Does anyone have fully-restored classic THX trailers in 1080p, or else could anyone restore classic THX trailers? Here are the ones I'm interested in seeing in true HD:
Wings ("For the past 35 years, motion picture loudspeaker systems have not changed...")
Broadway (original version, the one with the blue rectangular border) (HD Classic version from 2010 or so acquired)
Cimarron (original mix if possible, that's the one that was banned for blowing up speaker drivers in cinemas across the nation) (35mm Dolby SR mix with James Horner's score acquired)
Grand (as seen on the DVD of Speed)
Broadway 2000 ("Let's see it in THX")
Cavalcade (the one derived from the trailer seen on T2's DVD and Blu-ray releases)
Bounty (the 20th anniversary trailer with sound clips from a lot of movies)
The Science of Sensation (as seen on the DVD of Backstroke of the West, more popularly known as Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith)
Perhaps even the trailers featuring that robot with a red cap named Tex (Moo Can trailer acquired)
Whoever is skilled at 3D conversion, could they also do 3D versions of Grand, Broadway 2000, and the Tex trailers, and also the original T2 trailer that would become Cavalcade? Because I was hoping to include them on restorations digitally mastered for superior sound and picture quality within the parameters the original filmmakers intended, if I can accomplish that (THX mastering for video is, after all, notoriously hit-or-miss, with the jobs on Avatar and Titanic being the best I can think of).
Seamless branching is still a complicated thing for the hobbyists who partake in the fine art of fan restoration, but when you want multiple cuts of something and you want it done efficiently, seamless branching is the best option. Or, it would be, if there was a known easy way to do it.
This guide covers the easy part, which nets you a huge file equivalent in size to the files you join in this manner. I tested it yesterday, and the result played OK in Windows Media Player, but Media Player Classic had quite a few problems and VLC Media Player had artifacting at the start of each M2TS file that made up the MPLS file.
Anyway, here's the primitive method:
1. Download and open TSSplitter. You can find it on the VideoHelp forum, right here.
2. Open the File menu, and select "Open for Joining".
3. Click the Add button, and select the files you want to join together. You might want to look under "All files" instead of "TS files", as depending on how the TS files were produced they may not show up if you're looking under "TS files".
4. Once you've got everything, change the suffix from ".Joined.m2ts" to ".mpls", and click the Join! button.
Once I find a more advanced method of making an MPLS file which should bring the file size down significantly to that of a more traditional MPLS file, I'll make a follow-up thread. In the meantime, I'll continue my research on the subject of seamless branching.
Don't you think it would be pretty nice idea to add to our releases a short, Fanres intro for more people to join the website? I'm not saying like hardcoded into the video file, but for custom DVD/Blurays authoring.
Recently I got email about new version of MagicYUV being out, but sadly it's a paid codec. Has anyone used it and might recommend it? I am currently using Lagarith for all my work.
Studing a good way to improve speed with avisynth, I tested some different path...
New CPU: obvious... but take in account the complete cpubenchmark score, not only the single thread - if, for example, your old dual core CPU has a single thread score of 500 and complete score of 1000, and the new quad core has a single thread score of 1000 and complete score of 4000, it will go four time faster, more or less!
Faster HDD (or better SSD): haven't tried an SSD yet, but I'm pretty sure this will not improve the overall speed.
Avisynth 64bit: could indeed improve speed, but it has quite few compatible plugins...
MT version and other multithread plugins: could work, but sometimes MT crashes, and other plugins didn't work - probably my fault
Parallel encoding: it works well! Follow me...
I tried this path in the latest days; I didn't dare to try it with my poor old dual core, dual threaded CPU, but with the new quad core, eight treaded one, I wanted to give it a try... and, oh boys, it works, very well!
How it works?
Well, just take your script, and "cut" it in several pieces - it seems that four pieces works well here, they run the CPU at around 80%, leaving some breath for surfing and other little things; probably it could work with more pieces, but your mileage can vary.
OK, so I've been thinking for some time, why not make a definitive edition of the Dollars Trilogy with all known official cuts, in English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish (and possibly even Japanese with the voice of the great Yasuo Yamada, the eternal voice of Lupin the Third, if someone can chip in in that regard)?
The way I see it, the goals of this project are:
To gather the five aforementioned languages, plus maybe even the Japanese audio, for all three films in the series (Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), and sync them to the best-looking video tracks for each of them;
To make both subtitles and dubtitles in each language, and sync them as with the audio. There will be at least four subtitle tracks and five dubtitle tracks, with the subtitle tracks all translating the original Italian (I may have the numbers or terminology flip-flopped, though, correct me if I do);
To restore the original opening credits and closing "THE END" screen (plus any other intertitles) for all languages;
To make a multi-audio version from each of the applicable audio tracks, with each audio track being active depending on the native language of each character's performer (e.g. for Fistful: English for Joe; Italian for Ramon Rojo, Doña Consuela and Antonio Baxter, and members of the Rojo gang; German for Marisol, Piripero, Esteban Rojo, and Sheriff John Baxter; and Spanish for Silvanito, Don Benito Rojo, Julián, Juan de Dios, Jesús, the cavalry captain, and members of the Baxter gang);
To make the applicable audio adjustments to each audio track (most notably at the very start of Fistful, where the overture music timing tends to vary between languages; namely, I'd like a unified timing for the overture music on each audio track);
To restore the different cuts for each release;
To find the best versions of scenes deleted from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly excluding those found on releases since 2003;
To make OAR and pan-and-scan versions; and
To restore different credits for certain of the cast and crew.
The cuts for each film will be as follows:
Fistful of Dollars:
Original theatrical cut
UK theatrical cut with restored UA Hexagon logo and credits for Bob Robertson, John Wells and Leo Nichols
Television cut with prologue featuring Harry Dean Stanton and credits for Bob Robertson, Johnny Wels and Dan Savio
For a Few Dollars More:
Original theatrical cut
UK theatrical cut with restored UA Hexagon logo
German theatrical cut
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Rome premiere cut
Original theatrical cut
International theatrical cut with Italian onscreen character designations during the first few scenes and at the end
UK theatrical cut with restored UA Transamerica T prototype logo (my best guess at this time based on its UK premiere date)
German theatrical cut (questionable, depends on if anyone can find the exact details of what was cut)
The sources I intend to use for the video base of each version:
Fistful of Dollars: Italian RHV Blu-ray
For a Few Dollars More: German Tobis Blu-ray
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: American 2014 Fox Blu-ray and/or the upcoming Kino Blu-ray
As I only have the Tobis Blu-ray of FAFDM out of the above, this may take a while, to say the least, while I acquire the remaining visual materials. In the meantime, any help in the creation or else acquisition of clean or upscaled HD footage would be well appreciated! On a side note, I might do a restored English credits sequence more closely matching that of the Italian original for TGTBATU. Also: I'm attaching some notes to follow in the restoration of each credits sequence, based on what I know from snooping around in various parts of the Internet.
I'll update this post as I can think of anything else, or else others suggest visual, aural or supplementary materials.
