JeremyM

I have a maybe weird general question. I have the Empire Strikes Back Renegade Grindhouse version on my laptop. Since I don’t have a BD burner or anything, I’ve always watched the Despecialized Editions and any other fan preservations by hooking my laptop to my TV via an HDMI cord. I previously did this with my old MacBook (just recently kaput) and now my ASUS laptop. For the most part I find these look pretty nice, at least for my purposes.

Whenever I watch the Empire Grindhouse on my laptop, I notice the colors sometimes look a little off, in particular the blue text in the end credits look straight-up green (as in, if you had never seen the movie before and didn’t know the text was supposed to be blue, you would assume it was always green from looking at this), and blue “engine” lights on the back of some rebel ships also look pretty green. I actually assumed this was an issue of color fading of the print source. Weirdly, I also have the Return of the Jedi Grindhouse that Harmy made, and the end credits text looks perfectly blue. To my memory, the green text in Empire and blue text in Jedi is what it looked like on my MacBook as well.

However, I just finally hooked up the laptop to my TV and watched some parts of Empire to check out how it looked there, and the text is blue! The other colors seem more accurate to me as well. I do also notice that while the black space background on the end credits looks really solidly black on my laptop, it looks more “exposed” and bright on my TV as well. As far as I know, I’m using pretty standard settings on both devices. I have always noticed that when I watch something from laptop-to-TV the TV seems to display it somewhat brighter, but I’ve never noticed this huge a difference especially with colors looking completely different.

Anyone know the reason for this discrepancy? (Feel free to explain it like I’m a technical idiot.) If I finally get my act together and transfer these to Blu-Rays somehow, how will they look there?

I don’t know if this counts or if it’s too blatant, but the one that I always think of is the big CGI monster walking in front of the landspeeder when the Stormtroopers stop Luke and Obi-Wan to ask about the droids.

Obviously all the CGI cartoon stuff in Mos Eisley is annoying and pointless in general, but whatever, I get the logic behind it. It’s distracting, it doesn’t fit with the original effects, it detours into that long pointless sequence of the landspeeder going into Mos Eisley that doesn’t really add anything. But it doesn’t actively DETRACT from the story. And George always wanted the city to be bigger and more bustling. So I get it.

But WHY would you have the monster walk RIGHT into the foreground of a fairly important scene, that establishes to the viewer what a Jedi’s powers are? You can barely hear some of the dialogue because of that lumbering creature stomping in front of everything and howling. How are you supposed to focus on what is actually happening in the story?

Actually, the louder dewback as they’re walking into the cantina is similar in how annoying and pointless it is. Again, I get the logic of making the original a little more lively and lifelike, but it howls so loudly you can’t hear the main characters!

There are worse changes, but what they at least have going for them is that they don’t actively distract the viewer from the actual focus of the scene (for the most part). I don’t like them, but they’re competent. That kind of thing though makes you wonder if the '97 team really knew what they were doing. I would assume it’s filmmaking 101 that you should keep the viewer’s focus on the main action or story information in any given shot or scene.

Hey guys, long-time reader, first time (I think?) poster. I hope this is the right place for this; since I don't have any "project" of my own, posting in the fan preservations section didn't seem right.

I was wondering if anyone knew where to find the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special as it was aired on WCBS in New York. Most of the versions I find are from broadcasts in other cities. While I know a lot of those versions are superior in terms of video quality, they don't have this ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP4H4jV1Spo

....and I really want to find a version that includes that commercial! (I'm not sure if it was a bumper used in every break, like in the "South Park" spoof, or only in one break.)

Anyone know where/how to find this version? I don't necessarily care if the quality is poor, I just want that version if it's possible to find it. I'm thinking of subjecting some friends to it come holiday season (yes, I think they will still continue to be my friends) and I think that bumper will be especially funny/a good moment to drink if I make it a drinking game.

Sorry for the bump, but hopefully this will be of some help (and I really want to see this get done!)

First off, I just want to note that the "Previously On" segments showed up on the Volume 5 DVD!  I believe they're in widescreen too.  That should help if you're able to rip from them.

Also, on the fan site "Futurama Madhouse," there's a montage of clips from the last couple movies, including some "Previously On" and "To Be Continued" clips.  Look under videos.  I'm not sure if this is good enough quality or in a format you can use, though.

Finally...any progress on this?  Again, I'd love to see it!

Signed,

OCD-completionist Futurama fan