Glad to have you back at work, Jerry.

Funny, I was just talking about Innocent Blood with someone the other day. Can't wait to see it and Top Gun

Welcome back.

Thanx guys! ...but, I never really left or stopped working

I've been at it this whole time, which is why I have moved everything forward as much as I have. I now have a very smooth workflow, that involves processing via three different apps before I render the final product. All steps lossless... I have figured out which parts to do in which programs, as there really is no AIO solution. Some might think that this is a big waste of time, due to all the lossless rendering in between, but I have found that the time I've wasted trying to do everything in one app and still not get the results that I need, was waaaaaaay more than just breaking it down and doing it this way. Guess it's true that in order to swallow an elephant, one must do so - one, bite, at, a, time

I am still using the SAME machine I've had this whole time... You really can speed things up if you break them down... What used to take me days (sometimes weeks) due to trying to do it all in one go, now takes me from a few hours to couple of days (depending on amount/type of processing) (NOTE:exception being trying to align two video sources to each other on-screen when they are from different transfers,, which is and always will be time-consuming, as well as any potential "patch" work - although I may abandon that on certain projects where... I'll explain later, LOL)

This also reduces the time of final renders, as they are all made from already processed streams, instead of being processed during the encoding process. (Cuts my ridiculous rendering time of 70 hours [as example, for LOTM project] for a movie down to about 8-9 hours in full 1080p) Also reduces the chances of failed renders due to crashing.

My biggest problem at this point and the reason I'm not done sooner, is HDD space. I am at the point where I HAVE to finish one of the projects (decided to go with Maya due to amount of material there and how much it eats up) in order to be able to finish the next ones... LOL... Still, everything is moved forward and I'll start pumping them out and freeing up space to pump out the next ones... Save some space on your HDDs people.... Maya will be a 26 DVD5s set, which is 113GB right there alone... Pan & Pirates is another 16-17 DVD5s, which is another 70GB... Pooh is another 18(20??) DVD5s - `85GB... And all the BD-25 1080p releases.... Yup, save about half a terabyte for this years goodies, LOL

THESE RELEASES WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ANYWHERE PUBLICLY!!! THESE RELEASES WILL NOT BE FOR SALE ANYWHERE!!!


These releases will be made available privately ONLY to trusted members of the community that express interest in the titles once they are completed and ready to be shared with fellow aficionados. Y'all know who you are and are welcome to contact me for information once I have announced completion on any of the titles in this collection

The main reason for this is that I have poured my heart, soul, time, and effort into these projects. They are a labor of love, but they are a LOT of work. I've had WAY too many people in the past ask me to share something that I've worked on and then not even bother thanking me for it. I am NOT saying this for some bullsh*t ego reason, before anyone goes down that road. If I am sharing something with someone, I have to go out of my way to do so. Whether it's investing the time to burn copies of discs and then mail them off or it's a matter of sharing digital files via the net (whatever method, doesn't matter -point applies) where I am using up my upload speed and wasting time to copy the files to HDD or make them available one way or another, that all also takes time. I've done this countless times, only to be ignored the moment people get what they want. IF YOU REGISTER JUST TO ASK ME ABOUT A RELEASE (IN THREAD OR VIA PM) - YOU WILL BE IGNORED!!! (I ask my fellow staff members to ignore these requests, as well, for my projects)

The secondary reason I'm doing this is because some of the titles I'm working on, need to stay private for legal reasons. Enough said there.

To those interested in the Maya project:

So, I finally got the better source for the audio. WOW!!! What a difference between a VHS2DVD transfer with AC3 audio @256kbps versus a re-encode of that audio at 160kbps with the AAC codec.

I fixed all of the credits, color corrected all the shots that needed it in the intro (14 of 26 shots needed corrections) and gave the audio a little TLC.

Here is the nearly finalized (except for cropping out some "black bars," where needed) WP copy of the reconstruction of the SABAN Nick Jr. US Dub Intro:

Quote:Maya The Bee Intro Reconstruction WIPv13 - Color Corrected - Credits FIXED - FINAL audiov8 - 38MB AVI -

https://mega.nz/#!tMIDELAA!ybS2qMYmb3eqQ...6odQaa5CyY

EDIT: Funny, I just downloaded the sample WP I posted here on my Android and it looks great (not saying that to inflate my ego, LOL) but I noticed that the shot of Willy and Maya next to the bird and the next shot of the two of them close-up without the bird (top timestamp ~26-29sec) is still a little too green and I will see if I can fix that further. It's a HUGE improvement over how green/cyan it looked originally, but I'm still not happy with the result and want to improve it. As soon as I have the Intro finished, I will be able to start encoding the first 40 or so episodes as they are ready and only finishing the reconstruction of the intro is holding me up. YAY!!! This means that I will be able to finish this by the end of the month like I wanted

Looking forward especially to your open matte Top Gun, since you first mentioned it a while back. Love this movie but hated the fact the bluray used the 2.35:1 aspect ratio (along with the dnr) rather than 2.00:1 of the original dvd and laserdisc, everything seems so tight, especially headroom. Again was deeply upset with the 3D remaster which would of looked great if it weren't for the already mentioned atrocious color timing and 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Have made do with either the first dvd release (2.00/1 aspect ratio) or slowed down ancient Sky Hd 1080i capture with synced Dts-Hd (no dnr, but same 2.35:1 aspect ratio). Appreciate all the work you are putting in to realise these projects jerry and looking forward to the results.

I wish you the best of luck with the project!  

If you need some spanish (Castilian) audio or subtitles let me know, I'll be happy to help you  

Alright, it's been a couple of weeks since I posted anything so it's time for a little update


Maya The Bee

During the course of syncing all the video/audio sources to each other, I have discovered that the original (UK) dubs are actually missing some footage (and, apparently, ALL Russian dubs were made from the UK sourced material and not the original German)

What this means is that I am having to dub those parts MYSELF. I am testing various ways of doing this. Since I have all the episodes (with this "missing" footage) in Polish, (a language I understand very well) I can do accurate translations for those parts, but I'm having a hard time locating the needed words in the actual dialog of any of the episodes. Trying to "stitch" the dialog together is nearly impossible due to the mono source and the music nearly always being blended with the dialog. I can potentially dub the voices in using actual "voice actors" (as I have lots of British friends that would be happy to help with that) or I can use a "text-to-speech" app. To make things worse, the PILOT episode is missing over two MINUTES of footage that has dialog throughout.

I do have everything synced, color corrected, and ready to be rendered as soon as I figure out the issue with the missing parts of dialog....




In the meantime...

Top Gun


Without going into too much detail at the moment, I am at liberty to say that I now have THREE HD open-matte sources for the film!!!
This means that I do NOT need to use ANY upscaled footage from the open-matte NTSC DVD. YAY!!!
(Don't ask me for origins of the sources, as I can't share that information at the moment...)


I am glad that I took my sweet ass time with this project, as now it will actually be done properly which is something that I feel this film really deserves. The long wait will turn out to be a great thing. HOWEVER, this project will take me a few more weeks to complete. "WHY?!," I hear some of you asking...

The truth of the matter is that I am having to do shot-by-shot color corrections for the entire film. How many shots are used in the film? It took me two DAYS to split up the entire film because it consists of about 1900 shots(!!!) I am building custom LUTs for EACH shot because they need to be matched individually. I have tried to "cheat" by using the same LUTs for shots that are obviously all "the same" (meaning it's the same scene, spliced - like when it goes from a shot of Maverick to a shot of the plane back to a shot of Maverick, that second shot of Maverick should be "ok" with the LUT built for the first shot of him, but in most cases there are variances that cause artifacts)

So far, I have LUTs built for about 60% of the film, with about a third of that footage already rendered out losslessly to a "final master file." My reference for the correct color timing is a French HDTV capture of a French 35mm print that has fantastic, vivid, beautiful colors, instead of the revisionist crap that we saw in the 3DBD release.


Frankenstein - Audio Reconstruction

So, this has slowly been moving forward too... There aren't really any more tidbits of info that I can share at this moment about this project, due to legal reasons. BUT, it is moving forward and I expect to be done with it by the end of summer if all goes according to plan


New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

There are some new HD sources that I am looking at for the series that might change my entire workflow. They are cropped to 16x9, so I might still need to use some of the decent SD sources that I have, but the BIGGEST upgrade via this new HD source is clean, digital audio for all episodes that is NOT sourced from VHS tapes. So this project is, yet again, being delayed a little with no "release date" at the moment. Will post more on this one when I have a better idea of what I need to do to move this forward properly


Fox' Peter Pan & The Pirates

This is also moving forward, without any issues, and should be available before the end of the summer


other titles

...they are in the queue list, but not much progress yet... (although they are being worked on a little bit here and there)

I am very interested in Top Gun, sounds somewhat similar to the work you did with your Last of the Mohicans which I adore.

Jerry:

Maya: that's an unfortunate case where you discover there is missing parts AFTER everything is done... bad luck, but you would be able to fix everything, I'm sure!

Top Gun: I'm dealing right now with HP 6 and three HD copies (+fourth SD for logo removal) and it's a great PITA... I can't believe you would make a shot-by-shot color correction, you crazy man!

(2017-06-05, 06:53 PM)jerryshadoe Wrote: Top Gun


Without going into too much detail at the moment, I am at liberty to say that I now have THREE HD open-matte sources for the film!!!      
This means that I do NOT need to use ANY upscaled footage from the open-matte NTSC DVD. YAY!!!
(Don't ask me for origins of the sources, as I can't share that information at the moment...)


I am glad that I took my sweet ass time with this project, as now it will actually be done properly which is something that I feel this film really deserves. The long wait will turn out to be a great thing. HOWEVER, this project will take me a few more weeks to complete. "WHY?!," I hear some of you asking...  

The truth of the matter is that I am having to do shot-by-shot color corrections for the entire film. How many shots are used in the film? It took me two DAYS to split up the entire film because it consists of about 1900 shots(!!!) I am building custom LUTs for EACH shot because they need to be matched individually. I have tried to "cheat" by using the same LUTs for shots that are obviously all "the same" (meaning it's the same scene, spliced - like when it goes from a shot of Maverick to a shot of the plane back to a shot of Maverick, that second shot of Maverick should be "ok" with the LUT built for the first shot of him, but in most cases there are variances that cause artifacts)

So far, I have LUTs built for about 60% of the film, with about a third of that footage already rendered out losslessly to a "final master file." My reference for the correct color timing is a French HDTV capture of a French 35mm print that has fantastic, vivid, beautiful colors, instead of the revisionist crap that we saw in the 3DBD release.

Welcome to my world, Jerry. That's how I do all my projects. It takes just short of forever.

Glad you got some new sources. Sounds like a great project made better. I'm very curious to see the colors that this French copy brings to the project. Good luck.

(2017-06-05, 08:45 PM)spoRv Wrote: Jerry:

Maya: that's an unfortunate case where you discover there is missing parts AFTER everything is done... bad luck, but you would be able to fix everything, I'm sure!

Top Gun: I'm dealing right now with HP 6 and three HD copies (+fourth SD for logo removal) and it's a great PITA... I can't believe you would make a shot-by-shot color correction, you crazy man!

Me?! Crazy?? Maybe, a little

Maya: Yes, it sucks to figure out you are missing pieces once you think everything is ready to go. Fortunately, I still have all of the video (in great quality) and I can make some kind of accurate dub since I understand one of the languages that has the entire dialog. It's just a PITA to have to add this to the workload already required to do this project.

Top Gun: I feel your pain my friend, especially having to do a logo removal - regardless of source you are using for the "patch"
Shot-by-shot is the only way to do a proper color correction, otherwise you end up with errors...

(2017-06-05, 09:24 PM)PDB Wrote: Welcome to my world, Jerry. That's how I do all my projects. It takes just short of forever.

Glad you got some new sources. Sounds like a great project made better. I'm very curious to see the colors that this French copy brings to the project. Good luck.

ALL of your projects??! F***!!! Yes, it does take just short of forever. However, as I am sure you have noticed just like I have, it's the only way to do a true, accurate, color correction for a feature film. Shit, I've even noticed that if a scene is extremely long (where one shot is 15-30 seconds long) and it contains a lot of motion with a changing background, sometimes these shots actually require two different LUTs where I have to render the shot with one render cross-fading into the next render at various points, depending on when the color variance is too great for the 1st LUT and a 2nd one needs to "take over." It's a massive PITA, as each shot has to have the "right"/"average" frame reference for the color correction and choosing the "right" frame can make the difference between a nice correction and one full of artefacts. Although, the more I work on this, the more I have noticed a "pattern" for the "right" frame for each shot to do the correction correctly on the first try. Initially, it took me 3-5 tries before I chose the right frame. Now, I only need to do a "second take" about every 30-35 shots, usually when there are bigger variances then the "average" shot.

Interestingly enough, when it comes to video "mastering"/"restoration," color correction was the last thing that I needed to learn to be able to tackle any project. F*CK!!!! The learning curve is extremely steep when it comes to this skill. Harder than authoring a "professional" grade blu-ray disc... lol (inside joke, some of you will understand, LMAO) But I have this nearly figured out now, although it wouldn't be possible with certain tools that are out there and I'm grateful to the community for the input in that department.

I appreciate your wishes of "good luck," as I will need as much of that as possible...

No, really, at this point it's not a matter of luck, but a matter of time... Grrrr...

In a little while (I mean like a few weeks, LOL) I will PM you and a few others with a WP version for you guys to check out, including some comparisons between the sources I'm working with
For that matter, ANYONE that is interested in seeing a partial WP copy of the film once I have something rendered, is welcome to PM me for information AFTER JULY 1st, 2017... Yes, that's almost a month from now... This is intentional, as it will take me a long time to finish the remainder of the film due to the actual time it takes to do all of this, plus IRL obligations that I have to address first... HOWEVER, by the end of the month, I am hoping to have nearly all of the LUTs built for the film and have about half of the footage actually rendered if not more. Hopefully

Either way, by the end of the month I should have enough complete to be able to present a WP "sample" for those that are interested

EDIT: Side-note... PDB, I love your signature VERY, "on the money..."