[No Longer Available] Star Trek VI 2.00 Theatrical Cut (Project CRT #3)

[PDB]

Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country 2.00 Theatrical Cut (Project CRT #3 v 2.4)

Project Info:

Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country (ST6), like most of the classic Star Trek movies, has been treated pretty poorly in the HD world. Although I was happy to have the movie back in it's Theatrical Cut (TC) and scope format, the BD is terrible. Riddled with DNR and over-sharpening. Luckily there are two alternatives, the Sky HDTV broadcast and now a superior Amazon HDTV Web-DL in the new/flashback Director's Cut (DC2) form. (Big thanks to the anonymous source that helped me find the Amazon)

The goal of this project it to recreate the superior (IMHO) TC out of the Amazon Web-DL but also the old, original Director's Cut (DC1) which lacked the flashback shots and chiming noise during Spock's mind meld.

Although the Amazon has a superior picture over the Sky it still has some issues to overcome. First problem is that it has compression artifacts similar to my Top Gun project and many other Web-DLs.

Compression artifacts example
100x/200x



Finished (Deblock, Noise removal, CC, etc)
200x


Another problem is this HDTV open matte also uses similar color timing to the BD, DVD and Sky HDTV color timing. Unfortunately, this master has the standard 1990s/2000s red/magenta blanket over the picture, particularly in the highlights. So I removed some of the red and balanced the highs to "white". The end result looks like this:

Orig/CC'd (WIP aka still working on it)


Both will also include the LD's PCM but for the TC, I will add the additional tracks from the BD whereas the DC1 will have the original, excellent EAC-3 5.1.


Video (TC):
Amazon 2.00 open matte Web-DL with de-blocking, noise removal and slight color correction.

Audio (TC):
1. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (edited from the widescreen LD) (thanks BusterD)
2. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (edited form the Web-DL's Dolby Digital+/EAC-3 5.1)
3. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the BD)
4. Dolby True HD 7.1 (from the BD)

Pics:

Final TC MKV


Final DC1 MKV


Collaborators and Thanks (In order of help):
Anonymous: For pointing the way
busterD: for the LD PCM and sync
spoRv: for YAO subs

[Chewtobacca]

Just so people know, the DD+ 5.1 is the best discrete preservation of the pre-BD multichannel mix, and despite the fact that the WEB-DL is the DC, the audio (fortunately) lacks the annoying chimes in the mild-meld sequence.  The downside is that the DD+ is not BD compliant (because it lacks a core), so before muxing it to BD, convert it to DTS-HD MA for best results.

Great work on fixing the highlights, PDB! And that poster's cool.

[Dek Rollins]

This looks really great! If only the DC removed "and the good news is..."

[PDB]

This looks really great! If only the DC removed "and the good news is..."

Just so people know, the DD+ 5.1 is the best discrete preservation of the pre-BD multichannel mix, and despite the fact that the WEB-DL is the DC, the audio (fortunately) lacks the annoying chimes in the mild-meld sequence.  The downside is that the DD+ is not BD compliant (because it lacks a core), so before muxing it to BD, convert it to DTS-HD MA for best results.

Great work on fixing the highlights, PDB!  And that poster's cool.

Thanks guys.

That DD+ soundtrack does pretty sweet! And so is that poster. I believe it is from a series that a fan did of al the classic Trek movies. Fans make the best poster these days. It's why I like to use them as the header in my projects. Fan art for fan projects. Just wish I had the wall space (and money) to buy them.

[BedeHistory731]

I really like the new color grade and the artifact fix! Well done.

[nx59650]

This looks like it was an amazing project.

[nx59650]

How far did this project progress?

[PDB]

Picking this back up. I'm adding it as part of my overall CRT project. The original red reduction regrade I gave it is not too far off from my CRT grade so no big change there. Here are some of the more extreme regrade shots I could find.

CRT Corrected/Original


Also I think I got a hold on the cleanup of the digital artifacts.

Original (Top)/Cleanup (Bot)


x400 Original (Top)/Cleanup (Bot)


The plan is still 2 versions. A 2.00 theatrical cut and a 2.00 original DC cut (no flashback shots or chimes). Maybe a 2.35 version after....

[PDB]

Does anyone have a copy of the old DVD of ST6? The non SE 1-disc which had the old Directors cut?

[PDB]

Does anyone have a copy of the old DVD of ST6? The non SE 1-disc which had the old Directors cut?

The reason why I'm asking is (besides having the DD 5.1 and subs for syncing) that I'm unsure of one scene. The big difference between the original DC and the newer DC is the edit, flashbacks and chimes during the Valeris interrogation scene. The only other scene I'm unsure of is the Scotty discovery scene. Movie Censorship says that is should be the original TC edit:

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=2480

As opposed to the new DC edit but Movie Censorship has been wrong before. I don't have that DVD or the LD to confirm. I'm assuming its the same as the TC but confirmation would be nice if anyone knows for sure.

I finished the video for the new TC using the better video of the Amazon, new, DC 2.00:1 file and filling in the missing TC parts from the Sky broadcast (after adjusting the black level and grade).

2.00


Besides the major scenes there are about 10 or so frames missing from the DC cut that should be. About half I got from the Sky broadcast. For the rest it appears on the TC BD that those frames are duplicated or dropped to black frames. Very odd stuff on a pro BD. So I duplicated those choices.

While I was at it I was looking at the using spoRv's YAO subs for this project until I figured out the 2.00 shared a common top/height with the 2.39/2.35. So I can easily remake that.

2.35 WIP