STAR WARS - Special Widescreen Edition (Technidisc)

Info:

Year...................: 1977, 1981
Length...............: Approx. 121 Minutes
Source...............: Special Widescreen Edition Laserdisc (1993 re-issue)
Format...............: NTSC DVD
Size....................: 7.82 GB
Video..................: 16:9
Language...........: AC-3 English Dolby 2.0 Surround
Subtitles.............: English hardcoded subs for alien language      
Chapters

Notes:

This is a DVD transfer of the Star Wars Special Widescreen Edition laserdisc by Technidisc. The framing error that caused an incorrect aspect ratio on the original release of this laserdisc in 1989 was not corrected for the '92 re-issue. It was instead rectified by a quiet repressing by Technidisc in 1993. This laserdisc also used a different source for its transfer than the 1989 & 1992 releases.

The film is the 1981 re-release version - the famous opening scene of the film was redone with a new crawl which featured: Episode IV - A NEW HOPE. The audio is the digital re-mix which first appeared on home video in 1985, which is very similar to the original 35mm Dolby Stereo but features a line of dialogue from C-3PO: "The Tractor Beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations..." a line which was first only heard on the original Mono mix, it was later reinstated in the 1997 Special Edition and subsequent versions.

Available on the newsgroup and MySpleen, give me a PM or ask in this thread; http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Once-upon-a-time-on-MySpleen-Open-Registration-and-FREELEECH/topic/12652/ if you need an invite. For more info regarding this preservation and LD visit: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Smear-free-93/topic/12190/

Just watched a bit of this. It is truly quite the transfer, msycamore. Good job on it. The flesh tones may be a bit odd at times but the movie appears very saturated unlike the GOUT. Like the JSC, you can see the optical grain and nicely done lightsabers. I would say that this definitely does edge out the JSC a bit in terms of detail.

I'll comment more in a few days when I have the chance to watch the whole thing.

Thanks, I guess it's ok. Don't know if I agree with you about this one being more detailed than the JSC, that transfer have better framing/cropping, less aliasing and dirt but overall I actually prefer this one, mostly because of the colors.

Cool.  I'll grab and seed this one for a while.

Thanks Sluggo.

http://preserv.dreamhosters.com/images/alternatecovers/AvP/msycamore_SW_Technidisc.rar

Nice!

I actually own this LD set. Will you also make preservations of ESB and ROTJ?

Wow looking forward to this one - I have the laserdisc, but with the shrinking aspect ratio alas. Thanks for capturing this :)

AvP - SUPERB disc art!!!

Very nice AvP! :) Had completely forgot about doing cover art, so thank you for doing it, very kind of you. :) Edit: updated the torrent page with your cover.

grisan, I would like to do at least ESB SWE LD at some point. I'm not a big fan of ROTJ, so I don't own that one.

Very nice colours ! Much better than the washed-out GOUT

Is this the very last video transfer to get the glow of Luke's lightsaber on the Millennium Falcon right?

Hard to say if LAST, but the lightsabre DOES have the correct colour

I took some shots for the comparison page.

Neil S. Bulk said:

Is this the very last video transfer to get the glow of Luke's lightsaber on the Millennium Falcon right?

Very nice to see you around these parts again, yes I would say it was the last one to get the lightsaber glow right in that wide shot. I posted a sample of it here: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Smear-free-93/post/530016/#TopicPost530016 (Destruction of Alderaan)

But this transfer have its own set of color problems.

Asaki said:

I took some shots for the comparison page.

?? Moth3r's?

Yeah, I posted them here.

Ah, ok thanks. Don't know if Zion updates that comparison page any longer, otherwise you have Moth3r's page: http://moth3r.heliohost.org/ld-screens.htm But he have two pics not included in your upload. The chroma noise is really awful when seeing it on those stills. :( I see that arnie.d's V8 is missing on those pages...

This is pretty awesome. I actually recorded Star Wars off TV when I was a kid when it had it's network television premiere (in '84 I think), and the colors on this version seem pretty much the same as that broadcast (I always remembered the explosions on the TV version being kind of green in the battle between the Falcon and the TIE ships)

It's cool to see it like this again... since that VHS tape died many years ago from me watching it so much. Thanks msycamore!

Yeah, I know what you mean. Those composites/explosions always had a little bit of green in them, you can see it in some of the earlier transfers and in the THX WOW trailer as well, I don't think you can see it in the THX LD's/GOUT transfer because of the clipped levels and low saturation, but it gets exaggerated in this one because of the already green/yellow tint in some parts of the transfer, Luke's lightsaber and Leia's hologram in Ben's hut are affected the worst I think.

Anyway, I'm glad the colortiming of this transfer bring nostalgia to some of you. :)

I'm really excited to see this different color scheme for SW-and without DVNR! Big thanks for preserving this disc.

Possibly one of the best to date that I have seen colour wise according to your most recent samples.

Thank you for providing us with this version.

msycamore said:

Ah, ok thanks. Don't know if Zion updates that comparison page any longer, otherwise you have Moth3r's page: http://moth3r.heliohost.org/ld-screens.htm But he have two pics not included in your upload. The chroma noise is really awful when seeing it on those stills. :( I see that arnie.d's V8 is missing on those pages...

I don't think Zion has the time to keep his page up to date. My comparison page is temporarily down at the moment, but I'll update it with your capture when it's back.

If anyone can provide shots of arnie.d's V8 I'll add that as well.

Are then any plans for a newsgroup upload or is this only going to be available at myspleen for the foreseeable future?

Moth3r: I'm trying to capture those two frames that are on your page but not the old one, but I'm not exactly sure which ones I'm after, they're both pretty tricky to eyeball.

I can get the V8 too, but it's the DVD5 version if that makes much of a difference.

Moth3r, I have never made a newsgroup upload before, sounds scary ;) not sure how it all works, maybe someone else who now have it could be kind and do it for me? If not, I'll see what I can do.

Asaki, thanks for helping out, I can provide Moth3r with the missing frames if you have problems with it and from the original upload of V8 (DVD9).

Thanks a lot for preserving this one msycamore, and thanks for sharing it.
Props to your mate who did the captures as well.

The GOUT-sync is pure awesomeness.
Guess that means you've inserted black frames at the 2nd reel change?
I love that sort of attention to detail. Bravo!

Thanks to whoever uploaded this to the newsgroup. (Shame I didn't spot it earlier; I don't think there's any way of merging my partially downloaded torrent)