Can somebody tell me what file "Harmy_DeEd_v2_h_h_5.1_fixed" is? I was thinking it was for the fixed AC3 5.1 track only but it's already over 4GB so I'm thinking that's not the case. Is this a full upload of the mkv again or the blu-ray?

Oh funny, I was typing my last post just as you wee answering me from my other post. I guess then we're not sure what it is. I was hoping it was the fixed audio but clearly that's not the case. Like you said there's no .nfo so there's no telling what it could be.

EDIT: I just downloaded the first part to see what it is and upon opening it I can see it's a VIDEO_TS folder so I guess this will be a DVD. Oh well. I've got the mkv I'm just waiting for a fixed 5.1 track.

 

It's simple enough. I have no hate for mkv as a format at all. The issue here is that the current mkv has problems and I'm definitely not doing another upload of it and I'm sure by now everybody who wanted it already has it and I'd rather that people who stumble across it by chance later will be able to choose between the AVCHD and BD, which should not have that problem.

Oldfan said:

delusions_of_grandeur said:

Oldfan said:

But then we're getting a lesser quality mkv by creating an mkv from the AVCHD unlike this where the mkv is higher quality. Why the hate for mkv? It's the perfect format for viewing on media players. Myself I want to watch this on my HDTV and the mkv can easily play on either my media players or my blu-ray player which supports mkv or even my tv itself which also plays mkv.
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Then create it from the Blu-Ray instead of the AVCHD.... 

Right, except then we have to download a full blu-ray and do the conversion, where for this I just had to download the MKV, which has excellent quality yet I don't have to download the huge blu-ray. The mkv is the perfect compromise between quality and file size - much smaller than the blu-ray yet very close in quality. The whole point is many will not want to download a full blu-ray when the mkv would do fine. I don't even have a blu-ray burner so I'd have to download the blu-ray just to convert it and then delete it.

 

 

 

 
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OK, I understand why you would really like an MKV, but I don't understand why you feel others should do the work for you.

Some people haven't upgraded to HD yet and want an SD version of Harmy's project, so what happened? Chewtobacca stepped in and created high quality, no-frills DVD5s for the community. If you think an MKV would be beneficial to people, you should create it and make it available.

Oldfan said:

I was just looking at the comparison shots posted between v1 and v2. Many of the shots actually look like the black levels are totally crushed - like take a look at the shots of the Millennium Falcon docked on the Death Star (shots 72 & 73, 80 & 81) - tons of detail is just gone, lost in shadow, and in shots 80 & 81 the door on the left in the background is almost impossible to see. And in the shot of Obi-Wan early on (shots 22 and 23), the v1 looks nice but v2 is totally blown out, with all detail in the background completely lost in a sea of white, and the colors look terrible compared to v1.

 

Is this just unavoidable due to the different sources used for v2? I don't mean this to sound like a criticism, I'm just curious why such a difference in quality- to my eyes many of the v1 shots have more background visible, even though the v2 are clearly sharper. In those shots, is this just how it looked originally, and we're just used to seeing tweaked versions over the years, or are those shots just due to limited available sources? It seems in the shots I mentioned above, v1 looks far better overall.

 

 
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*Fourth, verse, same as the first!*

Harmy painstakingly did a shot for shot retiming of the whole film to match the color of a non-fade 1977 technicolor print.

Basically, if the film looks "weird" or "different" to what you're used to, it's not because Harmy overlooked it...it's because that's the way it was on the print. The goal behind this project was to make this as faithful as possible to the film as it was released in 1977.

Now, perhaps we can criticize the film timer back in 1977 for making crappy decisions, but not Harmy.

Oldfan said:

I was just looking at the comparison shots posted between v1 and v2. Many of the shots actually look like the black levels are totally crushed - like take a look at the shots of the Millennium Falcon docked on the Death Star (shots 72 & 73, 80 & 81) - tons of detail is just gone, lost in shadow, and in shots 80 & 81 the door on the left in the background is almost impossible to see. And in the shot of Obi-Wan early on (shots 22 and 23), the v1 looks nice but v2 is totally blown out, with all detail in the background completely lost in a sea of white, and the colors look terrible compared to v1.

 

Is this just unavoidable due to the different sources used for v2? I don't mean this to sound like a criticism, I'm just curious why such a difference in quality- to my eyes many of the v1 shots have more background visible, even though the v2 are clearly sharper. In those shots, is this just how it looked originally, and we're just used to seeing tweaked versions over the years, or are those shots just due to limited available sources? It seems in the shots I mentioned above, v1 looks far better overall.

 

 
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What comparison screenshots are you looking at? I haven't seen any posted. I haven't gotten to watch the whole thing yet, but I have skimmed through and I think v2 looks night & day better than v1. The blacks were not NEARLY as crushed. And the colors were far better. Now, regarding the brightness of the introduction to Obiwan, that has received a fair bit of attention from people who feel it is too bright. But Harmy was provided access to a 1977 technicolor dye-transfer print to use as a color reference and that is apparently what the scene looked like, odd or blown out as it may be. Being able to use the dye-transfer as a color reference is a huge deal b/c those prints do not fade (or fade VERY little) and so what we're seeing is probably the closest to the original colors anyone has seen since the original theatrical release. And they are QUITE different than we're used to seeing in the many official home video releases.

I wan't criticizing. In fact, I even said in my post, "I don't mean this to sound like a criticism". I was simply asking because there was such a drastic difference between versions, and since both v1 and v2 aimed to recreate the original theatrical version as close as possible, I was curious why the 2 versions seemed so different in some shots.

Sorry if it came off as a complaint - it wasn't meant to be by any means. Just genuinely curious. Indeed it looks like perhaps with some shots the original timing could have been improved. If this is how it was originally projected then by all means this is how it should look for this project.

 

^^ I am convinced that the scene with Obi-Wan was intentionally blown out that way. 

If you notice, the part before Obi-Wan comes, which is in the same location, has normal colors.

It's precisely when Obi-Wan appears that the frame turns white.

 

For home video, they were probably trying to correct everything to "normal" and so they saw these blown out whites as a mistake and regraded it to match the part that had come before.

Trooperman said:

^^ I am convinced that the scene with Obi-Wan was intentionally blown out that way. 

If you notice, the part before Obi-Wan comes, which is in the same location, has normal colors.

It's precisely when Obi-Wan appears that the frame turns white.

 

For home video, they were probably trying to correct everything to "normal" and so they saw these blown out whites as a mistake and regraded it to match the part that had come before.

That may indeed be the case. It does look blown out but as you said it may very well be how they intended it to look.

Let me try that link again to the comparison shots:

http://www.uloz.to/22762346/compar-v1-vs-v2-rar

Also, the matte shot you mentioned was put together from various sources originally and was only like 70% faithful to the original, in v2.0 it's sourced from a 35mm scan, so it's 100% faithful.

Slynger: Yes. The new version of the AVCHD should be up on Tuesday.

 

Between the wait for Puggo's Empire and this AVCHD I don't how much I can take anymore.

Edit:  I see the AVCHD is coming soon : )

Harmy said:

Also, the matte shot you mentioned was put together from various sources originally and was only like 70% faithful to the original, in v2.0 it's sourced from a 35mm scan, so it's 100% faithful.

Ah, I see. Thank you.

 

Just now I decided to fire up WookieGroomer's HDTV cap of Star Wars - m2ts streams (conveniently, for my PS3) at commercial (35Mbps) bitrates, which I haven't looked at in a very long time.

...

OMG. WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT TRIPE!???

Folks, comparing the 2.0 to the 1.0 is simply not enough. You really need to plumb the bowels, get to the chewy, craptastic center of it all to really and truly realize what Harmy (and, really, hairy_hen) have done for us here.

This is like Andy Dufresne escaping from Shawshank Prison. Like Rocky Balboa beating down Ivan the Terrible. Like George McFly finally finding the balls to clock Biff. And, yes, like Vader destroying the Emperor.

FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LAST!

Seriously. The skintones, the lasers, the planets, the crawl...I don't know what the hell I'm watching. The only thing that wasn't a clusterfuck was the starfield, maybe.

And I'm not sure if WookieGroomer screwed around with the audio or what, but it seems like some alternate or new recording of the Fox Fanfare and Star Wars theme are tracked in. But beyond that...yuck yuck yuck yuck YUCK! Dynamic range compression totally run amok - no oomph to the SFX, and the music has been run through a V-shaped EQ. The sirens from the mono and stereo mixes on the Tantive IV at the same time...I just...it's mind-boggling. 

What needs to be done is a comparison disc - heck, maybe I could be persuaded - like WookieGroomer's old Splitscreen discs of yesteryear. Then...they will know, everyone will know. Picasa albums, even if they're better for catching the details, are no substitute for seeing the totality of the changes all at once, in motion.

And yeah, I get that none of that is news to the old hands here...I mean, it's not exactly news to me? But it's just been so, so long that it can begin to get easy to forget just how far we've come. Pity the poor saps that aren't members at originaltrilogy.com...