The Upscale Project (aka Project Upscale)

[PDB]

So this is a project that I have been working on a couple of months. Sort of a fun throw away. The goal is to upscale old DVDs so that they are more watchable on newer technology (ie HD). I found myself still watching old interesting DVDs. Most were open matte, some interesting color schemes or simple the movie didn't exist in HD. The problem was that many of the transfer were showing their age. So my goal became to process upscale these DVDs to look as best as I could get them (probably other could do better but I wanted to see what I could do).

Problem is I can't magically make SD into HD. You can never create detail that isn't there but what I can do is make the old SD transfers look more like 35mm film. Remove EE and macro blocking. Re-grain the footage with real grain that was filtered out. And best of all, I can also take all the sources I have been collecting and hopefully color correct these upscales to hopefully look more like they did in the theater. Or at least a fun alternative.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The original projects are in the next post. Come 2022 I'm going to re-boot this project

[PDB]

The original upscale projects
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Back To The Future - Open/Variable Matte (Upscale Project #1 v1.6)

https://fanrestore.com/thread-971.html

Status: Done

Video:
The open matte DVD upscaled mixed with the widescreen DVD for SFX/optical shots. The upscaling was done with a combination of super-resolution and nnedi with filters to reduce macro-blocking and edge enhancement/halos. The resulting image was further processed and then re-grained with a real grain best matching the DCP version.

Audio:
1. Dolby Surround PCM 2.0 from the wide screen laserdisc

2. Dolby Digital 5.1 from the open matte DVD.

3. DTS-HD MA 5.1. This is an upmix of the PCM 2.0, run through a Fosgate Model Model 5 in Pro-Logic mode with 70mm sound extension.

Pics:




Thanks:
Doombot: for basically being a partner on this project, test and tweaking
Chewtobacco: for all his ivtc and avisynth advice
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Evil Dead II - Open Matte (Upscale Project #2 v1.3)

https://fanrestore.com/thread-1280.html?...=evil+dead

Status: Done

Video:
The open matte DVD was upscaled with a combination of super-resolution and nnedi with filters to reduce macro-blocking and edge enhancement/halos. The resulting image was further processed and then re-grained with a real grain best matching the BD version. The video was then color corrected with a 35mm LUT and color matched to some 35mm frames and the 35mm trailer scan from book of the dead(www.bookofthedead.ws)

Audio:
1. Mono PCM 2.0 from the wide screen laserdisc

3. Dolby Digital 5.1 from the open matte DVD.

Pics:




Thanks:
Doombot: for testing
MrBrown: For the Japanese PCM soundtrack
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Army of Darkness - Open Matte (Upscale Project #3 v1.0)

https://fanrestore.com/thread-1291.html?...ht=upscale

Status: Done

Video:
The open matte DVD was upscaled with a combination of super-resolution and nnedi with filters to reduce macro-blocking and edge enhancement/halos. The resulting image was further processed and then re-grained with a real grain best matching the BD version. The video was then color corrected with a 35mm LUT and color matched to some 35mm frames and the 35mm trailer scan from book of the dead (www.bookofthedead.ws)

Audio:
1. Dolby Surround PCM 2.0 from the wide screen laserdisc

2. Dolby Digital 5.1 from the open matte DVD.

Pics:




Thanks:
MrBrown: for the open matte DVD
BusterD: for capping the laserdisc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Predator - Open Matte (Upscale Project #4 v1.0)

Status: Done

Video:
The open matte DVD was upscaled with a combination of super-resolution and nnedi with filters to reduce macro-blocking and edge enhancement/halos. The resulting image was further processed and then re-grained with a real grain best matching the BD version. The video was then color corrected with a 35mm LUT and color matched to some 35mm frames.

Audio:
1. Dolby Surround PCM 2.0 (from the wide screen laserdisc)
2. Dolby Digital 4.0 (from the 2008 BD)
3. DTS 5.1 (from the 2008 BD)

Pics:




Thanks:
Jonno: for capping the laserdisc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[s]

[Feallan]

Very interested to see the results

[MrBrown]

Interesting effort.

On a Side Note:
Uhm. Which Evil Dead 2 and Batman DVD releases are open matted. I am interested in getting them into my collection.
Edit 2: Spotted 'em. (Along with Batman Returns Full Screen DVD)

Edit:

Predator open matte
Dark City : is this open matte?

Yeah, Dark City got an open matted DVD.
I have both US open matted DVDs Predator and Dark City.

Whats with an Open Matted Terminator 2 Theatrical Version? Would it be a nice AddOn to the Project list?

also there was a Open Matted Total Recall DVD, If I remember correctly.

[PDB]

Interesting effort.

On a Side Note:
Uhm. Which Evil Dead 2 and Batman DVD releases are open matted. I am interested in getting them into my collection.
Edit 2: Spotted 'em. (Along with Batman Returns Full Screen DVD)

Edit:

Predator open matte
Dark City : is this open matte?

Yeah, Dark City got an open matted DVD.
I have both US open matted DVDs Predator and Dark City.

Whats with an Open Matted Terminator 2 Theatrical Version? Would it be a nice AddOn to the Project list?

also there was a Open Matted Total Recall DVD, If I remember correctly.

Like I said it might be waste of time but I'm having fun watching the upscales.

Thanks for the info MrBrown. Wasn't sure on Dark City but I heard it was. Although I'm open to upscaling anything I'm trying to hit the open matte's first since they most likely will never see the light of day as HD. I might have to borrow copies of those DVDs  (Pred and DC)

Actually Total Recall would be cool too.

T2 is a PAL release of the TC. I kind of dropped my regrade of the BD since there is a regrade 3D theatrical release coming soon and I put all the work into this open matte.

I'll send you a copy of Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness to test once I get the LD tracks synced.

[MrBrown]

Like I said it might be waste of time but I'm having fun watching the upscales.

Thanks for the info MrBrown. Wasn't sure on Dark City but I heard it was. Although I'm open to upscaling anything I'm trying to hit the open matte's first since they most likely will never se the light of day as HD. I might have to borrow copies of those DVDs  (Pred and DC)

Actually Total Recall would be cool too.

T2 is a PAL release of the TC. I kind of dropped my regrade of the BD since there is a regrade #D theatrical release coming soon and I put all the work into this open matte.

I'll send you a copy of Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness to test once I get the LD tracks synced.

That's the poiunt: Having fun. And I think a (slowly) processed and revised Upscale can look better then some "on the fly" upscale. Even if the hardware doing it is great.

Too bad the companies ignore the open matted Versions. I am loving the Evil Dead BD with the 1.33:1 Version.

If I am correct I also have the Open Matted Total Recall DVD. Maybe I can help you with that, too.

Yes, the T2 is PAL. A russian Release. It was hard to find as original DVD, but I got lucky.

I would be happy to see and check the results for AoD and ED2. I'll try to be kind as possible, but I am German, so I might... look for glitches, just to be possible to point them out.. : (Just joking, regard the special searching for glitches.. ^^)

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Love the results of how this looks, particularly Evil Dead II (which has a shitton of compression/macroblocking IIRC) and Back to the Future. Colors look great as well, very cinematic.

[Bigrob]

I'm currently collecting Open Matte DVD's so i'll chime in with what I have so far when I have sorted them out. Happy to rip and upload for this project

One open matte of interest is The Fifth Element. Well the VFX plates are P&S since they were shot on 65mm (I think) but everything else is Open Matte

[Jetrell Fo]

I have this ...

Predator DTS DVD
Spiderman Superbit DVD
Spiderman 2 Superbit DVD
I believe I have Dark City ... I'll have to check.
I also have both regular U.S. DVD's of Spiderman and Spiderman 2.

I don't know if these would be of use to you?

[MrBrown]

I also have the Full Screen Japanese "Dawn of the Dead" (Argento Cut) DVD.
And the Full Screen "Day of the Dead" DVD.

Also I could provide an uncensored English Audio track from the Austrian "Day of the Dead" BD.