DCTL Changelog

October 23rd, 2023

Been a while! This is hardly an update worth mentioning, but 6x05 on the SD MKV branch was accidentally an MP4. So I replaced it, but the content is the same :)

Changed files:

• 6x05 The Imposters.mkv

February 24th, 2023

Changed all the English subtitles to no longer be ALL CAPS, across the HD, 4K, and 16x9 DVD versions. SD versions were already in the correct case. If the all caps subtitles don't bother you, you don't need to pay attention to this update since nothing else was changed, with one exception -

There was a synchronization issue in the audio-only version of 1x02 meant for the 4K conversion tool. The HD version of 1x02 was fine.

ALSO a big milestone, released 4K files fully processed on archive.org!

• All HD MP4 and MKV files
• All 16x9 DVD files
• Uploaded 4K MP4 files (check them out!)
• 1x02_DCTL-Audio.aac (only for the DIY 4K version)

June 27th, 2022

Fixed the subtitles across all of 6x10, which got messed up after the video edit (Audrey singing in the bathroom). Also fixed a very small piece of audio in the standard definition versions of 6x05, the audio cut out for a second during a conversation between Dawson & Natasha. It's been fixed! If you don't care about subtitles or the SD version, no need to re-download anything.

Changed Files:

• 6x05 SD MKV
• 6x05 SD MP4
• Season 6 Disc 1 4x3 ISO
• 6x10 4K MKV (With Video Edits only)
• 6x10 HD MKV
• 6x10 HD MP4
• 6x10 SD MKV
• 6x10 SD MP4
• Season 6 Disc 2 4x3 ISO
• Season 6 Disc 2 16x9 ISO

January 27th, 2022

Added the 16x9 DVD files. Added Internet Archive links to main page.

January 25th, 2022

Updated all of the episodes on the SD version that have video edits. This means 5x01, 5x08, 5x11, 5x15, 5x17, 5x19, 5x22, 6x05, 6x10, 6x12, and 6x13. None of the HD files were changed. This means that all the Season 5 4x3 disc files were changed as well, and all the Season 6 4x3 disc files were changed except for Season 6, Disc 4 (4x3).

January 16th, 2022

Updated all of the 4x3 DVD files. Yes, all of them. The Portuguese language was mislabeled as "Spanish", so I fixed them!! Not a huge change, just a minor aesthetic one.

January 15th, 2022

Fixed the SD MKV and MP4 versions of 1x11 and 1x12. The languages were mislabeled.

January 3rd, 2022

5x07 had several mistakes. Changed that episode in all versions, including Season 5, Disc 2. 4K tool updated as well, see below.

The reason is that on the original list I was working off of, 5x07 had no song changes. So, I just used the original audio except for the theme song. However, I neglected to realize this was an issue I fixed in September 2021, because the episode DOES have song changes, notably REM's "Nightswimming". I checked all the others that supposedly had no song changes according to my list, and this was the only one that had that issue. So hopefully this is the only major change!

Another new feature: the 4K tool now has subtitles!! This is exciting for international viewers that speak languages other than English. It also includes chapters. Enjoy!

December 27th, 2021

2x11 had a freak rendering error. Both the HD MP4 and MKV versions of this version have been fixed!

December 25th, 2021

MAJOR RELEASE: Version 3.0

Changes:

- 1080P HD Release!

- The DVDs and 4x3 video files are now together a separate "SD" Version

- HD version includes all recaps, with custom-made captions

- HD version includes 15 different subtitle tracks, including English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (European), and English with SDH, which includes sounds like [CAR DOOR OPENS].

- HD Version includes chapter markers at all act breaks, so you can easily skip around.

- Season 1 now has more chapter markers in both the digital and DVD versions.

- Small music fixes in 5x09 and 6x10

- For season 1-3, the MKV files no longer automatically turn on Spanish subtitles

- Seasons 4-6 in the new Standard Definition version have been updated to use the untouched video streams from the DVDs, rather than the old SD widescreen source. Since the HD verion is widescreen, the SD version for those seasons is now 4x3, so you can choose which aspect ratio you prefer.

Notes:

- Although the HD versions are technically re-encoded from the source, I meticulously tweaked the encoder settings, and used x264 software encoding to get the highest quality possible. I definitely did it the long way (1 hour renders vs 5 minute renders), and I'm very happy with how well they came out. I also used 4K source material, for the best results possible!

- The recaps for the HD version originally did not have subtitles in any language. The English recap subs were done by hand, and the other 12 languages were translated using Google Translate. Therefore, they may not be perfectly accurate translations. Nevertheless, after those first 30 seconds, the official translations are used for the rest of the episode.

September 20th, 2021

Changed 2x18, A Perfect Wedding. This one is a bit complicated to explain.

As some of you may not know, I don't edit in the songs. I have a source recording of the show that has the original music with the dialogue and everything, and I sync that up to high quality visuals. This source comes from a digital recording of the show. I have no idea how these recordings were made, where they came from, or what kind of hardware was used, except that it was digital and not analog. I know this because of how high quality they are, leaps and bounds above what an analog VHS tape could offer. As this was sometime in the late 90's-early 00's, I imagine it must have been an early version of a digital PVR.

However, these digital PVR recordings aren't perfect. Sometimes they sputter or have static, or even cut out, likely due to the primitive nature of the recording technology. Digital recording was in its infancy in the early 00's, so we're incredibly lucky that these recordings exist at all. We're also lucky that in almost all cases, these errors don't happen during a section with music replacement, so I can simply cut to the DVD audio. However, there's one exception in the entire series: 2x18, A Perfect Wedding.

At around the 15:45 mark, there are two song replacements. And, unfortunately, the PVR recording does have issues during the songs - it cuts out, there's some high pitched noises. It's unusable. So, what do we do? Is that section doomed to be lost to time?

The first idea was to find a different source, but all that exists besides the PVR source are low quality VHS tapes. You really notice the edits in the audio track when you hear those two side by side, the audio just doesn't hold up on analog recordings. Not viable.

My second idea was to isolate the dialogue, then manually edit in the songs underneath it. This is what ended up in the most recent version of the True Love Edition. I took the DVD audio and ran it through an AI-based tool capable of doing just that. It did a pretty good job isolating the dialogue, but it wasn't perfect. If you watched the episode, you may have heard that the dialogue was slightly garbled during that sequence. You'd have to listen close, but you may have been able to hear it during Abbey and Jen's conversation in her bedroom.

Finally, in September of 2021 we were blessed with an official HD remaster. But not only did the visuals get an upgrade, but the audio did, as well. For the first time ever, the show was released in 5.1 Audio. Which means, instead of the audio being just stereo left and right, there are five separate tracks of audio. Which means...there's a track with just the dialogue on it and no music!! Which of course, means I could use that to layer over the correct songs instead of my previous attempts to isolate the dialogue. This is the only case where I actually had to manually edit in two songs...and now that I have a proper source of isolated dialogue, I was able to do it the right way.

This sounds much better, much more natural. Now, you can't even notice there were any edits, exactly the way it should be :)

Changed files

• 2x18 A Perfect Wedding.mkv
• S2 Disc 4.iso

September 19th, 2021

Fixed 5x07, 3x06 & 3x08. They were missing (respectively) "EZ" by Pete Yorn, Eve by Chantal Kreviazuk, and "America" by Bree Sharp.

Changed Files

• 3x06 Secrets and Lies.mkv
• 3x08 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.mkv
• 5x07 Text, Lies and Videotape
• S3 Disc 2.iso
• S5 Disc 2.iso

July 28th, 2021

Fixed 2x09 The Election, which was missing a piece of Slingshots by Morley around the 40 minute mark (Andie on the phone with Pacey). Special thanks to the eagle-eyed fans that continuously find these very small clips of music that I had missed!

Changed Files

• 2x09 The Election.mkv
• S2 Disc 2.iso

Just for reference, even though I rendered and completed this edit on July 28th, 2021, I wasn't able to upload until August 6th, 2021.

July 14th, 2021

Fixed 2x04 Tamara's Return, which was missing a piece of Northern Lad by Tori Amos.

Changed files:

• 2x04 Tamaras Return.mkv
• S2 Disc 1.iso

April 18th, 2021

Fixed 5x08, which had a weird spot that was muted around the 26:20 mark. Also updated 4x04, which I had forgotten to add subtitles to on the Digital & DVD releases.

Changed Files:

• 5x08 Hotel New Hampshire.mp4
• S5 Disc 2
• 4x04 Future Tense.mp4
• S4 Disc 1

April 10th, 2021

Fixed 4x04, which was missing "Respect" by Train.

Changed files:

• 4x04 Future Tense.mp4
• S4 Disc 1.iso

April 6th, 2021

Fixed 3x06, which was missing a piece of 'Get Me Through December' by Natalie MacMaster.

Changed files:

• 3x06 Secrets and Lies.mkv
• S3 Disc 2.iso

April 3rd, 2021

Fixed 2x12, which was missing "If I Had A Boat" in an additional scene. Thanks to the fan that pointed this out.

Additionally, added "album art" images to some MKV files that didn't have them due to me making changes, and forgetting to add them back.

Changed Files:

• 2x12 Uncharted Waters.mkv
• S2 Disc 3.iso
• 3x23 True Love.mkv
• 2x08 The Reluctant Hero.mkv

March 27th, 2021

Fixed 6x14, which had originally frozen around the 13:15 mark. Thanks to the fan that pointed this out.

I also added subtitles to the "Streaming" versions of 3x02 and 2x11 on Sync.com (the ones you can watch without downloading). They were missing them due to previous updates.

Changed Files:

• Digital Version 6x14 Clean And Sober.mkv
• DVD Version S6 Disc 3.iso

March 1st, 2021

Fixed 3x02 "Homecoming", which was missing a small extra piece of "Time After Time" by Tuck & Patti.

Changed Files:

• Digital Version 3x02 Homecoming.mkv
• DVD Version: S3 Disc 1.iso

February 21st, 2021

Fixed 2x11 "Sex, She Wrote", which had been missing a small piece of "Life's a Bitch". While it was present before, it continued in another scene that I had missed.

Changed files:

• Digital Version 2x11 Sex, She Wrote.mkv
• DVD Version: S2 Disc 2.iso

January 30th, 2021

Fixed 3x23 "True Love", which had been missing Jessica Andrews' "The Riverside". Thanks to the anonymous fan that pointed it out.

Changed files:

• Digital Version: 3x23 True Love.mkv
• DVD Version: S3 Disc 4.iso

December 31st, 2020

Fixed 5x11 "Something Wilder", which was actually missing the theme song! How’d this happen, you ask? 5x11 was one of the ones that required adding video back in, because some of the music scenes were altered. As such, I used the VOD audio source (with replacement music) for the majority of the audio, and cut to my broadcast source only during the songs. And of course, in focusing on the musical performances of the episode, I overlooked perhaps the most important song in the show! It’s fixed now, and I’ve made certain that mistake wasn’t made anywhere else 😁

Changed files:

• Digital Version: 5x11 Something Wilder.mp4
• DVD Version: S5 Disc 2.iso

December 29th, 2020

Fixed the finale. To sum up the tech details, I exported the finale at 23.976fps progressive, but on my premiere timeline, I was actually mixing 24p (widescreen VOD) and 30i (full screen DVD). Adobe Premiere didn’t do a great job de-interlacing, especially considering the fact that the show was actually shot in 24p, and was telecined (artificially interlaced) up to 30i. Premiere wasn’t able to figure out how to properly reverse the 2-3 pulldown, so I used some AviSynth filters that did an absolutely impeccable job. I was able to render out a progressive video file that honestly looks as though it was never telecined in the first place! Additionally, a sequence around the 1 hour 10 minute mark was actually supposed to be 4:3 and was cropped to 16:9 for my VOD source, so I cut to the DVD for that. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the enhanced quality :)

Changed files:

• Digital Version 6x23-24 All Good Things...Must Come To An End.mp4
• DVD Version: S6 Disc 4.iso

December 27th, 2020

Fixed 5x07 Text, Lies And Videotape, which was missing "Nightswimming" by R.E.M. A really important song in the context of the scene, thanks to the fan on instagram who caught it!

• Digital Version: 5x04 Text, Lies and Videotape.mp4
• DVD Version: S5 Disc 2.iso

December 24th, 2020

Released "Version 2" of the True Love Edition. This release includes much higher quality widescreen versions of Seasons 4-6, as well as improved subtitles across the board.

Besides small glitches, the only main thing that's left to do is maybe improve the subtitles. The official DVD subtitles for seasons 1-3 are not word-for word subtitles. The ones used for seasons 4-6, which are closer to being word-for-word, were auto-converted from all-caps to regular case, and some things are incorrectly lowercased such as names and titles. Both of these issues require manual editing. If the community would like to perfect these subtitles, I’d happily add them to this project and re-release!

Additionally, I haven’t been able to watch every single episode of the show (doing so would take more than 120 hours!) to check for errors and issues. I’ve tried my best to be careful, but please let me know via Instagram DM if there’s any small glitches that I missed, and I will fix them right away!