Dark Power (Uncut + AI Upscale + Triple Audio)

[Fernando_M]

I've done an AI Upscale of Dark Power to 1080p, using an uncut DVD source, and synchronised the riff:
https://mega.nz/file/9uwWFTLK#wkl-DEIZgk...jgzzXik6kA

The above file includes the riff audio, the movie audio, the director's commentary & subtitles for the riff.

Linked below is a copy of the source DVD files, in case anyone wants it. (It includes an additional 17 minute documentary on the making of the film, if that's of interest):
https://mega.nz/file/kqoUCAyK#mOFiTduCVW...b6vOopwEj4

For the upscaling, I removed interlacing (this was the most difficult part), changed the frame rate to 23.976 and then ran it through the Topaz Artemis HQ model, which appeared to give the best overall results. I have set the aspect ratio of the final file to 1.66:1, which IMDB says is the correct one. (The RiffTrax version has a wrong aspect ratio.)

The volume of the 3 riffers was very loud, relative to the rather quiet volume of the underying movie audio. I increased the overall volume of the riff track by 9db & put in a hard-limiter on the peak volume of -15db.

There are two available versions of the RiffTrax video. The version on the RiffTrax website has the nude scene almost entirely cut. There is also a second version available on streaming sites, which includes most of the nude scene (it even has an additional riff line on the nude scene!?!), but still has some other cuts. I used this second version of the Riff audio, in order to get as complete a version as possible.

The cuts restored in the new version are:

• Timecode 00:26:25: One of the girls expresses racist views & fights with the other girls, when she finds out about the black girl moving into the shared house. The movie-makers clearly disapproved of the views being presented, and there was really no reason for the scene to be cut. This scene is missing from both versions of the Riff.
  
• Timecode 00:37:14: The girl in the bathtub is shown fully nude. This was entirely cut from the version on the RiffTrax website, but is included in the second version of the Riff on streaming sites. 
  
• Timecode 00:37:35: Additional nudity of the girl in the bathtub. This part of the scene is missing from both versions of the Riff.
  

Comparison screenshot from the RiffTrax version:




And from the new AI Upscaled version:

[mst3knut]

Thanks, Fernando_M. Really above-and-beyond!

[WongHungLo]

Thank you!

[NotRichBatman]

thank you for the upgrade, this is a fun one

[jhs39]

Thanks!

[Fernando_M]

I've done an improved version 2 of the AI Upscale of Dark Power to 1080p, using the same uncut DVD source, and synchronised riff. (The new version is encoded with x265 & is about the same size as version 1.)
https://mega.nz/file/QyYiHATJ#pxsIXLMe6m...bk9RA8KlrI

I realised that I needed to use a better deinterlacing method than Handbrake or AviDemux, in order to avoid loss of detail. For the new version I used the QTGMC deinterlacer in the Hybrid front-end for AviSynth. For the upscaling, I used Topaz Proteus with settings of Revert Compression 40, Recover Details 15, Sharpen 20, Reduce Noise 10, Dehalo 15, AntiAlias/Deblur 0, and with no added grain.

Screen cap from the new version:

[NexusWraith]

Is anyone else having trouble with the audio in this? I have converted it to mp4 over and over, making sure all of the audio tracks are included, in Handbrake and in MkvToMp4. Every time, it converts fine, but the audio is just the movie soundtrack. All of the audio tracks are just the movie soundtrack. No commentaries at all. Just the soundtrack.

I won't complain about it being mkv, which is a format that as far as I can tell, only VLC plays, and its popularity mystifies me. I am grateful. But this is the first time I have ever had this audio problem.

No one else has mentioned it. Has no one else had this problem?

[Handy]

THE VIDEO/AUDIO IS FINE.
use VLC.
mkv plays in everything. trash any video players that refuses .mkv.
thats like a girlfriend who hates dick.
conversion is unnecessary and generally degrades/re encodes.
you are basically taking an .jpg (lossy) that was saved as a .psd (lossless) and trying to re encode it to .jpg (lossy again).

depending on handbreaks settings, audio tracks (after #1) need to be manually loaded.
default settings might only load track #1.

[mst3knut]

Is anyone else having trouble with the audio in this?
No one else has mentioned it. Has no one else had this problem?

Converted my copy to H.265 without issue.  I suspect your program defaults to only ONE audio track.  Mine also defaults to that arrangement, requiring me to manually select the additional audio streams to be included in the output.