Last millennium - a looong time ago I was an early adopter... every new audio video technology was so exciting that I can't resist... few examples? Minidisc (luckily I skipped DCC), DAT, DVB, 16:9 TV, DVD recorder...
What I learned is, despite the fact that is still cool to have some new "tech" thing others don't even know it exist, often it's a waste of money... I mean, MD was a flop, DAT was just a professional format, DVD recorder first models were faulty, DVB... well, here in Italy we had a kind of "government discount" and I got it almost for free, so this is the exception to the rule... 16:9 was actually a good bet - indeed, I got a 16:9 TV set since 1995, almost ten years before all the other "normal" people discovered that it was a good thing - before the discover, my TV was "faulty"
Then, grown old and thanks to a bit of experience, and less money to spend in useless tech, I discovered to be a "late adopter"... wisely, I waited the winner of Blu-ray/HD-DVD war - even if I bet on Sony since the beginning, try to spell "H-D-D-V-D" instead of Blu-ray and tell me it's easier to pronounce... laserdisc also was adopted late - 1995 along with 16:9 TV set - a good move at the time, as DVD was mainstream some years later, and I got "high resolution" video, twice better than VHS, way before the others... got my first flat panel TV, a plasma one, on 2005, not so late but enough to spend 1/10th of what it costed few years before... then it broke, and I was tempted by a full-led local dimming TV - yes, another quite new technology, but at half the price because it was an year-old model, was a gift I made myself...
Now, it broke (again), even if I must admit the use was more than "normal"... so, it's time to buy a new TV set, and, apart the lack of money, I decided to wait... for what? UHD is what I'm looking for, but still not standard enough like the next UHD-BD... so, I'm going to buy an used "classic" HD LED TV from a friend, barely used and still a good model, waiting to know the future of television technology... meanwhile, I'll continue to use a good technology like HD because UHD is still too young...
glad to be on board!
I really appreciate all the work done here and think it's a great idea to give some classics the restauration they deserve. :cool:
Hello to eveyone, I think it's time to share the "perfect" settings to use with x264, to obtain a BD compliant file; what you will get is a .264 file that could be used with any authoring software - I use MultiAVCHD; also Easy BD Light is a good software, but the latter doesn't allow you to make menus... I must admit lately I'm using only TSmuxeR, that, even if it doesn't make menus, it seems to produce good compliant files.
Thanks to many OT members, in particular Chewtobacca, that helped me to find out these settings!
replace 25000 with the desired average bitrate, 24 in the keyint with the video framerate (24 would do for 23.976 and 30 for 29.97), Input_File.avs with an AviSynth script (or a video file), and Output_File.264 with the final x264 file.
You can use them directly with the x264 command line - just copy and paste pass 1 settings then, when finished, copy and paste pass2 settings - or save as .bat file (thanks to Feallan for the idea), or use them inside some GUIs - the best so far IMHO is Simple x264 Launcher, but using any software that is not the original x264 command line could add some further setting that could lead to have a not-compliant file, so be aware, you are warned! And, do NOT delete any temp files you get after pass 1 (.stats and .stats.mbtree) because they will be used by pass 2!!!
HINTS:
these settings are good for 1080p video
pay attention to the BD size: actual ones are 23.3GB for BD-25 and 46.6GB for BD-50
allow about 7% overhead for the .m2ts container - for example, total file size (video+audio+subs) excluding eventual menus would be around 21.75GB for a BD-25, and 43.55 for a BD-50
to retain grain, better to not go under 20/22mbps for 2.35:1 and 28/30mbps for 1.78:1/1.85:1
max bitrate allowed for BD (video+audio) is 48mbps, so if audio tracks total bitrate is over 8mbps, you should lower video bitrate accordingly, in particular pay attention to --vbv-maxrate
to improve speed, you can use for pass 1 a "simpler" version of the final file, for example without noise reduction, grain plate, color grading, but it should be otherwise identical - same frame numbers, same resolution etc.
Hope it will help some user here; any feedback is really appreciated!
Mission: to release Cube 2: Hypercube on BD Video source: HDTV Audio sources: HDTV, DVD Subtitles sources: Various.
Project info:
Cube 2: Hypercube is not available on BD; the only HD version found is a 1080i HDTV, but it has a big logo... so I took a 720p HDTV version, used it to fix the logo problem (plus added some few lines on top of the image).
Audio is taken from several DVD.
An extra disc will follow, gathering bonus material from various DVDs and from the net.
So this isn't a fan restoration but it does fit in the "in progress" category...
Ok, now that I have that out of the way... I am very excited to finally, (after nearly four months of work) officially announce my project, with fanres.com being the first place where it will "see the light of day."
Project is simple... turn each season of the show into a single movie that will be part of a mini-series of films.
I LOVE "The Walking Dead" and it's a good show BUT... well, that's the whole problem that there is a "but...," actually there are a few things that bother me. There are waaaaayy to many "filler" scenes that are irrelevant and slow the show down too much. Also, I have a problem with the "flash" scenes where they are trying to show two different things happening simultaneously as it interrupts "the flow" of certain scenes (glen and rick walking with walker guts on them on the street, comes to mind first)
Anyway, I wanted to present the story in a chronological manner (which means that any "flashbacks" from later season relevant to story at the "time" it happens will have that scene "re-inserted" back where it belongs) and concentrating mainly on Rick and, as the story develops, on Glen & Daryl. These three are there from, pretty much, the start, are still alive (*spoiler* in the middle of season 5) well into the show, and in my mind are the three "strongest" characters. NOT taking away from all others, especially as the series progresses, but initially this is where I am starting. I want to make them seem more capable right off the beginning (which is reflected by the trimming of certain scenes or dialog)
Thanx to Andrea and a few others, I am attempting at making this a multilingual project. I will also be including audio in French, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. I was going to include two others but they were too censored to be usable. Also, I would like to include subtitles for all languages. The final product will be a BD-50 (for each film) in 1080p AVC @27mbps with ALL audio options (I am building custom tracks for each language) in 5.1 24bit DTS-HDMA. I also plan on including a custom built (as I have to work on channel 3 where the dialog is) 5.1 sfx&music only track and a custom commentary track. Of course, there will be a 1080p AVCHD9, a 720p AVCHD5 and some kind of SD format (most likely an mp4 and/or a DVD5)
I AM LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS!!! First, anyone that is willing to look at the SD "workprint" copy I have encoded and give me feedback would be greatly appreciated. The "workprint" is watermarked as such on-screen and it has a timecode that is also onscreen to help easily identify any "trouble" spots on my project timeline. It's still a work in progress, that I just watched and already know there are 4 audio transitions I have to fix and one scene where a shot needs to be dropped because it interrupts the "flow" of the scene (for those that watch I'm talking about the shot of Andrea being dropped at 59:07)
I will also need a French and Spanish speaker to help me verify the dialog (as sometimes the timing is different to the English version and this may cause issue here and there that need to be addressed) and to help me create proper subtitles in those languages otherwise I will have to "google translator" those and I know that there will be errors. I already have a friend helping me with the Russian and Andrea offered to help with the Italian. I can do the English (of course, LOL) and the Polish tracks myself.
So far, I ONLY have the first film "completed," well it's nearly there. I will be working on each one of the next films in the coming months and "releasing" each one as they are finished. If you want to experience the show in a new, fresh way, then this may be for you. I realize that there are two other fanedits of similar nature out there, and each one of them were decent for what the editors intended but they were not my "cup of tea," so I decided to give this a shot on my own.
I really hope that there will be some people out there willing to "experience" this "alternate ride." )
Here are two screenshots from the timecoded SD workprint of minor alterations to title cards that I made during the intro to reflect that this is my work and nothing else is altered in this respect:
As far as the actual SD (640x360@900kbps xvid with 5.1 ac3@384kbps) workprint is concerned... ok, so this is how I look at it... If you already own a retail copy of season 1 of the walking dead (dvd or bluray) then you may view it... I am posting the link here as this is a watermarked timecoded low-res SD copy of a "SAMPLE"... really this is just an extended sample (at a runtime of ~ 139 minutes) of what the final product will be... anyway, for now it includes English audio ONLY (until it's "finalized" I don't want to waste time on other language tracks that I would just have to re-edit anyway) and comes out to 1.25GB... it should download fast:
Quote:old workprint, link dead
this link WILL expire in about a week or so as a "newer" workprint is available and as other languages get added on...
This movie is still not on Blu-ray; yes, it's available as web download, but the bitrate - as usual - is not so high, so overall quality is mediocre for an high def source...
The HDTV, altough it has a slightly higher bitrate than the WebDL, logo is present, with some macroblocking here and there... but, as I learned in the latest years, I found that merging two medium quality sources sometimes lead to obtain a better quality than each one used.
So, I thought to take the HDTV version, clean it a bit, use the WebDL for logo removal, then merge the two and add a grain plate, and... here you are the results:
I was an early adopter... every new audio video technology was so exciting that I can't resist... few examples? Minidisc (luckily I skipped DCC), DAT, DVB, 16:9 TV, DVD recorder...
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