Remastering

[thuviaptarth]

How do you handle remastering videos originally made with other source once you have the DVDs? If you're using Premiere with AVS scripts, do you start at the script level, replacing the original source with DVD source, time-matched to the download cut, or do you keep the old timelines, create new ones, and manually recreate the cuts and effects for each clip?

Also, DVDs vs. Blu-Ray: Can you rip Blu-Ray with a typical computer setup? Will make a difference on the average computer monitor or TV screen? Brought to you by enquiring minds without HD monitors but with Netflix accounts.

Comments

[melina]

Sorry for the late response -- I'm way behind.

Basically, to remaster, I would put the old version of the vid in the timeline (or, in the cases where I was lucky, the original project). From there, I'd place the remastered version of the clip above the original clip, and just work clip by clip. If I had the old version of the project, I'd copy any effects pretty much exactly, but if I was working from the full vid file, they'd need to be created.

As to Blu-ray, I haven't tried and can't say I intend to for the near future. The files would be so much larger, and the quality difference just wouldn't matter for most people, especially for the majority who watch vids online. IMO.

[thuviaptarth]

It's not late at all! I haven't started working on remastering anything yet. :) Thank you for taking the time to answer.

I am relieved I don't have to start thinking about Blu-Ray yet, since I'm still working out the basics of regular DVD source!

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about AVS, as you know, but I do know that DVD source isn't exactly the same as the download - for a lot of shots, there will be like a frame or two of difference, and the DVD source is crisper and with slightly different coloring.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Yes, the difference in frames is why you can't just rip DVD source and insert it in the scripts where you used the download file without any further work, which I used to think would be possible. It's why you'd need to recut it. I think the difference comes in either the networks cutting off a little for broadcast to mix in the commercials or the uploader/encoders not always cutting at the exact same place when they rip for upload.

The color and crispness shouldn't make a difference in the basic scripting, although you might need effects tweaking. But that's after replacing the files.

So have you remastered anything? How do you approach reclipping?

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

Also, and I don't know if this is just me, but the aspect ratio is slightly different on the DVD footage.

I don't think it's the networks cutting off - sometimes they'll go out of synch in the middle of a shot, and sometimes it comes back and they'll synch up again. Like, they'll be exact except for in the middle of the shot, it takes two frames for someone to lower an arm in one version. Then they might synch up again, or not.

I have remastered and am in the process of remastering now. I do it manually. For each clip, I extend it out to the nearest place where the original source had a cut - because those are easy to identify. Then I clip the new source at exactly that cut, and measure it along until I'm at the same point where the clip was, if that makes sense. Then I line them up on different tracks and make sure they're exactly the same. If they are, awesome. If they're off by a frame or so, I have to manually adjust it.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

::sigh:: My dreams of cleaning the old SPN S3 source off my external drive are vanishing like the early morning dew. Oh, well. It's only 10GB. It wouldn't have helped that much anyway.

I can't believe I am running out of room! But Buffy, Angel, and the Big Project need lots and lots of space. Especially the Big Project, damnit. It's a good thing I'm not in any rush to vid XF, I'd have to get another drive right now and I don't want to spend the money, even with TB drives at about $100.

The terrifying part of remastering isn't really the Premiere stuff, which is just tedious. The terrifying part is having to re-do the ending sequence in AE. I think I kept all the contributing projects but at this point I am just not sure, and I am too scared to check.

For the DVD footage, do you mean aspect ratio or do you mean frame size? Because not only do I get a different frame size from DVD to download, sometimes the downloads are a different size from each other. I end up having to crop in post-processing to make sure the borders remain consistent. I am hoping with all DVD source I can eliminate that step. Less math! It will make me happy.

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

I mean aspect ratio. The frame sizes are slightly different sometimes but for my purposes close enough - that is, when I make a vid that uses downloads for some seasons and DVD for others, I find that the difference in frame size is so minimal as to be mostly imperceptible.

But - and this could totally have to do with my quirky methods of processing the footage after downloading - I find that the downloads have a wider aspect ratio. The figures are distorted horizontally - you don't notice it when watching the downloaded footage, but when you compare it frame by frame to DVD footage it's really obvious.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Huh. No, I don't have that issue. You might be running into it because the downloads are made for square-pixel monitor displays and the DVDs are made for rectangular-pixel TV displays. In Premiere CS3, you can adjust each file individually by right-clicking on it in the project pane, selecting "Interpret Footage ..." and trying different aspect ratios until you get the downloads and the DVDs to match up.

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

Swapping sources on an avs level can be very fiddly - a frame off here, a frame off there and it's very hard to work out what's going wrong.

You're better off having both old and new source and build your new timeline over the top of your old one if you can.

As for BD vs DVD, a well-encoded dvd source will be indistringuishable from a high def source when scaled to standard definitions. I was going to use the HD copy of Serenity for Rodeohead but when I scaled it down it was identical in quality to the DVD.

The only advantage is if the blu-ray source is a better quality print, which can sometimes happen (the House DVDs for instance are shitty for no good reason, for example).

[You can rip BD discs if you have a suitable drive and software but editing at 1080p is a pain in the ass. 720p is much more reasonable but there's no appreciable difference at the moment imo]

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

You are awesome! Thank you so much.

I was hoping for an easy remastering solution that would let me clean 10GB of no-longer-useful source off my external drive pronto, but alas, facts are getting in the way of the perfection of theory. :(

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I've only remastered once, and it was from screencapture source (what? this was Very First Vid, and I was young and stupid and thought it would be faster than ripping from the very same DVD, which mostly it wasn't). And I'm on a Mac. But for fiddly effects stuff I am increasingly inclined to take physical notes on what I am doing so that I can recreate things if I have to. Like, maybe someday I will be comfortable enough with traveling mattes to whip them out without the benefit of notes, but in the meantime I am writing down all the files involved and the parameters and stuff, just in case Current Vid Project has a HD meltdown and I have to start from scratch.

Good luck with remastering and with Shiny New Vid Projects!