team_negative1

That might be true. But each of these projects has been multiple years for completion.

I'm not saying it will be more than a few years for each one. But depending on the quality we get from the scans, and the quality of the prints, some could be less or more than that.

Codecs are always improving, and although h.264 has survived as the best quality for now. We will always be looking to the future, and for 4k and beyond when the time comes.

So the need to evaluate them will always be there.

Team Negative1

Yes, we'll try to update the progress on the reels. Thanks for the interest.

Team Negative1

poita said:

That wouldn't offer any protection of any kind in the real world though.

 It's offered us plenty, and we are less visible than you are. Since you've publicly posted pictures of where of you live, and what you have.

We are almost anonymous. Nothing can be linked to the several members of our team, except what is known through this account.

Regardless of this, we are committed to being the only restoration effort with multiple copies of each film, and bringing the highest quality restorations possible with our knowledge and resources.

Team Negative1

Turisu said:

Has anyone considered that maybe Team Negative1 wish to stress that they are a team to avoid the issue of legal or cease-and-desist action against any one person?

Doing things this way creates a greater degree of anonymity and protects the project. So maybe we should all just keep quiet about it and enjoy the updates.

 Exactly. That's precisely the reason.

Team Negative1

zeropc said:

if the team creates a high bitrate avc version, say 30mbits, that would be more then enough for a proper representation of their work. a dcp file, which will be around 200 - 300gb, is just overkill.

 Agreed. And although it's early the h.265 format might be more stable by then, and will help if it becomes adopted by others.

Team Negative1

*EDIT : Typo - 256->265

lightsabre said:

just seeing that ^^ screenshot, isnt the quality supposed to be more grainy with those film reels? preserving the grain might need a lot of bitrate, please dont do any DNR (intentially or not)

not familiar with the technical process of what you are doing, but this is what it looks like when someone made a 40GB blu-ray for Back to the Future sourced from 210mbps JPEG2000DCP (you might have seen this before):

http://someimage.com/hTaqLdW

http://someimage.com/cMoBrxo

http://someimage.com/a3y7DzE

I dont know if its possible for your restauration to look like that, but if it is then it would be great!

 All of our print restorations will be converted to high bitrate DCP versions for private use and screenings, however, those won't be distributed.

Team Negative1

They are too busy to post most of the time, since they are working on the project and other things. Its easier to have one account to convey the messages from everyone. 

Why do people keep bringing it up? It has no bearing on the project, as long as it continues. Even if I were to leave, someone else would continue to post updates using this account.

We have several prints of this, despite some people doubting it, and are in the process of getting more. We also are getting other prints of Star Wars, and Return of the Jedi. For any doubters still out there, feel free to post your own screenshots, and video previews of them. We would like to see them.

Team Negative1

Thanks for referencing this. We weren't sure if you wanted to make this public here are not. It will be a very good resource.

Also, there is another LPP of Empire besides that one that we know of, so it's not the only one.

Team Negative1

We'll see until they release details. Mostly likely the SE versions.

Team Negative1

Currently, as with our other projects. There are no plans to distribute any preview, or internal versions before the restoration is complete. We don't want  any versions that we are not happy with being released.

These movies deserve proper restoration, and adjustments before the general public can watch them. There's no point in duplicating the mistakes of previous releases, is there.

That said, once all is said and done, there may be some 'grindhouse' original versions with minimal fixes or none at all. We'll decide when the time comes.

Finally, all of our versions will have:

=======================================

1 Color correction - to match the originals as close as possible

2 Original sound - taken from the reels, from the original source

3 Stabilization

4 Cropping - to match theatrical presentation

5 Dirt cleanup

6 Dust and other marks cleanup - unless they are in the original film

We are not aiming at perfection, but for most cases, the films will be true to the condition they should have been in on a new print.

We can not, and will not be matching the blurays on clarity, or detail. Even with the highest quality equipment, it will have its own unique look.

As you can see from the previews, film grain, and other film qualities will remain intact.

Team Negative1

digitalfreaknyc said:

timdiggerm said:

digitalfreaknyc said:

Harmy said:

Well, there will be people (me included) who may want to use this as a source for their own projects and so it is important to have some very high quality release in place - if uploading is a problem, I'm sure you could find someone to send a burned disc to, who would gladly upload it for you - I'd be very happy to do it (I have a 70mbps upload on my connection) but shipping it over-seas may be quite impractical.

Me as well. IIRC, you're in Connecticut. I'm in NYC and my family is in CT. I'm happy to pick it up from you in person, to help the cause.

 Harmy is, in fact, on a different continent from you.

I wasn't talking about Harmy. I was talking about -1

 You're referring to a previous member of the team. I am nowhere near there.

As for higher definition versions of larger sizes, we will make available the final results to people who need them for projects. We'll work out the logistics of those later.

Again, for most viewers, the 25Gig version will be more than enough for general distribution as the 50Gig wouldn't be adding anything worthwhile.

As others have said, you might as well start trading Hard drives after that, and we don't want to go down that road.

Team Negative1

Just a quick update on this version.

We have a preview 25Gig digital file (m2ts) version of the raw movie for internal use currently. So far it looks very good. There are parts that are very impressive and don't need any work at all. However, there is a lot of damage at the heads and tails of each reel, and various damage in other places.

The color quality is very good, and will be a great reference for future releases. Also, we expect to have other versions to replace the damaged frames with.

Overall, the movie looks very true to what we remembered being shown in the theaters.

Team Negative1

There are several 8mm and 16mm out there, and possibly being worked on. I'm not sure which one is which, some are Super 8, some are Derann.

It's better to sign up at AMPS to see what the developments are.

But just remember, they are all taking awhile to be done, and the progress is slow but steady before we see anything, some members might have the raw scans.

There is an ESB print which could possibly be used for a very good color reference for future versions and edits.

Team Negative1

Personally, I don't have a TV that can do 1080p yet. Mine only does 720p, and I'm fine with that.

I do have computer monitors that go past 2k, so I use those instead for checking out samples.

I also don't have highspeed broadband or constant internet access, and I know of others that are in similar situations.

There should be a variety of release options, but I've noticed in that regardless of the high definition options, there are very few people that prefer the largest file sizes, and formats.

There is a point of diminishing returns.

Team Negative1

I don't actually have a picture of our current setup, but also due to privacy issues, we can't actually post our setup.

We were able to get some used equipment.

Basically, it takes something like this:

==========================

And attaches our HD capture device camera on a mount to record the output digitally to a hard drive for later processing.

Sorry, I can't give out more details. Maybe later on, when we are nearer to completion.

Team Negative1

lightsabre said:

and a general question, I guess the 35mm version is supposed to be the best thing there is atm, I guess until someone somehow comes up with the 70mm version. Is that correct to assume?

edit: or is the 35mm version the real original version and the 70mm cant offer better PQ?

 70mm films are usually just blow ups from the orginal. The reason to preserve that if we had one is for the soundtrack. They are also cropped differently.

Also finding a non-faded one, is very unlikely.

Also, about the 25G vs 50G versions, yes it would be possible, we'll see what happens when we get to the end point. The distribution of it online gets unwieldy with those sizes though.

Team Negative1

Both images look very poor. There will be better encodes and transfers of the 8mm and 16mm eventually.

Although these versions are still favorites of many members of our team, regardless of compression or being on DVD5.

Team Negative1

Although Empire is still aways off from being completed. We are expecting a few new prints with less fade, and good color reproductions.

We feel, this will lead to the best color representation of the movie on hand, and we won't have to guess at what scenes looked like.

Team Negative1

Harmy said:

Yeah, I guess the consistency isn't 100% but I'd say it's good enough now.

Oh, BTW, I got a green light from Team Negative 1 to say that the 35mm scans come from them. So, thanks Team Negative 1 - without you, the quality of this edit would be much lower, because those shots were the most obvious despecializations in there :-)

 http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Team-Negative1-The-Empire-Strikes-Back-1980-35mm-Theatrical-Version-Release-Details-and-Updates/post/715460/#TopicPost715460

Thanks for the reference. We are in the credits, so it makes sense to announce it.

We have also posted many clips of the duel, and the Carbon chamber scene, including longer composite ones for comparison with the bluray and dvd versions.

Team Negative1

We have sent Harmy the credits for use in a later version of his edition.

We think you will like the results.

Team Negative1

rchdggr said:

Just curious about why some shots (for instance the final shot of the last clip that has stormtroopers watching the Falcon flying) looks like half the film grain is brown? Is that dirt, a color correction issue, a brightness issue or did it look that murky to begin with?

 That's the way the clip looks like on film. We have not done any correction on it. If we can find a cleaner replacement for the shot, we will use that.

Team Negative1

Here's a preview of the original door scene, which was altered on the bluray:

======================================================

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k2cpdOxbXrsWyN8iGk7

Notes: No color correction.

No stabilization.

No cleanup.

Team Negative1

Thanks again for all the comments.

Here is the last of the preview clips:

==========================

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k1Rt12wVMyXxdD8iFER

It takes quite awhile to do each segment, so that's why there's a delay in posting them. They are done scene by scene.

We'll try to post a longer composite clip once more people respond.

Thanks for your patience.

Team Negative1

A composite scene of several of the clips from Han in detention, part 1:

====================================================

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k3i4cXUFuZTOvN8iEwO

This is just a collection of several of the previous scenes.

Team Negative1

Here are the final scenes from the end, right before the credits:

=============================================

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k5HuNAQEJ6xAt48ig8D

Team Negative1