J0E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyQn2ic2Wzw

(For the -3 people in off topic and -487 people here who care about this sort of music)
I’ve been on a massive underground Glam kick lately. I found the self titled Crimson Glory tape and it absolutely kills. Tons of memorable tracks. Queen of the Masquerade, Valhalla, Azrael and Dream Dancer are some definite standouts. There’s a coupe of filler tracks but this record is fantastic. The production is fantastic but a bit too Caucasian for this kind of music. In other words it sounds a little thin without as much bottom end as it should have. These guys are dead nuts tight musicians and the songs are extremely well written. HIGHLY recommended.

Darth Lucas said:

J0E said:

Also sorry Darth Lucas, I know this is massively off topic.

No worries at all. Imo that was a very well thought out and well-written explanation of the viewpoint the vast majority of us share on this site.

Thanks my guy.

Chase Adams said:

The very thought that too much unwanted attention towards originaltrilogy.com by Lucasfilm/Disney would lead to legal action is absolutely terrifying. I can’t imagine what I would do if I found this site suddenly taken down.

Disney knows about everything going on here by now. There’s an interview with J.J. Abrams referring to the Despecialized Editions by name. They have no reason to go after anyone here. If J.J. is to be believed, they have zero plans to release the original versions of any of the films anytime soon. Besides, all they’d have to do to completely stomp out the entire fan restoration part of this site is release the original versions. That would do more than legal action ever could and they know that.

We’re like a pressure valve for them. If the fan restorations didn’t exist, we’d be as militant as we were during the early 2000s. It would be a massive PR disaster. Disney isn’t tone-deaf enough to pull a PS3 era Sony on us. If they were, they would have done it by now. I wouldn’t worry too much.

V.I.N.Cent said:

Where are all the 1997 Special Edition fans? 😉
 

They would be quite useful in voicing their opinion that this version should be preserved and released on a modern format!

Which is quite easy and cheap to do… with Disney+ being a free and viable platform to showcase these particular versions - upon which the 2019 Special Edition release is based on - in 4K quality.

So, basically there is a beautiful 4K print of the 1997 Special Edition available, with no additional work to do, ready for release…
 

And then, if there is then enough demand for a physical release of the 1997 Special Editions…
 

Those 20th Anniversary versions of the Original Trilogy are “the Final Cut” after all, according to George himself 😉

The version of the films he released in the cinemas in 1997 with much publicity & fanfare - and also made hundreds of millions of $$$s from around the world from in cinema ticket sales alone…

For some fans, the 1997 Special Editions are both memorable and exceptional in their own right, and they certainly performed very well at the box office outperforming some very notable movies:-

20 Years Ago, ‘Star Wars: Special Edition’ Made ‘Star Wars’ Special Again - a 2017 article at the Forbes website.
 

George spent a lot of time and effort justifying the changes he made at the time, and since, yet never made this ‘Final Cut’ version available on a digital or HD format since.

It is high time to change that… and also officially release the 1997 special Editions in 4K quality!

 

(Plus, a few preservatioinsits on here wouldn’t mind getting their hands on 4K quality 1997 Special Edition release - to use as a base for an unaltered theatrical version of the Original Trilogy movies…)
 

If someone wants to make a “Respecialized Edition” 2.0 they could use the '19 cut as a high quality source for the Y-Wings disappearing too early in the one shot of the Death Star attack. So that’s a plus. And we have the proper “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” for that version.

MASTER260 said:

ChainsawAsh said:

Whether it’s the same from a legal standpoint or not, it’s not the same ethically at all.

Plus there’s the fact that it’s explicitly against the rules of this website, so I’m not sure what argument you think you’re trying to make here.

How is it not the same ethically? You’re stealing from Lucasfilm either way.

This is an argument I’ll never understand. When it comes to media that’s been out of print for 10-20 years, how exactly is that stealing from the copyright holder? I feel exactly the same about Nintendo. I’m not stealing from you if you don’t give me the option to buy a product. Nintendo doesn’t even provide all their first party IPs using their retro services. A lot of games they never gave people the option to play because they were never released in PAL/NTSC regions and never translated. A lot of games that were translated and released had core aspects of gameplay and the story altered to “better suit” and American/Euro audience by boardroom executives. So it’s not even the authors original vision. Lucasfilm doesn’t provide the original versions of the Star Wars movies. Even Clones and The Phantom Menace. Give me the option to buy your product and I will.

Copyright law in America was originally supposed to work like patent law. The inventor of an invention/innovation gets exclusive rights to profit from the fruits of their labor for a limited time until that invention/innovation is given to everyone for the betterment of mankind. Copyright law has been perverted by multi-national, multi-billion dollar media conglomerates lobbying the government for seemingly indefinite extensions. All under the false pretense that it “protects the artist”.

It “protects artists” by suppressing other artists inspired by the original work who would want to say sample that original work, or re-edit it to create something new entirely using the legal system. We’ve even seen fan editors/fan restorers on THIS website be so influenced to create after completing their projects that they move onto working in the film industry.

We’re at a point now where practically nothing is in the public domain, if nothing is in the public domain everything is. It makes people who would otherwise respect ethical boundaries to wait for something to be in public domain/OOP not care and create derivative works no matter how new a property is because the legal repercussions are exactly the same. It also stagnates culture. Instead of creating something new, companies will continuously milk the same franchise for decades.

Sorry mods if this is too political, I’m not opposed to removing this if you feel it necessary. Also sorry Darth Lucas, I know this is massively off topic.

JEDIT:
MASTER 260, I don’t mean to come off as hostile by throwing a wall of text at you. After re-reading my post I feel like I blew up over one offhand comment. Sorry my dude.

I know a guy who went to a peer to peer file sharing site once or twice.

44rh1n said:

J0E said:

pat man said:

J0E said:

I WAS thinking about buying the individual 4k releases of the Original Trilogy just to check out the “new” transfer. From everything I can gather, these don’t have Dolby Vision. Isn’t Dolby Vision the standard for true HDR color/contrast interpretation on 4k OLED displays? We get the higher resolution but we don’t get the true HDR color range with these discs?

Send help.

Disney Hasn’t released/ re-release tiles with Dolby Vision on Disc for a while. They do have standard HDR10. The only way to get DV is either stream their titles or Download them using the Included Digital code or D+.

Well that’s disappointing.

Yeah, I believe the last Dolby Vision physical release from Disney was The Last Jedi. However, the new 2019 disc of The Last Jedi doesn’t have Dolby Vision anymore… It’s only on the original release. Pretty lame. I wish they’d bring back Dolby Vision to their physical releases.

But at the same time, I’m at least glad Disney’s a huge deliverer of Dolby Vision on Disney+. That makes me happy.

Oh okay. I’ll pick them up then. I have a decent OLED display so that’s no biggie. The Covid bucks covered that. Financial irresponsibility amirite my dude? Sorry about my ignorance, I’m just dipping my toe into 4k.

The digital/streaming versions of DV don’t matter much to me because of the compression. The benefits of DV would be bottle-necked by the lower bitrate of streaming. I’m sure it helps bring them closer to the quality of a physical release. Yo thanks.

heavyR said:

Michael Ward said:

How do you get an “Invitation code” to register in the forums with?

I have similarly been looking for one in order to grab the DNR/Non-DNR versions of 4k77 and 4k83 in 1080p specifically. This is my first post, so sorry if I’m jumping the gun here.

Also, not a related question, but I’m curious if anyone can confirm the following two questions?

• Are there DNR/Non-DNR versions of 4k83?
• From what I can tell, 4k80 is still in process. If I’m wrong and a version exists, someone please let me know.

There are DNR and non-DNR versions of 4k83.
And 4k80 is still in process. It’s been about a year or two and they’re almost 50% complete with the movie. A generous release estimate would be another year.

As far as getting an “Invitation code” to register to forums, I have no idea what your talking about. I used alternate methods to get my copy of you catch my drift. So I can’t be any help there, sorry.

I almost forgot, as far as 4k83 goes (and I assume 4k77? I don’t remember) version numbers don’t really matter. All the version numbers mean is what level of DNR the film has, not a particular iteration of the project like the version numbers between the Despecialized Edition.

4k83:
Version 1.2.0 is heavy DNR 1080p
Version 1.2.2 is heavy DNR 4k
Version 1.3 is light DNR but there’s two versions. One in 4k and one in 1080p.
Version 1.1 is medium DNR. One 4k and one 1080p. So two versions of that as well.
I believe version 1.0 is no DNR and one is 1080p the other 4k.

There’s other versions floating around too of various individuals color corrections and levels of degraining but these are the main ones. I don’t remember offhand which versions of 4k77 are what. I’ll be back with an update but for now it’s sleepy time.

TL;DR: Finding the version you actually want is a confusing mess. May the Force be with you.

pat man said:

J0E said:

I WAS thinking about buying the individual 4k releases of the Original Trilogy just to check out the “new” transfer. From everything I can gather, these don’t have Dolby Vision. Isn’t Dolby Vision the standard for true HDR color/contrast interpretation on 4k OLED displays? We get the higher resolution but we don’t get the true HDR color range with these discs?

Send help.

Disney Hasn’t released/ re-release tiles with Dolby Vision on Disc for a while. They do have standard HDR10. The only way to get DV is either stream their titles or Download them using the Included Digital code or D+.

Well that’s disappointing.

I WAS thinking about buying the individual 4k releases of the Original Trilogy just to check out the “new” transfer. From everything I can gather, these don’t have Dolby Vision. Isn’t Dolby Vision the standard for true HDR color/contrast interpretation on 4k OLED displays? We get the higher resolution but we don’t get the true HDR color range with these discs?

Send help.

DrDre said:

Here’s an update for those shots:

I think that’s a more natural look to the flesh tones. The ones in the previous screenshots you posted looked a hair muted as act on instinct pointed out.

All aboard the DEED 3.0 hype train. Phenomenal work boys. I’m really looking forward to it.

Swordless Link said:

anakinthechosenone said:

Any update on this project? Super curious!

Seconded. I donated to this one quite a bit and it’s easily the project I’m most eager to see completed due to us not yet having a non-cam version of theatrical Episode II.

Would love to hear how it’s going.

Well we kind of do, from everything I’ve been able to gather the digital theatrical version is 100% identical to the DVD/HDTV captures. The problem with that is that it was actually the least common version you’d see in theaters in 2002.

The most common versions were the IMAX cut and the 35mm theatrical cut. The only differences between the digital theatrical version and the 35mm theatrical version is a voice line when Padme falls out of the gunship, some removed speeders in the chase at the beginning, “To be angry is to be human” wasn’t in the 35mm version and Anakin’s robot hand didn’t hold Padme’s hand during their wedding.

With that being said I’d still love to see a proper 35mm scan of this film for those very minor changes alone in a relatively high quality. Unfortunately there isn’t much interest in preserving the worst Star Wars movie right now. I’m sure it’ll happen someday.

ShiftyEyes said:

I like the 4K77 and 4K83 versions. There’s a purity to the presentation there. It feels tactile and welcoming. And I think Sanjuro’s colors look real nice. Shoot, I even enjoy the heck out of the ESB Grindhouse despite all the noise and damage. The Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays often look far too managed and manipulated - and not particularly well. Harmy’s and the D+ versions are very impressive. But they’re built on those Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays so their flaws are often baked in, and with all the tricks used to “despecialize” them, it can feel like I’m watching a magic trick. I keep wondering how they pulled it off. I’ve been largely watching 4K content for a few years now, so Harmy’s in 720p doesn’t really cut it. I’m happy he’s working on a 4K version, but the D+ versions basically serve the same purpose. And if I want to watch the real original versions, I can just watch 4K77, 4K83 and hopefully 4K80 soon.

Have you seen the cleanup of the grindhouse version of ESB? Now that looks fantastic. It’s been my preferred version since before 4k77/83. I believe it was done by Dremaster if I remember right.

DB2 said:

I can only find 4K77 1.4 (no DNR) as 1080p. Am I missing much not having 2160? Is the downscaling to 1080p creating video noise? It looks great.

No 1080p looks great. Unless you have a 2160p TV or Monitor you won’t see much discernible difference.

benduwan said:

I managed to find that 1997 1 of 40,000 set sealed a few years back at a thrift store. I opened it like an idiot thinking it was re-sealed at some point because of how gross the shrink wrap was. To my horror I come across each individual tape sealed in the box. Big yikes my guy. The omega yikes came when I decided “screw it” and opened them and watched them. RIP. I baby it more than my 1992 Letterbox Collection though because man is it pristine.

Also nice collection. It puts mine to shame.

Man this series, a sad glimpse into what the prequels would look like if they were well made. Honestly just watch the theatrical version of The Phantom Menace, this and the extended cut Revenge of the Sith edit. Forgive me, I don’t remember offhand who made it. It doesn’t fix Grevious’ character nor does it help the horrible tonal inconsistency of the film, but it makes it a MUCH better watch with this cartoon. Highly recommended and criminally under-rated.

idir_hh said:

JJ’s complete blackout silence on the film is quite odd, I wonder what he feels about releasing an extended cut of the film. I hope it’s a question that get’s asked in future interviews and fan interactions.

The movie would 100% benefit from an extra hour. My biggest problem (setting aside everything about how it doesn’t follow through on the previous movie) is the pacing and how nothing really has time to breath.

crissrudd4554 said:

KISS are on their supposed tour with two imposters. Still not going. If this is the final SW video release, that’s nice or sad or whatever. However if you want my money you have to include the OUT.

Oh dude you hit the nail on the head. At least in the 80’s when Kiss got new members, they gave them new makeup/took it off. At least in '97 they were called the Special Editions and at the time it looked like the old versions would be temporarily out of print until the next major format to drive demand.

Then we reached a point where this is how it’s always been. Eric Singer has always been Peter Criss. Tommy Thayer has always been Ace Frehley.

We had the Reunion album Psycho Circus (which is analogous to the GOUT disc), but all the material was written by Paul and Gene. The material Ace and Peter wrote was all thrown out, and Paul and Gene let them play on one song to placate them.

Then you had the Farewell tour, that was immediately followed up by a World Tour. Then Ace and Peter got upset justifiably so and left again. Kiss has been touring posing Eric and Tommy as Ace and Peter ever since.

It feels doubly scummy as far as Eric Singer goes, because he was brought in on the Revenge album to play the material that was already written by Eric Carr. That whole album was a tribute to Eric Carr and it makes me feel dirty every time I listen to it because it has Eric Singer on it. And he’s a Peter imposter (Yes I wrote all that for that innuendo).

I finally got around to burning up a copy, EXCELLENT work my dude. Man, it felt like I traveled back in time. It’s so nice having a watchable copy of Jedi '97. This is way better than the LD transfers I’ve had to watch for YEARS.

theprequelsrule said:

J0E said:

liamnotneeson said:

Mocata said:

Morgan the Boost said:
Like jazz.

A bunch of musicians soloing at the same time?

Jazz: A Star Wars Story

It’s like poetry. It’s so that they rhyme.

What rhymes with creatively bankrupt?

The Rise Of Skywalker.
ZING!
Jedit: If I’m honest, it’s a lot better with a second viewing.

Mocata said:

Chewielewis said:

Ronster said:
If you take the spliced in shots of R2-D2 on death star whilst playing chess on the millennium falcon. If I was right that those stop motion chess pieces time exactly with the spliced in shots of R2-D2 then we can confirm Special effects not completed and R2-D2 was spliced in to cover the unfinished sequence although it was shot just not finished. If you were going to do a Special Edition why on earth would you not restore those special effects shots restoring how the film was planned and “meant to be”

These aren’t unfinished effects. They probably just forgot to do closeups of R2 in the falcon. Whoever thought of using the Death Star footage for that scene was a genius, you’d never know if someone hadnt pointed it out to you.

The editors were legit geniuses.

This^
At this point I’m inclined to believe that Star Wars was a s**t-show saved in editing. Especially given how the prequels are… the prequels, how Jedi is paced (I say this because it’s the OT movie Lucas had the most control over) and how the Special Edition and '04/'11/'19 revisions are edited. I think Lucas needs to be kept as far away from the editing process as possible. Thank the 9 he didn’t have control over then new films.
(Sorry mods for getting off topic.)

liamnotneeson said:

Mocata said:

Morgan the Boost said:
Like jazz.

A bunch of musicians soloing at the same time?

Jazz: A Star Wars Story

It’s like poetry. It’s so that they rhyme.

So uh, airline food. What’s UP with that stuff?

DuracellEnergizer said:

J0E said:

CatBus said:

Mike O said:

I don’t mean to be crude, but it sounds like good, bad, or indifferent, we won’t get them while Lucas is still alive.

So the date Star Wars fans are waiting for is the copyright expiration date – when someone other than Disney can release the films as they ought to be. If I thought there was any chance at all this would happen in my lifetime, I’d never have become involved in Star Wars preservation.

I’d bet money humanity will be extinct before Disney lets a single copyright they own expire. They have the money and the power to lobby congress for extensions indefinitely.
inhales deeply
Smell that? That’s the system hard at work my brother.

All the more reason for revolution.

I can unironically get down with an anti-capitalist revolution in the name of Star Wars.