Hi all, poking my over-researched nose in. The site looks wonderful, thanks for giving us yet another wonderful outlet for our collective work to restore a part of cinema's heritage.

With this brief post, I'd like to clarify some good behaviour to follow in this forum, and some bad ones to avoid, to let this place happy and constructive.

Be kind: we are all intellingent and mature people, and if there could be some little "fight" between us, try to turn our rage into kindness, to build something positive... me and one of my fellow members here are sometimes in opposite direction, but we like to "agree to disagree"! Opinions are welcome, as long as they are argumented and polite!

Be humble: no one here wants to claim to be the best in his field; we ALL make mistakes - me first! - but admit them, even if could be hard, reveals great humbleness... also, change your mind is not a sign of weakness!

Be patient: we all have a life out of here... family, work, pets, hobbies... everything takes time, so don't push too hard asking for the completion of a project - this of course should not prevent you to kindly ask when it will be ready, once in a while!

Be sympathetic: remember that there are many members (me included) that are not from a native English-speaking country, so sometimes if one member seems a bit rude, or acts, in your opinion, in a strange manner, please ask him explanations; probably it's only a misunderstanding, due to language barriers or "culture clash"!

Be thankful: if you think a post is good for the community, or helped you somehow, there is a little "Thanks" button at the end of the page; clicking it will make the poster happy! Then you could also rate the whole thread with stars, and it's a good thing to do if you like the whole thread.

Be responsive: project makers do their projects with lot of hard work, spending a lot of their free time, so giving back feedbacks, in particular when asked, should be almost mandatory if you would like to see improvements in that project; don't worry to write negative comments - if they are constructive and not offensive, could help as well as positive ones!

Be happy: the mission of the forum is to showcase our projects, share our knowledge, find out new ideas, have good time at the end, with people who loves the same things... so, let's have some fun together!

_,,,^..^,,,_ presents Escape from New York [spoRv] V1.1 - special preserved or Restored version

[Image: 3_D_COVER.jpg]

| Released projects | Projects in progress | Future projects | Mission & Setup |


Mission: to restore John Carpenter's Escape from New York  using a source better than BD, plus original soundtrack and commentary.

Video sources: HDTV broadcast.
Audio sources: uncompressed PCM original soundtrack, captured directly from Collector's Edition laserdisc, along with commentary; other soundtracks from BD and DVD.

Subtitles sources: to reflect soundtracks.


Project info:
Personally, "Escape from New York" is one of my favourite movies; after I discovered that the EU Blu-ray is really bad, and the US Blu-ray is very dark, I began to search a better alternative; I found that the HDTV version broadcasted by HDNet is maybe the best compromise. The HDTV will be used as video source.
Plus, the Collector's Edition laserdisc will be used to add the original soundtrack and the commentary.

Source Material

Video:

• Escape from New York - HDTV HDNet
  

• Escape from New York - Collector's edition Laserdisc - PCM Dolby Surround
  
• Escape from New York - Collector's edition Laserdisc - Commentary
  
• Escape from New York - PAL German laserdisc [dl link]
  
• Escape from New york - various BD and DVD.
  

• English, French, German, Italian, Spanish.
  

• x264 1920x1080, 23.976fps, 26mbps
  

• English DTS-HD MA 1509kbps 5.1 16bit 48kHz - from Blu-ray
  
• English AC3 384kbps 5.1 16bit 48kHz - from HDTV
  
• English PCM 1536kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz Dolby Surround - from PCM LD
  
• French AC3 192kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz Dolby Surround - from DVD
  
• German AC3 192kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz Dolby Surround - from PCM LD
  
• Italian AC3 192kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz Dolby Surround - from DVD
  
• Spanish AC3 192kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz Dolby Surround - from DVD
  
• English AC3 192kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz commentary - from DVD; originally from LD
  
• English AC3 192kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz commentary - from DVD
  

• English
  
• French
  
• German
  
• Italian
  
• Spanish
  

• Main animated menu, static soundtrack and subtitle settings menu, static chapters menu
  
• Blu-ray custom made outside and inside covers, plus disc label; 32 chapters; restored theatrical trailer
  
• Tested on Playstation 3 (two different models)
  

• TheAluminumFalcon to provide me .torrent link for a video source
  
• Stamper for the french soundtrack and the english, french and spanish subs
  
• anonymous for the english and german laserdisc soundtracks
  
• CatBus, for help about subtitles
  

• THE LAST JOHNY ON THE LEFT for the animated video used for BD menu
  

Hello everyone, I found this forum while browsing OT.com forums. I have downloaded projects from many of you, and really appreciate all the hard work you put into giving my favorite films new life.

I am only beginning to dabble in doing such things myself, but I know this site will be an invaluable resource for me.

Sometime, maybe, you will need to capture an analog source... maybe you need to know that not all analog tapes and/or discs are created equal, as well as players...

About software: I noted it once, when I was ordering my laserdisc collection; I stumbled upon three different copies of the same title, a PAL italian edition of a US movie; they seemed the same, same cover, same discs... I was curious, and I play them one after the other, on the same player, and guess what? The quality was different, and differences were quite noticeable: one was more saturated than the other two, and the other two, while with the same color grading, had different grain structure... I think it could be the same with VHS tapes...

About hardware: at the contrary of digital disc players, where a really cheap player plays a disc with a video and audio quality really close to a top player (don't tell it to hi-end aficionados! ), analog tape and disc player quality differs a lot from one to another... for example, the best laserdisc player could play a good disc with a quality near to a good non-anamorphic DVD disc, while a very cheap and slightly out-of-alignement player could reveal an image quality worst than a VHS...

Then, if you need to capture an analog source:

• try to get the best version available - and different copies of the same title if possible
  
• try to get the best player you can afford - and service it if needed
  
• try to get the best capture device - think a very good used one is really cheap nowadays!
  

Now you have found several sources to use for your project, but don't know which one could be the best to use... you must learn how to rate these; experience will help a lot, but if you have not much, here you could find some hints...

Audio/video sources

UHD-BD: the best source up to date: video resolution up to 3840x2160, bitrate up to 128mbps, 10bit color depth, HDR; audio tracks are usually lossless compressed, 7.1 channels - Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, plus all the others available on normal BDs.

BD: still one of the best source; video resolution is up to 1920x1080, bitrate up to 40Mbps; audio tracks could be uncompressed - PCM - or better compressed with a lossless codec to spare a lot of space without losing quality - Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, DTS-HD MA, Dolby TrueHD - or lossy encoded - Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital EX up to 640kbps, DTS, DTS-HR, DTS-96, DTS-ES up to 1536kbps - all of them up to 8 channels.

HD-DVD: even if today is a dead format, and almost all titles are available on BD, sometimes there are few titles better than their BD counterparts; video quality is very high, with bitrate up to 30Mbps; audio is similar to BD, with DTS-HD MA at a lower max bitrate, but Dolby Digital Plus at almost double in comparison to BD.

D-Theater: another dead format, this time on tape; few titles released, almost all (if not everyone) on BD, but sometimes there are some little jems to discover; good video quality, bitrate around 20/22Mbps but only MPEG2; audio could be AC-3 or DTS 1.5Mbps.

HDTV: a lot of titles still not present on BD or other HD discs, and many times if they are available, the TV version is different or has different grading or cropping; quality could be really high - ATSC is 1080i MPEG2 at 19.2Mbps, while audio has usually lower quality than other HD sources.

DVD: the most successful digital disc format, present everywhere; very often the same title has different features depending on editions and/or country; quality is good, but not HD; video could be up to 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL, anamorphic or not; audio is almost everytime Dolby Digital, but sometimes DTS, usually at half rate, 768Kbps.

VCD: widespread in Asia but not so common in the western countries; some titles could still be available only on this format; video quality is low, MPEG1 352x240 for NTSC and 352x288 for PAL at 1.15mbps fixed bitrate; audio is MPEG stereo 224Kbps at 44.1KHz.

SVCD: rarer than VCD, its predecessor, but with higher quality: video is MPEG2 480x480 for NTSC, 480x576 for PAL, up to 2.6Mbps, audio is usually stereo, but could be up to 6 channels, MPEG up to 384Kbps

Digital streaming: quality varies, from bad SD to very good HD - that could be 720p or 1080p - to great UHD; video bitrates are quite low in comparison to BD and HDTV, but often high enough to obtain good quality; audio could be multichannel, but again usually not on par with BD.

LD: very important format in the past, and with so many titles is quite easy to find out some title never released on DVD or BD; when captured using good players and capture device, quality could be quite good; video resolution could be up to 564x480 for NTSC and 564x576 for PAL; audio could be stereo, analog or PCM 1.44Kbps, or multichannel AC-3 384Kbps or DTS 1.44Kbps.

VHS: once the king of home video, discontinued since few years; sometimes it could be the only way to obtain some particular title; video captured with good VHS, or better S-VHS player or recorder, could be up to 352x480 for NTSC and 352x576 for PAL; audio mono is the norm, but many movies has a stereo Hi-Fi audio track of good quality.

CED, VHD: super-niche formats, video quality is somehow better than VHS but worse than LD; audio could be comparable with VHS Hi-Fi stereo.

Of course, a SD source could be hardly better than an HD one, but how to choose between sources with similar quality? There are some things to take in account: eventual problems like noise reduction, edge enhancement, grain (or the loss of), color grading... if every aspect is similar between the two, bitrate could be a good quality indicator; at the end, you could always use the following formula to know if the bitrate of your source is good enough...

A good digital video should have a bitrate equal or better than

width x height x FPS x motion rank x constant = final bitrate in bps

where the constant should be equal or higher* than

• 0.045 for HEVC
  
• 0.070 for AVC
  
• 0.075 for VC-1
  
• 0.116 for MPEG-2 (hardware encoders)
  
• 0.136 for MPEG-2 (software encoders)
  

• 1 for low motion (e.g. news)
  
• 2 for medium motion (e.g. movie)
  
• 3 for quite high motion (e.g. action movie)
  
• 4 for high motion (e.g. sport)
  

Where to find your sources? Let's discover it!

Physical places

You could find physical formats - discs and tapes - in many places; once there was a lot of specialized video stores, but nowadays they are not so common, because you can find DVD, BD and CDDA discs virtually everywhere... HD-DVD is dead as format, so if you are lucky you could find some titles keeping dust in a dark corner of a little shop! SACD, DVD-Audio and HDCD are niche formats and you could find in few selected places. UHD-BD is still a niche format, but it's quite easy to find them online.

LD discs and VHS tapes are long way discontinued, so it's more difficult, but not impossible, to find them... thrift stores, second hand shops, sometimes there are "hidden" LDs between LPs on record stores; few specialized stores could still have some LD discs or VHS tapes laying around, though! Compact Cassettes are almost forgotten, as more recent formats like DCC and MiniDiscs; S-VHS pre-recorded tapes were released in so small numbers that maybe none are still around, and DAT pre-recoded tapes were not available, I think.

D-Theater tapes, CED discs: I think they are virtually impossible to find, but if you are VERY lucky, they could pop sometimes somewhere in unexpected places; MUSE laserdiscs and VHD are virtually non-existent outside Japan. Vynil records, at the contrary, are living a revival, and new editions are quite easy to find; out-of-print could be usually find in record stores, used and sometimes new.

Internet

Everything could be found on the net; all the physical formats could be bought in online stores, or from private customers through several places, directly or through selling ads. Indeed, today is easyier to find rare and obscure titles online than offline.

Then, the only way to find digital streaming sources is the web; the more common places are the big sites, where you could buy or rent digital material for a small price for each item, or for a weekly, monthly or annual subscription at a reduced fee.

Other ways

But what if, for a reason or another, it is not possible to acquire the needed source? What if the seller can't/won't send the physical media to your country, or you can't download the file because your country is not served from that website?

Then, you should acquire the source in other way. You can ask someone who lives in the seller's same country to buy the physical disc or tape, and then send it to you, or ask the person to rip/capture it and upload the files somewhere on the net; this is also the only option for a streaming media, until you don't want it to be recorded on a physical media and sent to you via mail...

Not everyone knows someone outside own country, so what is the last option? Well, you have to find it by yourself online - google is your friend! Let's face it, there are a lot of pirated files around and, even if we do NOT endorse piracy in every way, we should know it exists... then, it is possible to search for a rip or capture of your needed source, but this should be the last resource, and should be used ONLY for your project and not shared!!! And remember, some sources could NOT be bought, like HDTV rips...

File formats, types and so on

We'll talk about file quality in a next article, for the moment let's say that for video, the best option is a 1:1 copy, to preserve the original quality and avoid unwanted re-encoding of a compressed material; audio too should be 1:1 copy but you could find it also inside files with an high compressed video; subtitles are usually text files. 

Video and audio tracks could be uncompressed, compressed with a lossless codec - something like a ZIPped file - or compressed with lossy codec. A codec is a COmpression/DECompression program that uses a given compression standard. Video is almost always compressed using lossy codecs, because uncompressed video size is huge, while compressed video is relatively small and if the bitrate is adequate the quality is very near to the original. Uncompressed audio file size is a fraction of its video counterpart, so it's easy to find lossless compressed audio files, at half the size of uncompressed ones but with the same quality. Subtitles are usually text files and hence they do not need particular compression apart zip or rar.

What kind of file type exists? Many, too many, where very few are needed; the audio/video files are actually a set of at least one video and one audio track; sometimes there are more than one video track - like different angles, and often more than one audio track - different language, commentary track - and sometimes subtitles. They are muxed together - single discrete tracks that normally are on different files are joined in a single file, called container; is it possible of course to do the contrary; demux the tracks into single files, or even remux the tracks, that means take the tracks - even picking up the desired ones and discard the others - from the container, and put them into another container, also of different kind; there are many containers, like AVI, MKV, M2TS - some are compatible with hardware players, while the vast majority are compatible with almost all software players.

Where to find exactly on the net? Again, do not ask here, as nobody will tell you that... what you should know is the fact that files are distributed in several ways, so all you need to know is which are these ones...

Direct download: you follow the link on a web page, a pdf document, a mail or personal message, and you got the file; just save it, and it will be downloaded into your computer; usually those files are stored on specialized web sites, called file lockers.

FTP: almost the same of direct download, but these files are usually stored directly on web servers, or personal computers always connected to internet; they are more difficult to find, because usually those files are not linked to web pages.

Usenet: you need a NZB, small file that contains all the information needed to retrieve the real file, and a software to interpret it; you need also an usenet subscription to have access to usenet.

Torrent: you need a TORRENT, small file that contains all the information needed to retrieve the real file (there are similar files called MAGNET that usually works with the same software), and a software, called client, to read it; torrent files could be found on open trackers, open to anyone, or private trackers, where you usually need an invite to have access to them.

Peer-to-peer: once the most used, today useful to find obscure and long forgotten files; you need a P2P software that will connect to a certain network; each P2P software use one or more networks, so you should try different softwares to find a file that could be present in a network and not into another.

Warning: before download and open every file, be sure it is a real audio/video file... this is the most used way to spread computer viruses, so if you are downloading an EXE file, this is for sure a virus or worst...

Disclaimer: this is just an informative article about file searching; it does not promote piracy, because it could be an illegal practice in many countries around the world.

In the next article, we will understand how to judge the quality of a source, weighing several factors.

OK, now you have chosen your sources, and you know them better; you must acquire them in order to start your project... usually we see words like rip, used whenever you extract digital tracks - if it's bit-perfect, we can talk about a 1:1 copy or full rip - and capture used whenever you transform analog tracks into digital form; but these are not fixed rules.

First of all you need the required hardware and software to acquire the sources; the mandatory hardware for everything is a computer, better with a fast CPU, and good video and audio cards, and a lot of HDD space to archive sources, temporary files and final project. I include only the most spread formats.

Digital physical formats - you need the required tape or disc, hardware player, computer software and eventual external hardware

UHD-BD: BD disc, BD player, audio/video capture card capable of capture its tracks, capture software
BD: BD disc, PC BD player/burner, software to decrypt and extract audio, video, subtitle tracks - bit-perfect copy
DVD: DVD disc, PC BD or DVD or HD-DVD player/burner, software to decrypt and extract audio, video, subtitle tracks - bit-perfect copy
HD-DVD: HD-DVD disc, PC HD-DVD player, software to decrypt and extract audio, video, subtitle tracks - bit-perfect copy
D-Theater or D-VHS: D-Theater tape, D-VHS recorder, HDTV tuner, USB box, Firewire cables, software to decrypt and extract audio and video tracks - bit-perfect copy
D-Theater or D-VHS: D-Theater tape, D-VHS recorder, component cables, capture device with component input, capture software
VCD or SVCD: VCD or SVCD disc, PC BD or DVD or HD-DVD or CD player/burner, software to decrypt and extract audio, video, subtitle tracks - bit-perfect copy

Cinema DTS: DTS CD-ROMs, PC BD or DVD or HD-DVD or CD player/burner, software to extract and convert digital track - bit-perfect copy
DVD-Audio: DVD-audio disc, PC BD or DVD or HD-DVD player/burner, software to decrypt and extract audio, video, subtitle tracks - bit-perfect copy
SACD: SACD disc, SACD modified player, firewire cable, software to decrypt and extract audio track - bit-perfect copy
SACD: SACD disc, SACD player, analog cable, capture device and software
CDDA, HDCD, DTS-CD: CD disc, PC BD or DVD or HD-DVD or CD player/burner, software to eventually decrypt and extract audio tracks - bit-perfect copy

Analog physical formats - you need the required tape or disc, hardware player, capture device, cables, computer software

LD (video, analog audio): LD disc (with an analog audio track), LD player, analog audio and video cables, capture device and software
LD (PCM, DTS audio): LD disc (with PCM or DTS audio track), LD player, digital audio cable, capture device and software - bit-perfect copy
LD (AC3 audio): LD disc (with AC3 audio track), LD player, digital audio cable, AC3 decoder, digital audio cable, capture device and software - bit-perfect copy
LD (PCM): LD disc (with PCM audio track), LD player, analog audio cable, capture device and software
VHS: VHS tape, VHS or S-VHS recorder/player, analog audio and video cables, capture device and software
Vynil: record, turntable (complete of pickup and stylus), analog cables, capture device and software
Compact Cassette: tape, tape recorder/player, analog cables, capture device and software

Digital streaming - you need the required file, computer software and eventual capture device and software

Internet connection, file or stream, software to decrypt and extract audio, video, subtitle tracks - bit-perfect copy
Internet connection, file or stream, component/VGA/DVI/HDMI video card and related cable, capture device and software

Digital broadcasting - you need the means to receive it (aerial or satellite antenna or cable, decoder), to know the date and time of broadcasting, cables, capture device and software

Aerial: antenna, PC tuner, software to decrypt and record audio, video and subtitles tracks - bit-perfect copy
Aerial: antenna, decoder, cables, capture device and software
Satellite: parabolic antenna, PC tuner, software to decrypt and record audio, video and subtitles tracks - bit-perfect copy
Satellite: parabolic antenna, decoder, cables, capture device and software
Cable: cable connection, PC tuner, software to decrypt and record audio, video and subtitles tracks - bit-perfect copy
Cable: connection, decoder, cables, capture device and software

Analog broadcasting - you need the means to receive it (aerial or satellite antenna or cable, decoder), to know the date and time of broadcasting, cables, capture device and software

Aerial: antenna, decoder and cables or PC tuner, capture device and software
Satellite: parabolic antenna, decoder and cables or PC tuner, capture device and software
Cable: connection, decoder and cables or PC tuner, capture device and software
Radio: antenna, radio receiver and cables or PC tuner, capture device and software

But if you need further tracks not present in your own source, and you are not able to obtain the desired source or have not the needed hardware and/or software, or you could not afford to buy one, what can you do? Discover it in a next article!

Now that you have decided which sources you need for your project, it's time to know them better! Don't forget you may always need audio tracks from different sources than the one used for video, so sometime audio only ones could be necessary, or you want to add different subtitles.

Audio/video sources

Digital Cinema: the best quality source for a movie; 4K and 2K quality; I think it's impossible to find out an untouched source; *maybe* few titles at reduced quality (but still better than BD) are leaked out of the theaters.

UHD-BD: 4K (actually, UltraHD) quality, HDR, 10bit color depth, lossless high quality audio tracks; actually, one of the best sources available, along with few web sources; still strongly copy protected, it's possibly however to capture its video using high quality capture card, preserving most of its original quality.

BD, DVD: if you have not the needed ones, you could buy them almost everywhere - in a shop, online, new and used; my advice is to buy it used if you can, but be aware that sometimes used BD/DVD could be so hard scratched that will be impossible to extract tracks from them! There are a lot of software that are able to decrypt and extract the tracks, but we'll not talk about them because it's beyond the scope of this article.

HD-DVD: as far as I know, it's impossible to buy them brand new, unless a little store has still some of them... but they are quite easy to find used online. There are few software capable of decrypt and extract the tracks, so you should find a working one before considering getting a disc AND a player - remember, you will need a proper HD-DVD or multi player, as the normal BD or DVD player could not read HD-DVD discs!

D-Theater: quite rare, they have a very good audio and video quality; you need a D-VHS player, and some kind of hardware and software to extract the tracks bit-perfect - of you could always try to capture them via the player's analog outputs.

Other digital sources on physical support: as UMD titles are all available on other formats (so no worries about them), the only ones I could think of are VCD and eventually SVCD and CBHD; they are really widespread in Asia, and sometimes the only way to find out a specifical title in digital form; obtainable online, their tracks are quite easy to extact.

Film: 70mm and 35mm are the ones used in theaters, and usually not commercially available for the general public; it's still possible to find some titles in collectors' hands, and they could be captured using pricey projectors and some kind of hardware; difficult to find and capture, the quality could range from spectacular to ugly, depending from several factors - film stock used, generation print, status; in the best cases, it could be way better than BD. 16mm and 8mm were available for sale; quality varies as well the cinema films, but it's lower and maybe the best ones could be comparable with DVD.

LD: the best analog format, the last one produced at the very beginning of this century... more than 50,000 titles available, could be found used - and sometimes new - quite easily online; many times it's the only way to find a specific video version, or different audio mix, commentary, soundtrack; you need a laserdisc player, and a capture device, to transform analog video to digital; it's possible to capture digital audio tracks bit-perfect, in all their formats - PCM, AC3, DTS

VHS: the last resource; difficult to find new, used tapes could be warn and/or have drop outs (very probable) that will ruin the capture; you need a VHS or S-VHS player, and a capture device; a TBC is not mandatory, but strongly adviced - you can also use DVD recorders as pass-through, as almost (if not) all of them have a good TBC.

Other analog sources on physical support: S-VHS titles are very few, and they should be all available on other formats; VHD and CED are old analog disc format, and they need related player and a capture device; there are some titles still not available on other formats, though; don't forget MUSE laserdisc, the only analog HD disc format!

Digital streaming: usually crypted in some way, to avoid unauthorized copy, maybe it could be decrypted using some software, or it's still possible to capture it via analog; as today, quality is way lower than their physical counterparts (BD for HD material, DVD for SD material) but sometimes the only way to obtain a given version or title.

Digital broadcasting: aerial, cable or satellite TV transmissions, they could be captured in digital way, usually bit-perfect, using a software or some kind of hardware connected to the proper decoder, like a S-VHS recorder. Quality varies, depending on several factors; often it is possible to find different version of a given title, or a title still not available in other formats, or that it will never be in the future.

Analog broadcasting: aerial, cable or satellite TV transmissions, today not available anymore in many parts of the world; it could be recorded in digital way - PC, DVD recorder - or analog way - W-VHS, S-VHS, VHS, Betamax; usually it's the latest source to be searched, but sometimes it's possible to find out some real gems, for example MUSE analog HD material recorded on D-VHS or W-VHS

Audio-only sources

Cinema DTS: CD-ROMs containing theatrical audio tracks; not commercially available, sometimes they were scrapped by the theaters, so it's still possible to find them for sale online, but they are quite rare; quality is very high, similar to home version DTS tracks; often they have different mixes.

DVD-Audio, SACD: the quality is very high, could be multichannel, and on par with DTS-HD MA or Dolby TrueHD; the tracks could be extracted bit-perfect.

CD: usually they are standard CDDA, but could be HDCD, or even DTS-CD - multichannel compressed!

Vynil records: despite the fact it's analog, it could have a very high quality, that could rival or even surpass CDDA, depending very much by the turntable, pickups, styluses and capture device.

Tapes: lowest quality of all, depending on eventual noise reduction applied, tape player and capture device; maybe some soundtracks are still not available on other formats, but I think it's hardly the case.

Other commercially released: DCC, MiniDisc, DAT and some other discontinued format may contain soundtracks not available on other format.

Radio broadcasting/bootleg: quality depends on hardware (radio, cables, recorder, microphone) and software (tape, computer program) used; it could be the only way to find some rare and obscure material.

Subtitles sources

Digital audio/video formats: usually it's possible to extract subtitles tracks in graphical or text form.

Analog audio/video formats: it's quite hard, but still possible, to extract Closed Caption and/or Teletext from analog formats, using some kind of hardware decoders and/or computer software.

Text files: sometimes there are no commercially available subtitles, so fans make them on their own; be aware, because often they contains errors, due to wrong translation.

Written text: in rare cases, it's possible to find partial or complete dialog transcriptions on books or magazines.


In the next steps, we'll see where to find these sources.

OK, you have decided you want to start your own project; so you have a title in mind, and it's supposed you have some technical knowledge and skills about video, internet, computers...

The first step to make is to find the sources - plural, because probably you will need more than one; mandatory ones are video and audio (probably more than one audio track), while subtitle is not mandatory, but strongly suggested.

Now, let's face the truth, even if the golden rule is "OWN YOUR SOURCES", sometimes it will be quite difficult to have every one available to make a complete project; what I think is ethically good is to have the best commercially availble product of the title you would like to work with.

Let's make a real-life example: The Abyss.

I'd like to make a project about it; it will be in HD, the Extended Version, with five different languages, and related subtitles.

As there is no BD available up today, the best released source is DVD. I have it - a PAL one - plus a lot of laserdisc editions, so I'm ethically "safe"! So, let's see the options:

for the video, I could upscale my PAL DVD, my NTSC LDs, or find another source
for the audio, I could use PAL DVD and NTSC LDs, but they have not all the ones I need
for subtitles, I could use PAL DVD, but it has not all the ones I need

For video, a real HD source will be better, so I did my homework, and found there are several HDTV recordings floating on the web; I will use more than ones if possible.

For audio tracks, I could extract the english and italian tracks, but they need to be converted from 25 to 23.976fps, so it means some little degradation will happen; no other option for the italian track, but for the english one there are many, like some NTSC DVDs with the right speed, and one with DTS audio; for the other languages, I could find some PAL DVDs with the needed tracks.

For the subtitles, same thing as the audio, but this time no quality loss if I will decide to use the PAL DVD ones; the fact is, it's easyier to get .srt subs from the web and work with them, because some syncs will be necessary.

Now it's time for the hard task of source research!

Digital releases - BD, HD-DVD, DVD etc. - as written before, the best quality format MUST be owned by the project maker, as well as the project viewers. The audio, video and subs tracks could be extracted from it, bit-perfect. For the missing tracks, we could buy the needed discs, rent it, ask a friend or relative to borrow them, or find them in another way...

Analog releases - LD, VHS etc. - the video and audio tracks could be captured in digital form; subs may be as well, but it's a quite hard work. As those are all out of print since years, if we have not yet, we could try to find out the needed ones for sale, or if we are lucky enough, to ask someone to borrow them, or capture them for us.

Digital unreleased - HDTV, SDTV etc. - These sources are captured from terrestrial or satellite TV broadcasting, usually bit-perfect; sometimes this is the only way to obtain a source in a given quality or version.

Analog unreleased - SVHS, VHS, Beta etc. - Usually the only reason to try to obtain these ones, recorded on analog tapes, is to find out a really obscure TV version broadcasted years ago, and not available in other formats.

In the next steps we'll talk more about the source themselves, and how to find out the needed ones.