When Orphan first released Kakyuusei (1995) back in March, I wrote that if a better source turned up, Orphan would redo the show. Well, it did, and we have. Orphan now presents take 2 of Kakyuusei (1995), based on rips done directly from LaserDisc, at "full" 480p resolution.
Orphan is benefiting significantly from the help of several Laserdisc collectors. Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions started the ball rolling. Now ics- from Lamonae has joined the team, and his collection is the source for this version of Kakyuusei (1995). ics- has several other unique titles that I'd like to do, such as Dokushin Apartment Dokudami, but it needs a translator.
Working with LaserDiscs has proved interesting and frustrating. Ripping requires a high-quality LaserDisc player, and they are becoming increasingly scarce. Then the video output has to be captured for encoding. After much experimentation, various encoders have concluded that the best method is to capture the uncompressed RGB or S-video and do fixups and filtering in software, before compression. But that's not always possible. A modern lossless capture unit costs a fair amount of money, and the inexpensive no-compression ATI All-in-Wonder TV card is no longer made, requires a PCI system, and only works with XP.
As a result, capture is usually done with a DV recorder set to its highest quality level, but it does compression on the fly. That's what happened with Kakyuusei. It took several different encoders, and lots of experiments, to get reasonable raws. Erik eventually modified his filter chain, developed for lossless captures, and that did the trick.
Here are the credits for this version:
Orphan has raws for yet another show in this series, Tenkousei (1997), in which the protagonist presumably scores with transfer students rather than classmates (Doukyuusei) or first-years (Kakyuusei), but you probably understand how these shows work by now.
Orphan is benefiting significantly from the help of several Laserdisc collectors. Erik of Piyo Piyo Productions started the ball rolling. Now ics- from Lamonae has joined the team, and his collection is the source for this version of Kakyuusei (1995). ics- has several other unique titles that I'd like to do, such as Dokushin Apartment Dokudami, but it needs a translator.
Working with LaserDiscs has proved interesting and frustrating. Ripping requires a high-quality LaserDisc player, and they are becoming increasingly scarce. Then the video output has to be captured for encoding. After much experimentation, various encoders have concluded that the best method is to capture the uncompressed RGB or S-video and do fixups and filtering in software, before compression. But that's not always possible. A modern lossless capture unit costs a fair amount of money, and the inexpensive no-compression ATI All-in-Wonder TV card is no longer made, requires a PCI system, and only works with XP.
As a result, capture is usually done with a DV recorder set to its highest quality level, but it does compression on the fly. That's what happened with Kakyuusei. It took several different encoders, and lots of experiments, to get reasonable raws. Erik eventually modified his filter chain, developed for lossless captures, and that did the trick.
Here are the credits for this version:
- Subs and timing: Anime-Hentai (episodes 1, 2) and Zalis (episodes 3, 4)
- Translation checking: Zalis and convexity
- Editing and typesetting: Collectr
- QC: CP, konnakude, and Eternal_Blizzard
- Encoding: Piyo Piyo Productions
- Raws: ics-
Orphan has raws for yet another show in this series, Tenkousei (1997), in which the protagonist presumably scores with transfer students rather than classmates (Doukyuusei) or first-years (Kakyuusei), but you probably understand how these shows work by now.
I don't know if this will be of any help, since I will readily admit I do not have the finest eye in the world for video, but when I was messing around trying to capture my own LDs, I found this inexpensive option:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.walmart.com/ip/Best-Data-VC500-One-Touch-Video-Capture-Device/13215178
It works well by my eye, but again, finer ones would be the final arbiter. Just in case.
DO NOT WANT
DeleteOh, hi, PPP-Erik here, BTW.
No, the problem with these new rips is that ics- only has a similar device, and while it is adequate for, like, your mum's VHS camcorder videos or whatever, it isn't great for animu.
Myself, I used a Grass Valley ADVC-300, a DV capture device. DV is not strictly lossless, but you really won't notice the difference. Then, if you want to convert it into a DVD, you do it with software like AVS2DVD or HCenc or the like, where you can have full control over bitrates and so forth.