spoRv

Added The Arrival to projects in progress.

Finally, The Arrival [spoRv] project is started: we could continue the discussion in its own thread.

Top: untouched BD; bottom; contrast fixed, pink blanket removed, grain plate added

OLD: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/84102

NEW: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/84760

final(?): http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/84889

,^…^, presents The Arrival [spoRv] - special project of Restored version

| PROJECTS: Released | In progress | Future | Mission & Setup |

Mission: to make “The DEFINITIVE Arrival” edition.

Video source: Blu-ray, DVD, Laserdisc.

Audio sources: Blu-ray, DVD, Laserdisc.

Subtitles sources: Various.

Project info:

The Arrival on Blu-ray has some DNR, plus contrast problems and its color grading is different from previous versions on DVD and LD; it lacks also extras.

For this project, I will correct the contrast, then apply a 35mm grain plate to give the impression of a bit of more details; the DVD will be used as color reference for the color correction; all the DVD and laserdisc known extras will be added - still to be decided if it will be a BD-50, or two discs, one BD-25 with the movie in high definition, the other (BD-25 or AVCHD onto DVD-9) with extras.

Source Material

Video:

• The Arrival - Blu-ray
• The Arrival - German KinoWelt DVD (for extras)
• The Arrival - Special Edition box set Laserdisc (for extras)

Audio:

• The Arrival - Blu-ray DTS-HD MA
• The Arrival - various DVD (for foreign languages)
• The Arrival - Laserdisc AC3 (for film audio track and commentary)

Subtitles:

• English, French, German, Italian, Spanish.

Final format: BD-25

Video:

1920×1080, 23.976fps, A.R. 1.85:1, AVC encoded using x264, 18mbps average bitrate

Audio:

DTS-HD MA 24bit 7.1 from BD: English
DD 16bit 384kbps 5.1 from LD: English
DD 16bit 448kbps 5.1 from DVD: French, Italian, Spanish
DD 16bit 192kbps 2.0 from DVD: German
DD 16bit 192kbps 2.0 from LD: English commentary

Subtitles:

Movie: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

Notes:

Animated menu, 28 chapters

Outside and inside covers, disc label

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"Partner in crime":

• thegroovologist for DVD extras and much help
• DoomBot for soundtrack help and general advice
• Jetrell Fo for The Making of The Arrival VHS capture

Project Status: RELEASED

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Guess what? I forgot to disable automatic updates, and my PC thought to restart itself to let a new update work... so, Waterworld processing stopped at around 30%... oh, well, it was "just" one day of processing... (**n)

Well, here you are a test clip - the one from first screenshot; reflections are not so blue as it seems in the image, though:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/iiimzy - 73MB, no sound

Waiting for your feedbacks!

hairy_hen, you just wrote what I think from years... well done!

Indeed! I said that it should be 99% identical, that's enough for everyone!

The funny thing is sometimes a track from a 30 years old laserdisc could sound better than a BD track, in a way or another...

PDB said:

Is it possible to add back the old Saul Bass Warner logo?

 And you ask it?!? (^^,) Of course!

@Jonno: waiting to know your track comparison...

It's difficult to make a simple color grading and keep the white "pure"... I agree it could be seen in the reflections, but for example in the 7th picture the HD-DVD one is pinkish, so not "right" too...

But even if it seems cold - and indeed it's colder than the HD-DVD - as many think the HD-DVD is a bit too warm, final result should be more or less balanced, maybe a bit colder than what it should be, but "truer" to the spirit of the movie, almost all upon the sea and below the sky...

I don't mind if the final result of the corrected version is not natural; this is a post-apocalyptic movie, after all; as Mad Max DVD has "wrong" natural colors, it has "right" post-apocalyptic colors, you know what I mean...

Sure; but please keep the test clip size below 1GB! (^^,)

Forgot to mention: right now I'm in the middle of a long encoding process; on weekend I'll be away; so, it will be made on monday, if it's OK for you; in the meanwhile, I could always download it.

Here you are the screenshot comparison link:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/66386/

as for the test clip, as I began to encode the final video, I'm not sure if I'm going to produce a test clip, the encode will do its job perfectly, so I prefer to finish to encode before. At least, with the screenshot comparison you have 8 different frames to compare; even if the color corrected one isn't perfect, as I wrote also in my previous post, it's better IMHO of the HD-DVD color grading...

I will use the most extended version - the one included in the Mad Max trilogy, am I right?

I suggest to make as many tests as you can, to find out yourself if the lag is present or not, and in case of positive answer, if it could be "bearable" or not... I mean, if the lag is only few milliseconds, no one will notice it; if it's one second, everyone will!

If you manage to cut the shots in a moment where there is little or no movement and no sounds, it's easy to "mask" the lag even if it's longer than few ms.

Good luck!

AUDIO:

I can't find my non-DTS laserdisc, so I decided to use the analog track from the DTS one; indeed, the quality is very good!

LASERDISC GLITCH:

As I captured video to use it as reference for audio sync, I discovered this glitch:

note the white trail of the jet ski on the left; it's over the black side... and it continues to stay there for the whole shot!

If you want to say it in motion, here you are a small clip: http://www.sendspace.com/file/lwkp1g - 4.3MB

COLOR CORRECTION:

As the HD-DVD (and BD too, I think) has a slightly "wrong" color grading (IMHO and other's, too), I thought to use the laserdisc as color reference; its colors are better, but still not "right"... I decided to NOT use a color matching script this time, but to make a simple color correction, to get rid of all those grey-ish, pink-ish etc. skies and seas, using the laserdisc colors as example in many scenes.

Left, color corrected; right, untouched (bottom, link to larger version):

http://s17.postimg.org/4b3wbujfx/ww_cc_002208.jpg

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http://s17.postimg.org/6r5ppp1il/ww_cc_008410.jpg

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http://s17.postimg.org/n4pp8uhnx/ww_cc_012201.jpg

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http://s17.postimg.org/ptkhyvn59/ww_cc_058869.jpg

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http://s17.postimg.org/wy2b7wuel/ww_cc_074322.jpg

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http://s17.postimg.org/jmdpcggrx/ww_cc_078621.jpg

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http://s17.postimg.org/tkynyxq7h/ww_cc_106595.jpg

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http://s17.postimg.org/54bwqq031/ww_cc_138342.jpg

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Not perfect, but a good balance; I think I reached the goal to make Waterworld a film with blue sea and sky as it should be; skin colors remain the same, as green of the vegetation at the end; the only drawback seems to be that sometimes jet ski, trimaran and boat trails are blueish instead whiteish, but it's a small price I'm happy to pay, and you?

I think it could be done even with free software - MultiAVCHD; here you are a guide to make a BD with two different endings:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=154815

Probably this guide is useful to make alternate crawls instead endings, but you need a lot of patience, and a good skill.

I strongly wish you could achieve your goal; if you will find out how to make a working seamless branching BD, PM me as I could provide VHS Hi-Fi italian tracks for all the three movies, OT and SE.

Most of these laserdiscs are close to the original Dolby Stereo/Mono/etc but those Cinema DTS are exactly what you heard in the theater. No argument about it.

 ...ehr, can I correct this statement?

The Cinema DTS included in our BD project is not 100% the same of the one heard in theaters, just because it should be converted from 44.1KHz to 48KHz in order to comply to BD standard. Said that, I think we could affirm that it's still 99% closer, and that's more than enough to me.

Obviously if someone decide to make an MKV/MP4 file, and the player reads properly the track, this will be 100% the same.

I want to add a thing: the only 100% laserdisc track that could be used for any DVD or BD(AVCHD) project is the Dolby Digital one, as it's 48KHz even on laserdisc; the PCM should be converted from 44.1 to 48KHz, while the analog could be captured directly at 48KHz but due to its intrinsic nature, it will be not a 1:1 copy as intended in the digital domain; still, a very good quality track!

...brain is a strange animal - mine in particular, I think... you are right, grain is just "organic noise"; it changes from a frame to another, and maybe this is the secret of the perception of increased detail (that obviously is not really there); indeed, if you try to apply a static grain, the result is really bad!

@kk650: you order, I obey! (^^,)

Here you are the 35mm grain plate applied over the same screenshot you used before:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/66357

as you can see, it's more "aggressive" then yours; don't know if it's better or not, but I think it should be seen in motion to understand it.

kk650 said:

 I do remember that it took around a week to encode though!

 and I thought that three days encoding was a long time... (-^,)

Wow, thanks, I wasn't sure there were so many Mad Max fans around that wanted a regraded version, but now I'm sure, of course!

Jonno, I have the laserdisc letterbox edition; IIRC is a remastered one, so *maybe* the track is better than your P&S version; or not?!?

MM3... mmh, I think it could benefit of a color grading, too; but what about MM1? It seems the BD has too much green for my tastes... caps-a-holic

It's just our brain that perceive more details even if in reality isn't there... of course, the DNR should be not overly aggressive...

I tested it with The Arrival, and worked well; plus, I used it in AVP:R shots upscaled from DVD to match the BD grain - and again, it worked well too!

But, for example, with Predator UHE it didn't work so well as in the previous cases... because it's quite hard to squeeze out some details from a wax mask! (^^,)

Sorry, sorry, here I am!

I'm sure you already know my answer... but I will write it anyway: I prefer the less saturated one, even if the first one is still good!

@TV's Frink: I guess kk650 used a grain plate as method to add grain, right?

Minority Report is put on hold for the moment, as I'm working right now at Waterworld; The Arrival and AVP:R are almost finished, so I hope to finish it in a month or less.

BTW, thank you very much!

My ears were burning, now I know why... (^^,)

Here you are my first attempt - top DVD, middle ColourMatch, bottom BD:

I'm after so many projects that actually I cannot finish even one... (^^,)

All requests posted here will be carefully investigated; but this movie is not on my top list, though...

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Forgot to mention: I started to work on Waterworld!

Right; as I'd like to continue with this list, and AFAIK Star Trek III had the same variable AR also in theaters, I should delete it. So it is now deleted.