2024 edit: Retiring this as the new 4k remaster apparently fixes this issue and is available for purchase.
Thank you.

Hello,

Just a quick regrade to correct the blue colour filter that was applied to the 2k remaster of 'Project A Part II'.

Otherwise, the Cantonese audio and English subs are as found on the Eureka release.

24 gb MKV. PM for the Mega link.

The thread is tagged as versions, but it can also be for generic discussion of the film.  I've just compared the UHD BD to the 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition BD, and they are in sync all the way through to the end, so if you want to take the 24-bit DTS-HD MA 5.1 from the latter and mux it with the former, you can.  This has two potential advantages:

1. 24-bit audio instead of 16-bit;
   
2. demuxing branched UHD BDs, even with eac3to, can still result in sync issues, which you can avoid by taking the audio from standard BD.
   

Hello i am new to these forums, so i apologize if this post doesn't belong here.
I have been trying to use AvsPmod and the avisynth plugin auto overlay to create a hybrid of 2 different aspect ratios of the same film.

My question is, when i run the AVS script, will the end product look like what i see in the video preview? Or does it do a few "passes" to attempt to correct for the mismatched or imperfect frames?

Forgive my ignorance, i'm just not sure how everything works.

It processes a few frames per second, and some of them line up perfectly, others do not. does that mean my settings are incorrect?
Do i just wait for the preview to complete? at the rate it's going, it'll take a week or 2 to complete. 

Any help from people who have experience using this software would be tremendous.

Thank you for your time.

(This is just a joke, don't take it seriously.)

As many of you know, Blu Rays often come out with a strong green tint. I was thinking about why this could be.

My first assumption - I'm sure you all agree - is that that no sane human would think that it looks good.

Hence they must either be insane or not human. Since they are capable of producing good quality work, I am assuming they are sane. They only logical conclusion is that they are not human.

Now, I was already certain at this point, but I wanted to find proof or at least more convincing hints. So I thought about possible explanations.

Well, I found one.

Here's a picture of the electromagnetic spectrum including the spectrum visible for humans.



Now, you will notice that green is in the middle of this spectrum. On the borders of the spectrum we have red and blue. Blue and red together make up magenta, and that in turn is the complementary color for green. In other words, adding green to an image is equivalent of taking away magenta and vice versa.

What if the aliens have more pronounced magenta in their vision and thus need more green in an image to perceive it normally and with natural colors?

This made me recall images taken with modified cameras. As most of you know, digital image sensors are typically sensitive beyond the human visible spectrum. That is, they perceive some part of both the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. Normally these are blocked out via both UV and IR filters. 

But these filters can actually be removed from a camera. An image taken with a camera like that comes out looking like this typically:



I did a quick test adding a strong green filter (in this case amplifying the green channel), and what do you know:



While still looking somewhat off, it looks overall more palatable and natural now. With a bit of fine-tuning it might almost look good.

Now, but Tom, you may argue, computer displays don't have any emissions beyond the visible spectrum. 

Well, this one took me a bit of research myself, I admit.

But I finally found a hint:



Human vision ranges from about 400 to 700 nm. But displays seem to emit signals beyond this. This could arguably create a magenta-colored tint in the eyes of the aliens, prompting them to overcompensate with green color.

I rest my case.

Hello everyone,

The 2k remaster of Project A Part II got released last year (most noticeably in the UK box set from Eureka). The transfer is pretty solid (IMO), but it looks like they added a day for night filter to the film. Everything looks a lot darker and more serious in tone than it need be, so I thought I'd correct it.

It might take me a while to get it finalised (I'm a little busy with work/study right now), but I thought I'd post some in-progress shots.










Here's a shot from the original version, the filter should be evident.


As for subs and audio, I'm pretty satisfied with what Eureka included, but if there's anything people would like to see added I'm all ears. Bear in mind that this is the HK cut of the film, so it mightn't be possible for me to add things like the VHS dub (which is elsewhere on the box set anyway).

I wouldn't call myself a veteran of movies but I've seen more than a couple. I like a variety of film of varying age. I guess I've seen a whole lot of 70's and 80's movies more than anything else. I actually don't watch as many movies as I used to, what with having adult responsibilities I use my spare time for things like Skating and Video Games more than movies. I still like to relax with a good film while I eat dinner and unwind.

Anyway, I'm mostly posting because I figure it may unlock a restriction so I can PM someone for a movie cut that I would like to get. I'm unsure if I'll stick around but just know I appreciate those of you who also have a love for movies, and especially restoration to it's original release. I've watched those, now quite famous, De-specialized versions of Star Wars IV, V, and V. I do think that, nostalgia aside, the historical and artistic importance of having a film in it's original theatrical release is a very important and worthwhile endeavor and I applaud all of those here working toward that. You have my utmost respect and I am humbled by the dedication and I feel as though the work being done here shows one to have a true and pure love for film which also commands great respect from me.

Anyway, sorry for my long winded introduction. Nice to meet you all and have a lovely day.

Ok so the new BD and 4K discs have new remixed sound and effects in the Atmos soundtrack.
But word is the lossy 5.1 is a downmix of the new track.
What options do we have? The JP LD sounded better to me than the US one, anyone know any more?

I have an Idea, would it be possible for someone here to reattach the 1985 Walt Disney Pictures Blue Castle Logo to Beauty and the Beast (1991), as well as Preserving the Original Dolby Stereo PCM Mix from the Laserdisc?

Project Info:

I'd like to start out by acknowledging that Chewtobbaca greatly contributed to this project.

This project is a pseudo replacement to my Aliens THX regrade (https://fanrestore.com/thread-43-post-163.html#pid163).

The Japanese channel WOWOW has shown many interesting HDTV masters including a rare HDTV broast of the SE of Aliens. This broadcast of Aliens is derived from the same master as the 1999 DVD, so it predates Cameron fixes and color changes. I've found many numerous re-encodes of it but never the original cap till Chew help me find it. Since this master has an unique color timing and has original grain unlike many HD broadcast of Aliens, I thought it would be nice to preserve it not only in its SE form but cut it down other forms, like the TV and theatrical cuts.

Like many Mpeg-2 broadcasts, this cap has a host of minor problems. After IVTC'ing the cap I noticed a lot of macro-blocking to cleanup, which came in the form of deblocking and soften filters. Even then certain shots had macro-blocking to sever to fix. For those shots I used matieral from other HDTV broadcasts. Another problem is certain shots where there are muzzle flashes, show that the encoder destroyed the highlights and colors. For these shot I took the 99 DVD or other HDTV broadcasts (the BD was too different) and then blended the highlights of the DVD with the mids/shadows of the HDTV and then color matched the final image.



I also did a very slight color correction to lessen the base pink/magenta bias typical of video masters of the time.



Finally the few frames of Japanese subtitles and station logos were removed by patching in the DVD or other HDTV broadcasts.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Special Edition Cut (Japanese WOWOW HDTV Broadcast v1.2)

Video:
The Japanese WOWOW SE HDTV broadcast which has the '99 color timing with slight color correction to remove the base pink/magenta bias. The HDTV was cleaned up with IVTC and deblocking. Furthermore Japanese subtitles and text are removed by patching in the BD or other HDTV broadcasts.

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the SE LD - synced by Chewtobbaca)
2. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (from the BD)

Pics:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. TV Cut (Japanese WOWOW HDTV Broadcast v1.2)

Video:
This is the same as above but cut down to the TV cut with added pieces from other broadcasts.

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the THX LD mixed with the SE LD - synced by Chewtobbaca)

Pics:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Theatrical Cut (Japanese WOWOW HDTV Broadcast v1.2)

Video:
This is the same as above but cut down to the theatrical cut with added pieces from other broadcasts.

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the P&S LD)
2. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the THX LD - Synced by Jonno)
3. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the THX LD - Ripped by zoidberg)
4. Dolby Digital 4.1 (from the BD)
5. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (from the BD)

Pics:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Collaborators and Thanks:
Chewtobbaca: For the WOWOW, aviscript, PCM SE sync, etc
jonno: For LD soundtracks and syncs
zoidberg: For LD soundtracks

The Hitcher Regrade and Video Fix

Project Info

Been hoping for an HD version of The Hitcher for awhile. I knew it wouldn't happen in the USA as the rights to it and all the HBO films are in legal limbo. I was hopefully expecting it to appear in the UK since there was an excellent SE DVD which I had upscaled previously. So I was happy to hear about a German release. When I got a copy I was surprised to see that it was clearly a scan of a lower order print, maybe even a release print. And since it's not an OCN or IP scan then it comes with a whole host of issues. This project's goal is to either fix those problems or at least minimize them while tweaking other concerns.

1. Black Levels - Given the scan's probable origins, the master has had its brightness/black level boosted to counteract the look of black crush or loss of details. I separated the movie into 15 "scene section" and pinned the black level to 0 for the darkest areas for each section and then used curves on the shadows and mids to make sure as much detail is preserved. Even after that the shadows are not balanced correctly resulting in blacks that drift off into red or occasionally blue. I readjusted the shadows via curves to make them black as much as possible.




Even with these adjustments my personal goal is to keep the colors as close to the original bd as possible.

2. Light leak - The scan has a lot of light leak on the sides. It increases towards the end and is more noticeable in dark scenes. I did what I could trying to minimize this but there is no way to get rid of it all.

3. Blown Highlights - I ran an effect to bring down the highs a bit but there is no information to be recovered in the highlights. They are blown. So, the highlights are what they are.

4. Compression Artifacts - Coming from a lower print there is a lot of grain and the encoder was unable to deal with it. I tried to separate the compression artifacts from the grain and ran a de-blocking filter. I think I was able to minimize the worst of it.

5. Logos/Credits - This is technically not wrong but still something I wanted to change. This scan has a tacked on Cannon logo at the beginning. That is correct since Cannon released the movie in European territories. In the US, HBO films had a deal with Tri-Star to release their films, whose logo you can see on the UK and US DVDs. So I took a vintage HD Tri-Star logo and put it in the beginning.

(notice the red in the shadows of the Canon logo)


The print is clearly an English language print, most likely a US one given the credits. The exception is the one shot with the title card in it, whereas the title is the German Hitcher der Highway Killer with the Hauer's and Howell's name in the wrong font.



I upscaled this 19 second section from the UK DVD and will color correct it to match



As for the audio. There is nothing wrong with the English soundtrack on the German BD. It just sounds weak. So went about comparing every English soundtrack to find the best possible. There is no PCM track on a LD but Buster D was nice enough to cap the analog for Doombot and me. Comparing that, the German BD tracks, the UK DVD track and the US DVD track, I found that the 2 channel Dolby Digital track from the US DVD was, by far, the most dynamic. I converted this to PCM (for editing) and included it as the main track.

Video:
The German BD scan of a lower print with thw above listed fixes.

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround at 48KHz (an edited version of the BD's 2.0)

Sync
Not synced to anything

Pics


Collaborators and Thanks:
Doombot: for running ideas and tests with me
Buster D: for capping the analog audio from the JPN LD