u/NiceVacation3880

So I've recently watched this video and followed the Blu-ray.com forum page on the 4k release(s) of Back to the Future - The Ultimate Trilogy, and it would appear the Atmos audio track exclusive to the 4k sets have made significant alterations including timing to dialogue and sound effect cues, compared to just about every previous Blu-ray and other physical media releases.

However, the Blu-ray-only iteration of the Ultimate Trilogy set, as shown in the photo of this post, does not mention the Atmos track, so I assume it isn't included on this Blu-ray set. Does this mean that this specific Blu-ray set has avoided the audio track alterations of the 4k?

It's difficult to find this out online given the fandom and media pundits base all of their reviews on the 4k sets and not this one.

Any thoughts? Thank you for reading.

First to describe what I am posting about, here is a comparison video example between the dvd and blu-ray ranges of Doctor Who

So apparently there is a private forum thread via GallifreyBase specifically addressing and discussing the use of Ai on the Collection Blu-ray sets, with account members either part of, or connected to the Restoration Team working on the range exchanging messages back and forth in much more detail.

Unfortunately I myself have no way of registering to GallifreyBase (their account registration system's been busted for years) and as I write this I do not know anyone with an existing account that could help publicize this specific thread.

The reason I ask this is because I believe without this critical information from the Restoration Team being public, it continues to leave the Collection range on an awkward precipice for many of us fans and collectors. Already since Seasons 13 + 21 plenty of online posts and video reviews have questioned the over-use of Ai, but without any information sources from within the Restoration Team that could help best explain the technical goings on under the hood - how much is Topaz Ai affecting the digitized master tapes, how much is DNR (digital noise reduction) or De-Haloing affecting the final outputs, and if so, what are the justifications? Are all the raw digitized master tapes *that bad* under the hood without these algorithmic alterations? What is the native before and after picture quality with proper and crucial technical context?

Have any further discussions within GallifreyBase by the Restoration Team disclosed the future use, refinement of (or removal of) Ai + digital enhancements to the picture quality? Will there be future 'revisitation' sets similar to the special edition dvds where different / improved digital techniques were used (and any/most errors corrected) have the BBC themselves contacted the Restoration Team with regards to the Ai backlash across several shopping outlets and social media / fandom?

At the present, nobody on the outside can genuinely say they know what is or isn't going on with the restoration process, except that it is just so jarringly different with zero technical explanation of the digitizing process by the Restoration Team.

If anyone with access to this GallifreyBase thread can please share the conversation posts/messages in some kind of archive/screenshots, this would be most helpful and give the best possible insight into the past, present and future of this range.

Apologies for the long post, many thanks for reading 👍

Have just spent best part of an entire day processing a 1 hour ffv1 .mov. 576p 25fps interlaced (pal) vhs clip into a pro-res 1080p 50 fps progressive footage before I drag and drop it into a Davinci Resolve project.

The original .avi ffv1 clip was 30gb, and the encoded result was a 100gb .mov video file. I repeated this encoding process and set it to be a 14000kbps bitrate .mp4 h264 and got a 7gb file that took twice as long to process on my computer, given h264 requires a 2 pass for a better quality + lower file size result.

Here's the tutorial I followed for Hybrid to process both of these video files: https://youtu.be/XB4WYKJQqtQ?is=Og6\_q-HS6Kyzt4sH

I hadn't considered Davinci's own super scale + deinterlacing features since over the last many years it's generally been frowned upon as looking nowhere near superior to the likes of QTGMC etc.

However I've recently updated to the latest version of Davinci, and the splash screen is boasting far more effective upscaling and deinterlacing methods than that previously existed within the software, followed by a few review demos on YouTube claiming that Davinci can retain a lot of original camera noise / grain, (potentially able to preserve more detail than QTGMC?)

I'm looking to carry out some of my own experiments as soon as I can but I just wanted to know if anyone here on this sub actively uses / prefers Davinci's own tools for upscaling + deinterlacing over Hybrid/QTGMC/Vapoursynth/NNEDI3, why/how/best settings etc.

Thank you very much for reading.

Have ordered several of these within this year; all being sold for less than £10, the £3.99 AV Link unit for sale on Amazon being the very worst construction quality (On a very brief first fitting the entire scart shield surround completely fell off with a few teeth bent and one tooth having fallen inside the main plastic casing).

Can anyone recommend a good solid well built version of this exact item? Understandably any scart unit isn't going to respond well to not-so-delicate fitting + unfitting but neither would I expect them to disintegrate like this, and yet Amazon and eBay are full of them.

I'd be open to looking for new old stock, or used very decent, if there's a particular reliable or professional company that previously manufactured these etc.

Thank you for reading.

Here's a cropped photo sample from my listings, taken on my DSLR;

I take the photos of the item on white paper, bring the photos into my photo editing software and apply a precise, neat as possible cut-out (eBay's own background removal isn't as accurate so I do not use that at all).

The example is a low res screenshot for Reddit, but normally I upload my photos in full resolution + 100% jpeg quality, so as good as no compression, using the 1:1 square aspect ratio to help show clearly in eBay's search results. I also use eBay's dynamic promotions 'upgrade' to help boost the listing in said search results, and I offer overseas Global shipping. Particularly with electronics I give full descriptions, including size, weight, and product details from the manufacturer.

(For extra context I don't own a business account and I don't have thousands of listings, more like 300-400 roughly, but I always ensure to price my listings competitively. My account is 10+ years old, and I have almost 1000 positive feedback points)

Instead what I'm seeing is adverts from business accounts - one guy in particular is local to me - with similar items selling straight away, at the same price, no promotions, clearly taken on a phone but far lower resolution (next to no way of zooming in on any of the photos) taken in a thinner than usual landscape aspect ratio, with the item often just sitting on a grubby carpet, and just 1-2 lines of description in some ariel bold font, and they don't even appear to want to sell half their stock overseas- yet they're getting at least 12-15 sales a day from 3k of active listings. I'd be happy with at least just 1x sale a day from my 300 and something listings-

So ultimately I'm getting more and more days with zero sales, and I'm really seriously wondering if all of this effort and knowledge I've collected in the last decade, on quality advertising such as decent product photos, is actually worth it when this other seller just up the road from me just isn't bothering with these aspects whatsoever and is making what I consider to be decent money daily from roughly £10 an item, 10-15 items per day.

Maybe my listings are too professional / corporate looking? Are they not too grungy and down to earth enough? Perhaps the photos are too artificial, given the rise of A.i slop.

If this is the case today then I would rather work smarter than work harder with eBay because it's really feeling like a waste of effort sadly, even when I do feel good positive satisfaction from going the extra mile - if I'm not making as much, or any money from it then I'd rather rethink and simplify my setup.

Thank you very much for reading, sorry for the amount of writing!