Info: Original Trilogy on CED preservations? (3 OT CED released projects in here)

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I need a quick answer: has the Star Wars original trilogy on CED been preserved yet? The differences to the theatrical release are that they are fullscreen, time-compressed by three minutes, and depending on the year of release, it’s missing the C-3PO line about the tractor beam couplings.

There are some pretty cheap opportunities to purchase ANH and ESB on CED at eBay, so I’m trying to figure out if I should get them and try and have them transferred to DVD.

The only one I know of is an XVID of Ep IV by The Starkiller.

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                           Star Wars 1982 CED (Xvid)
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                              General Information
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Type.................: Movie

Video Format.........: AVI (Xvid)
Resolution...........: 576 x 432
Source...............: 1982 CED (Capacitance Electronic Disc)
Original Format......: NTSC
Size.................: CD1: 699 MB
                       CD2: 699 MB

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                               Post Information
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Posted by............: The Starkiller
Posted to............: alt.binaries.starwars

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                                 Release Notes
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I am not aware of any other CED transfers out there, so here you go. This is
really only of interest to the hardcore fans and is more of a curiosity than
anything else.

The 1982 CED features the same version of Star Wars as the 1982 and 1983
laserdiscs. These discs all feature a different pan and scan transfer than all
other home video releases. Other than that, there's nothing extraordinary about
it. That's why I chose Xvid instead of DVD.

There are a few places where the video jumps around and there's some scratches
here and there. Nothing I could do about that.

I've had the CED's for SW and Empire, and can confirm that they are the same time compressed transfers used for the early Laserdiscs. The plastic caddy's they come in make for nice collectibles though. :)

As CED has been dead a lot longer than LD, there are more problems involved in getting a working player and the infamous stylus cartridge. (The last player I owned literally self destructed when some gears jammed!) It's probably a good thing there are no exclusive titles unreleased elsewhere.

It looks like Negative1 has done a transfer of the CED trilogy as well.  You might find this thread interesting:  http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/query-converting-RF-to-RCA-video-audio-signals/topic/9710/

If you are looking at buying a CED player, then you might like to have a look at this page as well:  http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/ced-player-guide/ced-player-guide.html

The specifications page mentions that some players had AV outputs as well as RF.  If you were looking to buy a player, then it would probably pay to try and get a working one with RCA AV plugs as this will give you better quality than RF.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tip on the Negative1 preservation. I decided not to do my own preservations of these, since the consensus seemed to be that there wasn't a substantive difference between the CEDs and the LDs. Although I'm certainly going to look for Negative1's preservation.

I grew up on a VHS copy of the CED of ANH.  It was time compressed?!  I had no idea!  I wish my dad still had that tape, I'd love to preserve that nostalgia for myself.

doubleofive said:

I grew up on a VHS copy of the CED of ANH.  It was time compressed?!  I had no idea!  I wish my dad still had that tape, I'd love to preserve that nostalgia for myself.

 The Starkiller XVID version of ANH would certainly fill that void in your life.....

doubleofive said:

I grew up on a VHS copy of the CED of ANH.  It was time compressed?!  I had no idea!  I wish my dad still had that tape, I'd love to preserve that nostalgia for myself.

Yeah, just like the early LDs, time-compressed by three minutes.

russs15 said:

doubleofive said:

I grew up on a VHS copy of the CED of ANH.  It was time compressed?!  I had no idea!  I wish my dad still had that tape, I'd love to preserve that nostalgia for myself.

 

 The Starkiller XVID version of ANH would certainly fill that void in your life.....

Do you have the Starkiller XviD?

I know I had a copy on my computer once but I have had some drive failures in the last couple of years. If I come across it, I will let you know.

i put this project on hold..

but will be getting back to it later this year..

i'll post some messages once its done..

my current CED player isn't that great,

so i'm getting a newer one..

later

-1

as mentioned in the technical section,

i will be getting these versions captured

shortly on a much better machine.

should be interesting once done.

later

-1

ok, all 3 movies should

have a rough transfer done today.

in fact i have 2 copies of sw and esb,

in case they are better.

later

-1

o___________________o

ok, watching all the versions now.

there are two different releases of sw, and esb:

===

http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/star-wars.html

i will take the best parts and combine them into one.

also remember they are speeded up 2.54% to fit onto

2 hour discs. 1 hour per side.

later

-1

red5-626 said:

I had a thought. I have herd that ROTJ is not time compressed? And was thinking is it possible that the audio on the ROTJ CED Is any better than the LD? I know it sounds crazy But people always say that Vinyl sounds better than CD?

ROTJ is a two disc set, and not time compressed just like the LD version. It was among the last titles released for the format and is harder to come by.

http://www.blam1.com/StarWars/1478-90.htm

CED doesn't reproduce sound like a record player does though.

http://www.cedmagic.com/home/cedfaq.html#onetwo

Based on the music video titles I once owned on both formats, CED sounds about as good as early analog LD audio does. (Later stereo players had CX noise reduction like LD.) Any used CED title at this point is going to have wear and tear problems as did the discs I watched in the early 90's.

none said:

negative1 wrote: i will take the best parts and combine them into one.

If you have two copies of the same release, then combining sounds ok.  But if they are different releases (defined by some serial number, the FOX or CBS as the website describes) don't be afraid to release two versions.

ok, watched them both. they are identical.

however, due to skips and other issues, i'm still going to take the

best versions to form one complete one that is better than each

single one...

i haven't checked out empire yet... that's up next.

later

-1

just for fun,

here's a comparison shot of the CED version

to the new bluray picture... yikes.. pretty small!

(image scaled down, but the ratio is correct).

later

-1

See post #3 above. ;)

One little bit of video history I wish would turn up is some of the promotional material RCA used to promote the format. Circa 1982, you could get Star Wars for free if you bought a CED player and an RCA projection tv together. I still remember the tv ads for that. If only a copy of the commercial would pop up on Youtube.

negative1 said:

just for fun,

 

here's a comparison shot of the CED version

to the new bluray picture... yikes.. pretty small!

(image scaled down, but the ratio is correct).

 

later

-1

It is pretty screwed up that of the images above the ced looks better color wise than the blu ray, Luca$ is crazy if he thinks that is the definite image.

The Ced is blurred and washed out but still much closer to the theatrical colors,lol.

here's some thumbnails from a

video i'm putting up on youtube..

link coming shortly..

here you go:

===================================

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix17lh9xsUg

it's about 7minutes long..

yes, the colors are pretty much

the same as the laserdisc, the

resolution is lower, but it is better

than VHS...

later

-1

The Aluminum Falcon said:

Those colors do look interesting. Thanks for transferring this. Is it the same master as the early LDs or the early VHSes?

Also, may I ask how you plan to release it: newsgroups, filesharing, myspleen, etc.?

i actually haven't wached my laserdiscs in awhile,

i guess i'll be doing that soon also..

i'm going to do a basic 2 xvid-avi files for all

of them (i'll combine the 3 part ROTJ, and split

it down to 2 files), and just post them on a filesharing

site, like fileserve.com... i doubt there's much interest,

so making a dvd, putting torrents etc, probably won't be

needed, but anyone can share them if they want..

later

-1