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4K restoration on Star Wars — Page 267

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DuracellEnergizer said:

NeverarGreat said:

Where other movies have reboots, Star Wars should have evolutions.

And the originals of course.

I’d rather Star Wars be blown up and an abstract mural made from the debris. 😛

Just to be clear, you’re saying that this is not what has actually happened?

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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I don’t know if someone has mentioned this previously (my apologies if it has), but if LFL released the OT Special Edition it won’t likely be a true 4k format. The CGI effects were no doubt rendered at 2K, so even if you upscale them to 4K - the quality of the video will be equal to that of 2K (half of the prequels were shot at 2K) and you could end up with a 4K/2K hybrid. It shouldn’t be impossible to overcome this - but it certainly wouldn’t be a simple process. From a financial point of view it would make practical sense to do the Theatrical Editions of of the OT - even there, I expect it’d be still be somewhat an involved process. It really comes down to how far they’re willing to go and for what price.

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I’m fairly sure a 4K release of the OT (or at the very least a 4K version of the first film which apparently was already completely in 2012 but we’ve yet to see what it will be used for) shouldn’t be an issue. The Prequels is another story. IIRC AOTC and ROTS were filmed and completed at 2K so yes those films would need upscaling.

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Ashdogg said:

I don’t know if someone has mentioned this previously (my apologies if it has), but if LFL released the OT Special Edition it won’t likely be a true 4k format. The CGI effects were no doubt rendered at 2K, so even if you upscale them to 4K - the quality of the video will be equal to that of 2K (half of the prequels were shot at 2K) and you could end up with a 4K/2K hybrid. It shouldn’t be impossible to overcome this - but it certainly wouldn’t be a simple process. From a financial point of view it would make practical sense to do the Theatrical Editions of of the OT - even there, I expect it’d be still be somewhat an involved process. It really comes down to how far they’re willing to go and for what price.

New movies being made today are only just starting to have their vfx rendered in 4k. Many films that were finished in 4k still had their effects shots rendered in 2k. Like I was saying a page or two back, if the final rendered 2k frames from ‘96 / early ‘97 still exist in their pure digital form somewhere and are still readable (as they still were for TPM in 2011) then they would at least look better than scanning the filmed-out negative back in.

But even if they had to resort to scanning it back in (and as I said in my post I’m pretty sure that’s what they did for the 2004 transfer), that’s only a small percentage of the SE. The rest is still 35mm negative straight from the camera and would benefit in every way from a 4k scan.

crissrudd4554 said:

I’m fairly sure a 4K release of the OT (or at the very least a 4K version of the first film which apparently was already completely in 2012 but we’ve yet to see what it will be used for) shouldn’t be an issue. The Prequels is another story. IIRC AOTC and ROTS were filmed and completed at 2K so yes those films would need upscaling.

A significant percentage of movies released on 4k UHD were only finished in 2k. As long as they don’t botch the upscaling, the prequels should look just fine.

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DrDre said:

Apparently Disney themselves have confirmed 4K restorations exist for the SE versions of the OT at an event, which were completed in 2011/2012 probably under Lucas’ supervision:

http://www.furiousfanboys.com/the-entire-star-wars-trilogy-exists-in-4k/

It seems likely these restorations will be released in the forseeable future.

I would be conflicted if they released the special editions in 4K.

I swore I’d never again purchase the special editions after buying the first blu ray set, and I am extremely happy with my Harmy discs, but I’m not sure I would be able to resist. I suppose I am part of the problem.

Is it correct that it would be impossible to release AotC and RotS in 4K? So any new 4K releases would involve the Original Trilogy, Rogue One, The Force Awakens, and The Phantom Menace. Solo and TLJ are already in 4K.

It would be my hope that they would at least release the Original Trilogy in some sort of Blade Runner style set that included multiple version, but after all these years it’s starting to feel hopeless.

It would be interesting if the SEs did show up on shelves in 4K. I’m not sure what I’d do.

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I’ll get ‘em. The “voting with your wallet” angle seems kind of moot with 4k77 in circulation; I’ve got two of the movies in near enough perfect quality (with the last one on the way) that I don’t much care anymore if they’re released officially. And I’m a lot more agnostic about the various cuts than most here anyway; I grew up on the SE and find myself revisiting it every fifth or sixth watch or so. As long as these discs don’t have the awful color issues that the blu-ray did, i’m sure I’ll get some use out of them.

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That is an article of literally zero substance. “They talked about Lowry restoring Mickey, so we presume that 4K versions of the SE exist.” Whatever.

It’s highly unlikely that 4K scans of Star Wars do not exist. And the existence of a Lowry scan of the SE says nothing about other restoration efforts that may or may not have happened.

Move along.

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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What is the latest reasoning on why they haven’t been released already? Waiting on the purchase of Fox to be finalized? Waiting until after IX?

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rodneyfaile said:

What is the latest reasoning on why they haven’t been released already? Waiting on the purchase of Fox to be finalized? Waiting until after IX?

There’s never really been a reason; they’ve never claimed that they will or will not release a 4K version of the trilogy. Lucasfilm under Kathleen Kennedy don’t seem to be very interested in new releases of older films, she has said that they are all about the future.

in perpetuity in perpetuity in perpetuity in perpetuity in perpetuity in perpetuity in perpetuity

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Valheru_84 said:

Han Solo IRL said:
…she has said that they are all about the future.

And killing the past according to TLJ.

Not only a painfully thickheaded interpretation of the film, but completely off topic and irrelevant.

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I didn’t say it and the OT is in the past so quite relevant in my opinion.

Lay off the insults.

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Keep the TLJ stuff to TLJ and relevant threads please good people - thank you.
 

rodneyfaile said:

What is the latest reasoning on why they haven’t been released already? Waiting on the purchase of Fox to be finalized? Waiting until after IX?

My feeling is after IX - a future ‘Complete Saga’ box set release will likely sell quite well to the masses - sometime after they’ve cashed in on the regular blu ray / dvd / digital releases for IX, of course 😉

(Especially in 4K - or offering something different as a selling point than that of previous box set releases)
 

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

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I agree with you oojason, I see that as very likely.

I know for some time Lucas acted like theatrical reels of the the old films didn’t exist, and now that we have things like the 4K projects is a pretty big comfort. Because of that, what I’m most curious about now is a possible upscaling process for AOTC and ROTS. It would be a bit of a shame if those movies couldn’t stand up to the quality of the rest of the films.

How exactly would that work? Would it be necessary to redo any vfx?

Are there any examples of 2K films that have been upscaled to 4K? And if there are, how do they look?

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rodneyfaile said:

What is the latest reasoning on why they haven’t been released already? Waiting on the purchase of Fox to be finalized? Waiting until after IX?

It’s probably several things.

The pending buyout of 20th Century Fox would seem to be the biggest factor. They own ANH in perpetuity and the rights to Empire, Jedi, and the prequels don’t revert to Lucasfilm until next year. Until all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed, Disney wouldn’t want to be involved with a release they’d need to share profits on with another studio.

4k is the other big reason. Even if Disney had the distribution rights, they’d probably have waited until this year at the earliest to do any new physical release so they can debut I-VI on UHD in grand fashion. If you count from when the blu-ray/hddvd format war ended, then we’re as far into 4k this year as we were with blu-ray when the 2011 release happened. Even if there’s no unaltered restoration in the works*, I fully expect we’ll hear some official word by the end of the year on when the OT will hit the format.

Lucasfilm doesn’t even have a new Star Wars movie in the pipeline for a 2020 release. That could still change, but Avatar 2 (a Fox release) will almost definitely be hitting theaters in December of 2020. Disney could change things up and put out a new Star Wars movie in November, but it seems likely 2020 will be Lucasfilm’s hiatus year in terms of new theatrical releases and they’ll simply focus on The Mandalorian and this Cassian Andor show, and maybe the saga UHD set could hit later in the year as well. Of course, I could be totally wrong and they’re just waiting until Celebration for the big reveal of a concept teaser for either the Obi-Wan movie or the first part of Rian’s trilogy.

*Like I’ve said before, I really don’t think they’ll bother releasing a UHD that doesn’t at the very least include the unaltered OT.

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RogueLeader said:

Are there any examples of 2K films that have been upscaled to 4K? And if there are, how do they look?

This is far more common than native 4K BR releases.

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RogueLeader said:

I agree with you oojason, I see that as very likely.

I know for some time Lucas acted like theatrical reels of the the old films didn’t exist, and now that we have things like the 4K projects is a pretty big comfort. Because of that, what I’m most curious about now is a possible upscaling process for AOTC and ROTS. It would be a bit of a shame if those movies couldn’t stand up to the quality of the rest of the films.

How exactly would that work? Would it be necessary to redo any vfx?

Are there any examples of 2K films that have been upscaled to 4K? And if there are, how do they look?

Many UHD releases are from 2k masters, and there’s at least one (Resident Evil: Afterlife) that was shot in 1080p just like AotC and RotS. Avatar was also shot in 1080p.

2k masters can still look great on UHD. Mad Max: Fury Road is a good example. On the other end of the spectrum, the UHD of Oblivion must have had a botched upconversion process. By all accounts, the regular 1080p blu actually resolves more fine detail than the UHD.

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Has anyone been to any of those live orchestra screenings recently? I’m going to one of ANH in Boston next month, and I’m wondering if it’ll be the same old Lowry master or something else, like the version shown at the Alamo marathon a little while back that was purportedly a hybrid of the long-teased new master with the CGI shots from the Lowry. I know I shouldn’t get my hopes up, but the last time I went to one of these it was Amadeus, and they showed a previously-unknown HD version of the theatrical cut for that, so I wouldn’t be too surprised to see something new.

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joefavs said:

Has anyone been to any of those live orchestra screenings recently? I’m going to one of ANH in Boston next month, and I’m wondering if it’ll be the same old Lowry master or something else, like the version shown at the Alamo marathon a little while back that was purportedly a hybrid of the long-teased new master with the CGI shots from the Lowry. I know I shouldn’t get my hopes up, but the last time I went to one of these it was Amadeus, and they showed a previously-unknown HD version of the theatrical cut for that, so I wouldn’t be too surprised to see something new.

I went last summer, and it was just the old master sadly. Still an awesome experience, though. Will be seeing Empire with a live orchestra this summmer. 😃

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Just thought I’d bump the thread in light of AFI Silver here in the DC area showing I-VIII next month.

Apparently they’ll all be shown on DCP.

I’m curious if the OT will be from the newer master (not curious enough to actually buy a ticket of course, it’s still the most recent revision either way). Didn’t someone on these boards go to one of the “Roadshow” screenings of the OT a couple years ago and claim that the colors, grain etc looked noticeably different from the Lowry master?

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I take it nothing of note was announced at Celebration?

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