[Idea] Computer Chronicles: 35th Anniversary Edition

[Koopa Luath]

In celebration of the 35th anniversary of the classic PBS series from KCSM-TV and the Interregional Program Service (now American Public Television), I'm working on an HD restoration of the complete series, beginning with the very first season, produced in 1983 and broadcast nationally in 1984.

Mission: to restore the PBS classic Computer Chronicles in the correct episode order, from start to finish.

Video sources: MPEG-2 files from the Internet Archive.
Audio sources: original soundtrack from the same files, also French and Spanish tracks as applicable.

Subtitle sources: English SDH, to reflect soundtracks; other languages, direct translations of the English original.

Project info:
There's a lot of confusing information all over the Internet about the order in which each episode of Computer Chronicles was made or broadcast; not even the Internet Archive is helpful in that regard. For this project, I'm going to go with the order given by stquantum.com, a fansite for the series which has been active since 2006 and appears to be the definitive source for all things Computer Chronicles. Each set will include a series of special features produced by yours truly titled Computer Chronicles: Then and Now, detailing how much has changed in the industry since the series was originally broadcast on PBS stations.

Source Material

Video:

• Computer Chronicles - MPEG-2 Internet Archive
  
• Viewers Like You tags - Pledge drive broadcasts recorded to VHS tape in 4:3
  
• American Public Television closing logo - Broadcasts of recent APT programming with the original APT music playing over the logo, also recorded to VHS tape in 4:3
  

Audio:

• Computer Chronicles - Various Internet Archive files
  

Subtitles:

• English, French, German, Italian, Spanish.
  

Final format: BD-25 (tentative), DVD-9 (number of discs TBA)

Video:

• Blu-ray: x264 960x720, 59.94 fps progressive, ~5mbps
  
• DVD: MPEG-2 720x480, 29.97 fps interlaced, ~3mbps
  

Audio:

• English AC3 192kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz Dolby Surround
  
• French AC3 192kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz Dolby Surround - as applicable
  
• Spanish AC3 192kbps 2.0 16bit 48kHz Dolby Surround - as applicable
  

Subtitles:

• English
  
• French
  
• German
  
• Italian
  
• Spanish
  

Episodes (Season 1):

1. Mainframes to Minis to Micros
   
2. Microchip Technology
   
3. Storage Devices
   
4. Printers
   
5. Networking
   
6. Programming
   
7. Operating Systems
   
8. Database Software
   
9. Integrated Software
   
10. Business Application Software
    
11. Word Processing Software
    
12. Decision Support Systems
    
13. Robotics
    
14. Simulator Software
    
15. Computer Graphics
    
16. Computer Music
    
17. Computer Games
    
18. Speech Synthesis
    
19. Computers in Education
    
20. Computer Ergonomics
    
21. Computer Entrepreneurs
    
22. Computer Security
    
23. Artificial Intelligence
    
24. Supercomputers
    
25. Fifth Generation Computers
    

Episodes (Season 2):

1. Computer Games
   
2. IBM Clones
   
3. Software Piracy
   
4. Computers and the Disabled
   
5. UNIX
   
6. Computers in Sports
   
7. Personal Finance Software
   
8. Profile of Big Blue: IBM
   
9. Lasers and Computers
   
10. Computers in Communications
    
11. Low End Computers
    
12. Japanese PCs
    
13. Computer Graphics
    
14. Slowdown in Silicon Valley (2-parter)
    
15. Women in Computing
    
16. Printers and Business Graphics
    
17. Computers and the Media
    
18. Modems and Bulletin Boards
    
19. Computer Networks
    
20. Computers and Politics
    
21. Computers and Medicine
    
22. Optical Storage Devices
    
23. Business Applications
    
24. Amiga and Atari
    

Notes:

• Main animated menu, static soundtrack and subtitle settings menu, static chapters menu (all tentative)
  
• Blu-ray and DVD custom made outside and inside covers, plus disc label; number of chapters to be determined; Computer Chronicles: Then and Now; interviews with Stewart Cheifet and Gary Kildall; assorted Comdex videos
  

Sponsors:

• Micro Focus (Season 1)
  
• McGraw Hill (Seasons 2-4)
  
• American Federation of Information Processing Societies (Seasons 2.5 and 3)
  
• Leading Edge (Seasons 3.5 and 4)
  
• CompuServe (Season 4.5)
  
• Public television viewers (35th Anniversary Edition)
  

Special thanks to:

• BronzeTitan (for directing me to stquantum.com)
  
• Dan Bricklin (for the Comdex '83 footage)
  

Project status: All 25 Season 1 episodes downloaded from Internet Archive, will start encoding work next week.

[BronzeTitan]

Very nice! I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

Can you be talked into including some interviews with, and other documentaries about, the show and it's host(s)? 

[Koopa Luath]

Where would I find them?

[BronzeTitan]

Well, a very good sit-down interview is at TWiT (also typically re-encoded on YouTube, so the TWiT one should be the better source:
https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation/episodes/114

Stewart Cheifet has done other sit-downs and public addressings (just checking from YouTube but different ones may be on other video sites, too; check PBS articles). I'm sure Gary Kildall (long time co-host) did the same thing (one documentary about him was on Computer Chronicles, too).

[Koopa Luath]

I found that the Internet Archive downloads are apparently bottom field first for some reason. I'm currently looking into a way to get them back to top field first and then apply the Yadif filter to the result.

[Koopa Luath]

On the Season 1 set, I plan to include the complete Comdex '83 video made by Software Arts as a special feature. Unfortunately, the only footage I could find is from progressive sources. I hope an interlaced source comes up at some point in the future...

[Koopa Luath]

Here's a preview of a planned color correction. I just took the LUT from that slate color match achieved using Dr. Dre's tool and applied it in DaVinci Resolve, then lowered the Saturation setting in the bottom-left pane from 50 to 25 (on 50, it was too saturated, and Gary Kildall's face appeared to be bleeding badly into the background).

Feel free to drop opinions on these color settings in this thread. And yes, I know I might need to apply a deblocking filter at some point.

[Colek]

I have feeling it's a bit too greenish, check out the blazer on dude on right on second screenshot.

[Koopa Luath]

I have feeling it's a bit too greenish, check out the blazer on dude on right on second screenshot.

Gary Kildall's blazer? I think I can fix that. Just a matter of figuring out whether to change the lift, the gamma, the gain, the offset, or two or more of the aforementioned settings.

[Koopa Luath]

I think it's gamma values of Y 0.00, R 0.00, G -0.02, and B 0.25. Here's the same screenshot with that setting applied. How does it look now?