Making original Young Indy Chronicles available to everyone... any ideas?

the Fiddler

New member
Thanks for the info JK... I'm looking into it.

Also, I've all but got the forums setup for this. I know I keep saying this, but I also keep debating weather or not to go through with it. With other people having put them on DVD already, I'm just not sure if it's worth the time and effort. A few people here seem commited, but I just don't know what their resources are and if we can make it happen. I'll probably just try and contact this beofwulf guy and see what his are like, then put up the forums if they aren't a good option... and see who shows up to the forums.

My idea was to try and get the highest quality sources together for every original episode, and then capture them through something like the Canopus ADVC300 that would clean/improve the source further. Then color correct it if need be (probably at least a saturation bump, maybe some contrast). This all would result in fairly high-quality DVD's. My problem with other people's DVD's is it sounds like they've mostly just used a VCR DVD burner to transfer the tapes directly to DVD. This causes it to merely be the same quality as the VHS, but upsampled to a higher resolution. The process I would like to do would literally improve the quality of the source VHS's and result in much better picture on the final DVD's Sound could also be cleaned and enhanced as well.

Just as an example. I've been messing with those DivX ones that have been floating around. Here's an example of before & after screenshots with a little color correction: http://www.fiddlerstudios.net/misc/youngindybefore&after.jpg --the before shots are on the left, the after shots are on the right.

My problem is, I don't have any recorded copies of the original TV shows. So at least that much I would need to get from other people. Other help/resources would probably also be needed as well though.
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
The other prob would be knowing how many episodes of the original that people have and perhaps there may have been some that never went to air. That is a fact here in Australia.
 

VP

Moderator Emeritus
Yeah they never aired the Transylvania episode here, probably because they thought it was too scary.
 

the Fiddler

New member
True. But the idea would be to collect the best source we can for each episode. So if the best source for Transilvania is a US NTSC VHS, then we use that for that one. If the best source for say Verdun is a low-res DivX file, then we use that (hopefully we'd get better sources then this in each case). So the collection would be the top quality ones possible. I got a reply on that guy who's willing to trade coppies of the ones he's made. I think I'm going to do that and see what the quailty is like. Then we'll work from there.
 

The_Minority

New member
Last week I actually just traded for the original tv episodes from the poster you mentioned earlier! Very smooth transaction and very fast. Received them the within one week! And the quality is definetly great for ripped dvds. Mostly, the quality is VHS quality. The only really poor quality one is the Transylvania episode but it is still quite watchable, and the main reason I say it is poor is because it is from a third generation and it has Dutch subtitles. But, since recieving these I now have all 22 edited movies on DVD and all the original episodes on DVD in their entirety! Very cool! But just thought I'd tell you that guy is trustworthy and makes a good set! :whip:
 

JK_Antwon

New member
thats good to know he is reliable. When I tried to sign up it said there was some kind of error... I'm not sure why.... :mad:
 

Matinee Idyll

New member
Yup, I'm going to start uploading 'London, 1916' in its entirety to Youtube tonight... I'm only on dialup, so it'll take a few days... but watch this space!

I think rather than have to go through all burning and sharing and stuff, I think anyone who can should start upping them to Youtube. It's probably the easiest way to get the series seen by everyone.
 

Junior Jones

New member
I don't think it's a good idea to put copyrighted material up on YouTube. Especially when the DVD's are coming out soon.

For one thing, it's not legal.

Second, it's not the best format. YouTube is great for home videos, but professionally filmed stuff just looks expecially crappy. Maybe clips would be good for advertising, but not entire episodes.

Third, we're getting some of the DVD's in October. If people can see the episodes for free online, a lot of potential buyers won't spend the money to get DVD's. And if the first wave doesn't sell well, we may never see a second or third wave. (It's happened before with the VHS series.)
 

Adamwankenobi

New member
Junior Jones said:
I don't think it's a good idea to put copyrighted material up on YouTube. Especially when the DVD's are coming out soon.

It would be different if we were getting the original episodes on DVD. :rolleyes:
 

Matinee Idyll

New member
That's exactly right - at the very least I intend to post on youtube the bookends of the original episodes that I still have.

Princeton 1916
London 1916
Ireland 1916
and Paris 1916

But even then, they've fundamentally altered and recut alot of episodes (not just getting rid of the bookends).

Palestine 1917 for example was infinitely better than 'Daredevils of the Desert' for example.
 

No Ticket

New member
I have watched some young Indy, but I was pretty unaware that they had hacked them up the way that they have. I think the old Indy stuff is actually integral to making the series more interesting, because it ties it to the older Indy. Even though it's not Harrison Ford... your seeing the guy who saw the Ark of the Covenant and the guy who fell off a mountain side on a tank or was drug by a truck along a dirt road... and it just makes it more interesting for me.

I'm even LESS compelled to watch them on DVD knowing they're cutting that stuff out. When I was a kid watching this stuff, that was the main reason I went to watch it, the 90-year old Indy being in it.

I'm no real fan of Young Indy but even I think it should be shown in it's original form. So kudos to you for YouTube'n it.

(looking at the main forum page, it looks like i'm the last guy who posted in almost every forum/thread at the moment, which must mean I'm the only guy posting right now - to quote Ace Ventura, "Awwww... nobody wants to play with me!")
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Adamwankenobi said:
It would be different if we were getting the original episodes on DVD. :rolleyes:

Not quite...I think there's something about how much of a work is used. If you're taking it in full, as it is about to be a commercial product, and allowing it to be obtained for free in a public forum...I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but that seems like highly questionable territory to me, and no claims on behalf of artistic purity (which is complicated enough to begin with when it's the artist himself doing the alterations) can truly change that. If you're just putting the bookends, or segments, then that <I>might</I> be fair use, but entire episodes? I'd very much doubt it.
 

No Ticket

New member
Attila the Professor said:
Not quite...I think there's something about how much of a work is used. If you're taking it in full, as it is about to be a commercial product, and allowing it to be obtained for free in a public forum...I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but that seems like highly questionable territory to me, and no claims on behalf of artistic purity (which is complicated enough to begin with when it's the artist himself doing the alterations) can truly change that. If you're just putting the bookends, or segments, then that <I>might</I> be fair use, but entire episodes? I'd very much doubt it.

I don't think anyone here is really questioning if it's legal or not. Of course it's not legal to put entire episodes of anything on YouTube. But it happens. If HE wants to risk it then HE can do it. They won't sue him, all they'll do is take it off when somebody finally catches on if they do. As far as it affecting DVD sales. If he puts it ALL up, it MIGHT.

But really, I'd buy a DVD quality box set any day compared to watching something on crappy 'ol YouTube quality.
 

Matinee Idyll

New member
No Ticket said:
But really, I'd buy a DVD quality box set any day compared to watching something on crappy 'ol YouTube quality.

And I'd take a quality program with bad picture and sound over a mediocre reedited version with good picture and sound.
 
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Adamwankenobi

New member
Is anyone still interested in doing this? If not, I'm considering checking into those bootleg DVD sets of the original episodes that show up on young indy-related google searches. Does anyone know what the quality of those are?

I bought the official DVDs of volume one the day they came out, and it has been frustrating to see the show in such high quality, but from inferior edits. :(
 
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