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.


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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:

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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:

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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:

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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

Alien 1999 HDTV Master (Quick Project v1.0)

Project Info:

A few years ago I acquire two HDTV broadcasts of Alien which appear to be derived from the same master used for the 1999 DVD. This turned out to be unique since all subsequent HDTV broadcasts I can find are from the more modern BD master.  It appears to have been broadcasted on Japan's BSHI network similar to the old Abyss master. After failing to find the original capture, I went back to this project intending to use it as regrade material for the UHD but instead decide to patch the HDTV broadcasts together using material from the BD and 1999 DVD and release as it's own thing. Why preserve this when I don't have the original capture? The 1999 DVD/HDTV master has an unique color timing when compared to the THX LD that came before it and the later Quad/BD master and 4k remaster. It also has more frame, is far less horizontally stretched and brighter than the subsequent remasters.The quality is not top of the line but I think with some of the work I did, it is more then watchable.

The encodes are cleaned up with some deblocking and other filters but no color correction was done as to preserve the original color timing. Some damaged or missing frames/shots are replaced with the BD, DVD or dup frames and Japanese subtitles (about 35 instances) are removed by patching in the 1999 DVD.

I tried including every piece of audio that was interesting or unique, like the THX's soundtracks (PCM and 5.1), the rare 1999 DVD alternative score and the new lossless UHD tracks. It got up to 12 track before I reduced it to a more manageable 8

Notes:
1. This project is in sync with the BD
2. If anyone has the original cap and willing to share please let me know. I would revisit this in a heartbeat

Video:
The Japanese BSHI HDTV broadcast(s) which has the '99 color timing cleaned up with various filters. Plus bad frame and sub removal using the 99 DVD and BD

Audio:
1. DTS-HD MA 2.0 (from the UHD BD)
2. DTS-HD MA 4.1 (from the UHD BD)
3. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround at 48KHz (from the CE LD)
4. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround at 44.1KHz (from the THX LD's that contains different sound effects, musical cues and dialogue-synced by jonno)
5. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the THX LD's that contains different sound effects, musical cues and dialogue)
6. DTS-HD MA 2.1 Chewtobacca Custom Mix
7. Dolby Digital 2.0 Isolated score (from the 1999 DVD)
8. Dolby Digital 2.0 Alternative Score and Dialog (from the 1999 DVD)

Pics:


BD/BSHI


Collaborators and Thanks:
Chewtobacca: For info and his custom mixed soundtrack.
jonno: For the CE LD's PCM 2.0 and the THX LD's PCM 2.0 rip/sync

When archiving laserdiscs, we want to make sure we're copying exactly what is on the disc and not modifying it in any way. This cross-platform app is meant to help verify that your capture chain is setup correctly for "bit perfect" digital audio captures.

A bin/cue is included to burn to a CD, which is recorded through your capture setup. BitPerfect is then used to compare your recording to the reference and see if the samples in the stream are the same. There is also a noise generator included if you'd like a longer or shorter reference WAV, or you can just rip one of your music CDs and use a song. Just replace the reference.wav in the root directory with what you'd like to check against and you're ready to go.

Features:

- Easily test whether a digital recording is Bit Perfect or if 2 audio files are the same
- Snapshot feature analyzes WAV, FLAC, or RF64 (1.0 to 7.1 channels) for RMS, EBU R128 Loudness and Dynamic Range, Dual Mono, and 24-bit padding
- Noise Generator

https://i.imgur.com/MBa4iwz.png

Step 1: Burn the bin/cue to a CD-R (ImgBurn recommended)
Step 2: Play the CD-R on your LD player and record it through your capture setup. Leave a couple seconds of silence on either side of the recording when you export to ensure nothing is cut off (extra data before and after will not affect the test).
Step 3: Use the Tester to compare your recording with the reference WAV.

DOWNLOAD - Version 2.6

WIN - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tow6bWf...sp=sharing
MAC - https://drive.google.com/file/d/18I65A7r...sp=sharing
LINUX - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jTF021r...sp=sharing

TEST CD - https://drive.google.com/file/d/122cEchS...sp=sharing

CHANGE-LOG
2.6 - Fixed Dialog & Message boxes, many small tweaks and styling fixes, first cross-platform build since 2.0
2.5 - Updated from .NET 5.0 to 8.0, updated UI to Avalonia 11
2.4 - Added Spectrogram markers/labels, various graphing tweaks
2.3 - Fixed Snapshot opening some Mono files with channel flagged as Center instead of Left, fixed opening some RF64 files, increased Inspector textbox size
2.2 - Added Snapshot Inspector to view .snaps, changed RMS to calculate for entire signal instead of per channel, more optimizations and cleanup
2.1 - Added FLAC support, added Snapshots, added surround sound support, fixed Extensible Wave reading, added EBU R128 meter for Loudness and Dynamic Range, rewrote dual mono check to work on analog sources, speed ups for sample reading, added peak/RMS/avg sample for channels
2.0 - Ported to Avalonia for cross-platform support. Rewrote testing logic to calculate sample values for matching. Added Stream From Disk and 24-bit matching support
1.4 - Added ability to ignore a percentage of the beginning and end when matching, extra info on completion messages
1.3 - Added pre-made reference CD, moved noise generator to separate tab
1.2 - Added dual mono check
1.1 - Fixed WAV header parsing, expanded noise generator settings
1.0 - Refactoring and memory optimizations, option to verify WAV headers match
0.9 - Initial release

Working on Mad Max, I thought if it's feasible to "glue" HDR luma from UHD to chroma from the regraded UHD HDR2SDR (using DVD as color reference), converted back to HDR.

Now, I could do everything with AviSynth, and finally convert to HEVC, what I'd like to know is how to preserve the HDR data of the UHD... is there any way to let the new encoded HEVC file retains original UHD HDR metadata?

...it's over... after 12 years of let me (and my family) have fun, laugh, think, cry, it's over...

Often I regret to pass too much time in front of TV, but I was happy to spent A LOT of time watching this series - and I did not even liked it for the first few episodes!

Farewell, Leonard, Sheldon, Howard, Raj, Penny, Bernie, Amy, Stewart, and all the other characters... thanks for the entertainment... bazinga!