Stiletto

If YouTube is any example, we could really do with a professional "remastering" of this short film written by George Lucas. I've gone through many of the "full versions" and they're filtered through YouTube 3D effects, casually converted back to 2D, fuzzy ride videos, widescreen/full-frame, full-frame cropped to widescreen, etc.

Sources SEEM to be, primarily, a screener of the widescreen film, and a full-frame DVD?

Pity people haven't paid closer attention, for example this 70mm film was selling/sold on eBay back in 2011: http://www.ebay.com/itm/220837270580?orig_cvip=true

There's a little more info in this thread maybe: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Tours-Muppet-vision-3-D-Terminator-3-D-Back-to-the-Future-The-Ride-Captain-EO-etc/topic/3438/

this isn’t an actual project (yet?) but I thought you guys might like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du-eYiD9OfM

Okay, I deserved that. *takes lumps*

That's the one, thanks.

It can be hard finding things on here, even with Google, even when you know what you're looking for.

I remember seeing a comment or thread discussing the fact that the 2006 GOUT DVDs are now out of print, a while back. Can someone please point me in the right direction? I seem to remember it included a link to a DVD blog or something.

[EDIT] For what it’s worth, not my project.

Seems it was online for a bit earlier this week, then vanished. A quick forum search with Google did not find mention of it.

Was:
http://vimeo.com/94473916 (Dead)

Runtime: 167:36 (2h 47m)

Uploader: “Double Digit”
 

A reimagining of the Star Wars prequel trilogy edited into a single compelling movie, based on the structure Topher Grace is all I can see of the description.

But other news sources say that it’s based on the structure of the Topher Grace 87-minute edit.

Starts with the Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon/Maul fight from Episode 1, otherwise uses only about 8 minutes from Episode 1, and about 40 minutes from Episode 2.
 

Screengrabs:

http://someimage.com/9gOg
 

Some coverage:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=815953
http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/254wsq/someone_edited_star_wars_episodes_iiii_into_one/
https://www.google.com/search?num=100&safe=off&q=%22Star+wars%3A+Turn+To+The+Dark+Side%22

USENET is always appreciated. These days, hard to find a free provider, most ISPs are dropping it. But still, always appreciated. ;)

Sweet.

Thanks for all you've done so far Harmy!  

PS. RiffTrax would be a great alternate audio stream on the BD version you're working on. ;)

Harmy's DVD-5 images seem to be getting scarce (checked MySpl and TehP quickly), although I may be looking in the wrong spots, so I authored my own MPEG2 DVD-9's using the AVCHDs and the 14-day trial of TMPGENc Authoring Works 4 (which has limits as to what it can do versus the full version). Settings were mostly stock: no menu, 7500kb/s target bitrate, 8000kb/s max bitrate, 100% picture quality, highest motion search precision.

Anyhow, dunno how the MPEG2 DVD-9's will look, but the reason I did all this is because I'm headed over to a friend's house in a few days who has an outdated home setup (a 36" 4:3 CRT TV, DVD player, Xbox360 and 2.1 stereo speakers) so we can't play the AVCHD's: we'll have to make do.

Full disclosure: My home setup's a LG BD-530 into a HDFury3 into the RGB input on a Pioneer Elite Pro-510HD (1080i rear-projection CRT TV) and an older Pioneer VSX-52TX with 5.1 surround so it's not like I'm in any great shape either...)

I left the audio track as 5.1, hopefully it plays on the stereo speakers okay. Usually 5.1 mixes are forgiving of that, but I know nothing of this homebrew mix. I suppose I could demux the AVCHD's and use the stereo track...

It's possible the XBox360 could handle a higher-res transcode to a format it supports like MP4 or something, but we'd still be dealing with the outdated 4:3 TV set, and I don't believe he has Media Center streaming set up from his PC yet either.

If anyone has any suggestions as to how to optimize the viewing experience on my friend's setup (including additional tweaks to my DVD authoring settings or by using some other utility), I'm all ears. I'm also not all that familiar with the additional options having an XBox360 throws into the mix.

Brief review: I've already watched the AVCHD's on my LG BD-530 Blu-Ray player, they looked fantastic. I missed ANH's crawl line-by-line "twinkling" in the distance with the redone crawl, other than that - awesome. I had one dropout of signal during the ESB Luke-crashing-on-Degobah scene but that could just be because I haven't updated the firmware on my player ever. Also, restarting ESB and seeking to about the same spot resulted in no issue, so IDK...

Looking forward to seeing the next MKV/AVCHDs, the screenshot comparisons are looking phenomenal. Also: is the secret screengrab source Harmy is using from the rumored "Technicolor IB" print, or something else?

Thanks!

If you wait a few months Harmy will have a greatly improved SW that's likely to become my favorite.

Got a link to his WIP thread?

It look's like dark_jedi's edit is one I should keep an eye on too, although it's not ready yet.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Original-Trilogy-Theatrical-Editions-Info-ALL-versions-SEE-FIRST-POST-FOR-INFO-AND-AVAILABILITY/topic/10550/

Are there any other projects I should probably follow? Also, is anyone working from the Blu-Rays yet?

(thanks mods for moving this to the appropriate forum)

Okay, sounds good to me! :)

Hey guys, newbie here.

So I occasionally meet new friends or start new relationships only to hear “I’ve never seen the Star Wars movies, but I’d like to…”

So the thought that goes through my mind (as a long-time purist) is: NOT the Special Edition… let’s have them watch it as I did back in the day, but with the modern “improvements” in resolution and surround-sound.

However, I used to own the VHS pre-Special Editions, and I know what the quality is like, and sorry to say, I don’t have a soft spot for grainy videotapes. Despite all the changes, I do love the quality of the new Blu-Rays…

So I guess what I’m asking is: are there any preservation projects or fan edits that are merely the highest-quality remasterings, but with all the Special Edition animated scenes cut out, to how the films were in 1981 or so? I wouldn’t mind the occasional jarring drop of quality if it meant no Young Anakin at the end of ROTJ, that sort of thing.

I don’t mind the anamorphic picture, surround-sound mixes and color edits that they’ve done, and the clear fixes in editing, continuity errors, re-compositing… it’s just the ADDED content that… well… that argument is left better for another subforum.

I’ve viewed Adywan’s, and artistically I like what he did, but it’s too much extra stuff still.

Looking through the wiki, the “de-specialed” editions sound interesting, such as “Return of the Jedi: Partially Despecialed Edition HD” and such.

Can anyone make any recommendations about things that are out now, and also projects to keep an eye on? I’d hope there’s people hard at work at “de-specialing” the BluRays and HD broadcasts…

My preferred quality would be 1080p, with Dolby Digital or DTS surround. However, if that doesn’t exist, I can do DVD in a pinch, I just don’t prefer it anymore. I’d likely be playing through an HTPC box or media streamer, but I can also burn to DVD or maybe even Blu-Ray if necessary.