Japanese Version 16mm Reels

[rjkibbee]

Just discovered this forum, what a great resource, I had the great pleasure of introducing my young daughter to X Bomber episode 16, (Japanese version) this week on the silver screen. She was immediately hooked, even without understanding a word. Her 6 year mind struggled with the lack of facial expressions and had to keep asking who the good guys were. The impression it left has had her hypothesizing on the fate of the kidnapped princess for days now. Love it. Once we screen the whole series I'd like to sync an English dialog/ soundtrack; are there any digital audio resources for such a thing?

Cheers
Rich

[Crash]

Welcome!

The splicing of the audio and video between language adaptations of the show is tricky, partly because the credits are different lengths in each localisation.
If you were to mux them together, you would find it tricky to sync the audio with the picture.
Another thing is that the differences between PAL and NTSC framerates make the episodes slightly different lengths and could throw the synchronisation off.
So, it's best to mux between two PAL or two NTSC sources.

The French DVDs of Star Fleet are produced from a 35mm master, unlike the UK DVDs, which are taken from 16mm.
Also, the French version has undergone a fantastic remaster and the colour and contrast are great, far better than the Japanese DVDs even.

So, if you were to attempt it, there seems to be a lot of software available for the purpose although anything decent will probably cost you something.


BladeZ is the person to talk to about this. He has been working on a remastering project. I know 80% of the above through him.
He runs the Star Fleet Wiki, which is great btw; http://star-fleet.wikia.com/
You should PM him on here and see if you can't help eachother out.


The UK DVDs are so atrocious in terms of VA quality that the audio isn't even stereo. I guess that's why the extras had to be so good.
There is a US release that came out just last month. Its picture quality isn't supposed to be fabulous but I wonder if it at least has stereo audio.


Here's a link that might be of interest:
http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-F ... 833/page/2

[rjkibbee]

Thanks so much Crash for the links and info, I fortunately came across 22 of 24 episodes on 16 mm film. The colour is still fantastic!!! I do have a bit of experience in audio editing but it now sounds quite ambitious, not as cut and dry as a trim and paste here and there. I guess I'll take it an episode at a time when digitize them.

[Crash]

I'm happy that Star Fleet still captures young peoples' interest and competes with current childrens' programming nearly 40 years on.

I think that Star Fleet, complete with English audio is even better because it has a more engaging soundtrack.


How is it possible to play those films? Are they being shown using a projector?

I bet there's quite a story about how those reels turned up. We speculated on the forum quite a bit that the original masters of the show were probably lost to the world, (perhaps in the fire that destroyed the production studio).

If they can be digitised, I'd love to add some screenshots from them to the site - the-bigger-the-better. I have a reasonable collection as it stands:
http://xbomber.co.uk/?dir=Star Fleet/DVD Screenshots

Since I'm paying for unlimited space, I wonder if some clips might be uploadable - just small enough to constitute 'fair use'.

Have you seen the "Preview Show" from the remastered DVDs incidentally?:
http://xbomber.co.uk/Star%20Fleet/Media ... review.mp4

[rjkibbee]

Hi Crash, I came across the films from a local re-cycler who had just came into possession of the technical instruments and peripherals from who I believe to be, the french translator for the series as this was his vocation. I do have 11 of the 12 french episodes as well but unfortunately these 16mm films were stored terribly in a damp environment in metal cans for many years leading to a nightmare restoration project that may or may not be fruitful. Albeit worth the effort when time permits.

To introduce the evolution of audio and video media to my young daughter, I refurbish antiquated audio and video devices including 8 and 16mm projectors which I project on a 4ft square silver screen. I'd like to believe she has an appreciation for the different formats as she does show considerable patience and interest. : ) ....or she's humouring me as that is her kind/sinister nature. Although there is no mistaking her connection with Lamia.

I have just begun to research the required tools and reagents to clean and preserve the films and would be happy to share any snippits of interest when they are available. I hope to design / find a good capture device as well in hopes of acquiring high quality frame images.

I'll keep you posted, I am not sure if I can post images, but if there is interest in seeing the reels and cases with the plastic protective bags with the Production Company details on them, I can take a couple pics.

Cheers
Rich

[Bladez636]

The French DVDs of Star Fleet are produced from a 35mm master, unlike the UK DVDs, which are taken from 16mm.
Also, the French version has undergone a fantastic remaster and the colour and contrast are great, far better than the Japanese DVDs even.

I used to be under the impression that the French masters were 35mm. But I've come to the realization that they are in fact 16mm as well. Why? The amount of grain and matting of the picture indicates that it's 16mm. Maybe 16mm blown up to 35mm.
The UK (and now US as well) DVD did too, but clearly they were not taken much care of, or cleaned up well, in comparison.

[Crash]

This is a fabulous thread.

I'd be very interested in capturing any images of the materials related to the show and putting them on the site.

I think that you probably find that children are enthusiastic about about what their parents are enthusiastic about in many cases.
I think that anyone with an inquisitive mind likes to see how any kind of machine works.
I think that it'll be a valuable education.

iPlayer and the like are probably ingeniously-coded and would have taken countless person-hours to develop but they aren't things that you can take apart in the same way.

I supposed that the Japanese and French DVDs were from 35mm original, to account for the quality but I'll update the site based on what you were saying over at the originaltrilogy.com, BladeZ.


I have some laserdiscs of the show that I managed to appropriate from Shane Perry some time ago.
They are very prized and I don't know if they've ever been played even by their previous owner.

Is there any way to connect a laserdisc player (assuming that I obtain one of those, from eBay, perhaps) to a PC in order to capture screengrabs from those for my site, do either of you know?
I suppose the original laserdisc quality and resolution would have to displayed on the PC to make the capturing worthwhile.

[rjkibbee]

Hi Bladez636, I wouldn't change the history books yet regarding 16 vs 35 mm as I am nowhere close to confirming these French reels, they are in a bad state at the moment. As well, I haven't done any research into the filming "Sūpāmariorama" process, the Japanese 16 mm reels I have may have been made for distribution to certain markets?
All speculation at the moment. I am hoping to find answers chatting with film school academics in who may be familiar with the production companies history etc.

Hey Crash, I have done a few VHS and camcorder to MP4 and other formats using an ATI TV Wonder converter. Essentially it enables a composite or s-video device to be passed through USB to your computer for screen capture / video capture. Nothing fancy from an editing perspective but it does the job.

I'll try to upload a couple pics of the film cans this weekend.
Cheers

[Bladez636]

I have some laserdiscs of the show that I managed to appropriate from Shane Perry some time ago.
They are very prized and I don't know if they've ever been played even by their previous owner.

Is there any way to connect a laserdisc player (assuming that I obtain one of those, from eBay, perhaps) to a PC in order to capture screengrabs from those for my site, do either of you know?
I suppose the original laserdisc quality and resolution would have to displayed on the PC to make the capturing worthwhile.

I know there are ways of capturing laserdisc, so likely. I'd be interested in having captures of the laserdiscs only if they wielded anything different from the DVD masters, mainly just if the next episode sequences had no kanji titles on the first and last scenes. I've constantly expressed my frustration because of how I have to use those scenes from the UK DVD because of that.

Hi Bladez636, I wouldn't change the history books yet regarding 16 vs 35 mm as I am nowhere close to confirming these French reels, they are in a bad state at the moment. As well, I haven't done any research into the filming "Sūpāmariorama" process, the Japanese 16 mm reels I have may have been made for distribution to certain markets?
All speculation at the moment. I am hoping to find answers chatting with film school academics in who may be familiar with the production companies history etc.

I meant the French masters used on the DVD, not the ones in your possession. The French DVD is the best quality of the show commercially available and is the source of my own remastering project; http://xbomber.co.uk/?dir=Star%20Fleet/ ... France%201

[Crash]

I'll have to wait until I get back from holiday to start with the project and the first step of that will be to find an LD player on eBay or somewhere.
You seem to be able to get a decent Pioneer for about £100 on eBay.,I just need to make sure that it's NTSC-compatible.

I'll see what they look like and if they look like they're worth ripping, I'll try and find a nice capture card for my desktop from somewhere.

We can have some comparison screenies for the website and do a good rip in Handbrake, I suspect.

I'm very interested to see what the quality looks like compared to the DVDs.
I see that, according to this site (does this belong to anyone here by the way?):
http://supermarionationworld.webs.com/merchandise.htm
The 2002 Japanese DVDs are created from the laserdiscs so they might be quite good.