I have genuine theatrical edition cassettes but they could be too old to use properly.

Dear fellow fans,

I have original genuine non-piratted casettes with the theatrical versions but they could be too old to use, convert, whatever. About 5 years ago my VHS player died and I kept my casettes for sentimental reasons, I wanted to convert them and enjoy but I don't know how to do it properly. I don't have the proper stuff, players, software, whatever necessary. Now my VHS casettes could be too old.  If any user here knows how to deal with it, I can send them, it's worth trying. There's 1 huge problem though. It was a version only for my country which means the English audio in the background and additional Polish audio - it's instead of subtitles. I don't know how to split 2 audios, I don't know if this is even possible. It's not 2 separate audios so user chooses one, it's 2 audios together. So - if anyone here wants to try, do it. No additional edition is necessary as they are genuine theatrical editions.

If they AREN'T too old their quality is still bad so don't expect a miracle. It's just a very long shot.

It's most likely a voiceover. Probably Knapik. I don't think Star Wars got a full dub back in the VHS days.

paszczak said:

I don't know how to split 2 audios, I don't know if this is even possible. It's not 2 separate audios so user chooses one, it's 2 audios together.

You can't split anything, because VHS doesn't work that way. It's a single analog track.

I'd say it's worth preserving even if the video quality is terrible :)

Yup, lagit.

English isn't his native language, remember? I think he can be cut some slack for poor spelling.

Poor spelling - sure.

A typo is a different matter altogether. Those simply cannot be tolerated on the Internet.

I'm a "she" not a "he". Where do I change my gender? In my setting? I may have it as "default" or male.

It's older than 97se version, probably 93 or 94, with voiceover. There's the English audio in the background and it's rather quiet and not overly clear ans additional Polish audio, loud but also not overly clear as the lector wasn't good. It is a professional lector though.

In addition it's a genuine release bought in a shop, not a casette recorded by a fan.

I went to see the 97 version and compared it with my casettes and they were different.

Sorry for my stupid typo, didn't notice it.

"Voiceover" as opposed to dubbed is a bona fide horror of home video phenomena that I've been perfectly content not knowing about until just now, thank you very much!  Are foreigners so incredibly averse to reading that they'd rather suffer that kind of cacophonous aural abuse?

And by "reading," I guess I mean either subtitles or just reading a book instead of watching a movie because this whole voiceover thing sounds entirely prohibitive!

Darth Id, I'm sorry but I don't understand why you're so angry with me and/or my post. I didn't choose voiceover, I didn't create my casettes. I'd prefer subtitles but back then subtitles weren't available for this version. There was only one option available and that's it.

You think voiceover is a bad idea - contact the company which created my casettes. I can find their address or email for you. Write and tell them they murdered a nice trilogy. I'm almost sure they exist only they release DVD and BD movies. It's possible they don't care they made a mistake. They didn't care back then so they chose this stupid voiceover.

I hope my trilogy is salvageable as it comes without additional editions but if Polish audio can't be removed, it's not worth it.

Ryan McAvoy, I was 8 when my mom took me to see SW IV and V and I fell in love with Yoda instantly so at least I got his gender right. Species not so much... but his ears, oh, his ears!

Ryan McAvoy said:

paszczak said:

I'm a "she" not a "he". Where do I change my gender? In my setting? I may have it as "default" or male.

This is the internet, so everyone is assumed to be male.

 Fixed.

paszczak said:

In addition it's a genuine release bought in a shop, not a casette recorded by a fan.

...

Sorry for my stupid typo, didn't notice it.

The Internet is not known for forgiving so easily. You will have to atone for your transgression, but don't let that stop you from posting here. At the end of the day we're all pretty friendly people. As long as you're perfect or not a filthy foreigner. We don't take kindly to those 'round these parts.

Anyway, back to the actual topic. Is this the guy doing the voiceover?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA8UUca3k0k

Or is it someone else?

paszczak said:

I hope my trilogy is salvageable as it comes without additional editions but if Polish audio can't be removed, it's not worth it.

Quite the contrary: it's worth it because of the wear, tear, low quality and all that. If it's Knapik that audio's already been ripped, but like I said: a full rip would've been very, very cool to have for the historical value and for the nostalgia factor. I watched those tapes as a kid.

RU.08 said:

Danfun128 said:

As far as I know, VHS tapes have only one audio option.

VHS does have two audio tracks, however players will only read one. When the VHS specs were first released, along one edge of the tape was the audio track, the other edge was the control track, and in-between was the video tracks in helical scan (the tracks which represent odd and even fields are pressed against each other with no space between them). Later, Hi-Fi audio was added to the VHS specification, but as I've just described every area of the tape is already used by video, the mono audio track, and the helical-scan video tracks. So in order to add the stereo audio, the hi-fi tracks were added physically underneath the helical-scan video tracks; thus they are non-continuous helical-scan tracks also. Unfortunately there is no way to select the audio, and any Hi-Fi VCR will read the Hi-Fi track (if present) instead of the mono track, however you can play the same tape in a mono VCR that does not have Hi-Fi heads and it should play the mono track and not the Hi-Fi track.

With all that said, there's no guarantee that the OP's VHS tape has Hi-Fi audio if it's a really old release, in which case it will only have one audio track. If her tape does have HJi-Fi then it is possible to capture both tracks separately using two different VCR's.

Holy carp, I did not know that. Thanks!

Darth Id said:

"Voiceover" as opposed to dubbed is a bona fide horror of home video phenomena that I've been perfectly content not knowing about until just now, thank you very much!  Are foreigners so incredibly averse to reading that they'd rather suffer that kind of cacophonous aural abuse?

And by "reading," I guess I mean either subtitles or just reading a book instead of watching a movie because this whole voiceover thing sounds entirely prohibitive!

There are fairly good reasons for it being there. Yes, it's much more convenient for the average Joe and it lowers the bar of entry (so, for one thing, kids who aren't great readers can actually enjoy watching a movie instead of struggling to keep up with it. And you want kids on board, because of that parent dough). It also means you don't have to squint at a tiny TV set from all across the room which wasn't an uncommon situation back in the day, believe me. Plus, it's MUCH cheaper and faster to produce than a full dub.

Not to mention there is an art to voiceover. For one thing, it can't just be any shmuck doing it: it needs to be a certain timbre that'll allow you to screen the voiceover out. Yes, it's possible, largely due to the fact that if you're listening to a voiceover in your native tongue laid on top of an audio track in a language you don't understand well or even at all it's only natural you focus on the former, and not the latter. It helps that people are conditioned after decades of being exposed to it.

Personally, I'm not a proponent of voiceover, but there are certain types of movies that it really works for. If anything, there's a lot of nostalgia to watching a low budget action flick read by Knapik. At the same time, I wouldn't want, say, Bergman brutalised like that.

And since I'm on a bit of a tanget, here's an interesting read about voiceover that I found:

http://www.academia.edu/1882232/Voice-over_or_Voice-in-between_Some_Considerations_about_the_Voice-over_Translation_of_Feature_Films_on_Polish_Television

@paszczak: check your inbox.

paszczak said:

Darth Id, I'm sorry but I don't understand why you're so angry with me and/or my post. ...

 Please read Puggo's response above.

(And please ask Mr. Anchorhead to do the same...)