spoRv

I'm happy that all of you are happy! (^^,)

OK, got it... please post your work advancements here!

There is some hope for a virtualdub filter, so it could work during video capture?

Jerry, your opinion matters!

At the end, I'm happy to have achieved better results this time, but I do agree there are still something not possible to reach with this script... if it will be perfect, now I was rich and famous! (^^,)

Well, I think I'll go for the open matte version first, then I'll see IF, eventually, do a proper AR version... at least, I guess the cmnew will be useful for other, future regrading projects.

Well, until the 35mm of the movie will be ready, we are forced to use what we have...

In the clip, it seems there are no arterfacts, while you spotted one in the screenshots; in the first [spoRv] version, I had to replace almost 10% of the movie with upscaled DVD; if, using the new version, luckily, I should replace only 1 or 2%, it will be a great goal, and it will still be possible to replace those few shots with cropped version of the HDTV, retaining HD quality while loosing some details at the sides, a minor problem IMHO...

A thought... here you are the comparison between the italian Mondo BD and the 4K BD:

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/multi_comparison.php?disc1=4088&disc2=4091#auswahl

As you can see, Mondo BD used VC-1 @28000kbps while the 4K BD used AVC @23165kbps... even if VC-1 and AVC are not the same, they are in the same league - not like MPEG2, and so, how could a BD taken from a 4K master retain ALL the grain at about 23mbps is a mystery to me... I did a lot of tests myself, using REAL 35mm grain, and to retain ALL of it the bitrate should be over 30mbps...

With this, I don't say that Mondo BD, which has an higher bitrate, is automatically better than the 4K, but that *maybe* the former, even if used a 2K master, have the same, if not more, grain and details of the latter...

As I wrote before in this thread, inspecting two clips from both versions, it seems to me that the 4K BD has sometime less details in portions of the image, while a bit more in other portions in comparison to the Mondo BD, while this one has some compression artefacts, visible magnifing the still frame at least 4x... in motion, I have not noted high differences between editions, but again, they are two small clips that *may* not represent the entire movies...

I'd like to know your opinion about this.

P.S. Poita, you are great!

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

I had two choices: give up, and leave The Matrix [spoRv] "as is", with its own glitches - and I must admit I'm quite happy with it, but not entirely of course - or use the open matte HDTV versions; in this case, result will be 100% perfect, color wise, but without the original intended aspect ratio...

A dilemma that *maybe* now have a solution... I managed to do an alternate color matching script, but that's not perfect as the original one...

After many months of testing and working on color regrading, I realized (maybe wrongly, who knows?), that sometimes it's not so important to make a color grading that is 100% the same of another source, but that the most important thing is to retain the "spirit" of that color grading...

That is not an excuse, as I'm still able (with a LOT of work) to produce an almost 100% identical color grading in almost all scenes of a movie (e.g. Halloween), but with some movie, the task is so time consuming that I was ready to throw the towel - The Matrix is the thoughest movie in this context...

The new attempt *seems* to be quite good; no artefacts at all - at least, not visible in the first test clip I made - and, while not perfectly the same of the DVD, it retains the "spirit" of it, with a better quality... it seems that the DVD has a pink blanket that I was not aware of before.

Well, a picture worth thousand words, so here you are some screenshot comparisons:

as you can see, there is a "compromise" where previously in the old CM there where artefacts, but I think it's still better to have some shots near, color grading speaking, the BD instead of bad artefacts with 100% right color grading...

test clip - each 255MB, no sound:

Original BD

New CM

Please take some time to do your own comparison and let me know what do you think... I'm also open to do two versions, an open matte 100% color grading similar to DVD but with wrong aspect ratio, AND a, let's say 90% color grading similar to DVD but with right aspect ratio...

Or, I could make a mix, using the new CM where I previously used the upscaled DVD, but I fear there will be too much difference in color grading between the shots...

Thanks in advance for your feedbacks!

Maybe using just TSmuxer to select the shot you like to extract, it *should* not re-encode the .m2ts file AFAIK...

Thanks to Chewtobacca, I had no more problems with BD compatibility!

But, as it takes about three days (gosh!) with my poor old PC, I guess if I could speed up the process, using a faster preset in the 1st pass...

Updates:

I tried to use the NTSC DVD as "patch" to cover the TV logo, with various results... from almost perfect

before

after

to pretty bad...

before

after

this is because cropping of the DVD varies throughout the film, and the color grading isn't perfect in all the occasions... with a lot of work, result could be "bearable" and still better IMHO than a piece of logo so evident like this, but I wonder if there is a web rip somewhere, or even another HDTV version (720p will do) without the "Canal+ HD Accion" logo... Can anyone help?

Yes, it's time... the laserdisc capture will be used for all the extras - including the alternate ending - that will form the extra disc, and also the commentary track (and, maybe, the ac3 audio track as well) to be added to the movie disc.

Good news: just finished to watch the video; it's a loop of the same segment (4 times). It is a short TV promo - nothing special, but a nice addition nevertheless, and, most important, a 20 minutes Making Of, with interesting facts about CGI, audio and such... great things that will form a great extra disc!

Yep, soon!

Thanks, it's really appreciated!

I'm waiting for the feedbacks from the one who got it for the first time!

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

Thanks to Jetrell Fo, the promo video is available to be included in The Arrival extra disc... as it's from VHS, it has a bit of speckles here and there, but luckily it is looped several times, so I will average the different captures to obtain a speckles and noise free version.

Again, many thanks, Jetrell! The exta disc will contain a lot of bonus material, something will never be released on digital discs like the former promo video and the laserdisc material... speaking of that, I should "break the seal" of my The Arrival laserdisc box set - still shrinkwrapped - to capture the video, but I'll be more than happy to do it!!! Hope to finish the capture in the next few days, then release the movie itself, then - let me some days - I'll release my first extra disc... wish me luck!!!

Jerry, that is a very hard task, and I'm happy you are doing this; I always think that a less than perfect version is a lot better than a bad one... (^^,)

Keep working, hope you'll finish it soon, so you may apply your excitement to the next project - whatever it will be!

You can find it in teh paradoxical forum... after watched it, please leave your feedback here or in my blog; thanks!

Yoo_Too, here you are a less sharpened version:

http://s9.postimg.org/4pb94wje5/gbu_mondo_spo_Rv_1b.png

What do you think about this?

Also, I discovered that I mistakenly use some 1280x720 images for the screenshot comparisons instead 1920x1080 - thanks, Postimage! - so the best way to make a comparison is to watch the test clips.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1039988

AFAIK, it exists on DVD; does anyone know about a 1080p version of it?

Enhanced = improved a bit... IMHO, of course! (^^,)

For example, third picture in the screenshot comparison; take a look at Tuco's trousers on the right; you could see strange green lines - that supposedly shouldn't be there - in the Mondo BD, probably due to compression, while they are almost eliminated in the enhanced version, retaining the same details... always IMHO of course, that's why I need your feedebacks!

Feallan said:

http://youtu.be/3uoM5kfZIQ0?t=42s

Frankly, my own work is vastly superior to that... now you could see, in the eye of the actors, the whole troupe behind the camera mirrored in the sclera, the fine details of the fabric of their dressing and in the next release also what they thought... (^^,)

Links to test clips:

Mondo BD

Mondo BD enhanced + grain plate

Warning: second clip is shorter, as it was made to be in sync with the 4K; if you need an avisynth script to let have both the same frames, let me know.

A question: am I the only one who noted that 4K resolution is inconsistent?

OK, I made a test using two clips from Mondo and 4K BDs, of the same scene of the last screenshots posted here (thanks to doombot).

During the comparisons between 4K and Mondo (magnified from 4x up to 8x) I noted a strange thing: sometimes the 4K has less details in part of the image, while more in another... sort of out of focus... plus, in a shot, the image "moves" up, down, left and right a lot more than Mondo, where the image is not perfectly steady, but with much less "movement"... add to this the fact that Mondo has few frames more - like 4 out of 1000, not so much, OK, and they are frames at the beginning and/or ending of a shot, but if it's the same for the whole movie, summed up we are talking of almost one MINUTE lost!!!

Regrading results: not too bad, but not perfect either; in some shots the color grading matches almost perfectly the Mondo, while in others there are visible artefacts, "thanks" to the ColourMatch script that is "stupid" and doesn't cope well with different cropping between the two versions... at the end, I'm not happy with it as it is now; it needs a lot of further testing and subsequential adjustements that frankly I don't know if I'll be able to achieve.

Then, I had a stroke of genius... my brain said: "Because we want the Mondo BD color grading, but the 4K BD seems to have a better resolution, what if..."

As the Mondo has a quite good resolution, IMHO only ruined partially by compression artefacts and lack of fine grain, I thought to "enhance" it a bit, then "slap" a grain plate on top of it... result? Take a look and let me know what do you think:

Mondo BD Vs Mondo BD enhanced +grain plate applied (from compressed file @30mbps)
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/78813

Am I completely fool?!? Waiting for you pro or cons feedbacks!

If you want to watch the clips (Mondo BD "as is" and Mondo BD enhanced +grain plate applied), let me know and I'll post the links here.

never seen greenish/yellow eyebrows before, apart the teeth... (^^,)

Very greenish, to be white... (^^,)

On the italian forum, some like the new color grading, while few think is completely wrong... I just made a provocative post there, just to know what they think about the IB Tech print.

Mono track: I thought to use the laserdisc, but as it is only 162min, I should take the missing parts from another source; for that, I also thought about the additional scenes found in the laserdisc, where there is no italian dialog, but frankly I don't know how much could I use of them...

I follow only this forum daily, but sometimes I visit some others to understand the point of view of the "outsiders" (read: the ones who doesn't even know what a fan preservation project is); lately, on an italian AV forum (maybe the most important one) I read the following:

Dettagli sul restauro de "Il Buono, il Brutto e il Cattivo"

Il restauro è stato fatto dal laboratorio "L'Immagine Ritrovata" della cineteca di Bologna in 4K. Per il colore hanno usato una o due copie Technicolor dell'epoca come riferimento e hanno consultato l'assistente cameraman Sergio Salvati: è stato lui a insistere per la correzione colore virata al giallo, sostenendo che quello fosse il modo in cui Leone lo aveva voluto e pensato.

translation:

Details on the restoration of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"

The restoration was done by the workshop "L'immagine Ritrovata" Cinematheque of Bologna in 4K. For the color they used one or two Technicolor copies of the era as a reference and they have consulted the assistant cameraman Sergio Salvati: he was the one who insisted on correcting color faded to yellow, arguing that this was the way in which Leone had wanted and thought.

Well, this is what HE said... but, is it the truth? Maybe he lie, or he remembers wrong things, or who knows... at the end, one man decided that THIS color grading is the right one, and he's not even the director or the director of photography... next time, maybe they will ask the girl next door... (^^,)

That's OK for me!

I need a test clip from both 4K and Mondo BD - if someone could provide them, I'll test the ColourMatch immediately!