Thundercats picture quality and mastering for DVD

@Booshman your color corrected videos were edited to go beyond the boundraries of 4:3 aspect ratio?
I confirm your source is WAY better than the one I was doing the stuff here (actually I was almost role-playing/guessing much of the lineart due to this low quality source I was using), but I also confirm the aspect ratio is not 4:3 anymore. I'm confused now, cause it might render what I'm doing useless. I confirm on Fandom the show was a 4:3 aspect ratio. The DVD release had some compensating reviews?

 

For some reason, both MPC and Photoshop are giving me an aspect wider than 4:3.
Hm, really weird. Checked here and it is playing as default. To fix it I have to override to 4:3.
720 by 480 gives 1.5, not 1.333, mayne that's it.
I'll see what I can do here. Thanks for replying it with numbers tho.

 

I'm not sure what the issue is but this is definitely the correct aspect ratio. If you check at 1024x768 square pixels, it should look right.

 

Confirming a glitch in the player here. It was, for some unknown reason stretching a little bit horizontally.

 

Question:
Best Buy is selling something called "The Complete Collection" as a new release. I have included an image along with the specs below. Any idea what this is? Is it just a repackaging? I am worried it will be terrible quality.

----------------------------------
Features
Bernie Hoffer - Live!
Feel the Magic, Hear the Roar: ThunderCats fans speak out!
The Rembrandts music video
The music of Thundera
ThunderCats Ho! creating a pop-culture phenomenon

Details

• Release Date
  06-04-2019
• Product Tags
  DVD
• Format
  DVD
• Program Type
  Season
• Sound Features
  monaural, stereo
• Aspect Ratio
  1.33:1
• Subtitles
  English, French, Spanish
• Region Code
  1
• Studio
  New Line Home Video

Other

• Product Name
  Thundercats: The Complete Series [DVD]
• UPC
  883929658305

 

This collection is listed as 12 discs, the complete series in pal format is 24 discs, so I'm assuming they've stripped out all the motion menus and everything else they could and compressed the episodes. I'd go with the 24 disc set for pal, or the individual season sets for ntsc. Or wait for me to upload my remasters which look better than both.

 

You know, I came along after you started this, and hadn't read through this thread from the beginning.

I just did that, and I want to join others in commending you and expressing my gratitude. I think it's pretty clear we're out in the wilderness with WB investing in the original property so your project may end up being the de facto diamond standard. I can't even wrap my mind around how much work this entails and I know you're doing it for the love but maybe at the end of this we can figure something out to take care of you somehow.

Anyway, long story short, hell yeah I'll wait - I thought this was just a "whenever time permitted" thing and didn't realize you were really making a concerted go at this. I'm pretty excited now TBH. Maybe others can help with dust cover designs once you're getting close? What's your timeline?

 

I have the first season done. I'm waiting on a few assets I want to include, then I'll get it released. No time to do a proper bluray with menus and stuff right now, so it'll be MKV format.

 

Cool, and I know nothing about the technical details of this process, but what is format you'll be converting to MKV?

 

Holy macaroni, when I read that at first I assumed you were just retouching a few choice scenes, Booshman, not the whole damn thing! That’s the absolute apex of fan dedication, remarkable stuff!

Since you’ve probably studied the source material to a more minute degree than anyone else since it was originally created, any revelations to share? Any particular sequences or episodes stand out?

 

Still it deserves a bluray tho.
But that can come later, when stuff is finished.

 

The MKV is just a container for the video, audio and subs. The video is AVI and encoded to MP4, it's then made into an MKV with all the audio and subs.

Dedication will be tested post Thundercats HO. All the stuff after the introduction of the Lunataks is a marked drop off in quality, and though there are some good episodes it's not the part of the series I find myself returning to often. As for standout animation, when going though sections a frame at a time it's amazing how some stuff that looks so random can flow so well when played at full speed. It's also crazy how many issues the official DVD's have that I've had to work around, piecing bits from different regions to have something that works. The biggest surprise was how much better the VHS audio quality for Exodus was compared to the DVD.

It does, but it's a lot of work. There's designing the art for it to make the assets, then building the thing. Then there are a bunch of work-rounds needed due to how lame Encore is, one of which is replacing every video and sub track. Then after that the resultant discs all need to be tested thoroughly to make sure they work as intended. Buttons play the right episodes, audio languages and sub selection work, etc. Then after all that I'd probably still just use the MKV's for the sake of convenience.

 

Can’t argue with that: HO seemed like such a mad, grand hurrah, and what followed was—for me at least (sorry Lunataks fans)—kind of a slog.

Out of curiosity, are you using the original, unedited version of episode 1? I remember watching the DVD release for the very first time and being heartbroken at the way it had been hacked to pieces, the flow felt so jarring and they lost some great sequences. It’s got such a straightforward (and at times oddly adult) sci-fi narrative that's quite unlike anything else, one of my favourites for sure.

 

Great project. May I see a sample?

 

I'll PM you.