I always wondered about The Dead Pool, Dirty Harry film format.

The film is from 1988 and was sandwiched between Bird and Pink Cadillac who were both in 1.85:1, using the same crew. It is listed about everywhere online as 1.85:1.

However, I'm certain when I saw it on opening week, that it wasn't 1.85:1.

Internet says otherwise, but one can't deny it has a weird history on home-video.

Originally it was released on Laserdisc in 1.33:1 clearly open matte (sightly cropped on the sides, opened up above), while all the others were scope widescreen in the box set.
Then the DVD was 1.77:1.
The Blu-ray is 1.77:1 but is extended on the sides, offering more picture all around and it has ton of dead air top & bottom. I think it's edge to edge. If you take the top of the original DVD, and mask the HD version accordingly, you fall at exactly 1.85:1. So the DVD was cropped on the sides.

IMDB lists it as 1.85:1, but I remember seeing the film on the initial release, and it was larger widescreen to me. In fact I didn't notice there was a change in format, beyond that it didn't look shot anamorphic.

Plus the other Dirty Harry films are all Cinemascope 2.39:1, so that would be a bit weird had they suddenly switched to 1.85:1. I would definetely have noticed it in the cinema as I was a fan of the series from way back.

I can understand, as the film was shot very fast in the spring of 1988, and released in the summer, that they went spherical because it was easier and faster to shoot that way, but I don't think it was shot for 1.85:1, though as with all non anamorphic films, it can be formated in either 1.33:1 or 1.77:1 or 1.85:1.

The framing looks totally off and loose in all of the home-video versions, with tons of dead air. Look at this:



I tried masking the HD master on a timeline at 1.85:1 and it didn't improve.
I tried at 1.95:1 and it was still loose.
I then tried at 2.00:1 and suddenly every frame worked.

In fact, all the hairlines fall perfectly on top that way during all the film, even when it involves an extra in the background, like in a bar for example (Clint in front, a waitress blurred in the background). It looks like I found the "common top" line that all the transfer miss.

Becoming wildly popular at the time was the Super35 format, which allowed to release scope prints while shooting very fast with spherical lenses. And that used a common topline.

I think what happened here is, a decision was made to ease off the pipeline, so they went the Super35 way, and it was shown masked in theaters at probably 2.39:1. Maybe history rewrote this as 1.85:1, and documentation was lost? It's definetely not look like it's framed for 1.85:1.

On a note, It's interesting that there is a scope trailer on the laserdisc box set, though it's horribly framed in 2.35:1.
They made the mistake of center framing it. Super35 use a common topline, and the framing should be from near the top of the frame.

https://youtu.be/bhoWUBQ5swM

On another note, looking at the film, I think you can point out easily what scenes are shot by Clint (a few of them, using long lenses, great cinematography and framing) and what others aren't (most of the action). The cinematographer is the same as Bird and Unforgiven. It's a film that definetely is undervalued in the DH saga.

So I will do a quick project, just adjusting the film in 2.20:1. (now 2.39:1)

I wanted to post some captures, but my computer shut down while I was typing this and the encode was lost, due to overheating. So I'm just posting this saved message right now, and will update the post later.

The Great Warrior Skanderbeg (Albanian: Luftëtari i madh i Shqipërisë Skënderbeu; Russian: Великий воин Албании Скандербег, romanized: Velikiy voin Albanii Skanderbeg) is a 1953 Soviet-Albanian biopic directed by Sergei Yutkevich. It was entered into the 1954 Cannes Film Festival where it earned the International Prize. Yutkevich also earned the Special Mention award for his direction.
The film is a biography of George Kastriot Skanderbeg (1405 – 1468), widely known as Skanderbeg, a 15th-century Albanian lord who defended his land against the Ottoman Empire for more than two decades.

German Blu-Ray release by Filmjuwelen:
Runtime............: 125 Minutes - including short cut 96min - DEFA version
Audio................: German DTS-HD MA 2.0
                          Albanian DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles............: German



In 2012, for the 100th anniversary of Albanian independence, the film was remastered for high definition with new voices, music, and sound effects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggWl2UHBBso


Restored Albanian version in HD with removable English subtitles & OG Audio @ YouTube
(41:50 onwards is not synced. Digital drop frames after conversion.)
It hasn't been released on DVD & BD yet.




Unfortunately on this release, they didn't correct the colors (blue moon rising).

Hey all! Today I got a nice treat; the original mono audio from The Sting's 1998 R1 DVD, synced to the new 4k disc!
Needed very little work to sync. Sounds fantastic. Original sound effects present of course!

Hit me up via DM if you'd like to check it out.

Yes!

Hi guys.
It's been quite a while. Hope you all doing fine. Things can get quite ugly with this virus.



So, this is a reconstruction of the Theatrical Cut, based on the recently released TC on BluRay using the Extended Version BD by Warner as sorurce for the best quality.
What this movie clearly needs is a fresh new scan (from the OCN, not a lesser IP from 20 years ago).

Anyways.
For the missing footage (that is, footage included in the TC only) I used that German BD recently released.
If you have seen it (or just took a look at the pics in capsaholic), then you know it's not exactly the best release ever. It looks pretty bad actually, with a layer of what looks like artifacts (encoding?, scanning?... Dog knows). I applied some gentle DNR (virtualdub + Neat Video) to get rid of that "layer", and then, in Da Vinci Resolve, regrain it so it resembles the grain of the Extended Version BD (not an easy task since the EV has more than one layer of grain, and lacks the detail that more modern scans have, meaning, it's actually a blurred layer of grain).
Needless to say, the inserted footage is graded accordingly to match the colors of the Extended BD (colormatching tool by Dre to create a LUT is a must here). Results are quite nice, and you probably won't notice any change of quality during playback. Missing frames have reinserted as well.

I also did a quick regrade of the whole film. Mainly to get rid of the green tint that is present on many shots in the EV BD. Some weird looking shots have also been corrected. Regarding the colors, I don't know how accurate are the blurays. The TC seems to be less tweaked, but looks dull and a bit reddish. Like I said earlier, this needs a freshly new scan. Til then, this is the best way to enjoy the Theatrical Cut we all saw in theaters or when we were kids (it's now kind of a guilty pleasure, isn't it?).

Hope you like it.



· Regraded with Da Vinci Resolve, reencoded using Hybrid. x264 @ CRF 14,7

· Audio: English original 2.0
                          DTS-HD MA 5.1

· Subtitles: Spanish
                   English
                   German


Gallery / 46 pics









             

Actually, I already uploaded it to demonoid (dot is). BUT they are fixing/polishing some things and for the moment guest users can't download torrents. When guests are allowed to download again, I'll post this on "realeased".

Why not now? Because registrations are closed, and I have no invites. Be patient.

Here is the Original Dolby SR 2.0 Mix of the 1993 Movie Rising Sun, ripped from the R1 DVD:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/0e21wesfc...9.ac3/file

First good things:

• nice use of lens flares and bokeh
  
• a lot of action - never bored a single minute
  
• opening credits scene simply great
  

I didn't know which section this would be appropriate to post this in, since it's pretty cross-section, so forgive me if this is the wrong spot.

So, to make a long story short, AVerMedia capture cards are able to capture Dolby Digital noise in PCM format and it can be successfully be converted to bit-perfect AC3 DD 5.1 audio.

Unfortunately though, AVerMedia's drivers have rendered the capture card I was using (Extremecap U3) pretty useless.

I replaced it with an open-source, plug and play capture card, the Inogeni 4K2USB3. However, the conversion generates some... unsavoury results.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1402830530316492800

So, before I invest in yet another capture card, I'd like to get some confirmation that it WILL work with BeSplit for my type of audio work.

I was keen towards the Elgato HD60 S, since it also has uncompressed capture capabilities, but I want you guys to let me know; If you do this kind of thing that I'm speaking of, what capture card are you doing it with?

Heck, you don't even have to know first-hand, any insight would be great.

Thanks, guys.

EDIT: Here is my BeSplit command, in case its relevant: besplit -core -input 1.wav -type ddwav -output 1.ac3

Die Hard 2 (CE DVD Regrade)

In a roundabout way this project is the completion of this previous project:

https://fanrestore.com/thread-1711.html?...die+hard+2

The older BD of DH2 has a pretty significant red push, while the new streaming master has a green push. Now while the new master might be theatrical accurate (I'm not sure), the old CE DVD looked better and seems more thematically accurate. The CE DVD bathes the movie in shades of blue that is more in keeping with the cold snowy setting.

The video regrading was done via automatic scripting. Once that was complete I modified the black level and shadows to more conform with the CE DVD's levels. After that I went through the entire project shot by shot and fixed any shot/scene the strayed too far from the DVD. After all automatic scripting is not always 100%. That resulted in ~250 shots having their own LUTS and/or modifications. The video was synced to the current US BD. I also cut in the sections with hard English subs from the original US BD into this project as the new streaming master have soft subs.

After that I tried to add every soundtrack I had access to. The Widescreen, Japanese and THX LDs were manually synced requiring anywhere from 100 to 250 edits. The DVDs just required a plus or minus delay as they were mostly frame accurate. One point of difference is that 20th Century Fox logo is different on different video masters so I synced for the first shot cut. The default audio track is the Widescreen PCM 2.0 as it sounded the best to my ears.

Video:
Streaming version of the new master of Die Hard 2 regraded to the blue tones of the CE DVD.

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the Widescreen laserdisc)
2. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the Japanese P&S LD)
3. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the THX LD)
4. Dolby Digital 2.0 (from the non-anamorphic DVD)
5. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the non-anamorphic DVD)
6. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the CE DVD)
7. DTS 5.1 (from the CE DVD)
8. Dolby Digital 2.0 (from the BD)
9. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (from the BD)

Sync:
Fox US BD (plus subs and chapters)

Pics:


Comparisons Pics
CE Regrade/Original Streaming Master


Collaborators and Thanks:
Zoidberg for audio tracks
Buster D for audio tracks

Hello. Could anyone send me the original airing of Capitol Critters from 1992? It has the animated Steven Bochco Productions logo in it with a mouse playing the violin.

Found these forums after googling for Highlander II US theatrical cut. Fairly excited to revisit this dumpster fire since the last time I saw (and hated) it, release day, 1991.

I'm currently delving through the backposts in the "Released" section, looks I might be checking out several other restorations...