Star Wars Conversions-Hit me with your best shot...

[Mythos2002]

I'm probably going to have to spring for DVD-Lab so I can use 1.3. I just hate to buy it if it isn't going to work for me.

I'm thinking about the ADVC-1394 since it has the hardware sound locking or something like that. The problem is that I have a Soyo Motherboard with the VIA KT333 and don't know if it will work with it since Canopus said that that chipset is not guaranteed to work. I've been trying to find someone who has the same motherboard who has tried that card to see if it worked for them.

Until then, I guess I could tell DVD-Lab not to demux and see what happens.

Mythos

[flaninacupboard]

Myth, if you're interested in the canopus gear, the ADVC 100 or 50 does pretty much the same job as the 1394, except the 1394 also has a firewire controller, wheras the 50 and 100 need either an onboard controller on your mobo, or an ad in card. Big difference in price though, and from what i understand it's the same DV encoding hardware in all three products.

[Mythos2002]

I'm finally going to get a new capturing device. I've decided to spring for the ADVC-100 because I like the idea of having an external bridge I can remove when I don't need it.

My only question is, What brand or model of firewire card should I buy? Canopus used to have trouble with Ti Chipset firewire cards, but they said that has been cleared up with the newer firewire models. For those of you with the ADVC-50 or 100, what firewire card do you have or recommend?

After I get those and DVD-Lab's latest version, I should be well on my way to finally finishing my Star Wars conversion project.

Thanks.

Mythos

[vhelp]

Hay guys.. TGIF :P

Hi Mythos...

Yeah, on my 2nd pc setup w/ my ADVC-100, I'm currently usng the kit put
out by PYRO BasicDV that I purchased some time last year. Actually,
I had bought three (different makes/models) to be safe, case one didn't
work, I didn't have to go store hunting and returning again.

So, I would go out and get 2 or more cards, and the one that works, keep!!
I ended up keeping all three anyways, cause of my strange PC setups and
OS I have on each ( windows 98 )

Yea, definately spring for the this device.. and good luck w/ it buddy.
..it has proven it's weight in gold, and not once, has it failed me, pushing one
year old I think. And, your Star Wars projects will be even that much better :P

-vhelp

[flaninacupboard]

Myth, i wouldn't worry at all what firewire card you get. i ordered one with a Via chipset, but ended up recieveing one with a TI chipset! Argh!! i thought. but it works fine

[Mythos2002]

Thanks for the information. I'm going to stop by Circuit City today to see what they have in stock after I check their website. I really like the reviews for the Kouteck card on Newegg.

Once I buy everything and get started, I may have a few questions when I get to the menus and subtitles. I made a generic menu on DVD-Lab, but it didn't line up correctly. I noticed my play film button had a double image.

I think the perfect solution for videocards is to get the high mid-range card from Nvidia or ATI instead of the $499.00 top of the line models, take the money you save and get one of the Canopus cards for video capturing. Others may have better luck with the Radeon All-In-Wonders. I can't speak on that, but my Nvidia card did pretty good at capturing. However, it was too problematic regarding audio sync. I'll never buy a top of the line videocard from either Nvidia or ATI. They just aren't worth the money IMHO and can't always do what they are advertised to do.

Has anyone else finished their projects yet? I know Flanina, Robster, Menace, and Borghe have finished. Anyone else I miss?

Mythos

[louthewiz]

This is an off topic but it has to do with conversion ,I was able to convert all my STAR WARS laser discs to dvd-r and now I am willing to sell my laser disc player and lasers .I have the following for sale the THX version of the trilogy widscreen edition also jumanji ,unforgiven with clint eastwood and startrek 5 as well as the classic dracula ld all for $300.00 dollars U.S. And finally my laser disc player is the panasonic laser max laser disc player with auto flip and optical output for dolby surround and DTS output so if anyone is interested drop me a line...

[tjbecht]

i also heave the trrilogy on vhs and was wondering what you all are useing to convert it to dvd i looked at the win tv and win tv go cards but realy could use some advise on getting started in this field of vhs to dvd any help would be helpful thanks guys

[Mythos2002]

I'm getting the ADVC-100 from Canopus to do my conversions. Previously, I used a Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4200, but I had a lot of problems with audio staying in sync. They are expensive, but I would recommend one of the Canopus cards. As others have said, they are worth their weight in gold. If you just want to convert analog to digital, you could buy the ADVC-50. It is a very nice card as well and costs a little less. I'm going for the 100 because I may want to make tapes for friends who don't have a DVD Player and I like the idea of having an external bridge that I can unplug anytime I'm not using it.

Just check over this long thread. I would put it in printer friendly mode. That way you can see all we have done on this project so far. Good luck.

Mythos

[viande]

Ok my turn

random thoughts on the subject:

I must admit that im approaching this (1993-THX LD)->DVD conversion job with lots of Zen.
Going overkill on restauration on this is ILM's job (IMHO).
No one here is going to go scene by scene and remove the errors that _are_ on the original
prints (most of which they fixed in the SE, sadly adding stupid CGI shots and f__ing up the plot
in the meantime (Han: "Thats alright i see so much better" - sarlak pit - anyone?)

Some examples of things no one will fix (and will only make more apparent with overkill cleaning):
-On ESB the sudden frame jump from left to right when lea speaks to Han over the
com-link saying "an imperial probe droid!"
(Side 1: Frames 29380 - 29420 featuring Leia in the Hoth command)
http://www.jax-inter.net/~datalore/starwars/THX.htm (for more master defects)

But what about the REALLY obvious multi-shaped celuloid overlays used in FXs in those days.
(too many to count)? the Star destroyers, Ties, asteroids, they are everywhere, blue-ish borders
around everything that moves in space.

And what about those transparent ships over snow? Yet another thing they fixed in the SEs.

Its a sad fact, but the original prints will never be restored (officially)
So ill try to save these discs from rot and will transfer my DV tapes
to all future backup devices until i die.
DVDs are an interresting medium, they are NOT a final backup format.
Sadly the 4.1.1 nature of DV will make me want to backup the disks again later on
when higher capacity media/conversion comes within my reach ($$$)

Now for a bit of rant/question.
Why people convert the sound to AC3 (especially 5.1) is beyond me.
Standalone amplifiers to that allready (pseudo 5.1 from stereo - and will only get better with time)
So why screw up the SOURCE audio???

Also why you stretch (16x9) the image in order to supposedly gain quality.
you cant encode whats NOT there, you just are going to encode interpolated signals,
stretching the original video noise too (yuck). Are there proof/studies
that the mpeg2 encoding will have better chances??

OK on IVTC now. many people keep it at 29.97, but i plan on waiting to get a "intelligent" plasma display
that will do many rates including multiples of 23.98 so i will be able to watch the movie
as it was supposed to be.

So Ive tried all the "auto" and "manual" settings on vdub, avixxx(jap thingy) and TMPGenc's
the only one that created a perfect job
(the long process that scans all frames prior to compressing and
highlights in red the discarded fields/frames).

Old posts about this just made me jump. ALL FX shots in the [77-83] era were made
with celluloid/mate/cache tricks at 24p, why do people think that
the movie is sometimes in 29.97 in fx shots????
this movie is 24fps all the way and telecined all the way (xcept for the THX intro and
special features), this aint no Star Trek TNG!
If someone has proof of the contrary please post an URL!

- back on track -
Right now im half way through ESB (doing it first also for the subtitles thing)

Run down on my procesing steps so far:
(after MANY hours trying everything)

Samsung LD player -> Canon DV -> DVIO -> avi file.

first pass:
virtualdub triming (direct stream copy) of each side of LDs.
(since triming in TMPGenc just gave me Audio drifts!!)

Second pass
TMPGenc, IVTC (full preprocessing - 15 minutes per side!!(p3 1GHz))
Noise reduction (defaults -is 20,1,20 too much really?- high quality)
clip (filling black with solid black from top y104 bottom y100)
VBR max bitrate (8000), LPCM audio -> m2v/wav
second export -> avi (uncompressed) -> divx in vdub (for yet more fun)

Im going for 3 LD sides a DVD-r, right now with LPCM and vbr8000 it fits fine.

Now the more i read about DV decoding horrors (from doom9) and LD noise
(and the fact that maybe a pioneer player would play the discs better)
i want to cry, but i just say what the hell instead,
those DVDs im making should be roughly equivalent to the originals,
which are very dull, MUCH duller than the SE LDs.

Whatever the steps i use, its STILL going to be uglier than what ILM
did on the SEs (since they color corrected many (all?) shot using what was best in 97)

//

Ok, now for the sad part. Either my player is screwed AND/OR my side 2
of ANH is bit rotten/scratched beyond repair (although close inspection did
not reveal this) but I wa unable to digitise chapter
"35 - The Death Star Destroys Alderaan" (last chapter of side 2)
Its just stutters away as soon as leia speaks and my player stops shortly after.
Ive read in some LD FAQ that the further away from the center of the CAV disk you go
the more chance of damage/rot whatever you have.

I know this might be considered illegal, but if anyone here has a chapter that
skips (different than this one), idd gladly exchange DV/huffyuff avi files with you!
(yeah we can arrange cdr shiping)

Also, (this might be better legally wise), does anyone have the 7 missing seconds
of leia welding (ESB start of disc 3)?? this is a known defect of the discs,
and it only recently come to my attention that my set was the early pressing
with this mastering error, Image Entertainment offered a replace program in 1995,
but i wouldnt get my chances up to do it _now_...
So if anyone has those 7 seconds on DV avi file i would be VERY gratefull!
In fact these 7 seconds should be available legally!

I tried for fun to capture that section on my equivalent VHS WS release
and wanted to match the shots, while it was an interresting thing to try,
the VHS section was SOOOOO ugly, that it would distract way more than having the shot missing

Other question, is there an app that allows you to edit specific AVI frames
IN PLACE, allowing to send the specific frames to photoshop or other app, then close
photoshop and the frame be reinserted in the stream (the app would require the avi to be either
huffyuv or uncompressed), as idd like to manually fix the most anoying defects myself.

Ok maybe im not so 'Zen' about it )

Cheers

PS: http://www.jax-inter.net/~datalore/starwars/THX.htm is a very interresting read.

[Mythos2002]

That is an interesting read. Thanks for the article.

Well, I got my ADVC-100 and Koutech firewire card today. I tried them out and they seem to work fine. I haven't done any serious capturing yet as I'm still figuring things out.

I do have a question about sound. I can't hear any sound during capture, but it is fine when I play back the file. Is that normal? I'm using WinDV for capturing.

I also figured out about the Panasonic DV Codec for getting Virtual Dub to work with DV files.

This is very exciting. I hopefully will not have any audio sync problems anymore. I just have to figure all of this stuff out. I'll also have to read over this thread again to check settings and so forth.

I do have a quick question for those of you who are finished and split the films up over two discs. At what point visually did you make the break in the films?

I'm going to see if I can find a guide for adding subtitles using Vegas or Scenarist. Thanks.

Mythos

[MJPollard]

I'm going to see if I can find a guide for adding subtitles using Vegas or Scenarist. Thanks.

FYI, there is a guide here for adding SubStation Alpha subtitles using VirtualDub. Works like a charm; I used it to redo the subtitles in the SW4 Han/Greedo scene, and the result is much cleaner and much more legible than the original. (It also allowed me to make cleaner black bars on the top and bottom without losing the subtitles.) I plan on applying the same technique to SW6, which, naturally, is gonna be a lot more involved...

[geek rock]

I do have a quick question for those of you who are finished and split the films up over two discs. At what point visually did you make the break in the films?

at a very rough guess, i'd say that most people are doing it where the breaks are for changing laserdisc sides. purely for simpicity's sake... all the fade outs etc are ready-made on the disc.

[tjbecht]

what about using the win tv go pci card to do my trilogy vhs conversion to dvd i have read a bunch of the reviews and it seems to be a good capture card

[wildo2ne]

anyone know where I can get star wars buttons for dvd menu?

[wildo2ne]

I have started work on this myself with custom menus and rips of ld I have a couple of the menus done, I called Lucas Studios yesterday and told them what I wish to do and why, I asked them for the source material for the special edition trailors, they told me to send them my contact info and they would see what they can do, I have not heard back from them yet, but I hope that if they will not provide them in digital format they will atleast send me a tape with them on it.
I will let you all know how it comes out, but for now you can see a preview of my menu at http://68.3.13.146:75/Menutest2.jpg

Wildo2ne

[geek rock]

anyone know where I can get star wars buttons for dvd menu?

i don't know what you mean, really..but there are tons of star wars fonts around so you can use those?

just type "star wars fonts" into google

[geek rock]

as a side note.. can a mod please edit the first post on this page to trim the URL down? it's stretched the board wayyyy out!

-Mark

[dvdguy]

If you can possibly wait a year here is som info from digitalbits.com

"You know, it seems like we go through this about once a year. But, at the risk of inducing lots of eye rolling out there, here we go again. We've heard from a number of industry sources we trust (and who have proven their reliability in the past) in the last few weeks. They're reporting that Lucasfilm is seriously considering releasing the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD late next year. In fact, our information indicates that some work is already under way toward a 4th Qtr, 2004 release. Word is that Lucasfilm is pleased with the format of The Adventures of Indiana Jones: The Complete DVD Movie Collection they're releasing on 10/21 in conjunction with Paramount - so pleased, in fact, that they're planning to use the same format to release the classic Star Wars films. This would presumably mean a 4-disc set, with a disc for each film and a fourth disc of special edition materials for all three films. It would certainly make sense. First, it would be a great way to get a buzz going into early 2005, when the final film, Episode III, is set to arrive in theaters. Also, Lucasfilm has said in the past that there aren't a lot of behind-the-scenes materials available for the original films, so having a single bonus disc of extras (as opposed to three) would make life easier for them.

Interestingly, as we were working to learn more about this from our sources, we received an e-mail from a Bits reader about a DVD column on the BBC's film site (slide down the page to near the bottom). It seems that Channel.com (sort of a U.K. version of Columbia House, run by Universal) listed the original Star Wars Trilogy as coming to DVD in 2004 in their latest brochure to members.

Of course, we've certainly heard similar reports many times in the past, so we encourage you to take this information with a large dose of salt. Only time will tell if this is... FINALLY... the real deal. At the recent DVD conference in L.A., I spoke with Lucasfilm's Jim Ward, who predictably wouldn't discuss the DVD release plan for the original Star Wars films, other than to say that they WOULD be released on DVD at some point. He did, however, say that Episode III was being well documented for DVD, and he once again noted that the original theatrical versions of these films no longer exist - the new SEs are George's ultimate vision for these films"

[geek rock]

he once again noted that the original theatrical versions of these films no longer exist - the new SEs are George's ultimate vision for these films"

so they're saying that george lucas has destroyed his original film masters/negatives (whatever they are - i don't know the correct terminology) for the original trilogy? what an idiot!

if just the SE's are released officially on DVD, looks like i'll have to get hold of the original movies some other way.

[vhelp]

.
.
yeah, geek_rock, I PM'ed Baldrick a while back on this, if he or other
mods' here could fix this, but this post must of went capoowey one of those
days I was having problems when posting. He prob never got it. I'll re-send
it another PM. Posting long URLs should be eliminted (or edited) by mod's
if they present a problem, or are useless (as in the above, which was just
posted to annoy use all here) If that user who posted it was concirned,
it would have ben edited or deleted by same
I motion to have an new rule amended, that if any user posts useless or
unconcirned URL's, that they be edited or deleted!! What say you all ??
here here ??

-vhelp

[geek rock]

good idea, vhelp.. also, i'm sure that there are modifications for this type of forum that automatically truncate the letters in long urls for displaying correctly. maybe one of those could be implemented.

anyway - back to star wars! 8)

[geek rock]

Why people convert the sound to AC3 (especially 5.1) is beyond me.
Standalone amplifiers to that allready (pseudo 5.1 from stereo - and will only get better with time)
So why screw up the SOURCE audio???

the main reason - a 2-channel AC3 audio stream, at 192kbps, is about 1.5 MB per minute.

the same 2-channel audio stream in uncompressed PCM format is about 11 MB per minute.

people are converting to AC3 to save a lot of space which they can then use to improve the quality of their video conversions. the audible sound difference between AC3 and PCM is very very minimal.

although anyone converting a 2-channel PCM audio track to 5-channel AC3.. that does seem a bit pointless.

-Mark

[mysticgohan17]

if just the SE's are released officially on DVD, looks like i'll have to get hold of the original movies some other way.

ill either die, go to heaven and watch them there, or spend $1000 buying a laserdisc player and the definitive collection from ebay.

[wildo2ne]

Posted earlier about wanting star wars dvd buttons, people missunderstood, I know there are fonts, I am talking about graphic buttons, like x wing, tie fighter, etc

wildo2ne

[jarvizo]

I just recently converted "the making of Star Wars" & "From Star wars to Jedi" onto a single DVD using an avermedia card (captured full res AVI's, then encoded to DVD mpeg using TMPGEnc"s High Quality settings, Then authored with the latest TMPGEnc DVD author, Using Menu backgrounds & buttons created in Photoshop) I was really impressed with myself. I even created an easter egg where you click on C3PO in one of the background pictures & the trailer for the films & the documentaries plays.
It was just a primer for when I get ready to convert the original trilogy
(I plan on doing a 3 disc set for each film using my definitive collection & special edition Laserdisc sets:
Disc 1: the original theatrical cut
Disc 2: the special edition cut
Disc 3: Bonus Features
I have alot of work ahead of me!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mythos2002]

I had a couple of questions concerning the ADVC-100.

1. Is it possible to hear the audio while you capture? I can't, but I can hear the audio when I play back the captures.

2. Does the ADVC-100 do bottom field first for its field order? I ask because my IVTC wasn't coming out correct. It seemed okay after I changed TMPNGEnc to bottom field first. I could have sworn the ADVC cards did top field first for some reason.

I'm so glad I bought this card and glad that it works with my PC since I have an imfamous VIA chipset.

I'm working with color correction now since it appears a little dark. I'm checking back over the thread to see what other Canopus owners did. It appears that Robster upped the brightness to 18-20. I may try that. He also dropped the reds, but I may not need to do that since I have an NTSC player and NTSC LD's.

Mythos

[geek rock]

I had a couple of questions concerning the ADVC-100.

1. Is it possible to hear the audio while you capture?

2. Does the ADVC-100 do bottom field first for its field order?

1. yes. although i'm unsure of how to change your capture settings.. it's something to do with whatever capture program you are using, because i can hear the audio fine when i use mine. (using iMovie on a mac)

2. yes.

-Mark

[vhelp]

Hi Mythos..

Some notes on the unit:
* keep the (it not, then switch to) #2 dip at: ON
...you want the darkest (trust me) as the other is too light.
* because it's DV, the encoding should always be set to Bot Field(B)
...for everything (cable, vhs, satellite, dvd, dv etc)
* Audio.. in order to here it, you have to use the OUT of the advc to your
...sound card. (cap cards work through the vfv driver, thats why you can
...get sound w/ those cards) But, do check w/ your DV app to see if there
...is sound setting. May scenerist (spelling) (and if you're using it) has a
...setting for this. I just use DVIO because inside my satellite connection, I
...am using one of the double connection for auido (on one end) so
...that I can listen to sound connected to my main speakers on my main pc
...(kind corney, but it works for me ) So, do check your software app.


Hope you're Finally enjoying your new toy - C8)8)L

Have fun,
-vhelp

[burdell1]

What happened to Share Reactor? I just recently found out about, but I can't download anything from it.....