The Thinker

The project is proceeding and I’m enhancing the footage further. The quality is great. Are you still interested? Also I believe this thread should be under the Arcade PC section, can an Admin move it there please?

UPDATE: Removed the first 157 frames from DLE-NTSC-Restored.m2v. The restored version now works correctly with Hypseus. Make sure you include DLE-NTSC-Restored.ogg, as well as dle21.txt and lair.txt.

It's been a while....stay tuned...

Great job!

That's great, everyone is welcome to join this project!

Hi @ducon2016, sure thing, I tried Topaz on your sequence. https://limewire.com/d/WIuqZ#0lt4n7dnw0 Let me know what you think.

Hi @ducon2016, I used my licensed copy of Topaz Video AI for Mac with the Dione model and several custom settings. If you have a video feel free to share it and we can try to enhance it further.

I captured the Dragon’s Lair Limited Edition (2002) LaserDisc directly to an uncompressed YUV4MPEG2 (.y4m) master using a high-quality capture chain. The raw file header reads: YUV4MPEG2 W760 H488 F30000:1001 It A352:413 C444p16 XCOLORRANGE=LIMITED This means the footage was recorded at 760×488 resolution — the full NTSC active image, preserving the entire analog scan area beyond the standard 720×480. The frame rate is 29.97 fps (30000/1001), interlaced top-field-first, exactly matching the LaserDisc’s NTSC cadence. The most important detail is the C444p16 format, which indicates 4:4:4 chroma sampling at 16-bit precision per channel. This means every pixel contains full color information with no chroma subsampling (unlike 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 formats). While the original LaserDisc signal itself is effectively limited to about 4:2:2 color bandwidth, capturing in 4:4:4 ensures that no additional loss or rounding occurred during digitization. I also used broadcast-safe limited range (16–235), consistent with NTSC standards, and retained the interlaced field structure, which keeps motion and transitions authentic to the original arcade timing. This approach provides an archival-grade digital master, ideal for future restoration or color correction. From this .y4m file, I later created lossless FFV1 and visually lossless MPEG-2 versions for compatibility and distribution.

I have uploaded the files 😎 I’m not an expert with Hypseus, so please test to make sure everything works properly. If the frame file needs any adjustments, kindly fix it and upload the updated version.

That's correct. I chose MKV to best preserve everything and then we can go from there. Property Result Verified Frame rate 29.97 (30000/1001) ✅ Resolution 760×488 full raster ✅ Aspect ratio 4:3 ✅ Field order Progressive ✅ Colorimetry SMPTE-170M ✅ Codec FFV1 (lossless) ✅ Audio PCM 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo ✅ Frame count 55,544 (matches original) ✅ Duration 1853.3 s (≈ 30:53) ✅ Crop/scale None ✅ Sync Perfect ✅ ✅ MKV and WAV files are fully verified, authentic, lossless transfers from the original Y4M and audio captures.

IN SIMPLE WORDS: You can download DLE-NTSC-Side1.mkv and its WAV audio file, both sourced directly from the original LaserDisc. These are the highest-quality extracts available and can (and must) be used for any restoration work. Because the quality of the original footage is limited, a restored version, DLE-NTSC-Restored.m2v with its OGG audio file is also available. This edition has been enhanced to improve the overall quality and is fully compatible with Hypseus. IF YOU WANT THE DETAILED OVERVIEW: 😎 Dragon's Lair Limited Edition: https://mega.nz/folder/HoZSCL6S#fgXN5-FMnWTSd0vCUd8ETw Dragon's Lair Limited Edition - Restored: https://mega.nz/folder/OlARAY4Q#cOzmwdxRxVe0SCRfKnWjtQ 🎞️ Frame and Duration Verification File Duration (s) Frame Count Frame Rate DLE-NTSC-Side1.mkv 1853.318 55544 29.97 fps DLE-NTSC-Restored.m2v 1853.318 55544 29.97 fps File Display Aspect Ratio Sample Aspect Ratio Active Pixels Visible Image DLE-NTSC-Side1.mkv 4:3 (≈1.33) 352:413 760 Full analog scan captured DLE-NTSC-Restored.m2v 4:3 (≈1.33) 8:9 720 Same image, mathematically resized UPDATE: Removed the first 157 frames from DLE-NTSC-Restored.m2v. The restored version now works correctly with Hypseus. Make sure you include DLE-NTSC-Restored.ogg, as well as dle21.txt and lair.txt. I captured the Dragon’s Lair Limited Edition (2002) LaserDisc directly to an uncompressed YUV4MPEG2 (.y4m) master using a high-quality capture chain. The raw file header reads: YUV4MPEG2 W760 H488 F30000:1001 It A352:413 C444p16 XCOLORRANGE=LIMITED This means the footage was recorded at 760×488 resolution — the full NTSC active image, preserving the entire analog scan area beyond the standard 720×480. The frame rate is 29.97 fps (30000/1001), interlaced top-field-first, exactly matching the LaserDisc’s NTSC cadence. The most important detail is the C444p16 format, which indicates 4:4:4 chroma sampling at 16-bit precision per channel. This means every pixel contains full color information with no chroma subsampling (unlike 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 formats). While the original LaserDisc signal itself is effectively limited to about 4:2:2 color bandwidth, capturing in 4:4:4 ensures that no additional loss or rounding occurred during digitization. I also used broadcast-safe limited range (16–235), consistent with NTSC standards, and retained the interlaced field structure, which keeps motion and transitions authentic to the original arcade timing. This approach provides an archival-grade digital master, ideal for future restoration or color correction. From this .y4m file, I later created lossless FFV1 and visually lossless MPEG-2 (.m2v) versions for compatibility and distribution.

Thank you very much, just noticed that on the 30 frame version the quality is a bit blurry sometimes like here: Compared to the 24 frame version: Is it the same for you? Thanks