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Info: Theatrical TPM Discussion Thread

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 (Edited)

As far as I know, the sources that exist for TPM are as follows:

-Theatrical VHS

-Theatrical VCD

-Z bootleg

-Japanese Laserdisc

-Official DVD

-Official Blu-ray

-Theatrical deleted scenes from digital releases in HD

-Theatrical DTS CD-ROM

-Theatrical ORF Ein PAL broadcast

-Theatrical ORF Ein HDTV broadcast (supposedly recorded but remains unavailable)

-Various HDTV caps in non-English languages (Spanish, German, French, Russian, Polish, …)

-schorman’s HDTV preservation

-Adywan’s DVD9 reconstruction

Is there anything else that could be used to create a BD ISO for the theatrical cut of The Phantom Menace?

she/her
mwah

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If memory serves, RU-08 was working on a Despecialized-esque theatrical recreation frankensteined from various sources a year or two ago, but I’ve never heard anything about it being completed.

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clutchins said:

As far as I know, the sources that exist for TPM are as follows:

-Japanese Laserdisc

-Official DVD

-schorman’s HDTV preservation

-Official Blu-ray

-Theatrical DTS CD-ROM

Is there anything else that could be used to create a BD ISO for the theatrical cut of The Phantom Menace?

There is also:

  • Z bootleg
  • theatrical VHS
  • theatrical VCD
  • Adywan’s reconstruction
  • theatrical ORF Ein PAL broadcast
  • theatrical ORF Ein HDTV broadcast (was recorded by at least 2 people but not shared nor uploaded)
  • lot of HDTV captures in several languages (Spanish, German, French, Russian, Polish, …)
  • some HD bonuses featuring theatrical scenes not available elsewhere (palpatine’s office, full theatrical podrace)

I’m currently working on a HD theatrical reconstruction, since it seems that previous projects were abandoned. The entire process takes time but is already well advanced and I’ll post news here as soon as possible.

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ZigZig said:

clutchins said:

As far as I know, the sources that exist for TPM are as follows:

-Japanese Laserdisc

-Official DVD

-schorman’s HDTV preservation

-Official Blu-ray

-Theatrical DTS CD-ROM

Is there anything else that could be used to create a BD ISO for the theatrical cut of The Phantom Menace?

There is also:

  • Z bootleg
  • theatrical VHS
  • theatrical VCD
  • Adywan’s reconstruction
  • theatrical ORF Ein PAL broadcast
  • theatrical ORF Ein HDTV broadcast (was recorded by at least 2 people but not shared nor uploaded)
  • lot of HDTV captures in several languages (Spanish, German, French, Russian, Polish, …)
  • some HD bonuses featuring theatrical scenes not available elsewhere (palpatine’s office, full theatrical podrace)

I’m currently working on a HD theatrical reconstruction, since it seems that previous projects were abandoned. The entire process takes time but is already well advanced and I’ll post news here as soon as possible.

Thanks for your efforts. I updated the top post.

she/her
mwah

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There is less than a minute of the film that is not in HD (not including the low quality Qui-gon shot). It is only when Sebulba is introduced to the crowd and when it cuts from the platform after they arrive on Coruscant to the apartment building. Aside from that everything appears to be available in the HDTV preservation of the DVD cut.

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yotsuya said:

There is less than a minute of the film that is not in HD (not including the low quality Qui-gon shot). It is only when Sebulba is introduced to the crowd and when it cuts from the platform after they arrive on Coruscant to the apartment building. Aside from that everything appears to be available in the HDTV preservation of the DVD cut.

Actually, there is more differences than just one missing minute:

  • several SFX were remade for the DVD and the BR (clouds are sharper in the sky, there is a new bridge near Naboo Palace, light reflects were added to windows, Tatooine night shots were lighted and recolorized…) : those changes already are on the HDTV preservation.
  • some human extras were replaced by aliens in the Senat scene
  • color where poorly regraded for the DVD - and the HDTV preservation (with too much red), and totally regraded for the BR
  • Edge Enhancement was overused for the DVD - and the HDTV preservation (with visible halo artifact on several scenes), and Digital Noise Reduction was abusively used for the Blu-Ray
  • changes have been made to the original mix
  • there is about 5 missing frames on the LD, and 5 other missing frames on the DVD - and HDTV preservation
  • not to mention that DVD and HDTV preservation are missing 15% of the image (which was too cropped)…

But hey, HDTV preservation is wonderful, Schorman did a piece of art.

The current HD TPM-reconstruction project I’m working on will fix all those changes between theatrical version and HDTV preservation (totally missing HD scenes are reconstructed with PanUP ™ process + frame by frame enhancement in Photoshop, original theatrical colors are back using MergeChroma() between LD and HD DVD + Vegas Color Matching plug-in, missing frames are added…). I’ll post about it as soon as the entire process is finished (and, hopefully, successful)

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I keep forgetting that senate scene. I was not aware of the bridge and reflections. And how can you tell that the clouds are sharper when we are talking about a much sharper image in the first place. I don’t know of any source to really compare the film clouds to the BR clouds. And shots that have been recolored are easier to fix than uprezing shots that are completely different.

Also, when I compared the theatrical version from the broadcast sources, the LD, HDTV, and BR, I did not come up with that many missing frames. And I’ve gotten very good at finding those.

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About the sharper clouds: every CGI-background was regenerated for the DVD. If you compare the sky of “Naboo by night” between the 480p PAL theatrical broadcast and the 480p DVD, you’ll clearly see that the clouds are not the same anymore. I think that RU08 made the same finding.
BTW, RU08 made an amazing job, his post about TPM is a bible for me!

About the missing frames, I’ll be more precise when I’ll post about the reconstruction.

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If memory serves correctly, I believe the shot of Watto yelling Sebulba is in the Extended scene of the Complete Podrace Grid Sequence . Being as a bonus for the digital collection they had all the dvd and blu ray scenes in H.D, like you mentioned above. You can take that part of Watto’s cheer, and that solves that problem.

All my life as I looked away to the future, to the horizon. Never in my mind did I know where I was, what I was doing.

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ZaneFlare92 said:

If memory serves correctly, I believe the shot of Watto yelling Sebulba is in the Extended scene of the Complete Podrace Grid Sequence .

Your memory serves correctly!
But other scenes remains missing in HD.

What parts remain SD only:

  • arrival on Coruscant: from Palpatine’s office to Anakin talking with Jar Jar (was replaced by another taxi scene on DVD, HDTV and BR)
  • Senate scene : human extras replaced by Aliens on DVD, HDTV and BR
  • Naboo’s palace : one bridge added in HD (on DVD, HDTV and BR)
  • CGI effects re-rendered in HD : windows reflects added, background sharpener (ia clouds in night sky) (on DVD, HDTV, BR)
  • entire HDTV version suffers from Digital Edge Enhancement (halo artifacts), and entire BR version suffers from DNR
  • entire HD version is missing theatrical colors (too much red everywhere in HDTV and DVD, all scenes manually regraded for BR)
  • entire HDTV and DVD versions are missing 15% of the image because too much cropped (ia there is a second moon near Coruscant that is only visible on BR)
  • entire BR version is missing original Yoda puppet
    -… (I probably forget other points)

The main HD lacks are the arrival on Coruscant, human extras in Senate and bridge near Naboo Palace. Other points are less important (but still missing in HD).

I’m actively working on a HD theatrical reconstruction (missing scenes can be achieved by merging NTSC and PAL sources - LD and TV broacasts, as spOrv calls this process “PaNUp” ™ ). It takes time but everything goes well.

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When Sebulba is introduced to the crowd, there is more than one shot that is affected. The clip of Watto yelling his name is in the extended podrace sequence, but the rest of the pices that are missing from that spot are not.

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ZigZig said:

ZaneFlare92 said:

If memory serves correctly, I believe the shot of Watto yelling Sebulba is in the Extended scene of the Complete Podrace Grid Sequence .

Your memory serves correctly!
But other scenes remains missing in HD.

What parts remain SD only:

  • arrival on Coruscant: from Palpatine’s office to Anakin talking with Jar Jar (was replaced by another taxi scene on DVD, HDTV and BR)
  • Senate scene : human extras replaced by Aliens on DVD, HDTV and BR
  • Naboo’s palace : one bridge added in HD (on DVD, HDTV and BR)
  • CGI effects re-rendered in HD : windows reflects added, background sharpener (ia clouds in night sky) (on DVD, HDTV, BR)
  • entire HDTV version suffers from Digital Edge Enhancement (halo artifacts), and entire BR version suffers from DNR
  • entire HD version is missing theatrical colors (too much red everywhere in HDTV and DVD, all scenes manually regraded for BR)
  • entire HDTV and DVD versions are missing 15% of the image because too much cropped (ia there is a second moon near Coruscant that is only visible on BR)
  • entire BR version is missing original Yoda puppet
    -… (I probably forget other points)

The main HD lacks are the arrival on Coruscant, human extras in Senate and bridge near Naboo Palace. Other points are less important (but still missing in HD).

I’m actively working on a HD theatrical reconstruction (missing scenes can be achieved by merging NTSC and PAL sources - LD and TV broacasts, as spOrv calls this process “PaNUp” ™ ). It takes time but everything goes well.

I would like to see where some of these things are. Can you provide the time/frame number for where the extra bridge is and an example of the the rerendered sky and window reflections.

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Everything about the bridge, the clouds and the re-rendered CGI is already discussed on this forum (see RU08’s posts), but I’ll post about it, with frames numbers and screen comparaisons as soon as possible when I’ll finish the reconstruction I’m currently working on!

The entire podrace is available in its theatrical cut (in HD) in the Digital Collection bonuses, this part is not an issue.

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ZigZig, I assume that merging thing you call PaNUp is pretty much more or less rotoscoping? Which if it is, it’s a great thing and it amazes me how people do that with these projects. Harmy’s Making of the DE’s showed he did this same thing. Taking elements from different sources. Assuming this is where you’re getting at ?

All my life as I looked away to the future, to the horizon. Never in my mind did I know where I was, what I was doing.

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ZaneFlare,

Thank you for your message!
Actually, PaNUp ™ is not “more or less rotoscoping”. It basically merges two sources of poor resolution to get a new source with a better resolution.
This topic (written by the creator of the word “PaNUp”, Mister ^…^ aka spOrv, let us render to Caesar what is Caesar’s) explains the purpose of this technique: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/PaNup-or-how-to-upscale-PAL-NTSC-capture-and-live-quite-happy/id/15928

But I’ll also do some rotoscoping to “repair” some scenes (replace aliens by humans in the Senate scene, remove the bridge in the Naboo by night scene) and to reconstruct some scenes (arrival on Coruscant).

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I have the option of scanning the 35mm version of TPM if there is any interest.

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

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poita said:

I have the option of scanning the 35mm version of TPM if there is any interest.

Dear Poita,

I’m deeply interested, and I would be honored to help you in any way (edit: including financial contribution of course) .

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Seconded. I can help with a donation if needed, but probably not until the third or fourth week of October.

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poita said:

I have the option of scanning the 35mm version of TPM if there is any interest.

There is definitely interest. It’s not a good movie, but it’s a Star Wars movie and the original version deserves to be properly preserved

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poita said:

I have the option of scanning the 35mm version of TPM if there is any interest.

Great, I would love to help with this, if needed.

If I had some gum, I’d chew a hole into the sun…