Login

**PDB** · 2019-02-22, 06:45 PM

Top Gun Open Matte (Quick Project v3.0)

Project Info:
With the news of the new Top Gun 2 shooting, I wanted to revisit the original as I haven't seen it in a decade or so. I was content to wait for jerryshadoe's project but he seems to have not been active on the site in some time (hope he is ok). What I took away from his postings was the 2.39 version has too tight of head room. With that in mind I (second open matte was x5’s) tracked down the Bluebird Amazon open matte Web-DL. Although I love scope format, I had to agree with him that the old S35 transfer was tight and the open matte looked better, especially for the aerial shots.

From there I was ready to mux in the LD's PCM and watch until, on close inspection, I found out the open matte has a few problems.

First it has a ton of blocking and compression artifacts on the video.

Compression artifacts example
100x/200x
[Image: VrBitwS.jpg]

Finished (Deblock, Noise removal, etc)
100x/200x
[Image: pzMt1ML.jpg]

The open matte also uses the new (3D) color timing which I have no problem with outside of the pervasive red blanket over the picture. For that, I removed the red bias and balanced the highlights slightly away from yellow. Now the picture is still warm/yellow but now lack the blistering skin tones as they now tend to orange instead of red and the picture overall has more blue in it.

Orig/CC'd (some of the more extreme examples I could find)
[Image: apdyXyj.jpg]

One thing I couldn't fix are the blown highlights, they come with the original Web-DL. Overall this project is not perfect (it is a quick project) but much, much better then the original open matte. As a last step, I took out the Paramount 100 Years studio logo at the beginning and replaced it with a vintage era logo.

[Image: jfdDV8t.jpg]

For sound, I kept the OM's DTS 5.1 but added jerryshadoe's LD PCM sync (which sounds fantastic) and used Chewtobacca's re-sync timing. The existing EAC-3 and the BD soundtrack were mixed in.

Addendum: also added in the Widescreen LD’s AC-3. Rumored to culled from the 70mm tracks (thanks Zoidberg).

Finally, spoRv gave my a copy of his YAO subs which when turned on will mask the 1.77 picture down to the theatrical 2.39. FYI, the new logo at the beginning will be over cropped incorrectly but the rest of the movie works ok.

Video:
Bluebird Amazon open matte Web-DL (thanks X5) with de-blocking, noise removal and slight color correction. Plus studio logo and English title replacements (via another open matte source)

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the widescreen LD, synced by jerry)
2. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the widescreen LD, synced by zoidberg)
3. Dolby Digital+/EAC-3 5.1 (Original Web-DL Track)
4. DTS-HD MA 6.1 (from the BD)

Subs:
1. English
2. spoRv's YAO subs to watch the 1.77 open matte video in 2.39 mode (note the Paramount logo will be cropped with these subs on but the rest should play out just fine)

Pics:

Final MKV Pics
[Image: zIprJ0P.jpg]

YAO Subs
Open Matte/2.39 YAO subs
[Image: oBkNtmK.jpg]

Collaborators and Thanks (In order of help):
jerryshadoe: for the PCM rip and sync
Chewtobacca: for the re-sync calculation
spoRv: for the YAO subs
Doombot: for previewing the MKV and advice
X5gb: for a second better open matte source.
Zoidberg: for the AC-3 cap and sync from the widescreen LD

**LucasGodzilla** · 2019-02-22, 08:17 PM

Dang, that's looking pretty good. I've always been curious as to how Top Gun would look open matted. I also quite like your added re-grade, especially the added blues. I'm also kind of surprised it's 25 gigabytes considering how compressed the original was (which I am also very glad you fixed).

**X5gb** · (This post was last modified: 2019-02-22, 09:56 PM by X5gb.)

PDB, not sure if you realised but the BB AMZN WEB-DL is actually an encoded WEBRIP (rather than the full WEB-DL) which Maksnew obtained to begin with (to update the previous Mex iTunes one he had up prior on BB, which was really poor) not long after he managed to get the full 14.4mbps WEB-DL from AMZN DE which is slightly better overall. Maybe its too late to redo everything unless you have the tweaks in Premiere but if your interested pm me.

In the meantime have just pm'ed you in regards to this, wouldn't mind checking this out.

To replace the German text for the location indents (which were also zoomed in to remove the hardcoded English indents) and a few other translation subs did you use the Mex iTunes for the inserts which is what I did.

**PDB** · 2019-02-22, 10:04 PM

(2019-02-22, 08:17 PM)LucasGodzilla Wrote: Dang, that's looking pretty good. I've always been curious as to how Top Gun would look open matted. I also quite like your added re-grade, especially the added blues. I'm also kind of surprised it's 25 gigabytes considering how compressed the original was (which I am also very glad you fixed).

Thanks LucasGodzilla.

(2019-02-22, 08:43 PM)X5gb Wrote: PDB, not sure if you realised but the BB AMZN WEB-DL is actually an encoded WEBRIP (rather than the full WEB-DL) which Maksnew obtained to begin with (to update the previous Mex iTunes one he had up prior on BB, with which was really poor) not long after he managed to get the full 14.4mbps WEB-DL from AMZN DE which is slightly better overall. Maybe its too late to redo everything unless you have the tweaks in Premiere but if your interested pm me.

In the meantime have just pm'ed you in regards to this, wouldn't mind checking this out.

To replace the German text for the location indents and a few other translation subs did you use the Mex iTunes for the inserts which is what I did.

Dammit. Well serves me right for not asking around here first. I spent 60 hours alone of rendering just to get rid of the compression artifacts, not to mention the render time for the other work.

This was labeled WEB-DL (procured from the other Russian site) so I assumed at the time that it was the best that I could come up with.

Regardless, thanks for letting me know about another version, X5gb and pointing the way. A better version is always appreciated. I'm going to download it and see what my next step should be. Maybe a V3, especially if it retains any of the original grain. I used a S35 substitute for the grain (which helped the compression also) and would like to see what the original had. Hell even without grain, no compression artifacts is worth it. Really appreciate the heads up.

This version had all English for the locations so didn't have to swap anything yet.

**X5gb** · (This post was last modified: 2019-02-27, 04:40 PM by X5gb.)

Unfortunately, the one you have worked on isn't even the WEBRIP but the original Mex iTunes WEB-DL based on those specs (which is what I used to replace the German location indents, zoomed in as well to remove original English indents, and text translations, dinner invite and realtor/estate agent rent sign, adding a grain plate to them) in the De WEB-DL. There are still alot of artefacts in it but the grain is obviously better retained, big difference between 5.1mpbs and 14.7mps. Would be very nice to have a artifact reduced and color corrected version of the full AMZN one if you decide to redo it.

**PDB** · 2019-02-22, 10:19 PM

(2019-02-22, 10:09 PM)X5gb Wrote: Unfortunately, the one you have worked on isn't even the WEBRIP but the original Mex iTunes one based on those specs which is what I used to replace the German location indents (zoomed in as well to remove original English indents) and text translations (dinner invite and realtor/estate agent rent sign) De WEB-DL. There are still alot of artefacts in it but the grain is obviously better retained, big difference between 5.1mpbs and 14.7mps. Would be very nice to have a artifact reduced and color corrected version of the AMZN one if you decide to redo it.

Sigh, can't trust labels Smile

. Yeah 14 is a lot better head room.

I think, knowing this now, I have to do a new one. Thanks again X5gb.

So let's put this project into turnaround for a bit...

**PDB** · 2019-02-23, 06:07 PM

Based off your previous statements, x5gb, and me searching around, these are the spots I found that need replaced so far:

1. The text leading up to the title Top Gun “...they call it, Top Gun”

2. The Indian Ocean ident after the titles/credits.

3. The Miramar indent after being told they are being sent to Top Gun

4. The translation of the letter to meet at 5:30

5. The translation of the rental sign

6. The second Indian Ocean indent after graduation

**X5gb** · (This post was last modified: 2019-02-23, 07:17 PM by X5gb.)

Thats correct, accidently deleted my post offering the frames if you need them. AMZN is frame matched to 3d bluray outside of the extended 3d credits at the end of bluray which are not needed anyway.

As I'm sure you have noticed the AMZN is still not perfect (although a damn sight better than the Mex iTunes) and will need your expertise to remove some artifacts as well as your color correction.

~~spoRv~~ · 2019-02-24, 02:53 AM

I can make YAO subs to let the logo (and other parts if needed) be open matte; just send me the exact timing of the open matte parts - but it will be ready not before wednesday, though!

**PDB** · 2019-02-24, 06:03 AM

I do appreciate the irony that anytime I call something a quick project, that it takes just as long as any other project Smile

(2019-02-24, 02:53 AM)spoRv Wrote: I can make YAO subs to let the logo (and other parts if needed) be open matte; just send me the exact timing of the open matte parts - but it will be ready not before wednesday, though!

No rush spoRv, still got to render a new video stream and that will be a few days. Otherwise this 1.77 logo

[Image: jfdDV8t.jpg]

lasts till 00:00:22:04 and after that it should be 2.39/2.35

(2019-02-23, 07:11 PM)X5gb Wrote: Thats correct, accidently deleted my post offering the frames if you need them. AMZN is frame matched to 3d bluray outside of the extended 3d credits at the end of bluray which are not needed anyway.

Yeah it appears to have one more frame in the beginning and a few at the end compared to the Mex video. So I will have to do a little re-syncing but nothing big. I'm going to keep the EAC-3/DD+ 5.1 from the AMZN and dump the DTS 5.1. I still expect the LD's PCM to be the primary track since it sounds much better then any of the 5.1s.

If anyone has any soundtracks or subs that are already in sync with the 3D that they want me to add, please chime in now.

(2019-02-23, 07:11 PM)X5gb Wrote: As I'm sure you have noticed the AMZN is still not perfect (although a damn sight better than the Mex iTunes) and will need your expertise to remove some artifacts

Yes it is much better, especially for the 2 or 3 shots where the Mex video went to pixel city. Expertise is perhaps overselling my skills by a large margin but I was able to mitigate a fair amount of the compression artifacts (those odd hatchet lines). The problem is, unlike the Mex video, this still has grain so I have to try to preserve the grain as much as possible while removing the artifacts. So with some non-halo producing sharpening, line/edge blurring and noise reduction I am able to get this so far on a first pass (all images are already CC'd):

Compression artifacts example
100x/200x
[Image: VrBitwS.jpg]

Finished (Deblock, Noise removal, etc)
100x/200x
[Image: pzMt1ML.jpg]

but I'm still tweaking it.

(2019-02-23, 07:11 PM)X5gb Wrote: as well as your color correction.

Which is the easy part since it's already done but I realized I should include some examples so people can see if it's worth it

Orig/CC'd (some of the more extreme examples I could find)
[Image: apdyXyj.jpg]

Otherwise thanks again for the help X5gb, you did most of the leg work for this, hopefully the compression and color correct make it worth a download.

Also again I like to point out how great a community this is. Members always generously help out to make good projects better.

Login
Username:
Password:	Lost Password?
	Remember me

Possibly Related Threads…
Thread		Author	Replies	Views	Last Post
	[Released] Sicario (2015) Open Matte	Hitcher	5	1,445	2026-07-06, 06:51 PM Last Post: queasy
	The Sword In The Stone Open Matte Original Theatrical Mono 1963 Multiaudio Multisubs.	jerryshadoe	87	132,770	2026-06-11, 09:00 PM Last Post: mdodge
	[Archived] Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Special Longer Version HD Recreation	TheLoon	87	93,619	2026-05-31, 09:33 PM Last Post: Stamper
	[Archived] Aliens (1986) [Project: Celluloid — Branching Regrade]	LucasGodzilla	27	26,282	2026-05-06, 08:54 PM Last Post: OpenRift
	[Released] Shaun of the Dead (2004) Open Matte v2	Hitcher	3	4,959	2026-04-09, 11:37 PM Last Post: Hitcher
	[Released] "Reservoir Dogs" open matte 1.78:1 regraded	Beber	9	5,764	2026-04-01, 02:23 PM Last Post: Ayemax12
	[Released] Inside Man (2006) Open Matte	Hitcher	5	1,569	2026-03-10, 01:23 AM Last Post: Beber
	LOTR Restoration project search (DrDre Dremastered, MJBenito etc)	MxFly	0	2,477	2025-12-25, 04:16 PM Last Post: MxFly
	[Released] Alien: Covenant - IMAX/Open Matte/2.40:1 VAR Hybrid	Hitcher	17	19,635	2025-12-14, 05:00 PM Last Post: madara4651
	[Released] No Time To Die (IMAX/Open Matte/Scope)	Hitcher	23	21,216	2025-11-23, 03:53 PM Last Post: adarshboy