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.

This is a project ive been working on and off for a couple off years.
Original Thread was not one of mine but I contributed to it and made my project anouncement Original Thread
Although I did a pre-release, a MKV 720p version. Ive since put the project on hold to research new Upscaling, Filtering methods and Delivery options.

Orignal Proposal


The Killer.

For the Final Version of this I intend to do a Multi-Disc Version with Custom Menus and Everything.

The Movie

What I have is

German DVD Version. PAL 720x576 16.9 Cantonese 5.1, Mono
U.K Hong Kong Legends Disc PAL 720x576 16.9 Cantonese and English 5.1 (Best English Subs)
Criterion DVD NTSC 720x480 4:3 Letterbox Mono & Commentary.
Fortune Star Blu Ray 1920x1080p DTS 5.1 Remix (Direct translation Subs)

THE PICTURE

Ive taken the PAL Versions and Done a 25fps to 23.976 Conversion to them and the Subs.
And done a reverse telecine from 29fps to 23.976 On the Criterion.

All Of them sync up well in the edit suite with a little tweaking here and there.

The german DVD is hands down the best Ive got. It has English opening and Closing Credits so will have to replace the opening and end with another addition and try to match it in Colour ect the best way I can. Probably the Hong Kong Legends Version. The problem is The german DVD is Hard Interlaced and will take a really good De-interlace Method to bring it back to a suitable progressive format. I am looking into this at the mo.

The Bluray is quite poor when you look at them side by side. It does have a higher resolution and is True Progressive but the Brightness has been higher-ed to such a degree that it has blown out. Some backgrounds that were present in the German Print are now just White. It also has a lot of noise. Ive synced all the audio to this for my Version 1 as I was making HD mkv’s.

AUDIO


The Best Audio is the Mono original. Guns and Soundfx have more power and its a more pleasing EQ. Again next to the Dub it sounds a little empty I think down to the same reasons I out lined in the Hard Boiled Audio section.

The Hong Kong Legends audio lacks power I tried a custom mix of this but I'm still not happy with it I just EQed it and added gun sound fx to the Left and Right Channels to try and give it a little more bang. May have to do a custom version at some point like the Hard Boiled one I'm attempting but will be a lot harder as there is no CD Soundtrack available with a decent quality. It uses some Music from Red Heat tho and I have that. Maybe using the English Dub and the Remaster DTS from Fortune Star I can get something but Ill look at that later.

The Bluray Remastered Soundtrack is one of those terrible remixes with over the top added effects that stick out a mile. I don't mind adding effects if they blend well and don't replace original elements of the mix but this is like the Better Tomorrow mixes from Japan that are dire.

Again maybe the Criterion Mono from the Laser-disc will be a good Original Audio Track for the Final.

SUBTITLES

The Consensus is that the HK Legends DVD contains the Best Subtitles. I have these synced and also a Direct Translation Version from the Blu Ray.

EXTRAS

What I have.

Commentary by director John Woo and producer Terence Chang From The Criterion DVD
Deleted scenes 5 of them from the HK Legends DVD
Theatrical Trailers from the HK Legends DVD
Interviews with Kenneth Tsang Sally Yeh and Peter Pau from the HK Legends DVD
Interview with Director John Woo From the Dragon Dynasty DVD
American Cinematheque Q+A on The Killer From The Dragon Dynasty DVD
The Killer Locations From The Dragon Dynasty DVD
Taiwanese cut from The French DVD, Better Quality than the Hard Boiled one and in 16.9 Ratio with Burnt in Subs and is Disc 2 in the set.
Documentary From The French DVD in English about 30 mins.

Here is the First Major Update I did



Hi all, here is an update on The Killer ive been working on.


VIDEO

Ive used the German E.M.S DVD and the U.K Hong Kong Legends DVD for Open and end credits, done an upconvert to 1080p and converted the frame rate from 25fps to 23.976.
This gave me a 1920x1080p AVI @ 23.976fps compressed using the UT 422 codec at a whopping 238GB
I corrected a few errors with the print in Adobe Premiere and added a layer of film grain over the image to try and help blend in some of the artifects caused by the DVD compression, it also helps cover some of the DNR.

SCREENSHOTS
Looks much better in motion and the grain looks very organic, I understand if this seems a little stupid to some but to me it helps.
[Image: Screen01.png]

[Image: Screen02.png]

[Image: Screen03.png]

[Image: Screen04.png]

[Image: Screen05.png]

[Image: Screen06.png]

[Image: Screen07.png]

[Image: Screen08.png]

[Image: Screen09.png]

[Image: Screen10.png]

TRAILER

I through this together when I was remastering the American Trailer for the bonus feature disc, may also use it for the menu.
You Tube compression aside it gives more of a sense of how it looks in motion.
http://youtu.be/btuYDpbB6NM
AUDIO

Im working on a custom 5.1 audio mix using the DTS track from the Japanese Blu, it is more in line with the original mono mix and ive removed most of the added sound fx that really annoyed me. Some are still there but they do not bother me.
Other options ive synced are the Criterion Laserdisc Audio, English Dub in 5.1, and 3 Commentary tracks from the Criterion, Fox Lober and HK legends discs.

SUBTITLES

Synced the HK Legends subs to it with a section of the Criterion subs to cover a song that has been changed in the newer mixes, Ive also made some time ajustments and added some additional lines.


FINAL

At the momment the specs for the final are looking like this.

DISC 1 - BD25

Main Movie

1920x1080p @ 23.976fps 21000kb/s
Was going to be 1280x720p but might just go ahead and encode it at 1080p.

DTS-HD High Resolution Audio 5.1 Custom Mix.
DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Original Mono Mix (Criterion LD)
Dolby Digital 5.1 English Dub

Extra Features

Dolby Digital 1.0 Commentary by John Woo & Terence Chang (Criterion)
Dolby Digital 1.0 Commentary by John Woo (Fox Lober)
Dolby Digital 1.0 Commentary by Bey Logan (HK Legends)


DISC 2 - DVD9

Taiwanese Cut

MPEG2 720x480 23.976 pulldown in 29.976 fps

Dolby Digital 2.0 Mandarin

Extra Features

Additional deleted scene available stand alone or reinserted into the movie via branching.

DISC 3 - DVD9

Extra Features

Theatrical Trailers - some re-mastered.
4 part documentary (from the french DVD) - Remastered into 16.9 and translated titles.
Interview with Chow Yun fat from the God Of Gamblers U.K DVD.
Interviews with Kenneth Tsang Sally Yeh and Peter Pau from the HK Legends DVD
Interview with Director John Woo From the Dragon Dynasty DVD
American Cinematheque Q+A on The Killer From The Dragon Dynasty DVD
The Killer Locations From The Dragon Dynasty DVD

Thanks to Mr Brown, singhcr and captainsolo for there help with making this, im not finished yet but im not far off.

Today my mind always exploded to find out why a post doesn't show properly, and instead goes diretly to the main forum page...

Well, it seems that the software going crazy if you post something like the following:

one line before (words used are unimportant)
.casinо>
one line after (words used are unimportant)

Try to start a new thread, and WRITE (not copy and paste lines from here) this into the post, and you will see...

Why? Frankly I have no idea, but it's a funny bug, don't you think?

P.S. Casinо is the name of a movie, by the way...

Moved here: https://fanrestore.com/thread-2127.html

Hi All.

Im looking a techniques to help soften / remove Edge Enhancement.
I come from a 'cutter' background so alot of these tools (AVIsynth) im still coming to grips with!

I came across this on my travels:

Blinddehalo3: http://avisynth.nl/index.php/BlindDeHalo3

Here is a thread on the development and usage: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=74003

Does anybody have any experience with this or Edge Enhancement in general?

Cheers.

Hi All.

Migrating a discussion started in 'The Dark Knight' thread.
Ive put it in editing and authoring section as I thought that was the best.

Original Posts from Thread:



CSchmidlapp
*****
When I am closer to completetion, it would be nice to go through Release / Delivery details with everyone.

One of the ideas thats been floating around my head over the past few years is......
To make available a .MKV of a project containing the Finished Video (probably Blu ray compatible) and Prefered Audio track (in this case it would be the synced cinema DTS).
Then seperate Subtitle and Audio Packs, containing various alternative foreign and domestic mixes / subs synced to your release.
It would end up kind of like a Vault, constantly updateable. Where people can download what they want for there own personal version and mux the final file themselfs.
The 'spoRv' vault!
Im unsure how difficult it would be to implement in real world, but I can dream for now Smile




_,,,^..^,,,_
*******
Great idea! But think also that there are some (a lot of, actually) people that doesn't know how to mux video, audio, subs... maybe some different "ready to go" versions could be better... and my dream is to see this forum as a container, a vault, for ALL our releases, to be watched and also be used as base for different new projects!

Spread the word, let's everyone be aware the new forum is started!




CSchmidlapp
*****
Yes I think you are right.
It might help seperate what we do from just 'pirates' tho, in that you need a little understanding and technical skills to complete your personal version.
It would be fairly easy to do a mkvmerge tutorial for people not in the know, it becomes as easy as loading a couple of torrents.
Problem for me would be is I like menu's (lol), But find im watching all my content file based, and on my 'media centre' p.c.

Do you think Fan Preservations / Edits are going to get more and more exposure / mass appeal as time moves on?




_,,,^..^,,,_
*******
As far as I know, fan edits - thanks in particular to Harmy's De-specialized Star Wars - are known enough in the aficionados circles; fan restorations are not, maybe because there are no famous examples as the former... but I hope it will change in time, as many once "underground" trends are now mainstream!

Hi All, this tread is a work in progress and just mirrors the text off of the one on 'Original trilogy' at the moment.
Will work to tidy up and migrate / mirror the thread properly.

All The Best, look forward to moving forward with this


The Dark Knight Trilogy


Preserve the Theatrical presentations of The Nolan Batman Trilogy
All 3 films with 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio and the DTS Cinema Audio

Contributers
mass5160 (Original Trilogy) - TDK HDTV Rip
Jetrell Fo - Cinema DTS
Hairy_Hen (Original Trilogy) - Cinema DTS
PDB - Research Material/Stills


[Image: tdkr-trilogy.jpg]

The story so far......


Batman Begins

Work to be done

Sync DTS Cinema Audio

Materials

Blu-ray U.K Edition (Pending via Me)
DTS Cinema Audio (Pending via Jetrell Fo)


The Dark Knight
[Image: darkknight_logo_sm.jpg]
Work to be done

Crop IMAX Sequences to 2:35:1 using DVD/HDTV Rip as Reference and edit in Alt Shots.
Sync DTS Cinema Audio

Materials

Blu-ray U.K Edition (Acquired,Ripped)
HDTV Rip from iTV HD u.k premiere. (Acquired via Mass5160 ,Ripped)
DVD U.K (Pending via Me)
DTS Cinema Audio (Pending via Jetrell Fo)


The Dark Knight Rises
[Image: The-Dark-Knight-Rises-Logo.jpg]
Work to be done

Crop IMAX Sequences to 2:35:1 using DVD/iTunes Rip as Reference and edit in Alt Shots (If Any) .
Sync DTS Cinema Audio

Materials

Blu-ray U.K Edition (Pending via Me)
itunes rip @ 480p (Aquired, HELP NEEDED for 1080p version)
DVD U.K (Pending, HELP NEEDED)
DTS Cinema Audio (Pending via Jetrell Fo)


Released
Nothing Yet

(Updated when new information available for convenience)

• Received HDTV rip from mass5160. Legend.
  

• Ripped Bluray (The Dark Knight Disc 1 & 2)
  
• Ripped The Dark Knight.ts (HDTV Version)
  
• Demuxed file ((eac3to)) (root) \BRRip\Disc1\BDMV\STREAM 0007.mts.
  
• Delete .vc1 file
  
• Copy demuxed files to correct folders for later (SUP (Subs),Chapter and Audio tracks in Final folders.
  
• ((TMPGenc)).
  
• Export to a intermediate codec((TMPGenc)).
  

• Created .avs file ((Text Editor)) with settings -
  

• Load .avs file into Media Encoder ((TMPGenc)) adding deinterlace.
  
• Export in a intermediate codec (avi), No Audio.
  

• Opened Editor ((Adobe Premiere CS6)) and created a Project with the following Sequence / Settings.
  

• Imported contents of my video renders folder (root) The Dark Knight\Video\Footage into Editor ((CS6)). And Placed TDK.bluray on Top and TDK.HDTV.23.976 on Bottom of the created sequence.
  
• Did comparisons between material.
  
• Saved the Project as (root) \The Dark Knight The Dark Knight.extension (.pproj)
  

• Ordered The Dark Knight Ultimate Boxset for Disc 6
  

• Rendered off new 1080p file from the BD this time using the AVISynth BlindDeHalo3 Script
  

• Rendered off 1080p files of Promotional Material from Disc 2 of 'TDK' blu-ray for Colour Correction reference.
  
• Obtained and did Colour Correction Tests using RE:Match.
  

Hey all, my name is Shawn. Some may know me, others, well .... we'll leave that one alone.

As far as most things go, I'm liked, disliked, satirized, bullied, slapped around and many other things on other forums some of us have in common. I AM okay with people calling me Shawn. It's more personal and I've known and worked with some of you long enough so I'd prefer it.

Nice looking place Andrea ...... I'm glad to be a part of it's beginning and hopefully it's longevity.

See ya all around the forum ....................

...no words to start this mini review... don't waste your time is superfluous, I think...

A useless, boring, futile movie... and I'm a bit sad, thinking about it's an italian production, with some notorius actors, even if not superstars... color grading is almost all blueish; the acting is quite bad, as dialogs; special effects are horrible, and CGI is laughable... honestly, I can't think a single reason to spend your time watching this... it's kinda the worst episode of a bad low quality TV series... most all SyFy movies are waaay better!