For projects that have limited sources available, this method could be invaluable.

Say you've a few different transfers of a film (this is all assuming they are frame to frame identical/have exactly the same editing):

-Source 1 has a lot of detail but also has crushed shadows and clipped highlights
-Source 2 has somewhat less detail but has the shadow and highlight information intact
-Source 3 has the proper color timing

If we could take elements from all three sources, we'd have an ideal restoration! The only problem is that since these are film scans, the images won't exactly line up, and the geometric differences will likely be non linear and variable due to gate weave, different scanners used, different reels of film, etc...

So the hard part is aligning, or registering, the footage. I'm trying to develop a method to accomplish this, but it's proving difficult. Hopefully in this thread we can work on establishing a work-flow, as I feel this could be an essential restoration tool.

So the methods I'm aware of are:

-Manual alignment via grid deformation
For example in Nuke; take two clips, merge them, blend in difference mode, and try your best to align them via the grid. Unfortunately not only is this long and tedium, but it doesn't account for temporally variable frame geometry (your alignment might only hold for a couple seconds).

-Derive motion vectors from two frames and warp
https://www.reddit.com/r/vfx/comments/3f...t_in_nuke/
Another Nuke example; "set-up of VectorGenerator where you make it think your two different plates are a pair of consecutive frames. You can then pull the motion vectors to get a uv warp between the plates, and the IDistort node to reapply the warp if needed." I tried to attempt this method but it seemed to fail.

-F_Align in Nuke
This will take two clips and align them frame by frame. Unfortunately, the results can be very unpredictable at times, and the alignment is limited to essentially corner pin transforms; it can't deform the interior of the frame.

-Motion Compensation via AVISYNTH
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=154739
It seems, per the thread above, it could be done a couple ways via interleaving your clips and applying MVTools plugin. People in that thread have reported success but I've not been able to replicate (unfortunately I don't know my way around avisynth very well, and am receiving a "not a clip" error). Once I'm able to post on Doom9 I'll inquire further.

-Image Registration
This technique seems to be most used in the medical field for aligning scans. The most popular software seems to be elastix, but I've also seen stuff written in Matlab that does similar things. It's been said this technique can generate high quality results. Unfortunately, processing time is a concern; the transforms themselves are quick but the generation of them takes a bit of time. This means that you'd have to either use the same transform for an entire transfer, or you'd have to change between several at different points in the footage. It also requires a bit of technical know-how as the parameter file needs to be setup correctly for the thing to work.

To show the possibilities with this work, here are the results of a Nuke composition that was done using grid warp.

https://image.ibb.co/m2Zv9b/1_TMP_BLU_REVEAL.png
https://image.ibb.co/na30aG/2_TMP_HDTV_REVEAL.png
https://image.ibb.co/eyLDvG/3_TMP_COMP_REVEAL.png

The highlights and shadows of the HDTV capture were denoised and then added to the midtones of the Blu-Ray release. The result was then put through a MatchGrade node which brought it in line with the HDTV cap's color grade, and then a layer of film grain was added over the top. It's important to keep in mind that the alignment was far from perfect (especially near the edges); if the alignment were automated and done to a high enough quality, the result would look even clearer, crisper than what I've posted above.

Does anyone here have the ability to capture those and is willing to do so if he gets the tape free of charge?

I don't currently have any, but there are a few movies I would consider this for in the future. For example the Mummy movies from 1999 and 2001, although they're pretty hard to get apparently.

Had an idea to help collectors and restorers out

a sticky list of BD titles that contain original audio mixes that could be used for future projects. This would save time in capturing LD audio if a label like Arrow for example have already provided an original mix in LPCM or to find out if the DTS-MA 2.0 mix is actually the original mix and not a fold down of the 5.1 mix on the same disc

opinions?

After having done some HDTV caps for the SW community I would like to contribute some work here in this forum, sharing caps for preservation or restoration purposes. Especially spoRv's thread about the importance of HDTV recordings made me want to do this.
I’m able to do bit-perfect TS caps from a variety of 24h movie channels like sky and TNT.
The caps are 1080/25p or 720/50p H.264/MPEG-4 AVC with german and english (where available) audio tracks in DD 5.1 and/or 2.0.
My caps are done completely random, whatever on the EPG gets my attention or has something like „Extended Cut“ in the description will be recorded.

UPDATE: The majority of all releases being produced since the beginning of the BluRay era use the same master for HDTV releases. Especially broadcasters like sky air BR masters in OAR. Capping those movies in most of the cases is a waste of time and resources, since the cap is identical to the BR release.
Accordingly I will concentrate on capping movies produced before 2008, the beginning of the BR era.
Special recording requests are still welcome.


If you are interested in one or several caps, PM me.

Here is my actual list (updates will come in very soon):

Black Hawk Down [2001] - 139min - AXN
1080/25p - GER 5.1 - ENG 5.1
german localization - logo right top

Made by Jonno, published here with his permission - say thanks to him!

(2017-11-28, 09:01 PM)jonno Wrote: The CDS sync on the TeamBlu release was actually my work, though I was never properly credited for it (not that I'm bitter or anything )

I read Disclord's research, found that DVD release and recut the AC-3 with Womble (which does segment editing of AC-3, so no re-encoding was involved). It syncs to the Skynet version, but I'm happy to hear that it can be delayed to fit other releases. I may well do it over again should a considerably better release ever appear, assuming this track doesn't get another commercial release (and I think that's a pretty fair assumption).

(2017-11-28, 09:56 PM)Beber Wrote: To match the Team Blu's CDS track to the 2015 US Blu-ray, just add a +22 frame delay.

This movie has never been released in HD afaik, but I've seen some references to a Laserdisc. Can't find one on lddb.com though. 

Any ideas?

How about an HDTV? Something? (I looked, but don't see anything).

I was just wondering. LaserDisc is a rather old technology. I remember some old CDs from the 70s/80s don't exactly have stellar sound. They're okay of course, but the ADCs back then were not what they are today. Correct me if my thinking is wrong, but doesn't that imply that capturing the PCM track may sometimes not actually be as good as capturing the analog audio with a good audio interface? Am I missing something?

Using Firefox 51:    at top of page, clicking sign-in jumps to page bottom with sign-in window half off screen and no slider (open picture in new tab for full-size) . .

I have the opportunity to buy the following Cinema DTS discs at an affordable rate: The Day After Tomorrow, Master and Commander, Borne Identity, Star Wars: Episode 1-3, Kung-Fu Panda 2, Jurassic Park 2 and some file called 10392.ISO (which might be Silent Hill, but apparently not sure).

Just wanted to ask which ones of these are already in "our" hands so that I don't waste any money.

The Criterion Collection Blu Ray is already a tiny bit open matte (1.78 instead of 1.85). 

But, I just saw these film strips: https://www.ebay.de/itm/Brazil-35mm-Film...1437216093

Not only are the colors fantastic, I also am absolutely in love with the full frame framing. If anyone sees anything that has this full frame, please let me know. Or if you see the movie sold as 35mm. I probably can't afford it, but who knows. I love this movie to death. 

I might do a regrade of the Criterion with the film cells in that auction, since I already have a little Brazil project going, so please don't snag them away, if I'm not asking too much.