Post by Diet Kolos on Apr 14, 2019 14:39:27 GMT -5
Partly inspired by Garyinmotion's MST3K: Cinema Editions, and partly by my slowly rotting collection of tapes, I've decided to put them to good use and proudly present my little project: MST3K: Broadcast Editions!
I've always loved the old commercials on some tape-traded episodes, and I've gone out of my way to collect tapes with commercials. If you've ever seen my 1991 Turkey Day recreation you know how much I like commercials. Those recreations used commercials from other sources to make November 1991-appropriate versions of the episodes, but now I can bring you broadcast version straight from the horse's mouth, so-to-speak!
Using my slowly growing collection of other people's first generation tapes and the invaluable Broadcast Schedule Archive at Tom's Temple, I'm slowly going to start converting some of my most interesting taped episodes and specials from VHS and uploading them to Youtube, complete with commercials!
To start, I've uploaded:
This Is MST3K. Broadcast 3/19/94.
303-Pod People. Broadcast 8/28/95. #5 on the Summer Countdown.
424-Manos: The Hands of Fate. The world premiere! Broadcast 1/30/93.
Now, the process for doing this is fairly arduous and time intensive so uploading these will be 1 a week, max. And I'll show you why.
1. I use my Sony RDR VX-555 VHS/DVD recorder to transfer the original episode from the VHS to a dual-layer DVD. I use the HQ setting so there's no compression and quality loss from what are usually spotty VHS copies anyways. This only allows me to transfer ~1 hr 53 mins at a time, more than the 2 hours+ on a full episode with commercials, so I then have to use a standard DVD to transfer the last 10-15 mins of the episode. These have to run in real time.
2. I take the DVDs and transfer them onto my laptop via DVD drive with Handbrake and convert into mp4 format. Again, I use a HQ transfer to avoid quality loss. For the dual-layer DVD this takes 6.5 to 7 HOURS. The smaller DVD can take up to an hour.
3. Once that's done, I edit and combine the 2 mp4 videos into 1 mp4 via Shotcut. This involves matching the end of the last commercial break on both videos. Combining the videos takes about 3 hours.
4. Uploading to Youtube. This takes about an hour or more.
So, yeah, fairly laborious. And I know I could do it quicker and easier if I transferred the VHS to DVD at a lower quality, or hooked up the player straight to the laptop, but I've tried those before and the drop in quality is pretty noticeable. And like I said, any drop in quality in tapes that are iffy in the first place isn't acceptable.
So, I hope you enjoy some nostalgia. Maybe pretend you're watching Comedy Central. Maybe put on your own marathon. Just, enjoy and watch for new episodes. Maybe not every week, but more often than not.
Let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything you want to see, I might have it!
Want to send me your tapes to (slowly) preserve and upload? Message me! I'm looking for tapes with commercials from Nov 1993 and earlier.
Enjoy!
I've always loved the old commercials on some tape-traded episodes, and I've gone out of my way to collect tapes with commercials. If you've ever seen my 1991 Turkey Day recreation you know how much I like commercials. Those recreations used commercials from other sources to make November 1991-appropriate versions of the episodes, but now I can bring you broadcast version straight from the horse's mouth, so-to-speak!
Using my slowly growing collection of other people's first generation tapes and the invaluable Broadcast Schedule Archive at Tom's Temple, I'm slowly going to start converting some of my most interesting taped episodes and specials from VHS and uploading them to Youtube, complete with commercials!
To start, I've uploaded:
This Is MST3K. Broadcast 3/19/94.
303-Pod People. Broadcast 8/28/95. #5 on the Summer Countdown.
424-Manos: The Hands of Fate. The world premiere! Broadcast 1/30/93.
Now, the process for doing this is fairly arduous and time intensive so uploading these will be 1 a week, max. And I'll show you why.
1. I use my Sony RDR VX-555 VHS/DVD recorder to transfer the original episode from the VHS to a dual-layer DVD. I use the HQ setting so there's no compression and quality loss from what are usually spotty VHS copies anyways. This only allows me to transfer ~1 hr 53 mins at a time, more than the 2 hours+ on a full episode with commercials, so I then have to use a standard DVD to transfer the last 10-15 mins of the episode. These have to run in real time.
2. I take the DVDs and transfer them onto my laptop via DVD drive with Handbrake and convert into mp4 format. Again, I use a HQ transfer to avoid quality loss. For the dual-layer DVD this takes 6.5 to 7 HOURS. The smaller DVD can take up to an hour.
3. Once that's done, I edit and combine the 2 mp4 videos into 1 mp4 via Shotcut. This involves matching the end of the last commercial break on both videos. Combining the videos takes about 3 hours.
4. Uploading to Youtube. This takes about an hour or more.
So, yeah, fairly laborious. And I know I could do it quicker and easier if I transferred the VHS to DVD at a lower quality, or hooked up the player straight to the laptop, but I've tried those before and the drop in quality is pretty noticeable. And like I said, any drop in quality in tapes that are iffy in the first place isn't acceptable.
So, I hope you enjoy some nostalgia. Maybe pretend you're watching Comedy Central. Maybe put on your own marathon. Just, enjoy and watch for new episodes. Maybe not every week, but more often than not.
Let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything you want to see, I might have it!
Want to send me your tapes to (slowly) preserve and upload? Message me! I'm looking for tapes with commercials from Nov 1993 and earlier.
Enjoy!