Was asked to introduce myself as well...

I am not a fan-restoration guy per se. I do different things. I do not try to restore something how it might have looked once or emulate a Laserdisc look, but instead I go for "upgrading" lackluster releases to something appropiate for modern viewing habits without going too far away from the actual theatrical presentation and its intention as I understand and remember it. This mostly comes down to color grading and some "digital enhancements". Usually some friends point me to a release that could use some help. I take a look at reference material for inspiration, but do my own interpretation, just like you would do in a craft editing seat. What I create has a certain look for sure. Sometimes it's good, sometimes I screw up and went down the wrong path. An sometimes there are limits what can be done with a given source. I think more or less like a DoP, which I wanted to become as a child, but well it never happened. I always think my work is subpar becaue I know what I could do if had some archival master with uncompressed chroma. Curse of knowing what could be possible with proper source material. But it is what it is...

Usually people point me at something that needs help and I see what I can do as far as my time allows, given I am interested in the material to begin with. And usually it is to their "wishes".The better the user who requested something is in commenting on the shortcomings, the better work I can do. Just like the producer is sitting next to an colorist in a studio working out the basic look or going over some scenes that need help. I think more or less like a DoP does. But yeah, I create as much crap as the next guy. And sometimes there are limits to what I can do. You know, the famous last 10% take way longer than the first 90%. So it is always a compromise. And sometimes results or good, something not up to my own standards.

Beside regrading I did a few fan-cuts. I never extend movies but instead un-extend movies to their initial theatrical presentation, or a mezzazine if requested. Often it is very hard to find reference material for the exact cuts and some projects end up in limbo because I cannot find a 35mm scan (quality does not matter) or some laser disc rip. Still looking for some. 

Professionally I work, well how should I put it, in the industry. I once started as an editor in boradcasting but now do other things in regards to cloud services, VFX-IT and streaming services or just as a project manager in related matters. And yes, I have a IMDB page like many of you probably here do. Who knows, we might have worked on a project in the past together or through another company in between.

I would love to work as a colorist as well in my spare time. Not because I love that job so much, it's paid like shit, but because there are so many screw ups. I hate when a good movie is just ruined on e.g. an UHD BD release because they put some intern on it. It's for the love of the movies. And I think with over 40 years of watching and understanding movies and working in the industry I have a good eye for it. But yeah, I can be as wrong as the next guy. But well, in my line of work I have no direct connections to producders/directors or contacts at boutique lables. So it will probably never happen. It is what it is. But it is a shame how especially some UHD BDs as an enthusiast medium turned out. I have a long list of early UHD release that I need to regrade. I stopped working on BDs, only have a few more in the pipeline. But need a decent HDR reference monitor first as I have my ownj production standards. 

I have strong opinion about many things in the industry and the fan scene and not afraid to speak up, which my day job also requires. I might come across harsh sometimes but just saying how I see things. Don't take it personally. 

My setup at home. Well, how should I put it without too much flexing. It's like a craft editing seat. A lot of stuff I bought used, but I have a decent setup. Some people might find it jaw dropping others just see a somewhat outdated craft editing and coloring grading seat. Setup mostly consisting of BlackMagic products I bought over the years as well as a used and a slighty defect HD reference display (display is fine, just some of the more advanced stuff broken I don't need anyway).

For color and editing work I only use Resolve these days. I think with the recent releases it's the best software package available, and if it is good enough for some superhero tentpole it's good enough for me. I hate Adobe Premiere with a passion because it is such a horrible piece of garbage for editing and color grading. Baselight? I am not willing to work with that UI, end of story - though it has some great features Resolve is lacking. Great piece of software but not for me with that user interface. 

Beside that I am producting my own live action shorts, costs lot of cash that comes out of my pocket. Not many, and no, no awards. It's more special interst and usually only shown at smaller short film festivals and never again. I do not put stuff up on youtube as what I create is intended to be watched on the silverscreen or at least properly at home and not a friggin' cell phone. Fuck exposure, I have standards. 

Dunno what else to tell you guys... Well, if you have any questions feel free to AMA. I might not take much part in forum life here, more of a lurker 'cause time constraints.

Oh yes, and if you are working for some boutique label, or even doing an indie project or a blockbuster, hit me up. I color shit for you, even for free, just for the love of the movies and to proof a point. I hate when good movies get crappy releases. I just hurts me that color grading is often so abmyssal...

managed to bag a load of VCD's off Freecycle today as I said in the shoutbox on the front page.

Below is a list of them and authenticity of them. I'll go through them one by one and say if it's a screener, cam or legit VCD over the week or so. Only listing them in case of the framing (open matte) or if the versions on the disc differ in anyway. Sometime CAM jobs from the cinema can reveal any cuts that were made for home video versions.

If anyone would like to see them, leave a message below and I'll back them up to my Googledrive and share the link

Official Release:
Daylight
Volcano
The Full Monty

Possible Official Release:
Bean - The Ultimate Disaster Movie

Bootlegs - Video source to be confirmed:
The Thin Red Line
Payback
The Parent Trap
Rounders
Small Soldiers
Lethal Weapon 4
A Perfect Murder
Jack Frost (Michael Keaton)
Men In Black
Practical Magic
Antz
Shakespeare in Love
As Good as it Gets
Virus
Lost in Space - CAM
Deep Impact
Soldier - VHS screener (fullscreen)
Godzilla (1998)
Mission Impossible 2 - CAM / Telesync with Chinese Subtitles
Dr Dolittle
A Bug's Life
Great Expectations
Message in a Bottle
Patch Adams
Titanic
Armageddon - Source VHS screener

Hello again,

This sounds like a very simple task but I can't make it work. I've been using MKVToolNix-Gui to mux audio and video but the audio won't sync.
Audio file is a foreign track that contains the french dub of the film that I would like to include in the mkv file. Audio was extracted from an avi file (Dvdrip). Both files, the Dvdrip and the mkv are identical. Same length, no different logos at the beginning, no extra scenes.

Here's the media info of the extracted audio file:


Format                      : AC-3
Format/Info                : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name            : Dolby Digital
File size                  : 287 MiB
Duration                    : 2 h 5 min
Overall bit rate mode      : Constant
Overall bit rate            : 320 kb/s

Audio
Format                      : AC-3
Format/Info                : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name            : Dolby Digital
Duration                    : 2 h 5 min
Bit rate mode              : Constant
Bit rate                    : 320 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 2 channels
Channel layout              : L R
Sampling rate              : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                  : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode            : Lossy
Stream size                : 287 MiB (100%)
Service kind                : Complete Main


And the media info of the video:

Format                      : Matroska
Format version              : Version 4
File size                  : 12.0 GiB
Duration                    : 2 h 5 min
Overall bit rate            : 13.7 Mb/s
Encoded date                : UTC 2010-02-22 21:41:29
Writing application        : no_variable_data
Writing library            : no_variable_data

Video
ID                          : 1
Format                      : AVC
Format/Info                : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile              : High@L4.1
Format settings            : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC      : Yes
Format settings, Reference  : 4 frames
Codec ID                    : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                    : 2 h 5 min
Bit rate                    : 13.3 Mb/s
Width                      : 1 920 pixels
Height                      : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Frame rate mode            : Constant
Frame rate                  : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0
Bit depth                  : 8 bits
Scan type                  : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 0.267
Stream size                : 11.4 GiB (95%)


I've been told to change the fps of the video to 25 on MKVToolNix before mux since it's possible the Dvdrip was made from a PAL disc. It didn't work, audio is still out of sync. Any ideas what am I doing wrong?

Hi there!

I'm starting this thread to gather information on the various soundtracks for Streets of Fire, aftertall this one is all about sound!

I was very happy with the DTS-HD MA 2.0 mix on the Shout Collector's Edition until I found out yesterday, to my surprise, that the it was reissued in Steelbook with the addition of a DTS-HD MA 4.1 mix "created from the 70mm Six Track Magnetic Audio"(quote removed directly from a photo of the back cover).

In my immeditate quest for information about this track, the quotes bellow were all I could find and they do sound very promising:


"The new DTS-MA 4.1 track is a noticeable improvement over the old DTS-MA 5.1 track. The new track is much more balanced and less strident, with the new 4.1 track having better bass and significantly higher fidelity. The old track sounds more dated and hollow in comparison, although both are listenable - that being said while the old 5.1 sounded good on the first release, its hard to go back to listening to it after hearing the new 4.1. The new track is also recorded at a lower volume level and seems to have improved dynamic range."

"Listening to multiple sections over and over the 4.1 mix is clearly the best followed by the 2.0 Stereo and the 5.1 is just LOUD."

Has anyone else here been able to sample this track? 

Also, regarding the 1996 Wiscreen LD, I'd really appreciate if any of our members here can offer some information on how it sounds.

Thanks a lot! 

Back in November, Umbrella released this obscure horror comedy on BD in Australia from a 4k scan of the IP. Prior to Umbrellas release it never even got a DVD release in it's native country, not to mention the US release was regulated to a straight to DVD barebones effort by Trimark\Lionsgate, and a EE'd magentia tinged Lionsgate HD Master on US streaming outlets. PQ on the Umbrella blu is quite nice considering it's source, even if its a bit bright and dirty in some spots. 

The biggest issue with the Umbrella release is the audio. Cut was natively recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1, and Umbrella used the optical stereo track which sounds OK, aside from being moderately crackly and brief sections switching to a mono source. This suggests that since they used an IP instead of the OCN, it's assumed Beyond Productions (production company Umbrella liecenced from) dosen't have the OCN or 5.1 elements, or they were in unusable shape and decided utilizing an IP with the optical track was easier in the long run (Australians aren't known for properly preserving film and audio elements well, espically the smaller independent producers, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were the case even for a 20 yr old film).

Heck, even the Trimark DVD and Lionsgate streaming HD master all have DD 2.0, but lacks the crackle Umbrellas audio has. This may suggest Beyond gave Lionsgate all their elements including the 5.1 element and Trimark mastered it as 2.0 with zero shits given, or Beyond gave them an IP or and Interneg with the Dolby Surround LRCS mix that Beyond also probably lost nowadays.

However, according to Rewind there are Scandinavian and German DVDs that claim to have English 5.1 tracks. I'm not sure if they're proper 5.1 mixes or some janky upmix from a 2.0 element, but would be worth looking into if anyone else has more info about them.

Even if I do find the proper 5.1 tracks, they're most likely in PAL 25fps format and require speeding down to 24fps as the Umbrella Blu is, which isn't that big of a job. I imagine both lack the Beyond and Mushroon Pictures logos (which the Umbrella Blu has) if its like the Trimark/Lionsgate master, but that could also be easily fixed by patching in 5.1 sources for those from somewhere. 

But the biggest possible issue is theres a chance at least the German DVD might have content cuts, or both have longer/shorter frames in shots, which will be a problem if it is the case.

This is my first audio syncing project for a main feature. I do have Audacity experience under my belt and i imagine the sync by waveform method would work if theres no mixing disperences or extended/shortened frames between each source. Theres probably gonna be some new things or obsticles I'd have to get the hang of, so bear with me here.

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/02601/ML1...-Dollars-A

16-bit, 44.1kHz, Mono 2.0 (bit-perfect) 1.01 GB

PM for link (expires on 21 June, 2020)

Just wondered if anyone has ever seen a preservation of this police TV series starting Tony Musante? Doesn’t look like there has ever been a release in any format so guess it’s reliant on someone who recorded it.

Ok this thread is half a technical inquiry and half a project thread similar to my Upscale Project and 35 Project.

There is a long standing theory here on the forum that I always wanted to test. It was noticed some time ago that many video masters made from roughly late 90's to mid 2000s have a magenta (or red or pink) look to them when viewed on modern TVs. You can see it often once you know what to look for. White clouds that have a pink hue, faces that are red with high blood pressure, blues that looks more purple then blue, etc.

The thought as to why this happened is that the mastering monitors used to make these videos were CRTs. Those CRT monitors work a lot different then our modern screens and they tend to push very green and yellow. This likely happens because unlike modern panels which have color standards to achieve (Rec709, Rec2020), a lot of CRTs only had color temperature to work with (D65 or D93). In order to compensate the masters were pushed toward red in order to keep the white balance correct. That worked fine when we were in the world of CRTs but once the world migrated to flat panels these old masters took on a very magenta or reddish look.

The industry moved on to LCD in mid 2000s and then OLED panels. With that move the red bias went away. But the work was already done. In the run up and adoption of HD in the 2000s many studios quickly mastered their old movies and those masters still are being trotted out. You see it a lot with 20th Century Fox,  Disney but I see it the most by MGM, who remastered in HD most of their film library in the early 2000s.

So this thread's goal is to try to prove if this theory is correct or not and if it is, to adjust some masters to reflect how they look on a CRT so you have the proper look on modern flat panels. So, step one is to get a CRT. Not just any CRT but one used in the mastering process. A Sony BVM, PVM or some such. That is a difficult proposition because those monitors are expensive since retrogamers like to play on them and I simply don't have the money to afford one. Luckily, I have a friend that had the perfect answer. An HDCRT mastering monitor in the Sony HDVS line that is useless to retrogamers as it will not do 240p or 480i. But it will do the HD resolutions that I need at D65. I borrowed the monitor, hooked it up to my laptop with its calibrated OLED screen and played a movie on both simultaneously. Now the iPhone I used to take the pics is skewing the colors a little (especially towards the red unfortunately) but these rough, rough pictures should let you know what I'm seeing till I break my DSLR out and replace the pics later with better examples.


Top is a calibrated OLED screen/Bottom is HDCRT

Star Trek 2 (1st gen BD), Office Space, Jurassic Park, Temple Of Doom, The Dark Knight (1st gen BD)

And what I'm seeing is it looks like there might be some truth to this theory. It does appear that the white balance is better for some of these masters, the skin tones are better and the pervasive magenta/red tint is lessened or gone. Overall the colors are much better in my opinion. That is not to say not more theatrical accurate. There is no way for me to know that but hopefully more accurate to what the person grading the film was going for.

So the next step is to do more experimentation and start trying to color grade these masters to what I am seeing

Cast Away is one of many Zemeckis best works and must be preserved.
Bluray itself is a decent transfer but it is a typical home video release and not as it looked on cinema in 2000.

Costs for this Russian print plus shipping is around $300.
Additional cost for the scanning will be around $230.
Total estimated cost: $530

Scanning will be 2K in 12-bit linear uncompressed DNGs and will be supervised and graded by @TomArrow.
Since this print has Russian dubbed sound, we will synchronize the DTS-HD MA track and hopefully in the future add the cinema DTS tracks.

If the project is fully collected, it will be started immediately as we ensure that the purchase of reels is shipped directly from the seller to the scan facility.

This preservation project will be shared with donators.


Pledges
$340 - Sebkarlbjork
$50 - TomArrow
$25 - Soupdrinker0 (OT)
$20 - 3Maters (OT)
$15 - Kynch
$15 - Freedomland (OT)
$15 - ZackR (OT)
$15 - Parzival91 (OT)
$10 - Trillary dump(OT)
$10 - Gryfun(OT)
$5  - Jerclayv2 (OT)
$5  - craigbillet (OT)
$5  - FilmD00d (OT)


So far
$365/$530

Update - June 15
As you already know, the film reels are from Russia and contain Russian dubbed sound. I just want to convey that it is also a US movie reels that is on sale that includes Cinema DTS CDs. That being said, the Russian film reels are good enough for our purposes. If we are lucky the seller might help us with a digital copy of the discs, for a coin. Fingers crossed.

Update - June 17
An update. The film rolls are now purchased and are now being sent for scanning. I have pledged $170 to the project. This means that we are soon more than halfway to fully funded. Now only $210 remains. I will wait to contact anyone who has donated until everything is fully funded.

Update - June 21
Good news. We have now obtained the cinema Dts files from @Soundman.

Update - September 29
Good news. Cast Away print is now 100% scanned and is currently being rendered. Sample inbound.