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Help Wanted: 1980s ITV Broadcast of Star Wars onto DVD?

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I’ve been searching for a post relating to this! I know it’s there somewhere…

Anyway, I’ve jsut tracked down my VHS of this. Is anyone able to put it on a DVD for me?

Cheers
J

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
Follow me on twitter @jamieSWB. Please support me at - http://www.patreon.com/jamiebenning/

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I have been getting pretty good results with a brand new LG VHS and LiteOn DVD recorder. Check out the thread here.

There is one sample vob on there if you want to check out the quality. See here (29Mb)

I would be more than willing to give it a shot for you.

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Was this the thread you were looking for? I knew there would be more copies floating around!

Hopefully your tape is in better shape and more complete than mine.

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I have not posted in awhile but have been corresponding directly with Moth3r in the efforts to restore the best possible version of the monomix of ANH. He suggested that I follow up with you as another source for this audio. I’d be very interested in making arrangements for obtaining a good quality capture. Please let me know what we can do to facilitate this.
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HI, Russ has it at the moment. From what I can remember the audio isn't as good as the picture. But Russ can let you know about that one when he's taken a look.

J

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
Follow me on twitter @jamieSWB. Please support me at - http://www.patreon.com/jamiebenning/

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I picked this up from the PO at lunchtime.

I have done a 3 hour setting recording but will be doing again in 1 hour setting (over 3 discs) too to get the best quality possible.

Look out for a sample later..........

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As promised, here is a wee clip of the ITV broadcast done at the 1 hour maximum quality setting. I personally cannot tell much difference between the 1, 2 and 3 hour settings but the quality is there should JD need it.

EDIT - I have changed my mind. On a 42" Plasma telly, the 2 and 3 hour modes are garbage and only the 1 hour mode looks OK.

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I have just made a discovery that emphasises that this is not just another transfer like all the rest.

Firstly, it has the mono soundtrack with the C3P0 tractor beam line, close the blast doors etc

Secondly, I believe this to be a totally different "cut" of the film to the one released on VHS and Laserdisc.

The shot that shows this is Luke's macrobinocular POV shot of the Banthas with the Tusken Raider walking to the side of the frame.

The "Full length" NTSC version shows the view in the middle of the macrobinoculars with no Tusken Raider.

The early "Time Compressed" NTSC version and PAL version shows the macrobinocular squeezed into the frame and the Tusken Raider.


This ITV broadcast shows a completely different view..............




The early "Time Compressed" NTSC version and PAL version
http://www.galactictradefederation.com/russ/002.jpg

The early "Full length" NTSC version
http://www.galactictradefederation.com/russ/003.jpg

The ITV broadcast version
http://www.galactictradefederation.com/russ/005.jpg


The Widescreen version for comparison
http://www.galactictradefederation.com/russ/004.jpg

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I hadn't noticed the macrobinocular difference before, but I wasn't really paying close attention to the video.

I did notice that several scenes last for 2-4 frames longer than the French laserdisc video (the audio needed quite a few minor cuts to remain in sync).

BTW, the sample you posted has the fields in the wrong order - I don't know if this is your DVD recorder or something you did to the file afterwards. But it's an easy problem to fix if JD wants to re-encode to put it on a single DVD.

Now, here's a snippet of information for you. I used to have recordings off ITV for all three films - sadly, Empire and Jedi have been either lost or taped over. Anyway, in Jedi, rather than re-subtitle Jabba to fit the 4:3 frame, they pan and scanned the frame slowly from left to right, so that the 2.35:1 picture containing the original subtitles gradually "scrolled" sideways! It was a truly awful, lazy decision, which is why I remember it so well.

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Russ, in what format does your dvd recorder record the audio? Is it PCM, mpeg 2 audio, ac3 or something else.

I ask this because I think it would be great to have the monomix available in a high quality PCM track. Like 24 bits 96 kHz. That would be very helpfull for everybody who is making a dvd transfer of the OT. The file could be filtered for noise and/or converted to NTSC speed before converting the sample rate to 48 kHz for the final dvd.

A new release of Star Wars is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.

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Originally posted by: Moth3r
BTW, the sample you posted has the fields in the wrong order - I don't know if this is your DVD recorder or something you did to the file afterwards. But it's an easy problem to fix if JD wants to re-encode to put it on a single DVD.

I am not quite sure what you mean there......

For what it is worth, this is what I had to do. For some reason, I cannot copy any disc made by my DVD recorder. I have tried all formats and loads of brands. I have to copy the VIDEO_TS file from the DVD to the HDD and burn it from there with Nero. The sample was done using DVD Shrink. Does that answer any questions??

Russ, in what format does your dvd recorder record the audio? Is it PCM, mpeg 2 audio, ac3 or something else.


It looks to me to be in MPEG 2.

I realise that using a standalone DVD recorder is far from the best way of capturing VHS but for me it will have to do for the moment.

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Originally posted by: russs15

Russ, in what format does your dvd recorder record the audio? Is it PCM, mpeg 2 audio, ac3 or something else.


It looks to me to be in MPEG 2.


In the 1 hour mode it has recorded the audio in MPEG Surround 2.0 256Kbps.

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Originally posted by: evilmouse
Is this on DVD and avalible?


Please read the thread. This footage has just been captured.

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
Follow me on twitter @jamieSWB. Please support me at - http://www.patreon.com/jamiebenning/

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Originally posted by: Jambe Davdar
Originally posted by: evilmouse
Is this on DVD and avalible?


Please read the thread. This footage has just been captured.........



.........and will be back with you by the weekend! I just have the other "extra's" I mentioned to sort out.

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Originally posted by: russs15
Originally posted by: Jambe Davdar
Originally posted by: evilmouse
Is this on DVD and avalible?


Please read the thread. This footage has just been captured.........



.........and will be back with you by the weekend! I just have the other "extra's" I mentioned to sort out.


Now you have the tapes back, what are your impressions of the footage?? Is VHS to DVD recorder of a high enough quality or could more quality be squeeeezed out of the VHS using a PC capture card?

The other important issue is the soundtrack. Any thoughts there??

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BTW, the sample you posted has the fields in the wrong order - I don't know if this is your DVD recorder or something you did to the file afterwards. But it's an easy problem to fix if JD wants to re-encode to put it on a single DVD.


TV broadcasts (at least in the UK, and at the very least ITV) use the opposite field order - Bottom Field First (BFF) instead of DVD's Top Field First (TFF).

DE
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Russ

Thanks for doing those transfers. AS I haven't seen the VHS tape itself for some years (I don't have a VHS Player at the moment) I can't really comment on how the DVD transfer compares.

My first reaction was that it was of fairly decent quality. There's a little colour bleeding (though the colours look nice and vivid), some distortion and some artifacts. When viewed on a smaller tv or in a window on my desktop it looks pretty good.

There is some 'noise' on the soundtrack - but this is to be expected.

Overall I am pretty happy with this, though I am not sure it warrants a release as there aren't enough difference with previous releases to make it worthwhile.

Maybe after 'Returning to Jedi' and the 'TOP SECRET PROJECT', I might tackel the 'ITV ANH'.

Thanks for all your help

J

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
Follow me on twitter @jamieSWB. Please support me at - http://www.patreon.com/jamiebenning/

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Just wondered - does this tape include all the adverts?

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Unfortunately not. It is missing the Fox Fanfare and 99.9% of the credits too.

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