Showa Hi-Vision Transfers Remaster

[airforce111]

What is the Project?

An attempt to remaster Showa prints from Toho's Hi-Vision transfers. There is opinion among the community about the Toho Hi-Vision transfers being quite soft and very low in contrast. This remaster Fan project hopes to tackle these issues and deliver quality akin to international transfers such as Kraken's Showa releases (to name an example). I plan to do all Showa films in the catalogue. Rendered files will be Blu-ray compatible. Updates will be posted here.

For finished titles, PM for details or alternatively visit my projects through my signature

Finished Titles:
Destroy All Monsters (v1.0, MediaBlasters Transfer. Toho Transfer Coming Soon)
Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla (v1.0)
Godzilla vs Megalon (v1.0 upload in progress)
Mothra vs Godzilla (v1.0 upload in progress)
Invasion of the AstroMonster (v1.0 upload in progress)
Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster (v1.0 upload in progress)


Upcoming Titles:
King Kong vs Godzilla
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep
Son of Godzilla

Restoration Example videos:

Spoiler:

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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sjxTr-7hHgb0SL85btRP9N9RgD7a9wYC

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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wRck1_PlSO2j9SgiQor6GO3I5BcyvHUa

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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ukIUG2KcFKyjMnVciI571bDUTjXyzsqw

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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IZrMvNTxGbQ-aiz3e99BltMMnj4cIXZC

Image Comparisons:

Spoiler:

[airforce111]

Godzilla vs Megalon

Spoiler:

[UltramanGoji]

Fantastic work!! That shot of Godzilla from Megalon looks amazing. I can't wait to see these, I'll definitely be using them for my own personal Blu-Rays.

[airforce111]

Thanks! Here's a sample of Godzilla vs Megalon in an mkv file (bluray compliant encode)

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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BzH00NqdVgwo6qNQJ-RDBsi70M3IBRx-

[omgitsgodzilla]

These look great! Like I said over in the Criterion thread, I'm really impressed by what you've done with the colors. A few of them look a little dark, but they look a hell of a lot more appealing than what was actually released. If you wouldn't mind, I might like to use these for my second round of reconstructions, once I get to them.

There is one thing I'd recommend, since it looks like these are sourced from the MB discs -- these are terrific proof of concept, but I'd recommend using either the Toho discs or the Criterion discs once they come out. The MB discs allow each film more space, but they somehow botched the deinterlacing on both films.

Also, if you're interested in more recent scans of some of these films to use as a reference, I have recordings of the Champion Festival edits that've been broadcast on TV in Japan recently. Feel free to message me if you want 'em.

[Living Corpse]

Shao Kahn voice: "Outstanding! MU HA HA HA HA!"

[airforce111]

These look great! Like I said over in the Criterion thread, I'm really impressed by what you've done with the colors. A few of them look a little dark, but they look a hell of a lot more appealing than what was actually released. If you wouldn't mind, I might like to use these for my second round of reconstructions, once I get to them.

There is one thing I'd recommend, since it looks like these are sourced from the MB discs -- these are terrific proof of concept, but I'd recommend using either the Toho discs or the Criterion discs once they come out. The MB discs allow each film more space, but they somehow botched the deinterlacing on both films.

Also, if you're interested in more recent scans of some of these films to use as a reference, I have recordings of the Champion Festival edits that've been broadcast on TV in Japan recently. Feel free to message me if you want 'em.

Sure that would be no problem using these! And the darkness issue is still an ongoing adjustment, I'm trying to find a good brightness level that looks sharp but not too dark, but yes I'm definitely going to make them a bit brighter! I'm also referencing levels from some Kraken releases compared to their Toho counterparts to properly get it right.

Unfortunately for DAM, I found that out once I saw your comment and the DVD Beaver screenshots that the MB DAM was indeed different, and noticed annoying fading cuts present (due to the deinterlacing you mentioned). I'm in the process of getting my hands on the toho version of it, I had always thought MB was just a straight 1:1 copy. As for Megalon I am currently using Toho's version (60th anniversary bluray). Everything else except DAM is Toho so its something I'm going to wait for.

With that said there are going to be some more difficult films to remaster because of how soft they come out of the box, they are:
Mothra vs Godzilla (1964), Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster, Invasion of the Astro Monster, and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974). For some reason these transfers were incredibly soft so they won't look as nice as the others.

[Terasawa]

^The first three films you listed Mothra vs. Godzilla and IOAM are soft as hell because the elements used are even further removed from the OCN than the other films. I’m not sure why MG looks as bad as it does.

Edit: D’oh, forgot Ghidrah wasn’t one of the “edited on the negative” Champion versions.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Well, Mothra vs. Godzilla and Astro-Monster both had their original negatives cut up for the Champion Festival. They look more faded and unstable than the others because the elements Toho used for them were some sort of dupe copies intended for export to foreign distributors. I don't remember Ghidrah or Mechagodzilla looking noticeably worse than any of the others, but I haven't compared them that closely.

And it's great that you're actually working from the Toho discs; my older reconstructions used BD25 bootlegs -- I didn't notice any egregious compression artifacts, but starting from the source with the highest available bitrate is always a good idea.

[Tamura]

For Astro-Monster and Mothra vs. Godzilla, you're better off locating rips of the new transfers of the Champion cuts and cutting in all the missing footage. The Hi-Vision transfer of Astro-Monster is basically useless... the element, or some element preceding the one transferred, seems to lack the color green and has almost no blue... it's also super warped, you can see it weaving in the telecine gate throughout, or that could be an artifact from the printing. You'd want to use that transfer as little as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MusUGjZNmyw

[airforce111]

I'm planning on doing that, I think Mothra vs Godzilla maybe more salvageable, and Ghidrah is not too bad. Invasion will probably need that other source for sure, or atleast as a reference. Here's what I was able to do with Mothra
Sample: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rSeTl ... 6nWSJpntN4

Spoiler:

Ghidrah doesnt look too bad, its not Mothra or AstroMonster levels bad. Its actually a pretty good transfer, its just that texutres are a bit mushier than usual so a bit less detail (this ones my edit)

Spoiler:

Also, if you're interested in more recent scans of some of these films to use as a reference, I have recordings of the Champion Festival edits that've been broadcast on TV in Japan recently. Feel free to message me if you want 'em.

Oops didnt see this before, I'll contact you

[Tamura]

The HiVision Ghidorah was probably the biggest upgrade over the Toho DVD transfers, but it's still no better than other HiVision transfers, like Ebirah or Son of Godzilla.

[airforce111]

I might just stick with MB's version....I just saw a sample of toho's DAM and it actually looks worse than MB's in terms of detail. It looks like there is another degraining filter that has been applied and more detail has been lost. The only thing it has over MB is that it doesn't have that weird deinterlacing fade, I guess its not a big deal breaker. Can anyone confirm this? I'm torn. I wasn't planning on using criterion's (since I don't plan to buy it but it looks like they reencoded that one smaller as well).

[omgitsgodzilla]

I'd err on the side of the presentation that at least has each frame presented separately, but then I haven't seen a frame comparison. Could you post an example or two?

[airforce111]

here's an example, the single frame analysis may be slight, but if you watch it in motion, every small detail adds up and you can tell TOHO's is softer. I might have to do some splicing around if so. Toho's is definitely more mushy which is not ideal. Anyone else have a high quality png screenshot of their TOHO DAM release to compare?

[airforce111]

I spoilered everything since I just dont want this thread loading high res images in every post, ill keep the latest post with nonspoilers. Changed the brightness across the board a bit to something manageable and now the sky is no longer purple, and added some overall vibrance. Also, less overall blue.

[airforce111]

brighter and less purple skies

[omgitsgodzilla]

here's an example, the single frame analysis may be slight, but if you watch it in motion, every small detail adds up and you can tell TOHO's is softer. I might have to do some splicing around if so. Toho's is definitely more mushy which is not ideal. Anyone else have a high quality png screenshot of their TOHO DAM release to compare?

I can see what you mean. I guess the best of both worlds would involve substituting frames from the Toho disc where necessary, but that would mean compensating for the differences between those two sources on top of all the color correction. I think in the end the Criterion disc might provide a decent middle ground at the cost of the bitrate.

[airforce111]

I COULD just make an MB version and TOHO version and people could just choose what they want, or a 3rd version with the toho cuts placed in. Honestly knowing me, I might end up doing 3 versions lol

[Terasawa]

If I were you I’d wait for the Criterion, or at least until we know if it’s as soft as the Toho Blu-ray. But that’s just my 2¢.

Damn Media Blasters messing everything up.