Project info:

Finally it's up, Dirty Harry 5 - The Dead Pool - in scope format V. 2.1 final.



Video:
Original Blu-ray VC1 converted to H265.

Audio:
1. EN Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the laserdisc)
2. FR Dolby Digital 2.0 (from Blu-ray)
3. FR Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (from Warner LD [1181013])
4. German Dolby Digital 2.0 (from Blu-ray)
5. Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (from Blu-ray)
6. Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (from Blu-ray)
7. Spanish II Dolby Digital 2.0 (from Blu-ray)
8. Portugal Dolby Digital 2.0 (from Blu-ray)
9. Audio commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (from Blu-ray)

Also includes all the Blu-ray PGS subtitles tracks.

The first track is Kchrules Flac capture of the Stereo LD found on the internal organ with the initial sync delay corrected.
The French mono rip is by Shatpack.

Sync:
Any Warner BD (plus subs and chapters).

Total size is about 16 gb.

The story:
Like all Dirty Harry fans, I didn't get why Dirty Harry 5 - The Dead Pool - looked ugly on video for years. First it was released in open matte 4/3 with some cropping on the sides on VHS & LD, then in 1.78:1 on DVD, then on wider 1.78:1 on Blu (more opened on all four sides), and none of those presentations looked like a decently shot film.

It was easy for decades to dismiss this as "the director was a hack", but I disagree with all those ready-made cookie cutter opinions. First because the director Buddy Van Horn was a respected second unit director with credits I wouldn't mind having on my resume, and second because it's obvious half the film at least was shot by Clint himself, as you can see the exact same tricks Clint uses in all his films in all the quieter dialogue scenes (for example, long lens with blurry background, character enter frame, or exit frame, it's signature director Clint).

I think as the film was shot very fast in the spring of 1988 and released in July, that they had two units working jointly, one lead by Clint. The other involving the action and secondary characters led by Buddy Van Horn, and he got the credit given by Clint because he shot more stuff than the usual second unit thing. One way to tell is that the film has no second unit directors credits.

The director of photography is Jack Green the DoP of Bird and Unforgiven. Don't tell me the guy don't know how to shoot films, he is a bloody Oscar nominee.

So it's obvious something is wrong on all the home-video versions of this film. The weird thing is that the film is 1.77:1 on Home-Video, whereas all the other Harry films are scope 2.39:1.

I remember seeing the film on initial release, and not noting the format had changed. So maybe something is off with the presentation of The Dead Pool on all home-video formats. The framing looks totally bad and loose in all of the home-video versions, with tons of dead air.

Here's a possible explanation: a few years ago an industry insider told me that back in the mid-eighties, a trend developed in Hollywood where they would ask directors to shot spherical, for all formats. Meaning the producers decided at the end what format the movie would be released in. It could be cropped on the sides for TV, and either be released as 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 prints, depending on the film budget and the marketing research. He said films like Batman and The Punisher could be framed both ways (assuming you use the complete negative).

This could explain for example why Top Gun cannot decide over all the video releases what format it is on.

A Dirty Harry film in 1.85:1 looks wrong. What this project does is fixing this by converting the film to 2.39:1 scope format.

Here's a Blu-ray shot with the Super 35 framing layout layered on top.
Red is the scope framing, green is the 4/3 framing indications.


Now look how the Laserdisc 4/3 closely matches the framing of the Super 35 4/3 layout.


There's nothing surprising about it, because from the 1990's on, other Clint films shown in widescreen 2.39:1 on home-video weren't anamorphic either, but spherical shot films.

I made about 100 adjustment to scenes and individual shots to achieve this, as I think the 1.77:1 version is adjusted with tilt and scan depending on the scenes and shots (some shots are short of headroom, while having tons of bottom space, and others the reverse). I also added the black and red Warner logo from The Exorcist 2 at the beginning, as the blu one on the Blu-ray master is freeze framed and ugly. It makes the whole thing feel more like a true Dirty Harry sequel presentation. I say it's pretty neat looking now, so enjoy this V.1.0. You now will be able to watch The Dead Pool with a presentation in line with all the other films in the series. Ain't fanres forum a gas?



Here's a quick screenshot gallery. (old version, will be updated with final V2.1 images).

As usual, PM me for the links, contributing members only please.

Good afternoon ( I think?) everyone. I'm senpaisley, and I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks and finally decided to join! I'm a huge believer in the necessity and power of fan restorations, and its also cool as hell. I'll be popping up here and there while I learn more so say hey! 

I don't have much to offer at this point, but if there is anyone out there who wants a semi-HD copy of Frans Zwartjes' Medea (1982), PM me 

Hello!

I've never really attempted something like this before, but I've considered making an edit of Almost Famous which will reinsert the Stairway to Heaven scene in it's entirety to both the Theatrical Cut & The Bootleg Cut. This idea came out of a desire to show the film to a few friends of mine who are huge Led Zeppelin fans and the fact that the 4K version will soon be releasing, I've decided to try and put my editing skills to the test. I'm not sure how long it will take until it's finished, but I'm not gonna half-ass it and I'll work until the transition between scenes is as seamless as possible.

Event Horizon (LD-1st gen DVD Regrade)

Splitting off from spoRv's thread here:

https://fanrestore.com/thread-1290-page-12.html

This is a place holder for the work I'm doing to regrade the new Shout BD. The new Shout looks nice but I'm not in love with it's warmer tones. Not saying its wrong but I prefer the older BD, DVDs but especially the older laserdisc master which was very blue in comparison. I found the 1st generation non-anamorphic DVD which uses the same LD master but is more "stable" to regrade from.

The video regrading was done via automatic scripting. Once that was complete I modified the black level and shadows to more conform with the DVD's levels. Right now I am going through the entire project shot by shot and fixing any shot/scene the strayed too far from the DVD. The video will be synced to the Shout BD.

After that I tried to add every soundtrack I had access to. I'm hoping to find the LD's PCM 2.0 (and 5.1?) track but that might not happen. If you have a copy and can capture I would love the help. Also I will include the lossless tracks from the Shout BD (5.1 and 2.0) but I'm not sure about the Paramount BD tracks. Beside those I'm including the soundtrack from all the DVDs I have.

Video:
Shout's new scan of the film regraded to the blue tones of the laserdisc/1st gen DVD.

Audio:
1. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (from the cinema DTS discs)
2. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the Widescreen laserdisc) - MAYBE
3. Dolby Digital 2.0 (from the non-anamorphic DVD)
4. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the non-anamorphic DVD)
5. Dolby Digital 2.0 (from the CE DVD)
6. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the CE DVD)
7. DTS 5.1 (from the CE DVD)
8. Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (from the Paramount BD) - MAYBE
9. DTS-HD MA 2.0 (from the Shout BD)
10. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (from the Shout BD)

Sync:
Shout BD (plus subs and chapters)

Pics:

Coming Soon

Comparisons Pics

Shout BD/Regrade to LD-1st gen DVD






Collaborators and Thanks:

Since all the Echo Bridge Jackie Chan blu-rays are OOP, do you think that Paramount will re-release the Miramax versions on blu-ray? I actually saw quite a few Jackie Chan movies streaming on Paramount+ recently. I don't understand why they wouldn't considering how he's one of the most popular action stars ever. I know almost nobody likes those Miramax cuts but I just enjoy hearing Jackie's voice. I feel more connected with the movie when he's dubbing his own voice. It's one of the few things that Miramax did right imo

In the category "DTS 7.1" remakes of older work I finished last week the Apocalypse Now edit "KURTZ"
The first one I did was back in 2015, "The Horror" but that was done with cheap software crap and I didn't get what I had in mind 
It was not possible to do some things especially with the audio editing, but in 2019 I did a remake with adobe and jess now I had the edit I wanted
The 2019 cut was done in AC3 stereo and with the release some time ago of "The Final Cut" of Apocalypse Now I thought to do this for the last time using the 7.1 audio track 
It's now a little longer than the 2019 cut, more Kilgore and Kurtz, and here and there some re-scores by Abigail Mead using the Full Metal Jacket soundtrack
However, like the first edits, it is trimmed like hell, the whole story is done in a 98-minute edition
No France bullshit, No Playmate hookers, it is just straight to the point 
The opening is done with Hendrix' "Machine Gun" to make it a little different 
Converted from the 4K release to 1080p 
The release was last Friday on my website 

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









             




  Seems like guest users are allowed to download again from demonoid (dot is).

Ripped the original Cantonese mix from the Tai Seng Laser disc. I am trying to sync it with the UK Bluray but it keeps going out of sync. Does anyone have any possible ideas?

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).