[In progress] Police Story IV First Strike HDTV fix/reconstruction

[Serums]

Thanks for the feedback.

I'll try to isolate a segment of video and upload it so it can be compared. Work is moving slowly at the moment (we both have other things to handle first, it will pick back up) so it'd be a segment of the raw capture with the subtitles and graphics everywhere, haha.

[Serums]

If anyone could offer any advice at this point, it'd be much appreciated.

What should my plan of attack be? Something like the below?
1. Upscale the DVD footage.
2. Mask the logos.
3. Insert the cut footage.
4. Overlay the DVD footage.

I have a few questions if anyone with the expertise is kind enough to answer.

Is AutoOverlay sophisticated enough to do either/both of the following:

Mask the logos/embedded subs etc for good (without having to mask them separately)?
Note the cut points/damaged frames and simply rely on the DVD footage for those parts. Or might that make AutoOverlay think it's a separate 'master', meaning I'd need to complete these steps first.

I'm happy to tackle everything I need to, but as this is new territory I'm curious to see the most efficient way I can do this.

Thanks!

[SpaceBlackKnight]

So I was browsing a Korean site called Naver (which has free 3-10min downloadable 1080p previews of various movies, many of them open matte/alternate transfers), and I saw they had Police Story 4 AKA First Strike on there https://serieson.naver.com/v2/movie/141619. Assuming it was the US version, I checked the free preview they had and...















It's da HK cut and AFAIS is watermark free, but that could be just the preview. Unfortunately, Naver makes it ultra difficult for foreigners to create an account and even so, they only allows Koreans to register and watch/purchase stuff anyway.

If Serums knows anyone in Korea or with access to Naver, getting this cut in logoless HD would be the tits!

[Serums]

What? Wow. Thanks!

I'll put feelers out.

[maksnew]

So I was browsing a Korean site called Naver (which has free 3-10min downloadable 1080p previews of various movies, many of them open matte/alternate transfers), and I saw they had Police Story 4 AKA First Strike on there https://serieson.naver.com/v2/movie/141619. Assuming it was the US version, I checked the free preview they had and...

Thanks for the tip, I will try to get it, judging by the preview, the quality is pretty decent and without the logos.

[Serums]

So I was browsing a Korean site called Naver (which has free 3-10min downloadable 1080p previews of various movies, many of them open matte/alternate transfers), and I saw they had Police Story 4 AKA First Strike on there https://serieson.naver.com/v2/movie/141619. Assuming it was the US version, I checked the free preview they had and...

Thanks for the tip, I will try to get it, judging by the preview, the quality is pretty decent and without the logos.

Fingers crossed. We can use it as a basis and maybe use the other sources to improve the quality.

[maksnew]

Unfortunately, I was not able to purchase the film, there is a certain purchase certification only for Korea, I need a person from Korea.

[Serums]

Unfortunately, I was not able to purchase the film, there is a certain purchase certification only for Korea, I need a person from Korea.

That is the problem I ran into as well. I will PM you so we don't derail the thread.

[Serums]

So this one might be on hold until we can purchase the digital download version, but here are a few caps from how the intro scenes might look using the footage from the online sample. My friend hasn't used any footage from the HDTV capture just yet, but there are a few frames inserted from the Japanese DVD.

Edit: the Japanese DVD frames were added in just to finish out the scene, it's possible that the digital version will include them.

[Serums]

Source that may be easier to work with. It's a bit soft, but these embedded subs (see edit below) should be easier to handle compared to the onslaught of logos from the HDTV source. The site that SpaceBlackKnight mentioned makes it practically impossible to buy downloads if you're not in Korea. This one was a bit easier to purchase from, but it comes with that caveat.

Subs are mostly in the mattes, but when there are multiple lines they do go into the picture.

Frame rate somehow turned out different between the preview and file. Going to have to correct that.





If anyone has any advice about which program/filter might work best with these subs we'll be all ears.