Just wondering what people think are the worst examples of remixes released for films, whether it be due to altered sound effects, musical cues or just noise reduction filtering that reduces noticeable detail. I wouidn't mind compiling a list of the most offensive examples, in order to avoid or source better audio.

hello!

I've been restoring some Dark Knight footage and as its an open matte + widescreen overlay there are inevitably missing corners. so far the overlap has been enough that i'm happy just cropping out the corners but there's one shot in particular that i'd like to at least explore the possibility of restoring the corners in some capacity.

I've done some research but mostly drew blanks.

There's the ambilight thing which uses the existing image and seems to blur/scale it to attempt to fill the rest of the frame. it does a decent job for empty sky where its all basically the same colour but as soon as some detail enters the corner area it becomes quite noticable imo. i dont think its really meant for any kind of restoration tho (more as just a way to fill a frame without just leaving it black)

I also came across AI in/outpainting. idea being use AI to fill the gaps. seems interesting, but kind of arkward to get working. for starters, filling in corners is neither true inpainting nor true outpainting. you got 2/4 sides where there is info, the other 2 theres nothing.

had a go using a couple inpainting models for ESRGAN, kinda promising for tiny corners, but beyond that it doesnt really help. understandable, im going beyond what the model is made for. and again, works well when theres no detail, but detail approaches the corner, it freaks out.



you can see in the bottom left and sorta on the top right on the ambilight where details are skewing things. and ofc on the ESRGAN the bottom corners are very noticable.

I couldnt get AI outpainting to work on corners. found a website that did an ok job on a single frame but i havent seen anything thatd work on a batch of frames. and also after experiementation i dont think itd be consistent enough to be any good.

and i couldnt find anything else on the internet that would help.

the other option that jumps out to me is manual compositing which i would totally try if i knew what i was doing. plus i dont want to spend too much time fumbling on this side quest right now.

and so i thought id ask around for ideas and thoughts and stuff bc this would be helpful for not only my current project, but potentially future projects, and also other ppls projects

I would like to see the directors cut of Rocky IV presented in the OAR of 1:85 as in the theatrical cut without losing any image, and for the theatrical scenes, we can just overlay both cuts and find a way to restore the remaining image, but for the exclusive directors cut scenes, this will be more challenging.

I just discovered that the unassuming used video game store near my place carries a sizable selection of VHS. Most are $1 each! Some go for up to $10 or $15.

I only had time to browse about 1/4 of their selection today. Below are the titles that interest me so far. I'm planning to go back some other day and browse through the rest. Will update the list then.

VHS Hi-Fi:

• Braveheart
  
• E.T.
  
• The Guns of Navarone
  
• Heat
  
• The Manchurian Candidate
  
• Mission Impossible
  
• Total Recall
  
• Vertigo
  

• Independence Day
  
• Titanic
  

• Is audio on THX-certified VHS at least equivalent to VHS Hi-Fi?
  
• I know we already have LD syncs for some of these (M:I and Total Recall for example), but I don't believe anyone has compared the VHS tracks (@captainsolo or @Yarp ?). With that in mind, are any of these worth picking up, either because we don't have a good LD/DVD/BD or because what we already have could still be better?
  
• I don't have a VHS player, and TBH I don't plan on getting one because it would just be another box I rarely use but need to pack on my next move. Does anyone in the US have a good capture setup who's also interested to check out the AQ on some of these titles? I'll gladly buy them and ship to you for free.
  

I know the Japanese blu-ray has the best video transfer with the OAR, but it only has a 16 bit TrueHD 5.1 audio, while the Open Matte Polish Blu-Ray has a 24 bit Uncompressed PCM 5.1 audio, is the Polish audio any better, or should I stick to another audio track, like the 24 bit DTS-HD audio from any other Blu-Ray?

http://dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=15086

Does anyone have access to this track PILF-1418? Looks like there was another release before that is probably the same (PILF-1157).

https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2021/10/am...-1973.html

Which 4K and 1080p transfer is the best looking out of all of these releases? I'm planning to do my own recreation of the extended "Mall Hours" cut with the newer transfers.

from DVDCompare:

The UK release has all three cuts with 4K mastering, supervised by the cinematographer from the original camera negative (but different to the French and Italian releases), original mono audio, and a large selection of exclusive extras. The limited edition has paper extras and CD soundtracks while the standard edition only includes the feature discs and bonus disc.

The German Limited Special Edition" has all three cuts and some exclusive extras but not all are English-friendly. The VHS-Retro edition has some exclusive extras but only the Argento cut.

The French release has a 4K master supervised by the cinematographer with vastly different timing and framing from the Italian 4K master (see caps-a-holic comparison) and an exclusive English-language commentary.- The Italian set has exclusive extras.

Regular Blu-Ray: http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/fi...?fid=11797

4K Blu-Ray: https://dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=

caps-a-holic: https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=3827

I have now finished syncing the 2008 R2/R4 Paramount DVD's audio to the Criterion Blu-Ray

See comments I previously wrote:

(2023-06-27, 02:25 AM)M A Wrote: I have now had a chance to compare the audio from the 2014 Criterion Blu-Ray, the 2014 Eureka! Blu-Ray, the 2007 Criterion DVD, and another track which I found online. It has PAL speedup, so I presume it is the audio from the 2008 R2/R4 Paramount DVD, which is what I will be referring to it as from now on.


2014 Criterion Blu-Ray

Criterion Wrote:The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35 mm optical soundtrack print. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation.

This track is very bad. Heavy noise reduction and so everything sounds extremely dead and muffled.
Spectrum: https://i.imgur.com/gdSVXtf.png
Spectogram: https://i.imgur.com/ZFTFjfM.png


2014 Eureka! Blu-Ray

Eureka's booklet makes no reference to the audio.

This track is certainly better than the one found on Criterion's blu, but is still very muffled and dull.
Spectrum: https://i.imgur.com/kYpyChc.png
Spectogram: https://i.imgur.com/hnvctEu.png


2007 Criterion DVD

Criterion Wrote:The soundtrack was mastered at 24-bit from the optical soundtrack negatives, and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss, and crackle.

Once again, this track is an improvement. Not amazing, but acceptable. Less muffled than the blu-rays.
Spectrum: https://i.imgur.com/ypP73OV.png
Spectogram: https://i.imgur.com/suUfbe6.png


2008 Paramount DVD

Note that the source I found for this had re-encoded the audio at 128kbps

Even better still. It sounds more lively than the criterion DVD and much more so than the blu-rays. It sounds good, but I still think that it could sound better.
Spectrum (speed adjusted): https://i.imgur.com/3iYdRP5.png
Spectogram (speed adjusted): https://i.imgur.com/ocVog3k.png


I am planning on getting started syncing the paramount DVD's audio to the criterion blu at some point.

Thanks to @xwmario for sourcing the SC BD! This is now synced (with tremendous effort) to the Criterion BD which has superior PQ. Please see the quoted post for AQ comparisons.

Input: PCM, 2.0 mono, 1536 kbps, 48 kHz, 16 bits
Output: FLAC, 2.0 mono, 339 kbps, 48 kHz, 16 bits

Notes on the sync:

• Italian cinema at the time frequently had dialog dubbed in post. La Strada is no exception. Additionally, AFAIK some of the actors weren't Italian and spoke their native language on set. Their lines were then dubbed to Italian, so there is no "lipsync" to speak of. This affords us some wiggle room in A/V sync, but since most of us need subtitles, it's still necessary to sync to Criterion's audio somewhat closely to align with subtitle timing.
  
• Criterion BD is 23.976 fps; StudioCanal is 24 fps. Speed adjusted with SoX.
  
• The two BDs are not frame accurate at all (different restorations). They keep drifting apart throughout the film, which greatly impeded syncing.
  
• There are also two or three instances where the SC BD somehow misses a word or two in the middle of a line.
  
• Considering all these factors, I synced this by waveform instead of by editing around where frames diverged. I must have made hundreds of small edits in order to align the two tracks. A vast majority of these edits are simple trims and duplication of silence, but I had to use Izotope RX a few times to interpolate gaps (Spectral Repair) where the SC BD missed more than a couple hundred ms and there was no easy way to duplicate a nearby clip without introducing artifacts. Luckily this worked remarkably well.
  
• I suspect the two audios may be different mixes. Maybe one or both of the restorations reconstructed the mono mix from discrete dialog, sound effect, and music stems?
  
• For example, during a line of dialog between 01:03:11 and 01:03:14, there is a constant bird chirping in the background, but three words are absent on the SC track.
  
• Another oddity: between 01:08:18 and 01:08:26, there's a line of dialog over background music. The SC track started being behind Criterion, but ended ahead. Either there is speed adjustment baked in in the master, or the two tracks are different mixes.
  

(2023-06-24, 12:06 AM)axeyou Wrote: Moshrom/Blah-ray previously compared Criterion DVD, Optimum DVD, and StudioCanal BD. The SC BD was the winner. https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/03/la...-1954.html

I've just ripped my Criterion BD from the Essential Fellini boxset. Here's its spectrogram matching Moshrom's settings (not level-matched to previous BD/DVD but likely doesn't matter given how obviously filtered it is):


Moshrom's spectrogram of the SC BD:


Four-way comparison: https://slow.pics/c/2ABxGJwi

As usual, the Criterion BD features additional filtering in both the high and low frequencies.

Does anyone have the SC BD's mono track (preferably with video for an easier sync)? If not, I can grab a used copy and attempt syncing, but it may be a long time before it gets to me.

Thanks!

Movie: The Shining (1980)
Source: 1999 4:3 Warner DVD
Synced to: UHD

Ref: https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/search/lab...%281980%29

Not sure if anyone has done this, but I gave it a go anyway!!

PM for links (give me 24h to respond)