So now it's time to tell you about the project I've been working on for a while. A fan restoration of the original HK version of Armour of God using the best available material.

Video

For the bulk of the movie, I used the HD transfer from the US blu-ray. I filled in the missing scenes using the upscaled Fortune Star transfer color- and brightness corrected to match the HD transfer. I did the encode a while ago, and there are a few minor issues with it, but since I don't have the raw files anymore, there isn't much I can do about it. Also, while I tried to make sure that the encode is BD compatible, I don't have a Blu-ray burner so I can't know for sure. It would be great if some people are willing to test it for me.

Audio

Original Cantonese mono mix in LPCM format captured from a VHS. The sound quality is surprisingly good. It certainly blows all the DVDs out of the water. I think many wouldn't even guess it was sourced from VHS. I'm also planning on including some other tracks, including the old English dub. I'm also thinking about having a track that replaces the closing theme song with 'Flight of the Dragon' that was used in the export cut. It makes sense since the score is largely based on that theme. Not sure what the story behind it is. Maybe they changed it at the last minute?

Subtitles

I'm still working on the English subtitles. I used the Joy Sales subtitles as a source, but I've been doing tons of editing. I'm hoping to get someone who speaks Cantonese to do a read-through to spot any errors.

Extras

I haven't decided whether or not to include extras yet. I'd like to hear people's opinion on that.

It's fairly close to completion. All I need to do now is to learn how to author BDs Let me know what you think.

Yesterday we wanted to watch a "different" movie - not the "usual" sci-fi, horror, zombie, action etc.
So, took my 1€ Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and rewatch it after a lot of months...

A strange (in a good way) film... comedy, videogame, music, comics, everything melted together in a final product that is fun to watch and never boring; if you haven't watched it yet, you'll be amazed - and don't forget to watch also deleted/extended scenes, it may lead you to think about an extended restoration project!

Am I the only one a bit tired of all these flashbacks in the TV series?

Lost was the first example, but following it, a lot of new ones are based on heavy use of the flashback technique...

If X-files lasted 9 seasons without (or with just few) flashbacks, why the studios can't do any new series without them?!?

Luckily, someone has some remedy for that - like Jerryshadoe's "We Are The Walking Dead"!

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...

I have a few recordings that break up into blocking in fast motion. Anyone have a good technique to fight this?

Hi. Coming over here from OT. I hope to see some nice projects come into fruition here.

There is some interest in adding this... what do you think? Vote the poll and leave here your feedback!

Hey guys,

I'm looking for a soft, mac or PC (preferably mac) that fixes Pal audio pitch shift.

I've found some that fixes the speed, but the pitch remains the same (if higher pitch than the original).

Thanks if anyone can help.

Hi everyone,

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!

NEW SETTINGS:

• 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.