I stumbled upon a useful tool for working with Laserdisc DTS streams over on the Doom9 forums, written by the amazing tebasuna51. https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p...ost1793642

The goal of the tool is to convert a dtswav file to a standard dts file, while also correcting the frame headers.  

The program was created to work with wav files sourced from DTS-CD rips. Since Laserdisc capture requires manually pressing record on the capture software, there tends to be superfluous samples/padding at the beginning and end of a recording/capture. Unfortunately, the software was unable to handle this padding, as DTS-CD rips don't have this specific issue.


Thankfully, the source code was shared along with the tool, and I have been able to update it to make it functional for LD DTS tracks. This tool is essentially an all-in-one. It takes care of converting a dtswav file to a standard dts file, and automatically corrects the DTS frame headers. This will take the place of DTS Parser and a hex editor for accomplishing these tasks. The only caveat to using this is that it cannot process recordings with more than 30 seconds of silence/junk before or after the DTS stream data. You may have to trim your wav file before using. *Updated to remove this restriction.

Usage: wav2dts <dtswav_filename>

I've also included a simple batch file for dragging-and-dropping multiple files.

https://mega.nz/file/LJ9n0DwL#P-VPSByrCw...5kV8guSbc0

Edit: Link update

Hi,

What software you would recommend for making pan & scan version of a film? I'd like to make a 1.78:1 AR version of a 2.39:1 AR film.

Thanks in advance!

I have ripped the Original Dolby Surround 2.0 Mix and the 4.1 Mix of Point Break from the 2001 DVD . Hopefully someone can sync it to the Pure Adrenaline Edition Blu-Ray (the Warner logo replaces the Fox Logo on the current BD and, is shorter in length because of it, Pure Adrenaline Edition's runtime is 1 second longer than the 2001 DVD edition, and is most likely easier to sync) 

The 2.0 File is in FLAC, and the 4.1 mix is in the OPUS codec at around 420 kbps (FLAC does not support the 4.1 channel layout for some reason)


Here are the links: http://www.mediafire.com/file/p10b5ybl9n...0+Mix.flac

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0399lcoehr...1+Mix.opus



Update: I have now uploaded the untouched AC3 streams of the 2.0 and 4.1 mixes to Mediafire. Here are the links:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/nj973lofpv....0+Mix.ac3

http://www.mediafire.com/file/w240tx0pu2....1+Mix.ac3

Attached Files

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I have ripped the original Dolby 2.0 mix from the 1999 DVD of Days of Thunder in the FLAC format. Hopefully someone can sync it to the Blu-Ray Version.



Here is the link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/xxx436y8dd...0+Mix.flac


Update: I have now uploaded the untouched AC3 stream here is the link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ohbbx8mb4h....0+Mix.ac3

Attached Files

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Hey Alll,

Wanted to say hello! I've just joined this wonderful site. I used to go to OT all the time, what seems like many moons ago (Early-00s, not to show my age! lol).

My love of preservation cuts of Superman and a passive collector of workprints sent me down the rabit hole of wanting more. I took a break for a long time to focus on other things in my life. Sadly, this has meant one night waking up remembering about a version of a film I wanted to watch, only to find I no longer had access to it. Though various moves etc, thing's have gotten lost along the way. As we probably all know, this sent me crazy and wanting to build my collection up again. The completionsist in me lol. So that led me to reconnecting to a few sites and stumbling onto this one.

So a hello again, and I look forward to connecting and collecting with you all.

This is my big project that got me started with all this fanres stuff and that I have put everything I have learned into. There's a few more improvements I wanted to make, in particular regarding the isolated score, but real life is catching up with me and I may entirely lose the ability to do projects in the foreseeable future, so better to release the best I can right now than to have this project rot on my hard disk.

Armageddon 35mmized v1.0 1998 BDRip Cinema DTS 5.1 +Dolby Headphone 10bitx264-lejsikant

This is the movie Armageddon from 1998 regraded using a 3D LUT, which was generated using scans from a 35mm trailer and DrDre's ColorMatch tool, plus some slight manual adjustments in Photoshop to fix the black level and color balance the tiniest bit.

Now it looks a bit more filmic and less like the oversaturated green-ish mess that is the current Blu Ray release.

To ensure a nice looking encode (due to some crushed blacks and encoding artifacts in the original Blu Ray) and to make it look properly filmic, I added a 35mm grain plate. Final encode was done with x264 tmod at 4:4:4 and 10 bit. The 3D LUT as well as the 35mm grain plate were applied in a 4:4:4 16 bit color space before the encode. Resulting average bitrate is around 20 Mbps.

Arguably the more interesting part though is the big amount of audio tracks included in this release, which are:

1. Cinema DTS 5.1: The original Cinema DTS 5.1 audio that was (you can guess it) used in cinemas. Provided by a generous donor. Thanks! It was synced to the original Blu Ray at the native 44.1 KhZ of the Cinema DTS, then resampled to 48 kHz using iZotope 64-bit SRC with the simplified quality slider at 100%.

2. Dolby Headphone: The Cinema DTS track processed with Dolby Headphone, for listening to with headphones (obviously).

3. Dolby Headphone (-3dB Center): Same as the previous one, except I reduced the volume of the center speaker by 3 dB before processing with Dolby Headphone. I felt that the center channel was too dominant in the original mix with Dolby Headphone and wanted the mix to be more dynamic. This is my atttempt at that.

4. Isolated Score v1: This contains the isolated score, sourced mostly from the lossless version of the bootlegged complete 2CD score. As far as the score goes, I would say the coverage is an estimated 98%. The parts that are not well covered are parts in the movie that consist of strongly edited snippets from various parts of the soundtrack that would require a stupid amount of work to track down and edit in the same way. In these cases I simply used a rear channel extraction of the original DTS-HD MA 5.1 24-bit Blu Ray audio, which does sound noticably inferior, but it's still better than silence. The same thing applies to almost all places where songs from the soundtrack were used. I was planning on syncing the vinyl soundtrack remaster in those places, but I just don't have the time to do that at the moment. Hence this is the v1 of the isolated score, with potential for improvement. I included a 96kHz 24-bit rip of the vinyl soundtrack in this release, so if you want to try syncing it yourself, feel free.

5. Laserdisc PCM 2.0 (15416 AS): This is the PCM track from the 15416 AS Laserdisc of Armageddon. Captured bit-perfectly by zoidberg (Thanks!), then synced using Sound Forge. It *should* retain the bit-perfectness in most places, except at the 2 cuts, which are at the side changes of the Laserdisc. In those places I just additively overlayed the synced parts. The reason it is not bit-perfect there for a few seconds is because the silent parts at the side changes (after the audio ends or respectively before the audio starts) are not completely silent, but contain some inaudible digital noise (I believe it was at around -80 dB). You won't notice this, but I want it to be noted.

6. Laserdisc AC-3 5.1 (15416 AS): This is the AC-3 track from the same Laserdisc, again kindly provided by zoidberg (Thanks again!). It was losslessly synced using Delaycut; meaning, it was never transcoded for syncing. So you get to enjoy it at the full quality. The tiny downside of that approach is that the sync is not 100% perfect, due to AC-3 being saved in so-called "frames". So while my timing for the sync was up to 1ms precise, the actual cutting introduced some error. The largest one I've seen in the logs was 10ms. Since the cutting involves the front part and the part that is to be attached, I estimate the maximum possible error at any time to be 20ms, but its likely lower. Practically though, I am unable to perceive any obvious desync. So enjoy.

7. Commentary 1: This is the first commentary track from the Criterion DVD as DD 2.0 192 kbps. I presume (but cannot guarantee) that this was losslessly synced, as I didn't do the syncing here. Rather, I found this track in a Russian BDRip. The sync must have included cuts, because the Criterion DVD does not perfectly sync to the Blu Ray afaik (it's a director's cut and 2 minutes longer, it seems).

8. Commentary 2: Same note/caveat as for the above track. This is the alternative second commentary track.

9. Laserdisc PCM -> Dolby SDU4 -> LCRS 4.0: This is the Laserdisc PCM track, resampled using iZotope 64-bit SRC to 48 kHz and upconverted to 24bit, then processed through the Dolby SDU4, which is sort of a reference Dolby Surround hardware decoder for studio use. The audio interface used for the DAC and ADC was a RME Fireface 800, at 48kHz and 24 bit. To keep filesize reasonable, I normalized the result and dithered it down to 16-bit using iZotope. Otherwise this track is the raw output of the SDU4, with the channels LCRS (Left, Center, Right, Surround), which is the classical Dolby Surround scheme.

10. 4.0 (LCRS) -> 5.1: This is the above track, converted to 5.1 by duplicating the surround channel into SL and SR (Side Left and Side Right), while reducing by 3dB, which should be the correct way to do it. The LFE is simply generated from all the channels using a low pass, nothing scientific about that. Again, result was normalized and dithered to 16bit to keep filesize reasonable.

11. 5.1 (from Laserdisc PCM) -> Dolby Headphone: This is the above track processed with Dolby Headphone, normalized and dithered to 16 bit.

12. Laserdisc AC-3 -> Dolby Headphone: Laserdisc AC-3 processed with Dolby Headphone, normalized and dithered to 16 bit.


That's it. I am releasing this now due to real life problems coming up that may prevent me from releasing it in the future, hence some things are not in the form I envisioned them to be, in particular the Isolated Score comes to mind. But it's still a release I'm overall satisfied with and so I'll simply call it v1 and maybe release an improved version someday (don't wait for it tho).

This release is 100% in sync with the official Blu Ray, as that is the source used.

Things included in this release:
- The movie with all the listed audio tracks as mkv.
- The 35mm trailer scans I made using a Reflecta ProScan 7200, as JPGs. (the originals using the regrade were of course 16 bit TIFs, but they are too large to include)
- A rip of the vinyl soundtrack remaster at 96kHz, 24bit, for your listening pleasure, since the CD version is a bit overly compressed acoustically.

Enjoy.



Many thanks to anyone who contributed in the threads and helped me out with their knowledge, time, data and encouragement, including (without excluding everyone whom I do not remember at this very moment) spoRv, zoidberg, Jetrell Fo, CSchmidlapp and PDB.

Project is available as featured torrent (freeleech & double upload) on Blutopia and am working on finding some way to get it to MEGA without having to use my super slow internet (if anyone can get it there and provide a link for those who aren't on Blu, that would be appreciated!). Remember to seed for 7 days if you get it off Blu, to avoid getting a HnR.

Overview:
The original 1925 version of the Phantom of the Opera only survives as a spliced together dupe of 16mm prints in fairly low quality. The higher quality surviving 35mm print is of a version prepared alongside the sound re-release of Phantom. It is edited with different continuity than the 1925 version, cutting and rearranging scenes, as well as replacing footage with shots from the sound version. In addition, the 35mm material comes from the b-negative camera, using different angles and takes from the primary camera. Because of its higher quality, it has been the preferred version for restorations, even though it is much shorter than the 1925 version. An in depth exploration of the various versions exists here: http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2013...opera.html

This is an attempt to reconstruct the 1925 edit of the film using the higher quality 35mm material. The scenes present in the 1929 version use 35mm footage, while all the material exclusive to the 1925 version comes from the 16mm print.

Sound:
I have used Ben Model’s excellent organ score for the 1925 version. (As heard on reelclassicdvd’s DVD). To sync this edit to a preexisting score, I adjusted the speed of the footage throughout the film, generally keeping it within 16-24 frames a second, with the majority of the footage presented at around 20fps. The final file is a 60fps 1080p MKV (not blu ray compatible) with the real framerate being variable. When further edits were required to keep the sound and picture in sync, I made (hopefully unobtrusive) edits to the soundtrack.

The Technicolor sequence in the middle of the film uses Gaylord Carter’s organ score. Reelclassicdvd’s DVD used the BFI/Channel 4 version of the Technicolor bal masque sequence, which runs at a very slow speed (around 13 fps). This is a more natural level of motion, as the Technicolor camera had to be cranked very slow to get enough light, but it is not very period-accurate, looks bad and slows the pace of the scene. I have this sequence running at around 20fps, using a slowed down version of Gaylord Carter’s organ score taken from the Kino/Image bluray.

Picture:
As the various home media releases of Phantom have differing levels of quality, this edit uses the Kino, Image, and BFI blu-rays for the 1929 footage, with the 16mm footage coming from the HD transfer on the BFI bluray (including the title cards).

Video:
1080p 60fps 21gb MKV - Black and White with technicolor sequence and tinted sequence – 01:45:44
Aspect ratio: Around 1.33:1 for the 16mm material and cropped 1.2:1 for the 35mm
Audio: PCM stereo - Ben Model and Gaylord Carter score

Screencaps:

I have ripped the DD 2.0 Dolby Pro Logic mixes of the Theatrical & Extended versions of Independence Day from the Five Star Collection DVD and Converted it to Flac 2.0 (no annyoing Dolby DRC/Dialnorm to deal with!!)





the 2.0 Mix of this movie is simply amazing (most likely the same one used on the Laserdisc/VHS/Dolby SR Optical 35mm)

if someone has the ability sync this to the 20th Anniversary UHD/BD of Independence Day, please pm me!!!

here are the links

http://www.mediafire.com/file/aj2wnaee37...Logic.flac

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vftryec2ro...Logic.flac

       

Update: I have now uploaded the untouched AC3 files to Mediafire. here are the links:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/sl3henbkbo....0+Mix.ac3

http://www.mediafire.com/file/k2i7aivb24....0+Mix.ac3

does anyone have the 2.0 PCM track from the Goldeneye Laserdisc, and the 5.1 Mix from the original 1997 DVD?

44rh1n's "The Fellowship of the Ring" Extended Edition Color Restoration

Some screenshots are scattered throughout the article where context is given, and the entire library of screenshots can be found at the end of this article.

As many of you are very well aware, Peter Jackson’s beloved adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” received an abysmal HD release back in 2011. Both the official Blu-ray and Digital-HD releases are affected. Not only does this new master suffer from an ugly green tint throughout the entire course of the film, but it lacks important visual details in the bright highlight and dark shadow areas as well. In addition to these problems, it appears that the original color timing, in many instances, has actually been completely tossed aside; in several areas there are stray power windows (masks used in the color grading process to select certain areas of the frame), and the lack of HSL qualifications (custom selections of specific hue, saturation, and luminance values) that result in a muddier color grade than the original DVD release. Fortunately, “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King” don’t suffer from these same issues. But the official release of “The Fellowship of the Ring” is simply unacceptable. Its release was poorly supervised, and was not given the love and care it deserves. 

I am not the first to bring up this problem. Many have discussed these issues extensively in the past. In fact, a few years back, forum user kk650 did an astounding job removing the film’s green tint in his regraded release of the film. So if all you’re looking for is the removal of the green tint, go check out his wonderful release!  However, kk650’s regrade is just that: a regrade, as opposed to a proper restoration. The green tint wasn’t the only problem that needed to be resolved. So I decided to take upon myself the task to bring back the true, original colors found on the good ol’ DVD.

Along the way, I came across some hurdles, and I had to make a few compromises. But all in all, I think it’s safe to say that this is currently the best way to watch “The Fellowship of the Ring.” Feel free to check out my process:

ORIGINAL GOAL:

A shot-for-shot regrade of the entire film, using only the official extended Blu-ray release as a source, and the official DVD release as a color reference. This goal, however, quickly proved to be too time-consuming for me. I also discovered that many shots simply don’t have the detail necessary to perform an exact match to the DVD. It became clear to me that I needed to use an additional source in order to make this restoration happen.

REVISED GOAL:

A shot-for-shot regrade of the entire film, using the official extended Blu-ray release as the source for the extended scenes, and the official theatrical Blu-ray release as the source for all other scenes, with the official DVD release as a color reference. This goal proved to be much more realistic. However, the theatrical Blu-ray also suffers from many problems (although very different problems from the extended Blu-ray). This release, unfortunately, suffers from the overuse of both digital noise reduction (DNR) and artificial sharpening. But I decided to compromise in that I’d rather put up with these issues than the color degradation found in the extended release. While the DNR and sharpening problems did cause some concern, as you’ll see below, I was able to address these issues to some extent.

PROCESS:

1. Using Dr. Dre’s Color Matching Tool

I created a custom LUT for each individual shot in the extended portions of the film. I then imported each LUT into DaVinci Resolve Studio to use as a starting point for the color restoration.

2. Custom Grading

While Dr. Dre’s Color Matching Tool is an amazing resource that gets you about 95% of the way there, I still needed to give each shot a bit more love. So I did quite a bit of custom color grading in DaVinci Resolve Studio. I used custom power windows and HSL qualifications in almost every shot. I also cleaned up a bit of noise that was sometimes introduced by the LUTs. Here are some full-res screenshots, compared to previous releases of the film.



3. Addressing Problem Shots

In some instances, the extended Blu-ray simply doesn’t contain enough chrominance detail to pull out the colors necessary to restore the image to its original form. This problem mainly occurred in dark scenes. In these cases, the only thing I could do was completely remove the Blu-ray’s color altogether, extract the chrominance from the DVD, and lay it on top of the luminance of the Blu-ray. In other words, I literally placed the DVD’s color on top of the Blu-ray’s grayscale image. This method was tricky and time consuming because the framing of each shot is actually quite different between the DVD and the Blu-ray. So I had to do a lot of custom resizing. In some instances, these shots are slightly cropped due to the subtle reframing of the DVD. The chrominance in the resulting images are also technically only 480p while the luminance is 1080p. But since our eyes are far more forgiving of chroma detail than luma detail, I doubt most people will even notice that the chroma is lower resolution than the luma. This overlay method, albeit imperfect, produced much better results than the LUTs for these darker scenes. Here are several examples.



4. Addressing Issues with Theatrical Footage

In areas where the DNR and artificial sharpening are most apparent, I applied some custom corrections using DaVinci Resolve Studio. I first addressed the artificial sharpening by applying a custom mist effect, which softens the edges of the image without losing detail in the image (thus reducing the effect of artificial sharpening). I then applied some custom film grain designed to emulate the original grain throughout the rest of the film. While these repairs to the theatrical footage aren’t the perfect solution, the result is still far superior to the official theatrical Blu-ray.

5. Mastering the Film

I first created two ProRes masters (one for part 1 and part 2). I then used MKVToolNix GUI to create a non-standard ProRes MKV file of each part, containing all the original Blu-ray’s audio tracks and subtitles. In addition, I extracted the Spanish audio from the film’s iTunes release and included that in the master as well (seriously, why wasn’t this already included in the Blu-ray??). I then merged the two parts into one and produced multiple H264 deliverables from these masters.

RELEASE:

There are 3 versions of this 1.0 release. Descriptions of each version are below. All are available now! You MUST own the official extended Blu-ray in order to obtain a copy of this version! This masterpiece of cinema only exists because of the filmmakers and distributors who worked so hard to bring it to us. Please support them.

V1. One H264 MKV file (Parts 1 and 2 merged together). This version is a lower bitrate and only contains English audio and subtitles for English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The letterboxed area (black bars) are also cropped, which is great for those of us who use services such as Plex. I imagine this is the version most people will want/need. 23GB.

V2. Two higher bitrate H264 MKV files: Parts 1 and 2, synced to the original Blu-ray release. Each part contains all audio and subtitle tracks, including commentaries and the iTunes Spanish audio. Part 1 = 21GB, Part 2 = 22GB. 

V3. Same as V2, but merged into one continuous file. 43GB.

FUTURE:

There is a chance I’ll be updating this project in the future, and you can help! While I have no intention of regrading any more of the extended footage that already exists in the theatrical cut, there are still some huge improvements that I can make. The Netflix version of the theatrical cut is something that I would love to get my hands on. In terms of detail, it is far superior to the theatrical Blu-ray. (Check out my post from a few months ago if you’d like to learn more about the Netflix version).  I’d be happy to replace the shots from the theatrical Blu-ray with shots from the Netflix version if someone can get me a high bitrate 23.976fps capture! I’ve been trying to capture it myself but my hardware is only capable of 24fps, which is not the same as 23.976! If anyone wants to help improve this project, I think this is the route to go!

Thanks everyone. Hope you enjoy this release.

All screenshots mentioned earlier in this post, plus more, can be found here.

List of all tracks found in V2 and V3:
Audio 1: English DTS-HD 6.1
Audio 2: English DTS 5.1
Audio 3: Spanish DD 2.0
Audio 4: Portuguese DD 5.1
Audio 5: Commentary: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens
Audio 6: Commentary: Richard Taylor, Crew
Audio 7: Commentary: Barrie M. Osborne, Production & Post
Audio 8: Commentary: Actors
Subtitle 1: English
Subtitle 2: Spanish
Subtitle 3: Portuguese
Subtitle 4: Commentary: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens
Subtitle 5: Commentary: Richard Taylor, Crew
Subtitle 6: Commentary: Barrie M. Osborne, Production & Post
Subtitle 7: Commentary: Actors
All 48 Original Chapter Markers