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THX on 35mm Tech IB preservation - HELP NEEDED (work in progress) — Page 15

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Nope. It definitely looked like a vintage race car. The back end was almost exactly like THX’s sweet ride. Hopefully I’ll see it again.

Interestingly enough, I wasn’t too far from the spot where I once saw two of the 2015 cars from BTTF II sitting on a flatbed truck parked on the side of the road. This was back in the 90’s though, and not a cell phone camera in sight!

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Where were you in '77?

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 (Edited)

Well, then, it could’ve been the real thing!

Classic Driver - The police drove Lola T70s in George Lucas’s directorial debut

Given the values of Lola T70s today, you could be forgiven for writing off the two cars that appear in Lucas’s 1971 dystopian cult classic THX 1138 as glassfibre replicas, particularly as kitcar company FiberFab was listed in the credits. But at least one is known to be a genuine T70: chassis SL73/117. First sold as a road car in 1967, …

Hemmings Daily - Ask a Hemmings Editor: Were the Lola T70s in THX-1138 real or fake?

… THX-1138 was filmed in 1969 and released in 1971. Lola built the T70 from 1965 to about 1969. Thus the T70s were still relatively new, though recently made obsolete in sports car racing by the appearance of the dominating Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512.

… old race cars – especially ones that were considered no longer competitive – weren’t valued then the way they are now; … This all made the time Lucas was filming “THX-1138” the perfect time to snap up a couple Lola T70s for cheap from race teams looking to make room for more competitive cars.

Maybe you can pick up a couple, too? Hold one for me. 😃

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Was wondering if it was still possible to contribute in some way to this project?

Someone let me know, I’d be happy to help in whatever way I can!

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WildngPower8 said:

Was wondering if it was still possible to contribute in some way to this project?

Someone let me know, I’d be happy to help in whatever way I can!

You can definitely contact Poita for this, I know he’s still facing plenty of expenses to work on this project. Drop him a message (or contact me if you prefer. Same thing). Cheers

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I found this version of mspleen:

Thanks to AMPS, poita, and AntcuFaalb for the wonderful release of the THX-1138 1971 theatrical 16mm scan.

This is a 720p reconstruction of the color film based on that scan of the, as far as we know, original version of the film. It is synced essentially frame by frame to the scan, with minor accommodations made once or twice.

This reconstruction (which is not despecialized, but unspecalized as to not mislead people into expecting Harmy level quality here) contains the 16mm audio track. Video is sourced from the Blu-ray and from csd79’s wonderful cleanup of the LD. With some pestering for advice from DrDre on the OT forums, I’ve used the Infognition SR plugin to upscale the LD to 720p. It looks decent at times, but there are a few shots that still stand out quite a bit. The upgrade is no where near what his SW script does. The Blu-ray color timing has been adjusted in different ways to try to better mesh sources as it is strongly tinted blue at times. Thanks to age, who produced LUTs for adjusting the Star Wars Blu-ray color timing. In some dark and blue scenes from this film, they work as well.

Container: mp4
Video: 720p H264 (Blu-ray / LD / 16mm)
Audio: AAC (16mm)

Runtime: 1:26:05

So basically this is the 1971 “studio” version. Now I also found on myspleen laserdisc rips, this is the 1978 “Lucas” version.

But is there a version that basically does the exact same thing as that 1971 restoration but restores the 1978 version as opposed to the 1971 release?

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Any updates on this? Does it need additional funding of any sort?

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You can give poita donations any time through his paypal.me link, I’m sure he’d appreciate it he always has ongoing costs related to this stuff!

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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Poita is currently working on it, we are all patiently waiting on updates from him.

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Does anyone have a higher bitrate version of this release?

I don’t mind the 720p resolution, but this encode really suffers from macro-blocking during dark scenes and scenes with a lot of motion.

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pleasehello said:

Does anyone have a higher bitrate version of this release?

I don’t mind the 720p resolution, but this encode really suffers from macro-blocking during dark scenes and scenes with a lot of motion.

Do you mean the Hybrid Edition? AFAIK, this 35mm Tech IB preservation hasn’t been released yet; with the exception of a grind-house version, and the aforementioned hybrid.

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THX is going to be on Turner Classic Movies on Oct. 26th at 9:15pm PST. Probably the buggered version again, but maybe someone could DVR it just in case?

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Where were you in '77?

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I’ll be back on this once I get some scanning out of the way, my apologies everyone for the delays.

Donations welcome: paypal.me/poit
bitcoin:13QDjXjt7w7BFiQc4Q7wpRGPtYKYchnm8x
Help get The Original Trilogy preserved!

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poita said:

I’ll be back on this once I get some scanning out of the way, my apologies everyone for the delays.

You don’t need to apologize to anyone for delays.

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SilverWook said:

THX is going to be on Turner Classic Movies on Oct. 26th at 9:15pm PST. Probably the buggered version again, but maybe someone could DVR it just in case?

Good idea, but you are probably right about which version will be aired. I think there was only one time THX was aired in HD or on an HD channel, the original version, and that was back in ~2000-02. I think it was Showtime?

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The optimist in me recalls how sometimes TMC inexplicably airs a pan and scan version of Close Encounters once in a while, or the 1.85 version of Brigadoon, which Warner’s is too cheap to include on the Blu Ray it seems.

Maddening to think an untouched HD version of THX possibly sits on tape shelf somewhere.

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

The optimist in me recalls how sometimes TMC inexplicably airs a pan and scan version of Close Encounters once in a while, or the 1.85 version of Brigadoon, which Warner’s is too cheap to include on the Blu Ray it seems.

Maddening to think an untouched HD version of THX possibly sits on tape shelf somewhere.

Yeah, it’s crazy because I specifically remember checking out archival showtimes of channels back then and seeing THX listed. I figured they’d air it again so I could cap it; I literally wore out my VHS copy.

Here’s the frustrating thing, I know THX was released on DVD before the director’s cut as there are records showing various releases. But I’ve never been able to confirm these exist.

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In the U.S. or overseas? We know a Video CD exists.

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

In the U.S. or overseas? We know a Video CD exists.

From what I understand “Beyond Vision/Cult Classics” released a VHS version of THX and then a DVD (possibly overseas), based on Worldcat database and a few other sources. Additionally, there is a 1998 Warner Home Video Spain, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, DVD.

Again, I’ve read various databases which list THX as having been released on DVD before the bastardized special edition. Some of these sources incorrectly list the special edition as the original, which is easy to take off the list. But it doesn’t explain these other anomalies. However, I would take these sources with a grain of salt because I’ve never seen any DVD for sale, no pictures, etc. The only thing I’ve ever come across was an Asian VCD.

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A reminder that THX is going to be on Turner Classic Movies this Thursday night at 9:15pm PST.
If somebody can DVR it, I’d be most grateful. The fact they ran the post Star Wars reissue trailer to promote it tonight makes me think something might be up!

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

A reminder that THX is going to be on Turner Classic Movies this Thursday night at 9:15pm PST.
If somebody can DVR it, I’d be most grateful. The fact they ran the post Star Wars reissue trailer to promote it tonight makes me think something might be up!

I’m watching it right now and, as expected, it’s the 2004 version.