Link Is No Longer Available From Me
If someone has this and wants to share it, please by all means do so.

This is a little project that taas007 came up with. Take the black and white House of Blue Leaves battle scene and add the color back in. How was it done you ask, let taas007 explain.

"The 1080p color output is created from a mix of the uncut Japanese DVD & the retail US Blu-Ray.

The high-definition B&W Blu-Ray footage is supplemented with luma information from the DVD to recover blown highlights. Then the color from the DVD is upscaled using SuperResolution, added and luma levels adjusted shot-by-shot as the retail Blu-Ray has considerable filtering ontop of the B&W pass.

In essence, it means the highlights are upscaled as they were completely blown in the retail Blu-Ray.

The shot at [1:26:41] has an eight frame color data gap as the DVD cuts to a wide shot (and thus does not provide any usable color data) where the retail Blu-Ray stays with the closeup. The first half of the shot has been slowed down to 93.7% and picks up at 100% from where the Blu-Ray continues. No visible difference.

The result is the US Blu-Ray version with the "House of the Blue Leaves fight" fully in color."


All i did was take taas's reinked video, insert it into the movie and encode it to share with everyone.   

Video

• uncut Japanese DVD & the retail US Blu-Ray
  

• 5.1 PCM from the US Blu-Ray and encoded to DTS-HD Master
  

• English (Forced only)
  

Once upon a time, every film released in home media formats (we are talking end of 70s here) was full screen; to achieve that, many were pan&scan - took just a part of the screen, eventually slide it left or right, and the sides were lost.

After a while, the laserdisc format (followed by all the others) started a new trend, letterboxed movies, where the whole image was displayed, adding black borders on top and bottom; at the time, many were against this, because TV sets were 4:3, and so black bars huge, and image smaller than non-letterboxed version.

Then came the 16:9 TV sets, DVD, HDTV, Blu-ray, and letterbox is the standard "de facto" for released movies.

So, what's about open matte? Well, many movies filmed in 35mm were "soft matted" when projected in the theaters; that mean the whole 1.33/1.37:1 image is used - apart, usually, for FX shots, as the cost of them is directly proportional to image area; then, when projected, a matte mask is put in front of the projector, to get rid of top and bottom parts, and get the desired aspect ratio. There are also some "hard matted" movies, where the black bars are on the print, and so no chance to get back the image parts that were behind them.

Many argue that a movie, at home, should be watched as the director (and/or studios) wanted it projected in theaters, in its OAR (original aspect ratio); I agree, this is the best way to watch it. But an open matte version is a great, alternative way, sometimes, to discover interesting things. Of course, not every one is a good version.

The best chance to find a good open matte version is to find out the OAR and the OM (open matte) AR; 1.85:1 (and smaller) AR and 1.33:1 OM, and in general 1.78:1 OM have often (but not always) a good chance to be good, and lose small to few image on the sides, often gaining more image on top and bottom.

At the contrary, 2.35:1 movies in 1.33 OM are usually heavily cropped, and a bad way to see the movie; also, many movies with a 2.35 (and higher) aspect ratio were shot using anamorphic lenses, so no way to get an OM version of them, but only P&S (Pan and Scan)

Old VHS tapes, laserdiscs and also DVDs offer a vast opportuinity to get 1.33:1 OM versions; I read somewhere that about 80% of the so-called fullscreen DVDs (in opposition to letterboxed DVDs, anamorphic or not) are indeed OM. On BD and HD-DVD, chances to get an OM version are quite rare, while often it's possible to see them on HDTV broadcast, or web download.

While open matte means to get a movie without mattes, not all of them are of the same kind. We could distinguish them in the following main kinds:

• full open matte - the image includes all (or almost all) the letterboxed image, hence a lot more image on top and bottom, while none (or a little bit) of image lost on the sides; this usually happens for movies where OAR difference is not that high from the OM AR - example, 1.66:1 OAR and 1.33:1 OM, 2.00:1 OAR and 1.78:1 OM, but sometimes happens also in other cases - as far as I know, vast majority of 1.85:1 OAR -> 1.78:1 OM is full open matte; 1.50:1 OAR (and lower) -> 1.33:1 could (should?) be the same
  
• normal open matte - the image includes more details on top and bottom in comparison to letterbox, but quite some image lost on both sides; this is the normal situation of higher difference from OAR to OM AR - example, 1.85:1 OAR and 1.33:1 OM, and 2.35 OAR and 1.78:1 OM
  
• open matte cropped - the image gain something on top and/or bottom, but a lot of details are lost on both sides; the difference with pan&scan is that usually no pans occour during the movie, but the OM image remains centered, or offset on given shots
  
• mixed open matte - some scenes could be full or normal open matte, while others could be cropped (usually during widest shots, or shots with special effects) or pan&scan
  
• variable aspect ratio - lately we find some movies, usually shot on IMAX, that retain some shots open matte (full or cropped), while the rest of the movie is letterboxed
  

LIST OF FAN EDITS, PRESERVATION, RESTORATION PROJECTS

Updated 2017-01-23 – 1735 entries - http://blog.sporv.com/fan-edits-master-list

I got the following DTS Cinema audio for trailers (with duration):

Fight Club (48s)
Minority Report (116s)
Speed 2 (97s)
Titan A.E. (38s)
Volcano (a) (60s)
Volcano (b) (146s)

If someone may find the right video to couple with them, please let me know, and I'll upload the needed ones.

I will be updating this first post sporadically as I finish these projects.

USA





Japan




France




Germany



Spain

I'm awful tempted to get me another laserdisc player for audio rips but in the UK it seems getting one with PCM spdif (for a reasonable price) is a tall order. Should I be patient and wait for something to show up or just settle for analogue (ie L/R stereo rca) outputs? I know you used to be able to add a digital out via a mod but that might be above my pay grade.
(Edited for clarification)

I finished my Escape from New York project but I find myself stuck near the finish line. I'm new to all this and I need a collective hand (and a hug at this point, why not) because I can't seem to be able to make some steps work.

The story so far:
I worked on Adobe Premiere CS6/After Effects and found out that 1) Encore really sucks at authoring Blu-Rays so it's not an option, 2) exporting/encoding directly from Premiere in H.264 wasn't the wisest choice in the first place (because of its subpar h264 encoder)

So I've been suggested to follow this workflow that I'm sure you're all familiar with: export a lossless intermediate file and then use the native x264.exe to convert this large file into a Blu-Ray compatible H.264 which will then be used with an authoring software (spoRv recommended me EasyBD but I ain't got that far yet!) to create a Blu-Ray.

Since the commonly recommended lagarith is now obsolete and did not seem to integrate at all with my Premiere, I installed UtVideo and with its codecs I could finally export the film from Premiere as a large uncompressed AVI (YUV 4.2.0 BT.709), so obtaining the intermediate avi file.

Where is the problem
From the intermediate file the next step should be to convert it into a Blu-Ray-compatible file thanks to an executable, x264.exe, that can handle the h264 encoding properly. As you all already know (but I'm new to all this) x264 doesn't have a GUI but relies on the use of command prompt to tell it what to do. So, well aware of my ignorance on this type of procedure, I followed given instructions relying but ended nowhere. Where it seems easy for others, I found a wall of errors/can't dos and now I'm totally stuck. Getting help individually from very helpful members residing in different time zones turns this a long-term assistance so I decided to stop being a burden for single individuals and I'm gonna start bothering the whole board with my encoding problems.

Let's start with the script I've been using for pass 1
(my intermediate avi is called EFNY_INTERMEDIATE.avi by the way)

I'm tryin to run this CMD line:

x264.exe --pass 1 --bitrate 27000 --bluray-compat --level 4.1 --preset faster  --tune film --keyint 24 --sar 1:1 --slices 4 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --vbv-maxrate 40000 --b-pyramid none --weightp 0 --colorprim bt709 --transfer bt709 --colormatrix bt709 --merange 24 --stats ".stats" --output NUL "EFNY_INTERMEDIATE.avi

What I get is the following message:
ffms [error]: could not create index
lavf [error]: could not open input file
avs [error]: failed to load avisynth
raw [error]: raw input requires a resolution
x264 [error]: could not open input file 'EFNY_INTERMEDIATE.avi' via any method!


What? How? Why? When?

Additional info: yes, the x264 executable is in the same folder of my intermediate avi. I work on Windows 8.1 64-bit if that matters; I installed  avisynth, ffms and who knows what else, I don't even remember now but I can check it out... so many I installed in the last few days. Don't know what else to add at the moment.
Talk to me like to a little kid, don't worry about it. If anybody has ideas on what can be causing all these difficulties feel free to give me a hand and don't give anything for granted, I might have missed some basic steps. Well, cancel "might".

[FOR ANYONE WHO MIGHT HAVE SIMILAR PROBLEMS IN THE FUTURE: the problem was in the latest version of x264.exe and was solved by using a previous version]

List of D-Theater releases:

1. 21 Grams - 1.85:1 - 12/14/2004 - Universal
   
2. 2 Fast 2 Furious - 2.35:1 - 6/29/2004 - Universal
   
3. About a Boy - 2.35:1 - 3/23/2004 - Dreamworks
   
4. Alien: Director's Cut - 2.35:1 - 1/6/2004 - Fox
   
5. American Pie - 1.85:1 - 10/2003/2002 - Universal
   
6. American Pie 2 - 1.85:1 - 3/23/2004 - Universal
   
7. Backdraft - 2.35:1 - 09/24/2002 - Universal
   
8. Beauty Of Japan - 1.78:1 - 10/2003/2002 - Unknown
   
9. Behind Enemy Lines - 2.35:1 - 10/2001/2002 - Fox
   
10. Being John Malkovich - 1.85:1 - 04/22/2003 - Universal
    
11. Biker Boyz - 1.85:1 - 06/29/2004 - Universal
    
12. Big Momma's House - 1.85:1 - 09/2003/2002 - Fox
    
13. Bone Collector - 2.35:1 - 11/19/2002 - Universal
    
14. Bourne Identity, The - 2.35:1 - 12/16/2003 - Universal
    
15. Brotherhood of the Wolf - 2.35:1 - 10/21/2003 - Universal
    
16. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid - 2.35:1 - 4/20/2004 - Fox
    
17. Cape Fear - 2.35:1 - 06/24/2003 - Universal
    
18. Cast Away - 1.85:1 - 11/26/2002 - Fox
    
19. Contender, The - 1.85:1 - 3/23/2004 - Dreamworks
    
20. Courage Under Fire - 1.85:1 - 04/15/2003 - Fox
    
21. Daredevil - 2.35:1 - 7/29/2003 - Fox
    
22. Day After Tomorrow, The - 2.35:1 - 10/12/2004 - Fox
    
23. Die Hard - 2.35:1 - 04/15/2003 - Fox
    
24. Don't Say A Word - 2.35:1 - 09/2003/2002 - Fox
    
25. Dr. T And The Women - 2.35:1 - 09/23/2003 - Artisan
    
26. Emperor's Club, The - 1.85:1 - 10/21/2003 - Universal
    
27. End of Days - 2.35:1 - 08/20/2002 - Universal
    
28. Entrapment - 2.35:1 - 09/2003/2002 - Fox
    
29. Evolution - 1.85:1 - 06/24/2003 - Dreamworks
    
30. Family Man, The - 2.35:1 - 02/25/2003 - Universal
    
31. Fast and The Furious, The - 2.35:1 - 05/20/2003 - Universal
    
32. Fight Club - 2.35:1 - 10/2001/2002 - Fox
    
33. First Blood - 2.35:1 - 04/22/2003 - Artisan
    
34. Forces of Nature - 1.85:1 - Dreamworks 3/23/2004
    
35. From Hell - 1.85:1 - 12/2003/2002 - Fox
    
36. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai - 1.85:1 - 9/23/2003 - Artisan
    
37. Galaxy Quest - 2.35:1 - 08/20/2002 - Dreamworks
    
38. Glengarry Glen Ross - 2.35:1 - 04/22/2003 - Artisan
    
39. Gosford Park - 2.35:1 - 02/25/2003 - Universal
    
40. Haunting, The - 2.35:1 - 09/24/2002 - Dreamworks
    
41. High Crimes - 2.35:1 - 11/2005/2002 - Fox
    
42. Hurricane, The - 1.85:1 - 02/25/2003 - Universal
    
43. I, Robot - 2.35:1 - 01/31/2005 Fox
    
44. Ice Age - 1.85:1 - 11/26/2002 - Fox
    
45. Independence Day - 2.35:1 - 08/2006/2002 - Fox
    
46. Kiss Of The Dragon - 2.35:1 - 11/2005/2002 - Fox
    
47. K-Pax - 2.35:1 - 04/22/2003 - Universal
    
48. Last Castle, The - 2.35:1 - 06/29/2004 - Universal
    
49. League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen - 2.35:1 - 12/16/2003 - Fox
    
50. Life of David Gale, The - 2.35:1 - 6/29/2004 - Universal
    
51. Limey, The - 1.85:1 - 08/2003 - Artisan
    
52. Lost in Translation - 1.66:1 - 12/14/2004 - Universal
    
53. Love Actually - 2.35:1 - 12/14/2004 - Universal
    
54. Man on Fire - 2.35:1 - 10/12/2004 - Fox
    
55. Master And Commander - 2.35:1 - 4/20/2004 - Fox
    
56. Meet the Parents - 1.85:1 - 06/29/2004 - Universal
    
57. Meet Joe Black - 1.85:1 - 06/24/2003 - Universal
    
58. Men Of Honor - 2.35:1 - 10/2001/2002 - Fox
    
59. Moulin Rouge - 2.35:1 - 11/25/2003 - Fox
    
60. Mulholland Drive - 1.85:1 - 10/21/2003 - Universal
    
61. Mummy, The - 2.35:1 - 05/20/2003 - Universal
    
62. Mummy Returns, The - 2.35:1 - 3/23/2004 - Universal
    
63. National Lampoon's Van Wilder - 1.85:1 - 11/2004/2002 - Universal
    
64. Ninth Gate, The - 2.35:1 - 09/23/2003 - Artisan
    
65. Notting Hill - 1.85:1 - 3/23/2004 - Universal
    
66. Novocaine - 1.85:1 - 08/31/2003 - Artisan
    
67. One From the Heart - 1.33:1 - 1/27/2004 - American Zoetrope
    
68. Out of Sight - 1.85:1 - 06/29/2004 - Universal
    
69. Passion of The Christ, The - 2.35:1 - 08/31/2004 - Fox
    
70. Peacemaker - 2.35:1 - 06/11/2002 - Dreamworks
    
71. Phone Booth - 2.35:1 - 7/29/2003 - Fox
    
72. Planet Of The Apes - 2.35:1 - 11/2005/2002 - Fox
    
73. Red Dragon - 2.35:1 - 06/29/2004 - Universal
    
74. Ring, The - 1.85:1 - 10/21/2003 - Dreamworks
    
75. Runaway Jury - 2.35:1 - 4/20/2004 - Fox
    
76. Rundown, The - 2.35:1 - 12/14/2004 - Universal
    
77. Scorpion King, The - 2.35:1 - 06/29/2004 - Universal
    
78. Snow Falling on Cedars - 2.35:1 - 06/24/2003 - Universal
    
79. Speed - 2.35:1 - 12/16/2003 - Fox
    
80. Spy Game - 2.35:1 - 11/19/2002 - Universal
    
81. Stir of Echoes - 1.85:1 - 09/23/2003 - Artisan
    
82. Terminator 2 - 2.40:1 - 06/11/2002 - Artisan
    
83. There's Something About Mary - 1.85:1 - 7/29/2003 - Fox
    
84. Time Machine, The - 2.35:1 - 06/24/2003 - Dreamworks
    
85. Transporter, The - 2.35:1 - 04/15/2003 - Fox
    
86. True Lies - 2.35:1 - 12/16/2003 - Fox
    
87. Truth About Charlie, The - 2.35:1 - 12/14/2004 - Universal
    
88. U-571 - 2.35:1 - 06/11/2002 - Universal
    
89. Unfaithful - 1.85:1 - 1/6/2004 - Fox
    
90. X-Men - 2.35:1 - 06/11/2002 - Fox
    
91. X2: X-Men United - 2.35:1 - 11/25/2003 - Fox
    

DVDactive.com Wrote:For Minority Report, Spielberg once again allocated the skills of Janusz Kaminski, a rather ingenious Cinematographer who knows how to put DVD’s capabilities to the test. Minority Report is not a very colorful film, and is in fact quite the opposite. The look is hard, drab and cold.
…
I would say that grain is a problem, but the grain visible is obviously a product of the bleach-bypass process used to achieve the film’s amazing look.

TCM.com Wrote:Kaminski’s most interesting trick, however, was to desaturate and mute the film’s colors by employing a “bleach bypass” system. Normally in negative processing, the film emulsion is bleached. By skipping this step, the film ends up looking like a simultaneous color and black-and-white image, resulting in increased grain and contrast. Kaminski said, “The process pulled about 40 percent of the color out of the image, but we worked to get that back in by adding more color to the lights. Overall, the image has a bleached-out quality with deep shadows and blown highlights.”

Blu-Ray.com Wrote:The grading process began with Levinson matching an answer print. The answer print consisted of individual reels that Steven Spielberg had selected as best representing how he wanted the movie to be seen. At that point, Janusz Kaminski came in to work with Levinson. The grading was done while viewing the 4K files rather than a lower resolution proxy.
Steven Spielberg was also closely involved in the remastering and the resulting HDCAM-SR master represents how the creative team want the movie to be seen by viewers today.

• Minority Report – EU Blu-ray
  
• Minority Report – IT PAL DVD
  

• Minority Report – EU Blu-ray
  
• Minority Report – IT PAL DVD
  

• Minority Report – EU Blu-ray
  
• Minority Report – IT PAL DVD
  

Until now, I released my projects mainly on BD with menus. I like menus, and you? I bet so...

The only free software that allow authoring BDs with menus is MultiAVCHD. It works - I mean, it makes a BD structure, ready to burn on actual BD-R disc, but some users found the burned BD not compatible with their players. Moreso, the most known software media players (MPC and VLC) have often strange behaviour with BD menus (much worse than DVD). So, at the end, final users play directly the 00000.m2ts file, and all my work results useless... still, I love to have menus, and intro, and so no...

Lately I find that many, many users (me included) don't burn projects on discs anymore, but play the file directly on their PC; a plain single file is the best option - one could play it "as is", or remux it in a BD (or AVCHD) structure, and have a phisical media to play. Still, menus are lacking, and intro, if any, must be added at the beginning (and/or end) of the file, meaning much work, and "ethical" issues.

MKV "seems" ready to support menus, but when?

Then, I thought to a possible alternative. A simple HTML5 player!

Crazy idea? Maybe, that's why I'm posting it here, to have your opinions. HTML5 players are used by everyone, on YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion and so on. Yet, they are very limited in comparison to any software player. But this could work in our favour, somehow... frankly, when I want to watch a video clip on my PC, all I want to do (eventually) is to choose my language and/or subtitle tracks, and you?

We could release a project in a single folder, with one HTML file that will start the player, and one MVK (or other) video file containing the main feature. Well, almost useless, someone could point out, what is the difference instead of playing the file directly? Well, if there is more than one file - for example, bonus material, or an entire bonus project, having an HTML file with simple menu pointing to those files could be handy (and with a nice looking).

I've seen some free HTML5 video players that allow to add custom made buttons; why don't add one for the trailer? One for chapters, one for audio and subs selection? A bit like DVD/BD menus, but made in HTML/CSS; great appearance, and small footprint, can be read by any OS, also mobile - even if I don't think someone would normally watch an entire 1080p movies on a cellphone...

Another great option could be to add soft matte to an open matte release, avoiding two releases (and double work/time to upload/time to download/HDD space etc.)

Seamless branching "could" work, too... maybe it's possible to have HTML buttons in the menu for the theatrical and extended version, where for example TC calls file1+file2+file3, while EE calls file1+file4+file2+file5+file3... got the point? More investigation is needed, to understand if this is possible and the join are indeed seamless.

Now, codec support: video AVC for sure, also WebM and Theora; audio AAC, vorbis, opus, FLAC, mp3, WAV; containers WebM, Ogg, MP4; I'm pretty sure there is a way to support MKV container, and audio AC3 as well. What's about DTS? Of course, it's still possible to convert audio to a supported format.

What is the output quality of a video clip played in an HTML5 player (possibly without using Flash)? I mean, visually I have the same quality of a software player? And audio wise?

It will be great to have a standardized player, where each of us could put his logo, and other custom... "things", but still having a look'n'feel familiar with other releases...

Still another crazy, and useless, idea, or can have some potential?