[Idea] Computer Chronicles: 35th Anniversary Edition

[spoRv]

I think this is the best, chroma wise, just to be luma adjusted - gamma brightness contrast; white balance is pretty spot on - judging only by eye; I'll not touch RGB, eventually increase saturation.

[Koopa Luath]

I guess I'll go with Andrea's suggestion, then.

[spoRv]

Hint: follow advices, but test, test, test, and then if you are not happy, change your mind, tweak settings, ask for further advices, and then... test, test, test!

[BronzeTitan]

Looking around for apparent photos (as opposed to blow-ups or crops of episode recordings), I found this -- if nothing else, it's a good skin color to match ...

So, additionally tweaking  my tweaked, original picture, to match skin tones, this is the result:

[BronzeTitan]

And after that, some judicious sharpening. To demonstrate it, I used LimitedSharpen(), a plug-in script for AviSynth. I like the theory of it's design, to mitigate "haloing",  as explained by it's author:

Internet Archive (2005 record): Doom9 forum - Here is LimitedSharpen() - page 1

Let's have a look at a simple transition from dark to bright, and what our standard sharpeners will do to it:

The blue line represents the original edge, the dark side on the left, the bright side on the right, and in-between the gradient that builds "the edge". Red is (basically) the result of sharpen() or UnsharpMask(), pink is the result of XSharpen().
...
Shortly, LimitedSharpen() applies one out of three different sharpeners (two domain sharpeners or a windowed range sharpener) to the source, but will limit the oversharpening (either "hard" or "soft") IF it exceeds a defined "overshoot".

In reference to the graphs above, the script's results look like that (basically) :

(The proportions are not "real" - both graphs were constructed free-handed.)

As you see, LimitedSharpen always takes the enhanced edge steepyness from normal sharpening, but avoids oversharpening in the same way as XSharpen, as long as overshoot is kept at zero, and limiting mode 1 is used.
In many cases, this comes out really nice, and is sufficient.

I'm sure DaVinci Resolve must have a good sharpener (or a plug-in available for it) to do the similar thing. Anyway, here's what this one does (top - my color correction; bottom - sharpened, at default settings) . .

[Colek]

I had great results with various sources using LSFMod - http://avisynth.nl/index.php/LSFmod - LimitedSharpenFaster Mod. Try it out.

[BronzeTitan]

Ah, yes, thanks! I knew about the "fast" version but couldn't track it down again. As I recall, it was a later & better implementation of that same approach. And, of course, it also has settings (which I didn't bother to use in this one for my demonstration).

Since DaVinci Resolve is pro-software, there must be pro-sharpeners available for it if not built in. If necessary, maybe Resolve's output could be piped through AviSynth for free sharpen processing. 

[Koopa Luath]

I'll look into AviSynth compatibility with Resolve next week, after the eclipse on Monday (I'll bet that's one eclipse Garfield wouldn't want to watch in person! ).

Regarding the audio side, I'll make a FLAC file of the audio track, try to reduce the noise in Audacity, and try to make a 2-channel Dolby Digital file.

[Koopa Luath]

The following special features have been confirmed for the Season 1 release:

• Fall Comdex '83: The Complete Home Video (480i) (Disc 1)
  
• Computer Chronicles: Then and Now (720p) (Disc 3)
  
• Random Access segments (720p) (Disc 4)
  
• The Complete Introduction of the Macintosh (480i) (Disc 5)
  
• Stewart Cheifet interview on "Triangulation" (720p) (Disc 6)
  

Also: Season 1 will be a six-disc release, consisting of the following discs:

1. Computer Hardware (5 complete episodes, plus the Comdex '83 video)
   
2. Computer Software (4 complete episodes, plus a placeholder for the one episode I've not yet been able to find)
   
3. Computer Applications, Part 1 (5 complete episodes, plus a retrospective special feature)
   
4. Computer Applications, Part 2 (4 complete episodes, plus Random Access segments)
   
5. Computers and People (4 complete episodes, plus the Macintosh introduction)
   
6. Computers for the Future (3 complete episodes, plus the Stewart Cheifet interview)
   

Specs and special features for Season 2, and an exact release date for Season 1, will be confirmed at a later date.

[BronzeTitan]

Looks like an Ultimate Anniversary to me.