2015-10-08, 05:25 AM
(This post was last modified: 2015-10-08, 05:41 AM by jerryshadoe.)
Ok, so I started working on this back in early August and thought it would take me two-three weeks to complete, LOL 
As usual, the process dragged itself out and I'm just now finishing assembling the video for this, but the actual BD release is still a little bit away, as I need to finish the other parts of the disc first since this will be my first entry in the "Shadoe Presents: The Vintage Disney Channel Throwback Collection."
I can hear some of you asking, "Why is this project needed?" and the answer is simple: the old itunes transfer is nice but is of low bitrate, grainless, has some macro-blocking and is a little soft (due to compression) and the 1080i HDTV transfer, although much better quality and some grain retention, has a logo
What most people don't know though, is that there are actually TWO different 1080i captures, each with the logo in a different part on-screen. Let me demonstrate with some quick screenshot I just took (apparently one frame off, LOL):
The "common" 1080i HDTV transfer (easily found on Russian trackers)
[Image: SmeaMJh.jpg]
The "rare" 1080i HDTV transfer (which I was only able to find a 720p rip of on a Vietnamese forum)
[Image: nbpexTG.jpg]
As you can see, the logo is in a much different spot, but (as you can see in this quick 50/50 overlay) there is still a very small area of overlap:
[Image: QVdsKQs.jpg]
I realized that trying to run any delogo script on this once I have only that small area of overlap will be much easier and produce better results than if I was trying to run any delogo script on just the "common" 1080i transfer. So, I upscaled the 720p rip back to 1080p using SuperResolution, regrained it slightly (to match the level of grain in the 1080i), de-interlaced the 1080i transfer and slowed it back down from 25fps to 23.976fps and "went to work" on it in Sony Vegas. Once I had most of the logo gone, except for that small area where the overlap is, I rendered it to a 1080p lags file that I loaded into avisynth, where I ran it through a few different delogo plugins (at different settings) until I found a "happy medium." The result was decent, but I noticed (as to be expected) that there were still some artifacts here and there. Was NOT happy with the results, even though most people wouldn't notice it, it's one of those things that once seen can never be unseen.
So, I kinda had to go "back to the drawing board." I decided to take the itunes transfer, regrained it to match the level of grain present in the 1080i source and then I overlayed the source on top of my "delogoed" footage. Upon doing this, I realized that there is a little bit of extra picture on the sides of the HDTV caps (both are identical in terms of framing) BUT there is a little bit of extra picture on the top and bottom of the itunes capture. I wanted to include all of this "extra" picture in the final render, so I aligned everything (the itunes cap is slightly squeezed horizontally compared to the HDTV) tried to do an accurate color-match of the itunes to the HDTV, (they are really, really close, but not the same and had to be adjusted [mainly for brightness/contrast] on a scene by scene basis) applied a "slight touch extra" grain on top of the entire thing and then rendered out the entire project. The result is beautiful but the "extra" image (especially on bottom) doesn't always match as, at times, is slightly darker than the rest of screen. I ran this through multiple tests (where I "wasted" nearly two weeks) and this is the best I can do. When viewed on my 1080p 52" HDTV, this render looks amazing and I am happy with it. BUT, there may be those of you that will dislike the mis-match and might suggest that I just crop off that part, which I "technically" could do and then we would have the best copy available of this film. This I will leave up to you fine people but for now, here's a sample containing three minutes of footage with a downmixed to stereo audio track (from ~ 5th minute to ~ 8th minute) (it's 537MB because this is demuxed from my "final for BD" encode to show the full video quality)
I'm sure there will also be some that will complain about the "little black square boxes" in the corners where the image in non-existent due to the "combining" of the "extra" image on sides on HDTV and "extra" image on top and bottom of the itunes copy. As far as I'm concerned, they are very small, not distracting, and I like the effect but that's just me and YMMV
I will post screenshots comparing "my render," the "common" 1080i HDTV, and the old 1080p itunes transfer at the end of the post
Now, on to the audio that will be included. The video is timed to the Bluray, to make the importing of most audio tracks easy, but there are a few "extras," as well. Unfortunately, since the first edition PAL DVDs back in 1999, the original English mono audio track is not available. HOWEVER, two days ago, a friend of mine shared the audio track from that DVD with me. He doesn't have the disc anymore and, unfortunately, around the 20th second, there is a 170ms "glitch" in the audio that results in that 170ms being silent. Other than that, the track is, in fact, an original mono mix. I did some tests, where I downmixed the upmixed audio track from DVD and from BD to a mono track and the resulting audio tracks were much different from the DVD sourced mono track. It sounds different, fuller, and I like it. I just have to fix that glitch and this will be a nice inclusion. I also have, thanx to my Polish homeboy "Niszczyciel" (which translates to "Destroyer") who lives in Japan, the original mono track captured from the JP LD. Not sure which disc (waiting on response from him about origins) and it's an ANALOG capture (due to technical limitations of his hardware) but it's a fantastic addition to the project. I am in the process of syncing it and it's weird because the waveform is waaaaaaay different than the mono from DVD but it seems to be the exact same mix and in no way sounds or looks like the downmixed to mono upmix. Can post screenshot of the waveform upon request
So, I will include the BD upmix in English, the original mono from DVD, the original mono from JP LD, and then the following:
- Arabic 2ch AC3
- Bulgarian 2ch AC3
- Chinese Mandarin 2ch AC3
- Dutch 5.1 AC3
- French 5.1 AC3
- German 5.1 AC3
- Greek 5.1 AC3
- Hindi 2ch AC3
- Hungarian 2ch AC3
- Italian 5.1 AC3
- Polish 2ch AC3
- Portuguese (PT) 2ch AC3 & 5.1 AC3
- Portuguese (BR) 2ch AC3
- Romanian 2ch AC3
- Russian 2ch AC3
- Spanish (Castellano) 5.1 AC3
- Spanish (Latino) 2ch AC3
- Swedish 2ch AC3
- Ukrainian 2ch AC3
Some of the audio is sourced from BDs, some from NSTC/PAL DVD (need to do the correction for speed and pitch on the PAL releases, of course) and some are sourced from HDTVrips where someone synced the audio from unknown sources. The Chinese and Hindi are sourced from VCDs. These are not all synced yet. I will also include subtitles. If there are any languages not listed that any user would like me to include, if they can supply the audio track, I'm happy to sync it and include it as well
As far as the "extras" and the final presentation of this first film within an Vintage Disney Channel "setting" is concerned, I'm still working on that and will post more as that part is closer to completion
Now, on to the screenshots.... (top-my encode/middle-"common" 1080i HDTV/bottom-old 1080p itunes):
[Image: 4aQclgN.png]
[Image: ZsuXt1D.png]
[Image: dyjUUxg.png]
[Image: FJyFgsl.png]
[Image: adkFPzz.png]
[Image: hRY9Ryt.png]
[Image: N7tX5pi.png]
[Image: Z2XLX2K.png]
[Image: DITa9tx.png]
[Image: OACmW1f.png]
[Image: d0O6qPs.png]
[Image: 9YMba9u.png]
Any comments are welcome
Exceeded amount of images in last post, so here are the remaining one:
[Image: da64N2T.png]
[Image: BC0dE4E.png]
[Image: wtTUIg3.png]
[Image: TuFTzA4.png]
[Image: KL26CxN.png]
[Image: lMyRCex.png]
As usual, the process dragged itself out and I'm just now finishing assembling the video for this, but the actual BD release is still a little bit away, as I need to finish the other parts of the disc first since this will be my first entry in the "Shadoe Presents: The Vintage Disney Channel Throwback Collection."
I can hear some of you asking, "Why is this project needed?" and the answer is simple: the old itunes transfer is nice but is of low bitrate, grainless, has some macro-blocking and is a little soft (due to compression) and the 1080i HDTV transfer, although much better quality and some grain retention, has a logo
What most people don't know though, is that there are actually TWO different 1080i captures, each with the logo in a different part on-screen. Let me demonstrate with some quick screenshot I just took (apparently one frame off, LOL):
The "common" 1080i HDTV transfer (easily found on Russian trackers)
[Image: SmeaMJh.jpg]
The "rare" 1080i HDTV transfer (which I was only able to find a 720p rip of on a Vietnamese forum)
[Image: nbpexTG.jpg]
As you can see, the logo is in a much different spot, but (as you can see in this quick 50/50 overlay) there is still a very small area of overlap:
[Image: QVdsKQs.jpg]
I realized that trying to run any delogo script on this once I have only that small area of overlap will be much easier and produce better results than if I was trying to run any delogo script on just the "common" 1080i transfer. So, I upscaled the 720p rip back to 1080p using SuperResolution, regrained it slightly (to match the level of grain in the 1080i), de-interlaced the 1080i transfer and slowed it back down from 25fps to 23.976fps and "went to work" on it in Sony Vegas. Once I had most of the logo gone, except for that small area where the overlap is, I rendered it to a 1080p lags file that I loaded into avisynth, where I ran it through a few different delogo plugins (at different settings) until I found a "happy medium." The result was decent, but I noticed (as to be expected) that there were still some artifacts here and there. Was NOT happy with the results, even though most people wouldn't notice it, it's one of those things that once seen can never be unseen.
So, I kinda had to go "back to the drawing board." I decided to take the itunes transfer, regrained it to match the level of grain present in the 1080i source and then I overlayed the source on top of my "delogoed" footage. Upon doing this, I realized that there is a little bit of extra picture on the sides of the HDTV caps (both are identical in terms of framing) BUT there is a little bit of extra picture on the top and bottom of the itunes capture. I wanted to include all of this "extra" picture in the final render, so I aligned everything (the itunes cap is slightly squeezed horizontally compared to the HDTV) tried to do an accurate color-match of the itunes to the HDTV, (they are really, really close, but not the same and had to be adjusted [mainly for brightness/contrast] on a scene by scene basis) applied a "slight touch extra" grain on top of the entire thing and then rendered out the entire project. The result is beautiful but the "extra" image (especially on bottom) doesn't always match as, at times, is slightly darker than the rest of screen. I ran this through multiple tests (where I "wasted" nearly two weeks) and this is the best I can do. When viewed on my 1080p 52" HDTV, this render looks amazing and I am happy with it. BUT, there may be those of you that will dislike the mis-match and might suggest that I just crop off that part, which I "technically" could do and then we would have the best copy available of this film. This I will leave up to you fine people but for now, here's a sample containing three minutes of footage with a downmixed to stereo audio track (from ~ 5th minute to ~ 8th minute) (it's 537MB because this is demuxed from my "final for BD" encode to show the full video quality)
Quote:https://mega.nz/#!MIgmwRTb!M-2cI02UMX6gp...jGVs0IkDuM
link will expire 30 days AFTER release of project
I'm sure there will also be some that will complain about the "little black square boxes" in the corners where the image in non-existent due to the "combining" of the "extra" image on sides on HDTV and "extra" image on top and bottom of the itunes copy. As far as I'm concerned, they are very small, not distracting, and I like the effect but that's just me and YMMV
I will post screenshots comparing "my render," the "common" 1080i HDTV, and the old 1080p itunes transfer at the end of the post
Now, on to the audio that will be included. The video is timed to the Bluray, to make the importing of most audio tracks easy, but there are a few "extras," as well. Unfortunately, since the first edition PAL DVDs back in 1999, the original English mono audio track is not available. HOWEVER, two days ago, a friend of mine shared the audio track from that DVD with me. He doesn't have the disc anymore and, unfortunately, around the 20th second, there is a 170ms "glitch" in the audio that results in that 170ms being silent. Other than that, the track is, in fact, an original mono mix. I did some tests, where I downmixed the upmixed audio track from DVD and from BD to a mono track and the resulting audio tracks were much different from the DVD sourced mono track. It sounds different, fuller, and I like it. I just have to fix that glitch and this will be a nice inclusion. I also have, thanx to my Polish homeboy "Niszczyciel" (which translates to "Destroyer") who lives in Japan, the original mono track captured from the JP LD. Not sure which disc (waiting on response from him about origins) and it's an ANALOG capture (due to technical limitations of his hardware) but it's a fantastic addition to the project. I am in the process of syncing it and it's weird because the waveform is waaaaaaay different than the mono from DVD but it seems to be the exact same mix and in no way sounds or looks like the downmixed to mono upmix. Can post screenshot of the waveform upon request
So, I will include the BD upmix in English, the original mono from DVD, the original mono from JP LD, and then the following:
- Arabic 2ch AC3
- Bulgarian 2ch AC3
- Chinese Mandarin 2ch AC3
- Dutch 5.1 AC3
- French 5.1 AC3
- German 5.1 AC3
- Greek 5.1 AC3
- Hindi 2ch AC3
- Hungarian 2ch AC3
- Italian 5.1 AC3
- Polish 2ch AC3
- Portuguese (PT) 2ch AC3 & 5.1 AC3
- Portuguese (BR) 2ch AC3
- Romanian 2ch AC3
- Russian 2ch AC3
- Spanish (Castellano) 5.1 AC3
- Spanish (Latino) 2ch AC3
- Swedish 2ch AC3
- Ukrainian 2ch AC3
Some of the audio is sourced from BDs, some from NSTC/PAL DVD (need to do the correction for speed and pitch on the PAL releases, of course) and some are sourced from HDTVrips where someone synced the audio from unknown sources. The Chinese and Hindi are sourced from VCDs. These are not all synced yet. I will also include subtitles. If there are any languages not listed that any user would like me to include, if they can supply the audio track, I'm happy to sync it and include it as well
As far as the "extras" and the final presentation of this first film within an Vintage Disney Channel "setting" is concerned, I'm still working on that and will post more as that part is closer to completion
Now, on to the screenshots.... (top-my encode/middle-"common" 1080i HDTV/bottom-old 1080p itunes):
[Image: 4aQclgN.png]
[Image: ZsuXt1D.png]
[Image: dyjUUxg.png]
[Image: FJyFgsl.png]
[Image: adkFPzz.png]
[Image: hRY9Ryt.png]
[Image: N7tX5pi.png]
[Image: Z2XLX2K.png]
[Image: DITa9tx.png]
[Image: OACmW1f.png]
[Image: d0O6qPs.png]
[Image: 9YMba9u.png]
Any comments are welcome
Exceeded amount of images in last post, so here are the remaining one:
[Image: da64N2T.png]
[Image: BC0dE4E.png]
[Image: wtTUIg3.png]
[Image: TuFTzA4.png]
[Image: KL26CxN.png]
[Image: lMyRCex.png]
