Sorry for the long delay, but better late than never

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106308/


The source was the IVL Hong Kong Tape which
features the movie in Fullscreen and with englisch stereo sound.
It was encoded with VirtualDub to DivX 5 and Mp3 128kbps CBR.

Here are some stats from GSpot 2.21:

Size: 681 MB (or 697,636 KB or 714,379,264 bytes)
Type: OpenDML (AVI v2.0)
4cc: DX50/divx
Runtime: 01:29:39
Frames: 134,471
x:y 768 x 576 1.333 (4:3)
Bitrate: 928 kb/s
FPS: 25.000
Qf: 0.084 bits/pixel
Name: 0x0055(MP3, ISO) MPEG-1 Layer 3
Bitrate: 44100Hz 128 kb/s


Here are the links:
ed2k: army_of_darkness_japanese_version_vhsrip.avi  [681.29 Mb] [Stats]
ed2k: army_of_darkness_japanese_version_vhsrip.nfo  [501 Bytes] [Stats]
ed2k: army_of_darkness_japanese_version_vhsrip_cover.bmp  [2.53 Mb] [Stats]
ed2k: army_of_darkness_japanese_version_vhsrip_tape_front.bmp  [361.8 Kb] [Stats]
ed2k: army_of_darkness_japanese_version_vhsrip_tape_top.bmp  [1.51 Mb] [Stats]

[ Add all 5 links to your ed2k client ]

From IMDB : The Australian/Japanese special edition is identical to the UK video version.

Is there any reason to get this if I already have the UK print?

If you have one of these uk vhs tapes probably no, but all these Anchor Bay director?s cut, bottleg, who knows what... DVDs feature a different version....

Yeah, the amount of different versions of this film is mind boggling

here are some screenys:

There's also an AOD SE on DVD in Japan, is it the same version as the VHS rip?

yeah, but for me it?s better one too many than one too few on this one I just love this movie...

And I thought the uk video version is now identical to the uk DVD version and the DVD version is identical to the R1 one, the only different oneis the R4 DVD, which has 6seconds extra, and that's up on the frontpage.

btw, ripping tip:


Is extremely low, your resolution is far too high and this is pushing the bits/pixel down which is increasing the pixelation beyond toleration. To put it into perspective, that value needs to be about 0.18bpp for a 1cd rip.

Your resolution is actually over 40 pixels wider than the source is (and you should be decreasing resolution with a rip, not increasing. I can only assume this is either stretched hugely, or not cropped right?), if you try a resolution about 500~ wide, you'll notice a huge quality increase. So what's happened here is that you've ripped, then increased the resolution, stretching the picture out of proportion, then encoding spending hardly any data per pixel. Think of it as taking a jpeg, increasing it by about 20% the size (which will = blocks), then compressing it at about 80% (which will increase the block size greatly).

So when ripping, you'll notice a tenfold increase in quality if you reduce the resolution drastically. A very rough guide for what resolution you should be at, is bits/pixel, and if you need a ripper that shows this, gknot does well (it would actually show you a huge red warning about 5% quality ratio for this one, when a rip should be about 60+% at an absolute minimum).

It would benifit greatly, starting at a lower resolution of 512, examining the specs you are presented with, and then increasing resolution to make the best compramise. IMO if your above 640x resolution your either spending way too much filesize on the vhsrip, or you've made a mistake.

If you need help using gknot, please feel free to ask, there's quite a number of people that use gknot here.

http://gknot.doom9.org

as far as I (and the imdb/ofdb) know, all the DVD versions feature the same version of the movie. Only the Australian DVD has one additional scene that is missing in all other DVD versions. This version here and the old UK VHS version containes the australian scene and several other different/missing scenes. There?s a list of these scenes at the imdb in the "alternate version" section.

I got several AOD DVDs. I have the RC1 limited Director?s cut, the Anchor bay UK thing, the uncut german release, the RC4 with the additional scene and one or two asian versions. All (except the additional RC4 scene) are the same. I haven?t seen the old UK VHS, but often heard about it to be the same as the Hong Kong IVL Tape, and the imdb says the same, so i tend to believe them. The only release of this different Version I came across until now was this Hong Kong VHS...
Thanks for the ripping tip, but this wasn?t done with AutoGK. I rercorded the thing with huyuff onto my HD and converted it with virtualdub into a divx version. As the quality of the tape is quite poor it shouldn?t matter too much anyway in this case, but before I do my next rip I will get to doom9 and get me someone to help me, cause I?m not too good informed about this codec stuff...
Reason for the high resolution is, that I also made a DVD from the source on my disk, and used the same Source for both the DVD and the divx conversion. I?ll change that in the future...

I don't like or use that one, gknot proper is the preferred version for me

Its not the codec that effects the quality in this case, its the size of the resolution and the lack of bitrate. So you'd need to use video>filter, cropping, crop off your vhs scan lines, video>filter null transform, which resizes for the resolution. You'd need a calculator to ensure you maintain AR, which essentially, is all gknot is. Its just a big calculator for everything, and sits infront of nandub, besweet, virtual dub mod, VobSub etc.
That's why the image looks blurry, you get a much clearer image at a higher bits/pixel, which is only acheivable by reducing the pixel size

Incidently, did you use a bob /noise filter? Arguably noise filters shouldn't be used on DVDs as it removes film grain, but on a vhs rip its a good idea since it increases compressability, and removes the crap you get with VHS rips.

The use of gknot would facility getting the best specs possible after your capture, and acts as a frontend for virtual dub. It just makes sure you don't make mistakes like too high a resolution and gives you feedback on how your ripping specs will effect the end avi specs.

I can't recommend the tool more highly since its saved my neck a lot of the time.

I use it for my vid captures, I use a DV codec to capture to hdd, then I use a simple avisynth to convert the colour format and load into gknot. Then you just treat the rip as a DVD, and follow standard procedure.

thanks a lot for the great help
next rip will be with GK and noise filter for poor quality sources...
I already do all my DVD-rips with AutoGK, but I didn?t realize that I also could use GK for other source material than a DVD ripped to HD...
So for the next rip I?ll get me GK and a nice person from doom or some tutorials...

Thanks for this one smurfpower

just to get back to the topic: why the hell am i the only one downloading the flick. there's not one other soul in the queue, not even smurfpower. was there some hash change i missed or what?

It might be because my PC went out in smoke just last night and I'm still picking up the pieces .... When that's done, I'm moving onto this - just as with previous smurf rips (JM, Nightmare of Elm Street, NoES 5...)

hmmm..... just a thought, but actually a hash change could have occured while I was wrestling with the fire extinguisher here OK, OK, I might sound a little crazy , it hit me out of a sudden (not to mention hit me in my face too, actually) after 3 years of solid cooperation and I might still be in some kind of shock...

Anyway, when I'm able I'll try to help with spreading this too. For now the hot potatos in my queue seem to be Bio-Zombie and Ghost Town...

btw sorry for a post almost entirely not related to the topic...

what can I say here? Think you spent far more time on discussing my rip than I spent thinking about it and encoding it together... I try to read AND understand all above, seems to be the best I?ve heard so far. So THANKS SPUD for your posts, they helped me a lot in understanding what I?m doing, or trying to do with my movies I had to get me a new harddisc for my server so there was a 1,5 days break for my upload, but now it?s up again. Like always I?m already on the next rip A friend asked me for a copy of my This is Horror 2disc set from amsterdam cause he can?t find it anywhere. You want me to release it? here?s the imdb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130424/
it?s 270min long and the imdb guys hate, so I had to buy it Picture quality is quite good and I did the rip with AutoGK last week. Unfortunately it has burned in dutch subs, but the audio is english. As I have some spare time at the moment I?m also thinking about releasing the following:
4:3 unmatted version of "the running man"
Lifepod (really great one...)
Solar crisis (englisch and widescreen LDrip, DVD only has cropped 4:3)
workprint version of the first LEXX Episode
Anyone interested in this stuff?

Wow, yeah!!! I'm sure some other peeps @ scifi.dead-donkey.com would like that too

All your stuff sounds great, would appreciate a rip of any of those (I got lifepod somewhere I think)

Thats interesting man, I searched for a loooong time for any version of lifepod and came across nothing else than a dubbed german vhs version and, luckily, in the end a asian DVD with the original audio. Whats your Version? Think there should be a US VHS but I never found it. I also got loads of other stuff, but thats neither horror nor Scifi like a workprint/prescreening of The Stepford Wifes with many different scenes, so I think I?ll stick to releasing my Horror/scifi stuff first

Is this still about?

There doesn't seem to be any sources on emule, but i think i got it complete I can remember spending a long time trying to get at it and i'm sure i got it complete, i'll look into doing a reshare if i do.

I'm not quite sure if this is infact the same as the MGM version, or the newer anchor bay now, from the list of changes, i believe the DVD editions have the "missing scenes" in too.

Stuff like:
"Instead of "Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun," Ash says "I ain't that good"."
listed as unique to this version are in the DVD that I have (from what i remember). I have army of darkness on uk dvd and i have to say, from what i remember its the same as the newer dvds from what i remember.

MGM version:
http://www.dead-donkey.com/modules/shar ... vies&id=35