_,,,^..^,,,_ presents:

The Arrival [spoRv]

| Released projects | Projects in progress | Future projects | Mission & Setup |

Mission: to make “The DEFINITIVE Arrival” edition.
Video source: Blu-ray, DVD, Laserdisc.
Audio sources: Blu-ray, DVD, Laserdisc.
Subtitles sources: Various.

Project info:
The Arrival on Blu-ray has some DNR, plus contrast problems and its color grading is different from previous versions on DVD and LD.
For this project, I corrected the contrast, then applied a 35mm grain plate to give the impression of a bit of more details; the DVD and LD are used as color reference for the color correction.

Source Material

Video:

• The Arrival – Blu-ray
• The Arrival – DVD (for color correction)
• The Arrival – Special Edition box set Laserdisc (for color correction)

Audio:

• The Arrival – Blu-ray DTS-HD MA
• The Arrival – various DVD (for foreign languages)
• The Arrival – Special Edition box set Laserdisc (for commentary track)

Subtitles:

• English, French, German, Italian, Spanish.

Final format: BD-25

 

Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem (Unrated) [spoRv]

Posted on April 1, 2014

_,,,^..^,,,_ presents:

ALIENS VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM [spoRv]

| PROJECTS: Released | In progress | Future | Mission & Setup |

Mission: to improve Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem (Unrated) contrast and brightness, and replace two wrong shots.

Video sources: Blu-ray, DVD.

Audio sources: Blu-ray, DVD.

Subtitles sources: Blu-ray, DVD.

Project info:

“Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem” was released on Blu-ray in U.S.A. with both Theatrical and Unrated cuts – at the contrary, in Europe only the Theatrical cut was available in Blu-ray.

Despite the fact that it has a good video quality, it has two flaws: image is too dark – even if it is an artistic choice, often it’s difficult to recognize what’s going on – and the Unrated cut has two shots missing, replaced with the Theatrical version.

Some reviews about the image quality:

I was mostly impressed by what I saw (or should I say, could see?)

…

Aliens vs. Predator Requiem is a dark movie, a very dark movie in fact, perhaps one of if not the darkest I’ve ever borne witness to. Even brightly lit outdoor scenes are dark and slightly murky in appearance.

…

Detail, what we can see of it, is sharp and clear.

…

Black levels are fantastic, but sometimes the movie is so dark that its hard to clearly see what is on screen.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Aliens-vs-Predator-Requiem-Blu-ray/696/#Review

You can’t see a damn thing. AVP-R is beautifully shot and rendered, but 75% of it is in the pitch black, making much of the action indistinguishable. You’ll find yourself straining your eyes to make out what’s going on more often than your brain can endure. God forbid you should watch the film under normal daylight conditions; it might as well be a radio play. Some critics have excused this choice as atmospheric. Others suggest it’s to cover for flaws in the creature suits. Regardless of the reasons, the result is problematic at best.

http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/avprbluray.php

Shadow delineation is somewhat lacking, with many details in the darkness obscured and crushed. Colors are undersaturated, but they match the storytelling nicely, and contrast is overdone.

http://www.widescreenreview.com/hddisc_detail.php?recid=11188

A fault with seamless branching means that the Unrated Edition is actually missing two changes on its Blu-ray release — namely the alternate footage used when the Predalien attacks the homeless people in the sewers, and when Jesse’s body melts in half in the hospital. In both instances, the Blu-ray shows the theatrical footage at these points.

http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Aliens_vs._Predator:_Requiem_Unrated_Edition

The BluRay Disc contains the R-Rated as well as the Unrated in very good quality. Although especially the second difference between the Unrated Version on BluRay and that on DVD does seem like censorship, it is not very likely that it actually is. What’s more likely, is that the Seamless Branching is responsible for this flaw.

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=285280

With this project, I’ll try to improve contrast and brightness to reveal more details in particular in very dark scenes, but trying to retain as inky black as possible; the two missing scenes will be replaced using DVD as source – even if quality is lower than BD, I’d prefer to watch them in the proper place rather than watching an incomplete Unrated cut… plus, as different languages will be included, this could be the occasion for many european people to watch the unrated cut in high definition for the first time.

 

Source Material

Video:

• Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem – US Blu-ray
• Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem – US NTSC DVD
• Aliens Vs Predator 2 – IT PAL DVD

Audio:

• Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem – US Blu-ray
• Aliens Vs Predator 2 – IT PAL DVD

Subtitles:

• Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem – US Blu-ray
• Aliens Vs Predator 2 – IT PAL DVD

Project status: RELEASED!

Final format: BD-25

Video:

1920×1080, 23.976fps, A.R. 1.85:1, AVC encoded using x264, 18mbps average bitrate

Audio:

DTS-HD MA 24bit 7.1 from BD: English
DD 16bit 384kbps 5.1 from LD: English
DD 16bit 448kbps 5.1 from DVD: French, Italian, Spanish
DD 16bit 192kbps 2.0 from DVD: German
DD 16bit 192kbps 2.0 from LD: English commentary

Subtitles:

Movie: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

Notes:

Animated menu, 28 chapters

Outside and inside covers, disc label

***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***

“Partner in crime”:

• thegroovologist for a LOT of help
• DoomBot for audio track help and general advice
• Jetrell Fo for The Making of The Arrival VHS capture
• jerryshadoe for the Original Soundtrack