanted them divided in a different manner:

• by disc content - in the LDDB list Ewoks, THX WOW and few others are not present, as they have not "Star Wars" in the title
• by video format - it's the same
• by release date - the LDDB list misses some

plus, I wanted something fancy, and related only to laserdisc - while LDDB has also some CED and VHD... that's all, folks! (^^,)

If you need assistance about resizing, let me know... I love to resize anytits... oops, I mean anything! (^^,)

I'm aware that CRT image is clear, but this is due to lower resolution, and the fact CRT has not pixels but dots and scanlines... and, due to the Kell factor, effective resolution is quite low - the smaller the TV, the smaller the resolution!

...at least it could be interesting to obtain the audio track, that *may* have a different mix... *may*...

Great boobs... ehr, I mean job, Spaced Ranger! (^^,)

@Zyrother: thank you very much!

Zyrother said:

It does look much better in motion. I'm torn now between them. I've never really been bothered by grain in films, but its impossible to ignore the huge increase in picture clarity with it de-grained.

I must say that, even if it seems degrained - in comparison to GOUT - it has indeed grain; smaller that GOUT - that is quite big when upscaled - taken from 35mm film; that helps to improve the perception of fine details, even if I must admit it's far from DrDre, but much better than plain classic upscale... IMHO! (^^,)