[FF7PC-98/Steam] New High Quality FMV Project (2013-05-10)

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Yes, sharpness would be good, they seem a little . . . blotchy(?). Overall good work though.
 
That's pretty much the only thing I see that's off, and has been fixed as much as possible. The 2012's have a clear image that's not as pixelated and looks better on larger screens but it's smooth where the restored originals look a little sharper. When I corrected for that sharpness the pixels that they do have start becoming clearer. In the end it's basically a trade off, more detail or sharper image.
 
Thanks glad to hear it. About half way done with the new codec now. Takes longer to package them for uploading than anything else lol. Finishing the ending videos now. I removed the black edges and they look pretty good. Ending3 was the hardest though, it was the smallest to begin with. It came out pretty well, but it always seemed like it was weaker in quality compared to some of the others. Unless you prefer the classic videos I recommend the HD video I made.
 
And thanks again for helping with the codec. I tried countless combinations to get it to work and it always did the same thing. Second try with your suggestion and it worked perfectly. Saved me a migraine and a whole afternoon of swearing at my computer.
 
Looking forward to it! :)
Edit:
From DLPB (he can't write here as he is on his 4000th post)
The problem is, whenever you reencode a video, you are adding to the  loss.  The only real way to make videos "BETTER" than the 2012 versions  is to actually start with the best known source (psx versions sadly and  decoded to a lossless format like lagarith from which you can build your  project) and then do what they did with 2012 version... use noise filters  and upscaling methods.

After that, you do what has been done here... you make the colour better,  make contrast better, make sound better.

Starting off by reencoding the 2012 versions, which is already a  reencoding (of PSX) which was also a rather basic encoding (of the original  master), is just introducing more noise again and distorting the picture  further. (and if you look at these videos you can see that noise has indeed  been added).

The whole approach has to start from the very basics and be worked up in  order to better the 2012 versions. It has to be worked from the ground up  or it is simply a variation with added impurities.  Also, changing the  Resolution or frame rate is a big no no.  I actually like the new colour,  though.

I am also going to stop pming people now, as it is cheating.   Maybe at  some stage I will look into filtering methods and try to come up with  something better than the 2012 versions.  My own versions are now  completely redundant in most areas, despite the massive amount of work I  put in.  The method I used was inefficient, and looking back, totally flawed (not to mention ridiculously time consuming...).

Your videos will look decent if you correct the faults I listed, but it will still  suffer from degregation of the image due to reencoding.  So you are fixing  one problem (colour, contrast, sound)  and introducing another (noise,  image degregation).

I didnt mean that the whole thing was useless. I mean the last encode was. The real question is, can we come up with the  same or better  filtering job they did with 2012, whilst also adding the other  improvements on top, working from the PSX versions. I may have another try one day.

Dan
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Thanks I do appreciate the help. I hit some technical difficulties so things are a bit delayed. Good news is I found a much better process that'll actually do exactly what Dan said. Better yet, I'm sharpening the image a whole lot more and it's not having the negative effect I had last time. I'll try to get a sample of the sharpened videos available soon.
 
The reason 15fps is ideal is because the originals were 15fps. By changing it to 25fps, you are introducing duplicate frames, which accomplishes nothing but to bloat the filesize and cause it not to run nearly as well on any display running at a multiple of 60fps (TVs in North America and Japan, most LCD computer monitors worldwide).

You mentioned you're using a TV. Are you in Europe or Australia? If so, it's possible (and in fact quite likely) that your TV displays at a multiple of 50fps, in which case 25fps video would almost certainly run smoother for you... but it's really better to optimize for 60fps PC monitors, not 50fps TVs, since that's what the vast majority of people will be playing on.
 
Nope I'm in DC. 25fps seemed ok for actual movies but the videos that move around the characters are jittery, and they weren't what I'd tested before. New codec is at 1280x896 h264 aac at 15fps. So obviously a better working codec is great, but the sharper images are what made me retool this in the first place and they look awesome. So I'm very optimistic, and do have to agree - this crap is very time consuming lol.
 
Oh gosh... you reminded me of when I tried to test my modified opening.avi 25 fps render in a friends slower setup and experienced the usual video\sound lag once more... Square should at least fix those issues in the re-release... but obviously they didn't. My modified video does lag with the re-release when I tried it as well...
 
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I tested the first new video in the game and it not only looked great but plays perfectly. The new process isn't only better but it's faster too. I switched from final cut to sony vegas movie studio hd platinum 11. I started with the bike video and sharpened the video some and fixed the color and contrast. The really cool thing is I can import the next video without having to redo anything and just reanimate the video, it saves my settings. So now I only have to make a few alterations on some videos and replacing the audio I already enhanced. This will triple my productivity. I don't like windows much otherwise, but vegas seriously kicks ass. I want to get as much done as possible for now, but I'll upload a game ready sample later tonight.
 
I need to get my hands on vegas sometime... I'm thinking about it for so long... adobe premier is a real pain in the arse indeed!
 
Totally worth checking it out. With an Amazon Prime account it's $40 too lol, and doesn't sound much different than this years version. There's differently a learning curve with it, and mastering it would take some time, but it's made this project so much easier.
 
Ok so here's a sample of v1.01. I didn't mean to pick two dark videos, but they were the coolest looking of the ones I've finished so far. These are game ready, so just copy them into your movie folder (don't wipe out the originals though). Ignore the file names, there so you can see them in the game without actually playing. Finished about 24 videos with similar settings so things are moving along pretty well.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/uon6783437i4i3h/eidoslogo.avi

http://www.mediafire.com/download/10uoghj2ddnrpna/sqlogo.avi
 
Glad to hear it. I'm actually stuck in meetings tonight that only requires my physical presence, so I'm wearing headphones and setup with Vegas here and hoping to get a bunch of these done while I'm here.
 
OK, so v1.01 is completed and new download links are available on the first page. I also included links for my HD ending3 video, and for original size remastered ending1 and ending 2 videos for those who don't want them full screen. The color and contrast maybe enhanced a lot more in these than in other projects so they may look brighter and darker than you expected, but I think they look really good, and I made videos like the golden saucer railway and junon elevators closer to the originals so they transfer well with the games background. I tried to make transitions like that as unnoticeable as possible. So check them out and enjoy the new remastered fmvs.

The links for the samples I posted earlier on page two will be available until I eventually need the storage space for another project. If you want to see some of the videos first before downloading the rar files try them and the ending videos posted on the first post. They'll give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect.
 
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