Posted by substance, original thread: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Laserdi...o/id/51519 (can't link to the exact post...)

I think it's really interesting post; verbatim copy (just in case it will be lost in the future):

Quote:hi, just joined.

actually I was the one who recommended antcu the analog devices adv7800 evaluation board to use it as the external comb filter. The ADV7800 chip so far is the best comb filter in the market and I doubt that there will ever be a newer/better one from any hw manufacturer.

I am not well knowledge about the capture part but I can talk about a thing or two on the real time viewing.

I own or have owned pretty much all of the well known video processors including PMS Crystalio II (had 2 at one point), DVDO VP30/50, Algolith Dragonfly, Algolith Mosquito HDMI (still have two), Faroudja NRS, Lumagen HDQ. I currently own the following,

-Algolith Mosquito HDMI
-Lumagen Radiance 2144
-Lumagen Radiance Pro 4449

I own or have owned all of the highly regarded LD players. I won’t list all but only the ones I currently own.

-Pioneer DVL-919 (US version)
-Pioneer DVL-919E (EU version Pal/NTSC)
-Pioneer LD-S1
-Pioneer LD-S2
-Pioneer HLD-X9
-Pioneer HLD-X0
-McIntosh MLD-7020 (Pioneer CLD-97 Clone with factory RF out)
-Theta Voyager V2 (Silver)
-Theta Voyager V2 (Black with Progressive Scan Component upgrade)

If cost is no object below is the best of the best in LD playback, look no further!

Pioneer HLD-X0 -> Lumagen Radiance 2144 (Comb filter + deinterlacing =480p output) -> Algolith Mosquito HDMI (Dynamic Gaussian Filter for noise removal)-> Lumagen Radiance Pro 4449 (Color calibration + Darbe + Geometry = Scaling up to 4K)

Above is a several decathousand setup, let’s look at more conservative ones.

Pioneer CLD-97 and LD-S2(not! HLD-X9) are the closest to the HLD-X0. They have very low chroma noise and very stable video. For the shipping cost of HLD-X0(from Japan), you can perhaps buy 3x CLD-97s(or 4).

For video processing, I will stick with Lumagen gear. The no ringing scaling of Lumagen is really the only suitable processing for its NTSC video. DVDO sucks, Faroudja is OK, Algolith is OK. Only Crystalio II rivals but that is hard to find. Lumagen Radiance 2124 and 2144 are the only models with the good ADV7800 chip. All other Lumagen use 2D comb filters and not good. The very old HDQ model has the very good TI TVP5160 chip for its 3D comb filter. It is a rare machine but very cost effective comparing to 2124 and 2144.

At one point, I had both Crystalio II Pro VPS-3800 and Lumagen Radiance 2144 in my system. ADV chip in Lumagen is excellent with dot crawl(absolutely none) but noticeably softer than TVP chip in Crystalio II (some dot crawl in motion). Crystalio II uses Gennum VXP for upscaling which is second to Lumagen scaling. Let’s make a list:

-Lumagen HDQ $200-500
-Crystalio II $1000-1500
-Lumagen Radiance 2124/44 $2500-3500

If you really have to go low cost and can’t find a HDQ, Faroudja NRS would be my only alternative. These above VPs are so good, even a mediocre player like DVL-919 can look amazing through these. I see a lot of people use DVDO processors. If you have one of these, make sure to disable its scaling and use your TVs. Just set it to output 480p so it only does deinterlacing (which it does excellently). DVDO scaling will murder LD. its too harsh and aggressive.

Some fun project:

SO I bought these DVL and Theta units for a Frankenstein player. Theta Voyager is basically a DVL-919 with an upgraded power section and video opamp/output section. It’s discete components and toroidal transformers really help lower the noise floor for both sound and video. There is really not a decent PAL capable LD player in existence. I looked into CLD-d925, 2950 and D515 but the best is DVL-919E. It’s the only one with a digital TBC. So my project is to swap come boards inside a Theta unit and make it PAL capable. I still don’t expect CLD-97 type performance but with its amazing power section, I expect much lower noise than the 919. It will mostlikely be the best PAl player in existence.

I made small change to the header; I removed "Buddy List" link, and replaced it with "Subscribed Threads" link; also, removed "View" from "New Posts" and "Today's Post" links (just to make room for the new link).

Why? I think the most used links should be placed there, and "Subscribed Threads" seems more used than "Buddy List"...

Of course, if you think I should revert to the previous status, just post here!

Many people would like to start a fan restoration project - some have good ideas, I must admit - but almost no one has patience, time and skill to do one in person; they keep asking someone else to do it for them.

So, it's time to reveal an hidden truth, feared by all of us, fan restoration project makers... the truth is...

EVERYONE COULD MAKE A RESTORATION WITHOUT EXPERIENCE!

you just need few things - no computer, fancy software, 4k monitors, steep learning curves... only a bit (just a bit) of time and patience, and you could start your project right now! REALLY! Of course, not every kind of restoration is possible, but following this guide, anybody - yes, even you! - will be able to do his/her own project, and finally say "I did it!"

Let's start!!!

• Time. Not too much, but you can't do it in ten minutes... let's say, few hours for each project
  
• Patience. Not a lot, because everyone could follow this guide easily, with zero trials & errors
  
• Source. Of course... you would restore a movie, right? You need one!
  
• Player. A DVD, BD, even a VHS player. A TV broadcast could be used, but you need more skills.
  
• Display. A TV set. Better if it's a LED/plasma/OLED, but an old CRT could still be used.
  
• Camcorder. Or a phone which could record long video. Don't forget tapes/disks/memories!
  
• Stand. To put your camcorder, or phone
  
• Other small things you usually have at home; project dependent, more on these later
  

1. Take the source (movie, usually, but a documentary, concert, TV episodes etc. will do) you want to restore
   
2. Note the source duration; read the techniques you want to use to calculate the time needed for your project
   
3. Put the source in the player, press "Play" and let it play - don't forget to turn on the display!
   
4. Put the camcorder on a stand, in front of the display, at the right distance, so you are able to cover the whole display, and not anything else
   
5. Record a minute, watch the result, adjust settings and repeat until you reach the desired quality
   
6. You are ready to go! Don't forget to turn off the lights to achieve a better result.
   

• Old cinema
  

• More details
  

• Lifelike image
  

• Documentary style
  

• Open matte to letterbox
  

• Logo removal
  

• Add subtitles
  

• Extended edition
  

• Fan edit
  

• Sound tracks replacement
  

• Change audio track
  

• Mute cinema
  

As problaby you all know, I need a new PC, and I think it's time to buy one, because, if I will not decide, I will never buy one!
Frankly, the "revenant" actual PC works quite well, but I can't stand to spend another week just to encode lossless a "simple" project like Waterworld - I can't think how much will take to encode other, more heavy, projects...

I would choose between two interesting models, and I need an advice - even know if prices are good, as I think:

Workstation - 420€ (maybe shipping included) (reached this price from 550€)
CPU: Intel Xeon E52620 6 Core 12 Thread 2.0 GHz, 2.5 Ghz Turbo, TDP 95 W
Mother board: Gigabyte X79 UD3, Quad channel
Memory: 4x8 (32) GB DD3 1333 GHZ
Video card: AMD Radeon HD 6850 2 GB GDDR5
HDDs: 2 HDD Seagate 1 TB 7200 rpm +1 SSD Samsug 850 EVO 256 GB +1 SSD 110 GB
OS: Windows 10 pro 64bit

Mini Desktop - 360€ + shipping (maybe 20€)
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 (should be 3.4GHz)
Motherboard: Intel Mini DH61BL
Memory: 8GB (2 x 4GB ddr3)
Video card: none - Intel 4000
HDDs: SSD 120GB
OS: Windows 7 pro 64bit

Workstation PROs:
Great CPU, great motherboard, plenty of RAM, very good video card, a LOT of HDDs (even if small)

Desktop PROs:
Higher CPU clock than the workstation, price is a bit lower, has 6 months warranty

I searched a lot on the net about the two CPUs, and even if the i7 has an higher clock, the Xeon should have quad channel memory Vs dual, more cache, higher bus speed); plus, the workstation has more memory, has more HDDs, has a good video card, has a better (I think) motherboard... this lead me to think to buy the workstation, that has a very good price, and, eventually, in the future, upgrade the CPU,

Last thing: of course, they should work perfectly with VirtualDub and AviSynth, and MUST be a lot faster (I'd like to be 5x fast) than my actual Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz, both with AviSynth, and also with x264. Other speed improvements are not that important, apart 4K fluid play, even if with those video card, no more than a "mere" 1920x1080 resolution is possible, that is good for now with my plasma HDTV set, and for the near future, where I would like to find a bigger, used, HDTV plasma set, waiting for a great UHDTV technology at good price...

Sadly, according to this page https://openbenchmarking.org/showdown/pts/ffmpeg-2.5.0 it seems that the speed increase will not be so high, as one could think following benchmarks score... indeed, the Xeon (with benchmark almost 8x the Core 2 Duo E6300) is "only" 3x faster, while the i7 3770 (benchmark almost 10x) is "only" 4.5x faster... still, faster than Xeon!

HELP!!!

Finally, after two weeks of downloading - yep, 14 days, more or less - I grabbed the famous HDTV versions of the whole trilogy! (I searched those files for the last two or three years, by the way...)

Fellowship Of The Ring.mkv - (3:28:18) 1920x1088 (active 1893x782) 27634067KB
The Two Towers.mkv -(3:44:06) 1920x1088 (active 1893x782) 26044590KB
The Return Of The King.mkv -(4:12:26) 1920x1080 (1920x798) 33587604KB (C more HD logo in the black bar)

Quality is really good; I’m often surprised to discover how good these MPEG-2 broadcasts were (are, like the latest WOWOW Star Wars). But now, I’m aware of the existence of open matte 16:9 versions… and the mission to find’em all begins!

OK, back on track: it is still interesting the idea of using those HDTV versions to make a project? IIRC the EE BD of FOTR has of course different colors than this (and the EE DVD), while TTT and ROTK seems to suffer less of color problems; can't remember the DNR "affaire", though...

It comes to my mind some shots found in the theatrical version are not included (or are different) in the extended edition; also, I discovered there are some snippets of deleted scenes in trailers and documentaries - I have seen them, and many are ready to be inserted, while others have bad quality, or unfinished... but Frodo as a sort of Gollum is nice!

I wonder if an "Extra Extended Edition" could be feasible, and interesting.

I registered a while back, but never introduced myself. I'll be around these parts a bit more now, so I thought I should say hello! I am a regular over at OT and have been directed here for a few projects. This place is awesome!

Let's face it: even little blind bugs found in the most remote cave in a forgotten land know that, maybe, it's time to upgrade our video system to Ultra HD (I will not use 4K, as, to me, it's the DCP 17:9 version).

So, what do I think about this? Frankly, after the demise of my beloved full LED 55' HDTV (sigh!) I thought to buy a new UHD TV, but prices were quite high at that moment, and I grabbed an used, nice "small" 42' plasma HDTV... and I was surprised how good it is! Really, anybody could think plasma technology is obsolete, and maybe it is, but hey, quality wise, it's still to be beaten in many fields, even by newest OLED TVs...

Possible solutions:

1. Buy now an UHDTV, spending more money that I want to
   
2. Stick with my old 42' plasma HDTV for a while
   
3. Upgrade to a bigger plasma HDTV now (read: 60' or 65'), used, at a great price, waiting for affordable (and improved) OLED or full LED UHDTV
   

• size doesn't lie! Just make a comparison of the filesize of the HD and UHD files; the UHD, encoded in AVC, should be at least twice the size of the HD, and, if encoded in HEVC, should be at least the same size - of course, the bigger the better (usually...); also, always check the Kush Gage calculator to discover if its bitrate is good enough.
  
• master is everything! If the UHD source use a 2K master, it will be simply not possible to have a definition given by a 4K one... if you have a good quality BD version, stick with it.
  
• read reviews. More than one; read what magazines think of a given title, what forum posts say about it, and, if all say it's great, it *should* be great! But use always your own mind, so, before shell out some cash, just...
  
• compare, compare, compare! Even if the previous advices are valid, sometimes the best things to do is to watch screenshots from both versions, and compare them - possibly in full screen, using the display where you watch movies... because when you see them zoomed in your 15' laptop screen, and the UHD seems vastly superior, maybe you will discover later that, when watched in your big brand new 55' UHD, sit four meters (about 13ft) away, the difference is not that great...
  

• UHD source, UHD display - not only for resolution, but also for HDR
  
• UHD source, HD display - difference with HD sources could be quite evident
  
• HD source, HD display - no need to uspcale (with a 1:1 pixel mapping)
  
• HD source, UHD display - upscaling "could* degrade the quality
  

I haven't found anywhere info about an open matte version of LOTR trilogy, but there were full screen DVDs, they were p&s versions of an open matte version, so at least there *should* be an open matte master used for them.

Proofs? https://fanrestore.com/thread-20-post-22...l#pid22751

Ideas?

G'day all, 

Poita here, just registered as requested on OT.COM

I need some help to properly IVTC a video clip (H.264, 29.97fps, 720x480 enhanced) & a movie (D-Theater: MPEG2, 29.97fps, 1080i).

I don't have any experience with Avisynth or the likes.
A guide for this would probably help others as well.

Any help for the proper tools and methods would be appreciated