Hello!
Thanks to spoRv, I now have two perfectly in sync sources that I can overlay. I did some manual editing of one to make sure it was frame perfect, but even though I did that it's a few frames out of sync.



Is the fact that I'm using VirtualDub2 instead of AviSynth an issue? I couldn't get it to run in Avisynth 2.6 or AviSynth+. When this plugin works it works excellent! Hopefully I can get this finished and I can start to contribute instead of just asking questions.. 
Any help is appreciated. Thanks

So I was poking around out of boredom and scrolling through a 35mm print inventory that was posted on another forum–where I've been more recently been able to make scanning efforts for some of the listed titles–when I noticed something that caught my eye.

Apparently within that collection, there's an Italian 35mm print of Dario Argento's Inferno with a 4-Track Stereo Mix ("INFERNO (1980)- In Italian; 4-track mag stereo/optical").

In all of the releases I've seen of the movie, I don't think I've ever seen the Italian track included in surround stereo, only mono. In fact, the only surround tracks I've heard of when it came to this movie before reading this listing were the English remixes (5.1 & 7.1) from over the years.

As such, I was wondering if anyone here knows anything about this mix? It kind of gets me wondering now if there was some old laserdisc release that actually has it or something.

If anyone knows anything, please respond, I'm quite curious how Keith Emerson's score sounds in this original mix and if it'd end up being a huge upgrade in comparison to the other mixes out there (like in the case of the 4-Track Stereo Mix for Suspiria thanks to Synapse).

I have a new Macbook Pro and unfortunately it no longer comes with an Digital-In. So I need a USB Soundcard that gives me this option, especially for Bit-Perfect Captures.

Any recommendations? Anything I should look for that could be a problem?

Looking forward to your feedback

To give it its own thread. It's confirmed:
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/zack-...234611928/

I just really look forward to seeing this. I'd followed the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement for a little and was fascinated by all the infos about all the things the movie could have been. Didn't doubt the existence of the cut but I did seriously doubt that it would ever be released. Glad to be proven wrong.

With the successful financing of The Keep, I thought I'd go back to that StrawPoll to see what was next on that list and start up another one and see what happens. If it doesn't get funded, oh well. If it does, then cool, another preservation available on the list.

Anyways, although technically two HD masters exist of it already at the moment, Big Trouble In Little China is a movie that I believe deserves a print scan for a couple of reasons. Apart from the fact that it's an enjoyable cult classic and it'd cool to see how it looks with the release print grain and whatnot, the biggest thing that should be addressed I believe are the colors.

In a couple of threads here on FanRes, this movie's been discussed a number of times in the past about how the colors on both HD masters are wrong.

The Fox HD master is not only stone old, but it sucked out all of the Cundey blues and warmed the picture up far too much to create a rather neutral looking master. Although the newer Euro / Netflix master attempts to recreate the original grading, it too suffers a slew of problems, from the poor / murky black level and the fact that much of the movie ended up accidentally homogenizing into a teal and orange color scheme, sacrificing other colors as a result. You can see a comparison between the two masters here if anyone is curious.

(2017-10-13, 12:31 AM)Beber Wrote: Right when the truck enters the alley, it's very blue. Then it's mostly greenish. The lightning effects are cyan-blue. Overall, the movie is mostly greenish. The beginning credits are very blue, and the Budha statues area at Lo Pan's place is quite blue, mostly because of the carpet.

(2018-06-07, 09:28 PM)zoidberg Wrote: The new colour timing is quite something isn't it? I was lucky enough to catch a 70mm screening in April and sure enough it was dark, moody and blue blue blue. It looks like the Netflix was a genuine attempt to go back to the theatrical colours, although the Netflix timing has more consistent orangey skin tones whereas the 70mm tends to vary going from pinkish to orange to brown sometimes, but that's photochemical colour timing for you. The 'green flames' on the 70mm were genuine vivid green whereas the Netflix has somewhat tealer greens. If anything the 70mm was bluer than the Netflix which surprised me.

zoidberg Wrote:I like to think my memory of the screening (70mm, not 35mm) is good but no-one's memory is perfect, it was very blue in much the same way I describe T2 as blue, inasmuch as it's very present throughout but not at the expense of other colours (ie not a blanket tint).

As such, I believe that it'd be a good idea to at least consider scanning the 35mm print in my trusted associate's collector's inventory ("BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986)- SCOPE, LPP; 6rls, Good^#") in an attempt to preserve the original photochemical color grade, so that the movie can be enjoyed in its original form in 4K (or to be used to even regrade one of the HD masters). Especially since Shout! Factory ended up dropping the ball by recycling the aforementioned outdated Fox master from 2009 in their recent blu-ray release which is a damn shame.

Roughly estimating the costs, it would likely end up around $920: $250 renting the print, $100 for two-way shipping, $75 for FilmGuard treatment & $495 for the scanning itself.

Like the previous project, I will just be holding pledges for now until the gap can be closed where I will then send out links to a private PayPal Pool.

So far we have pledges from...

• $10 – FilmD00d
  
• $25 – Gryfun3
  
• $40 – Soupdrinker0 (OT)
  
• $5 – CG77 (SWT)
  

Pledged Total: $80 – 8.7%

A friend of mine tracked down an old 35mm intermission clip that used to play in UK cinemas. He collects and regularly watches 16mm films but had no way of watching or preserving 35mm, so when he heard about my Highlander 2 scan project he asked if I could help him get it scanned. 

In the end the scanner I used for H2 was more than happy to scan the short clip along with my reels, so it's now been preserved for posterity. 



My friend has great nostalgia for this clip, he's got a lot of memories of seeing it playing in cinemas when he was a kid in the 70s. Apparently this particular version was specific to Odeon cinemas, but there's also a version for ABC cinemas that has different narration, music and Coke instead of Pepsi. My friend remembers seeing the ABC version right through to 1992! 

The clip was pretty faded and red so I did very quick and basic correction to bring the colours back so thought I'd share the results here. If anyone wants to see it just PM me for a link. 

My friend is a editor by trade so now that he has the raw film scans I'm sure he'll come up with a much better restoration. When he does I'll encourage him to share it here.

@jrodefeld, gaining profit from fan projects is strictly prohibited here on fanres.



Note: I figure many people here already know about our releases, but I wanted to post about them for people who are not familiar with our work.






Brand new November 2018 release!  

Restoration and Color Correction:  

We used two sources to restore the original theatrical version. We used two genuine HD sources, one uncut and the other heavily edited. After careful inspection we concluded that the edited version had superior colors and detail, but it was also dirtier. The uncut version looked okay, but the colors were washed out and the color grade was too blue.  So we removed the dirt from the edited source using Digital Vision Phoenix and spliced in the missing scenes from the uncut version. Then we had to carefully match the color grade to make the two sources look as seamless as possible. The results are very impressive.  Finally, the original opening titles had to be restored by combining the two sources. Similar to what we did with Drunken Master 2, but with even better results. This single thing took several weeks and many hours to end up looking seamless.  The result is the best looking version of Armour of God that is available.  

Uncut Hong Kong Version 

Audio Tracks:  

1. Original Cantonese 2.0 LPCM (HK Star Laserdisc)  
2. Original English Dub 2.0 LPCM (Pony Canyon Laserdisc)  
3. New English Dub 5.1 Dolby (Hong Kong Legends DVD)  
4. Cantonese Surround Remix 7.1 (Kam & Ronson BD)  
5. Mandarin 2.0 LPCM (Deltamac DVD)  
6. "Podcast on Fire" Commentary    

Miramax Version 

Audio Tracks:  

1. Miramax English Dub 2.0 DTS-HD (Miramax BD)  
2. Original English Dub 2.0 LPCM (Pony Canyon Laserdisc)  
3. Original Cantonese 2.0 LPCM (HK Star Laserdisc)  
4. New English Dub 5.1 Dolby (Hong Kong Legends DVD)  
5. Cantonese Surround Remix 7.1 DTS-HD (Kam & Ronson BD)  
6. Mandarin 2.0 LPCM (Deltamac DVD)    

Ending Credits Song and Lyrics Subtitles  As we've previously done, we got proper English subtitles created for three songs that play during the film. Those songs are: "Friend of Mine", "Lorelei" and "High Upon High"  Additionally, you can choose whether you prefer to have "Lorelei" or "High Upon High" play during the ending credits/outtakes. The reason for this is that some versions of Armour of God had one song or the other playing over the credits depending on the country it was released in.  This is the only version of Armour of God that provides both versions, for both the original English dub and the original Cantonese audio.    


Disc 2 Special Features  

1. Image Gallery (HKR Exclusive)  
2. Restoration & Color Correction  
3. Under the Armour (HKR Exclusive)  
4. Jackie Chan Interview 
5. Willie Chan Interview  
6. Outtakes  
7. Trailer Gallery  
8. Promotional Archive  
9. That Same Question  
10. Fan Tributes  
11. Traces of a Dragon  
12. Jackie's Oscar  
13. Officially Amazing  
14. This is Jackie Chan  
15. There is Only One  
16. Comedy Special  
17. HK Cinema 101  
18. Charitable Chan  
19. "Sing Lung" Sings  
20. Working with Jackie  
21. Hong Kong Rescue    

Too much great stuff to mention individually, but as always Darren's exclusive material is incredible. Two 50gb discs have been filled to capacity. The entire project has been tweaked and polished to perfection, or as close as I can possibly come.  You'll love it.



What Other People Are Saying About Hong Kong Rescue:

My son (who was born the year after the film came out) hasn't seen it yet, and we were excited about watching it together. But now with the pandemic going on, even though he lives less than 15 minutes away, to stay safe, we can't. But it'll be worth the wait."



@jrodefeld, gaining profit from fan projects is strictly prohibited here on fanres.

Note: I figure many people here already know about our releases, but I wanted to post about them for people who are not familiar with our work.






The Restoration:  

The exclusive Hong Kong Rescue restoration of Wheels on Meals took longer than any previous restoration we've attempted. The only genuine HD transfer for this film in the world is a Japanese print that has great detail and color, but it had a problem with dirt, dust and scratches all over the place.  So we spend every day for about 10 months meticulously removing each and every imperfection. The video below gives a good demonstration of what we accomplished with the effort. The difference is stunning, even more so when you see it in person.  

Disc 1:  

Audio Tracks:  

1. Original Cantonese 2.0 LPCM  
2. Classic English Dub 2.0 LPCM  
3. Hybrid Cantonese 2.0 LPCM  

This one requires an explanation. The music from the original English dub is iconic and many prefer it to the music in the original Cantonese version.  So we combined the Music from the English dub with the dialog from the original Cantonese. This is an exclusive to HKR and many fans will consider it the best of both worlds.  

4. Cantonese Surround Remix 7.1 DTS-HD  
5. Classic English Dub Surround Remix 5.1 Dolby  
6. New English Dub 5.1 Dolby  
7. Bey Logan Commentary  
8. "Podcast on Fire" Commentary    

Disc 2 Special Features:  

1. Fan Collection Ep. 1 - JC Poster Tour 
 
2. Image Gallery  

3. The Restoration  

4. Final Fight with No Music  

5. Sammo Hung Interview  

6. Yuen Biao Interview  

7. Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao Interviews  

8. Benny Urquidez Interview  

9. Keith Vitali Interview  

10. Stanley Tong Interview  

11. Brett Ratner Interview  

12. A Tribute to Jackie Chan  

13. Jackie Reflects on his Career  

14. Crossings: Jackie Chan  

15. Jackie vs. Benny Fan Homage  

16. The Amazing Sammo Hung  

17. Jackie, Sammo & Yuen Biao on Hong Kong TV  

18. Charitable Chan  

19. Wheels in Action  

20. Jackie Sings in Japanese  

21. "The Protector" Promo  

22. Hong Kong Version Titles & Credits  

23. Promotional Archive  

24. Music Videos  

25. Outtakes  

26. Trailer Gallery  

27. TV Spots  

28. Hong Kong Rescue Trailer    

As you can see, this title is packed with material. All these special features are of remarkably high quality and value.





What Other People Are Saying About Hong Kong Rescue:

My son (who was born the year after the film came out) hasn't seen it yet, and we were excited about watching it together. But now with the pandemic going on, even though he lives less than 15 minutes away, to stay safe, we can't. But it'll be worth the wait."

Note: I figure many people here already know about our releases, but I wanted to post about them for people who are not familiar with our work.






The Restoration:  


This is the first title from Hong Kong Rescue where we perform our own meticulous frame-by-frame restoration. Using the professional restoration software Phoenix and PFClean, thousands of instances of dirt, dust, scratches and broken frames were removed or fixed.  

Disc 1:  

Three versions of Project A are included sourced from two separate sources.  The Hong Kong Version is nearly identical to the Japanese version but it includes slightly different opening titles and different outtakes. Uses the US Echo Bridge transfer.  The US Version is the shortest of the three, heavily cut in different areas. Uses the US Echo Bridge transfer.  The Japanese version is the longest owing to the extended ending outtakes. Not only that, but this uses a different Japanese source for the transfer. This is the transfer that we meticulously restored so should be considered the definitive version.  

Audio tracks:  

Hong Kong Version and Japanese Version:  

1. Original Cantonese 2.0 LPCM  
2. Cantonese Surround Remix 5.1 DTS-HD  
3. Mandarin Surround Remix 5.1 Dolby  
4. English Dub 2.0 Dolby  
5. Bey Logan Commentary  

US Version:  

1. New English Dub 5.1 DTS-HD    

Disc 2 Special Features:  

1. A Classic Revisited  

A lengthy documentary about the making of Project A hosted by Bey Logan  

2. Jackie Chan Interview  

3. Yuen Biao Interview  

4. Composer Michael Lai Interview  

5. Dick Wei Interview  

6. Lee Hoi-San Interview  

7. "Stunt God" Mars Interview  

8. TV Special  

9. Deleted Scenes  

10. Behind the Scenes  

11. How to Do Action Comedy  

12. Sammo Hung Interview  

13. Charitable Chan  

14. Jackie Chan on Japanese TV  

15. Lunar New Years Introduction  

16. Image Gallery  

17. Outtakes  

18. Trailers  

19. TV Spots  

20. The Restoration  

21. Hong Kong Rescue Trailer





What Other People Are Saying About Hong Kong Rescue:

My son (who was born the year after the film came out) hasn't seen it yet, and we were excited about watching it together. But now with the pandemic going on, even though he lives less than 15 minutes away, to stay safe, we can't. But it'll be worth the wait."

Note: I figure many people here already know about our releases, but I wanted to post about them for people who are not familiar with our work.







Disc 1:  


Our release uses the spectacular 2013 restoration of Drunken Master and it looks incredible.  We take great pride in the English subtitles in particular on this release. Kung Fu films of this era tend to have VERY inaccurate subtitles, but ours have been translated accurately line-by-line.  

Audio Tracks:  

1. Original Cantonese 2.0 LPCM  
2. Modified Cantonese 2.0 LPCM  
3. Cantonese Surround Remix 5.1 Dolby  
4. New US English Dub 2.0 Dolby  
5. Original Rank English Dub 2.0 Dolby  
6. Mandarin Dub 2.0 Dolby  
7. Japanese Dub 2.0 Dolby  
8. Rick Meyers and Jeff Yang Commentary    

Disc 2 Special Features:  

1. Interview with Jackie Chan  

New English subtitles were commissioned for this feature.  

2. Interview with Producer Ng See Yuen  

3. A Conversation with Yuen Woo-Ping  

4. Tour of the Jackie Chan Film Gallery  

Jackie tours a museum dedicated to him and his films. New English subtitles were commissioned for this feature.  

5. 36 Crazy Fists - Behind the Scenes  

6. "Dragon Power" Scene  

7. Hwang Jang Lee in Action  

8. Deleted Scene  

9. Drunken Master Trailers  

10. Image Gallery  

11. Japanese Blu-ray Promos  

12. Twins Parody  

13. Hong Kong Rescue Trailer




What Other People Are Saying About Hong Kong Rescue:

My son (who was born the year after the film came out) hasn't seen it yet, and we were excited about watching it together. But now with the pandemic going on, even though he lives less than 15 minutes away, to stay safe, we can't. But it'll be worth the wait."