I'm very grateful to join this forum! 

If any of you are visitors to Quadraphonic Quad, I'm the same Inquadwetrust that very occasionally posts over there. 

I've been doing my own preservations and restorations as a hobby for about a year now and have spent a lot of time testing various acquisition work flows for Laserdisc capture in my home set up. I'm not coming from a traditional capture card angle as thanks to a broadcast industry friend I have been able to loan stand alone encoders and broadcast IO cards as well as frame syncs that offer a number of other features. I've also bought some legacy devices that have also added other ways to enhance the capture process. I'd be really interested to discuss the methods I have used and I'm happy to post pics and discuss settings. This is most of the gear that I have or can borrow:


AJA Ki Pro Rack SD/HD UDC ProRes 422 recorder
AJA Ki Pro Ultra HD/2K/UHD/4K ProRes 444 recorder
AJA Io4K - allows capture of SD ProRes 444 and 444 XQ also DPX/TIFF and others
AJA FS1-X - up/down/cross scaler frame sync with detelecine
AJA LUTbox 
Leitch DPS-475
Oppo-105D (benchmark player for output, also used for in-line capture process comparison)
Involve Surround Master (4.0 dolby surround decode)
Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 (1:1 audio capture)
Sony EP9ES - AC3 RF convertor 
LEADER LV5700A WFM 
KUMO SDI router for signal management
Star Wars ANH LD Technidisc corrected pressing X 3 (used as a benchmark for anything new)
Star Wars ANH LD CAV 77' audio (another one I have seen so many times I use it with anything new)
Video Essentials LD
A Video Standard LD
Video Essentials DVD x 2
Spears and Munsil HD Benchmark Bluray
Sony BVM-A24E1W HRTrinitron 16:9 HD-SDI monitor - calibrated (does 1080i48 for 23.98/24 IVTC QA)
Sony Analog CRT HRTrinitron monitors - 1 x 16:9, 1 x 4:3 
CLD-D703
CLD-D704
CLD-97 (waiting to be repaired)
CLD-99 
LD-S1
Panasonic DMR-E20 DVD Recorder (used as TBC for LD-S1)
LD-S9 (waiting to be repaired)
JVC 46" Calibrated LCD for HDMI QA
Epson Home Cinema 2000 Calibrated for QA at 7 feet diagonal

All discussions welcome and thank you again for letting me join this forum 

That's right! Google is a slippery, slimy customer but it's no match for a bronze titan!

I caught them (yes, the whole co-operative of evil!) in their nefarious deed while looking up a webpage for the Computer Chronicles: 35th Anniversary Edition project. Reviewing the OldSchoolLaw - List Of Computer Chronicles Shows, I clicked on the link to a Google cache . .

!! CAUGHT IN THE ACT !!

Send in the gods, I mean, the cops ... and lightning-strike, I mean, arrest them all!

If and when you make menus for your releases, what stuff do you consider in the design process? For example, for my Computer Chronicles 35th Anniversary project I'm planning on incorporating elements from all known Season 1 episodes and making it an animated menu, which I will, of course, do at a framerate of 120 FPS for easy downconversion as necessary. I know I'm planning on starting the menu animation sequence with the HP 150, the first touchscreen personal computer, zooming in against a black screen. However, I'm still trying to figure out what comes next.

This just sorta became a fun project of mine this past week. Anyways its been on my to do list to capture the 1994 Little Rascals movie whenever it came on television again mainly because it includes extended and/or deleted scenes not in the regular cut or included as extras on the video releases. Years ago I did record the TV edit to a VHS but not sure where it is now. Anyways this past weekend I found the TV edit in HD for free on OnDemand in the Freeform section and finally got around to capturing it. There was no master plan with this. I was mostly gonna capture it, cut out the commercials, and join the remaining parts together and call it a night.

However, there was things that I wanted to restore to the film from the theatrical cut such as censored dialogue, the outtakes montage during the closing credits as well as the full closing credits. I figured maybe I'd use this chance to also remove fade ins/outs for the commercials and have an essentially uncut version of the film. 

Some downsides. I had to capture composite so the final result is in 4:3 letterbox. Furthermore I don't have the BD or an HD version of the theatrical film on hand so to restore the bits I wanted to restore I had to capture my old anamorphic DVD to 4:3 letterbox so it would blend in better with the version I captured on OnDemand. For the most part the results aren't too bad. This was mostly a project for myself anyways but wanted to present it incase anyone was interested. Furthermore the TV edit isn't on OnDemand anymore presently so I cant for the time being do a recapture. 

Some details of the capturing and editing. Video was captured with ION Video Capture while audio was captured with a VIDBOX capture device. Audio I edited together in Nero and exported as .wav while the video I edited together in Sony Vegas Movie Studio. The final video was rendered as an .mpg.

Some details of the extended/deleted scenes, some of which I think enhance the film somewhat:

1. Extra bit at the end of fishing scene between Buckwheat and Porky where they are able to interpret Petey's barking as telling them to go to the club's emergency meeting.

2. Longer emergency meeting including Spanky announcing that the go cart tournament will be on the upcoming Sunday.

3. Slightly longer scene between Alfalfa and Darla in the row boat including her complimenting his voice and questioning if he's embarrassed to be seen with her which he denies.

4. Longer fire fighting scene. There's many extra bits here including: a rascal attempting to stop the fire with a sprinkler but ends up squirting himself in the face, Buckwheat and Porky arriving at the telephone line, Waldo arriving at the scene, a fire truck driving by causing the gang to cheer but they are disappointed when it turns a corner and disappears. 

5. Longer court scene including Stymie questioning Buckwheat who testifies against Alfalfa. This scene IMO is better and cuter in this cut than the theatrical.

6. Slightly longer bank scene which adds more to the irony of the gang running into the similarly clad bearded men outside. The men go inside the bank and the teller played by Mel Brooks initially thinks its the kids coming back and tells them to leave and yanks their beards. He's shocked to discover the beards are real and that the bags the men are carrying holds $2 million. The men say they will take their money elsewhere and leave, leaving the teller speechless. Another scene I think should have been left in the theatrical cut.

7. Slightly longer scene at Darla's porch showing Buckwheat pulling more stuff out of his pockets and Darla asking if this will take all day.

8. Extra bit in the scene where Butch and Woim first attempt to steal The Blur. When Butch says it'll be like stealing candy from a baby, Woim reminds him that the last time they did that they got the chicken pox.

9. Slightly longer scene where Alfalfa asks Ms. Crabtree for a spot in the talent show. She tells him they are unfortunately tightly booked but he manages to get her to give him a slot in the show when he lies that his ill stricken aunt from Bulgaria has come to see him sing.

10. Deleted scene where Darla confronts Alfalfa after his performance. She says this is worse than the picnic, locking her in the clubhouse, and wooing her. Its here she discovers that it was him she had spoken to at the ballet recital. Waldo arrives revealing he will be in the go cart race. He says he doesn't know if he'll enjoy his winning or Alfalfa's losing more before walking off with Darla. 

11. Deleted bit of the gang doing a spolioli when they gather at the hill above the ruins of the club house.

12. Deleted bit in the montage of the gang building the second Blur of a mother pushing a baby stroller who stops to tie her shoe. While she's not looking two rascals swipe the wheels from the stroller and run off. 

Some video specs:

Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Mins., 16 Seconds.

Size: 3.91gb

Frame size: 720x480

Frame rate: 29f/s

Audio: 2 Channel Stereo

File Type: Movie Clip (.mpg)

Again I did this mostly for fun but it was a preservation project of some sort in the end and hence wanted to bring it up here. Yes a real HD version would be nice but unfortunately I'm limited in what I can do but still happy for the most part with what I ended up with. Audio syncs up pretty well. Some scenes the video may be a fraction of a second ahead of the video but not so much that its distracting. I also added custom black bars to make the cuts between both sources a little less obvious. Anyways I don't have any immediate plans of where to present this but if anyones interested message me and I'll see what I can do. Any questions please ask! Thanks guys!

Hey all,

Does anyone here have the Japan LD release of POV by Peter Gabriel that would be willing to rip and share the pcm audio from it? The Bluray audio sucks as it's been tinkered with and remixed by Peter Gabriel and it's just not the same anymore.

Huge thanks for any assistance obtaining this.

~Jet

How many here saw Aliens in the theaters in 1986? Anyone see Ripley cutting off the Queen's tail during the finale fight?

Before the Queen gets sucked out, if you freeze-frame, the Queen's tail is cut off.

I read on an internet post that this scene existed, perhaps in early showings and was cut. Sorry if I already posted about this.

I'm writing here just because this is my home, but as some of the users here are members of the other places, they would know as well...

Of course, FanRes: this little community has growing (relatively) a lot, thanks to new users lead to us by not only search engines, but also by other members, and posts made elsewhere. I'm happy to see some of them to be very active, and I must tell there are some that acts "behind the scenes", helping me (and some other project makers) with needed files, test watch and so on. So, thanks to everyone!

Another one is, as you can expect, OriginalTrilogy - without it, this community probably would never exist. It's a lot bigger than us, so it happens to find out some less-than-polite members there (it's the rule of big numbers, I think); but I can say they are almost all very nice and helpful as well.

Then, I should mention MySpleen and Blutopia; I don't visit the former's forum, so I can't speak about it, but I read often the comments on the torrents, and they are almost always nice and polite, and, if negative, usually constructive. On the latter, I visit forum frequently, and I've found nice and helpful people there - some now members here as well!

Doom9 forum: I visit just the Avisynth subforum, so I can speak only for that; it's a very focused subforum, so someone can react a bit over the line sometimes, but I can say that even there I found help for some problems I didn't know to solve otherwise; there are few gurus there with very high knowledge, and following their advices would lead to a sure solution.

Last place I want to mention is Rutracker; I visit just the open matte thread - mainly because it's very interesting, and because I haven't the strenght to use the online translator to visit other threads... well, even there almost all members are nice and helpful, many helped me, and also some are members here, too.

So, I'm too optimistic, lucky... or both?

Now, which are your "happy web places"?

OK, I should admit it doesn't happen frequently, but, as members are growing, and related threads/posts too, it would be more frequent in the future.

So, I wonder if there is a plugin that "prevents" you to post your comment, and that tells you something like "hey, while you were writing, another one has posted a comment... why don't you read it and eventually edit your post?"

It is what rutracker forum does - and probably others, but I noted it only there.

What began as a cut down of Double Team (more details below) quickly became a ‘Double Feature’ with ‘Knock Off’. The two crazy action films Director Tsui Hark made with Jean Claude Van Damme in the mid 90’s we’re both visually stunning and a confusing mess as East and West film making collide.

Double Team.



Originally a script called ‘The Colony’. The plot focused on Ex-Spies being retired to an island colony to fight Terrorism and gather ‘information’ for world government's (All ‘The Prisoner’ fans turn away now!).
We follow protagonist Jack Quinn as he tries to escape to save his wife and unborn child from terrorist ‘Stavros’, who he failed to capture during a botched black Op that got him sent to the colony in the first place.

An interesting Plot to set up some awesome action fair, The Muscles from Brussels, Tsui Hark behind the camera with Sammo Hung providing fight dutys. Sign me up!

While there is little information on the production, one can only surmise that to many cooks got into the kitchen! With heavy script re-wrights in both tone and focus, Colony became Double Team. a cartoon to introduce the world to Dennis Rodman.

The Skeleton of the original concept is still there and this edit tries to reflect that in some form.
Removing as much of Dennis Rodman and the Basket ball humor that plagued the movie, we now have a slick 1hr 20min action flick.
One which bares a little closer resemblance to the version of the film both Tsui Hark and Van Damme signed onto in the first place.

It’s still a cartoon! And looking closely at it there is a definite elevation of this style as the film progresses. At the shorter running time Double Team (re-titled ‘The Colony’ for this fan edit) flies by with lightning pace. Which, by its climax, left me feeling I wanted some more.

Which leads me to……  

Knock Off.



1997 was the year Hong Kong was handed back to China from British rule. So why not make a movie involving nano bombs being put into knock off designer jeans, with the Kung Fu fighting CEO and fashion designer, kicking his way to the truth.
With the hand over looming in the back ground, Van Damme is aided by his trusty partner (Rob Schneider), who is about to find out being a undercover CIA agent is harder than it looks! 

Knock Off is f**king crazy! I don’t think there is anything like it. 'Crank' and 'Shoot em up' are the closest comparisons, and they came much later.
Saying Knock Off was ahead of it’s time is high praise indeed, as at the time it felt somewhat dated!  
It’s very ‘Hong Kong Cinema’ of the time, with a visual flair that only Tsui Hark could deliver. And with a script from 'Die Hard' and 'Commando' scribe Steven e De Souza, (which can be called original in every sense of the word!) 'Knock off' should have been a smash!

Alas the final product was a victim of East and West film making not molding.
On my first viewing in the late 90’s I have to admit I didn't like it!
The humor fall’s flat in most cases (although it reminded me of De Souza's 'Street Fighter', so not just the cultural difference’s) and it just felt a mess, both is plot and execution. But it’s a curious mess, and over time Ive gotten quite the soft spot for it.
 
In a climate of remakes and reboots I just wish we had more ‘Knock Off’s’.

In order to match it to it’s 'Double Bill' counter part, Ive cut the movie down to 1hr 20mins.
While this was my only motivation for this edit, I kept to the rule of keeping things moving and used the opportunity to remove any of my personal gripes that didn’t hinder the plot.
I think I have created a much more slick (and less confusing!) version of Knock Off, that works great as part of Double Bill for a Beer and Pizza cinema night.

Sources, Software, Equipment and Work Done.

Double Team GERMAN BLURAY
Double Team HDTV Rip
- For burnt in English onscreen subtitles
Knock Off R1 DVD
- Upconverted using AVISynth using various filters and scripts.

All assets converted to 1080p UT codec 420 with 5.1 or 2.0 audio wav where applicable, using TMPGENC Video Works 6.

The edit's were cut in Adobe Premiere CC with some additional work done in After Effects CC.


Cut list.

Ive not created a detailed cut list because there are so many to document it’s mainly to do with the fact that I wish people to go in fresh. It helps with feedback also, as to what works and what does not.
(I may update in time)

Final versions we're rendered to 1080p UT Codec with 5.1 wav for final delivery conversion.

Release Specifications.

The Colony (Double Team)

BD - 4. Burnable Blu-Ray image to DVD 5 Discs. (multi 7-Zip files that uncompress to .iso file) PM for Details.
Details - H264 1280 x 720p , Dolby Digital 5.1, Menu.

Media info -

General
ID                             : 1 (0x1)
Format                         : BDAV
Format/Info                    : Blu-ray Video
File size                      : 3.86 GiB
Duration                       : 1 h 20 min
Overall bit rate mode          : Variable
Overall bit rate               : 6 886 kb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate       : 10.9 Mb/s
FileExtension_Invalid          : m2ts ssif

Video
ID                             : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                        : 1 (0x1)
Format                         : AVC
Format/Info                    : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                 : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames      : 6 frames
Codec ID                       : 27
Duration                       : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Bit rate                       : 6 044 kb/s
Maximum bit rate               : 10 000 kb/s
Width                          : 1 280 pixels
Height                         : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 16:9
Frame rate                     : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard                       : Component
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
Bit depth                      : 8 bits
Scan type                      : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.274
Stream size                    : 3.45 GiB (89%)
Writing library                : x264 core 148
Encoding settings              : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=1 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / minigop=1 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=1 / keyint=48 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=6044 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=10000 / vbv_bufsize=10000 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.709
Transfer characteristics       : BT.709
Matrix coefficients            : BT.709

Audio
ID                             : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                        : 1 (0x1)
Format                         : AC-3
Format/Info                    : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                 : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness    : Big
Codec ID                       : 129
Duration                       : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 448 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel positions              : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth                      : 16 bits
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 257 MiB (7%)

Screens -



Knock Off

BD - 4. Burnable Blu-Ray image to DVD 5 Discs. (multi 7-Zip files that uncompress to .iso file) PM for Details.
Details - H264 1280 x 720p, Dolby Digital 5.1, Menu.

Media info -

General
ID                             : 1 (0x1)
Format                         : BDAV
Format/Info                    : Blu-ray Video
File size                      : 3.82 GiB
Duration                       : 1 h 20 min
Overall bit rate mode          : Variable
Overall bit rate               : 6 837 kb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate       : 10.9 Mb/s
FileExtension_Invalid          : m2ts ssif

Video
ID                             : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                        : 1 (0x1)
Format                         : AVC
Format/Info                    : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                 : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames      : 6 frames
Codec ID                       : 27
Duration                       : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Bit rate                       : 5 981 kb/s
Maximum bit rate               : 10 000 kb/s
Width                          : 1 280 pixels
Height                         : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 16:9
Frame rate                     : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard                       : Component
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
Bit depth                      : 8 bits
Scan type                      : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.271
Stream size                    : 3.41 GiB (89%)
Writing library                : x264 core 148
Encoding settings              : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=1 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / minigop=1 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=1 / keyint=48 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=5981 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=10000 / vbv_bufsize=10000 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.709
Transfer characteristics       : BT.709
Matrix coefficients            : BT.709

Audio
ID                             : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                        : 1 (0x1)
Format                         : AC-3
Format/Info                    : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                 : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness    : Big
Codec ID                       : 129
Duration                       : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 448 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel positions              : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth                      : 16 bits
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 256 MiB (7%)

Screens -

I think inpainting ranges from good to great when used on images, but it's not good with video, as there is no temporal filter (AFAIK) that help to average inpainted image between frames, hence result is "stuttering" somehow...

Still, I wanted to give it a try with a bit of help... got three different inpainted versions (Avisynth exinpaint and greycinpaint, plus Batch Inpaint), then median them with previous and next frame, and overlaid the usual 35mm grain plate to hide artefacts a bit more...

TFA deleted scene #1 - timecode removal test (no manual correction made)



far from perfect, still better than the timecoded version, isn't true?

Opinions?