logo Sign In

Empire Strikes Back 1997 HD (a more accurate) Reconstruction (Released)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Hi everyone after doing a restoration of the 1997 version of ROTJ (very close to being 100% completed) I thought I’d make a more accurate version of ESB 1997 based off of Adywan’s great work. Adywan’s ESB 1997 kept in a lot of changes that were made in 2004 that bothered me (mostly all of the Falcon’s cockpit shots being left cropped) so I threw this version together in a couple of days. This preservation is in 720p unlike Adywan’s version which is 1080p, so I would say that if you don’t care about the changes that I made here, go ahead and get Adywan’s since it’s higher resolution.

Sources:

  • Main source: Hal9000’s Empire Custom SE
  • KK5SO’s Custom SE
  • 2004 HDTV
  • Harmy’s Despecialized ESB v2.0
  • Harmys Respecialized ANH (for “A long time ago” title card)
  • ESB 1997 LD (for one shot that is zoomed in on only for the 97 version)

Changes:

  • Used Harmy’s Respecialized ANH to replace the Episode II style “A long time ago” title card in the 2004 version (and was still present in Adywan’s version)
  • Used a clip from a 1997 LD capture to replace the shot of Luke’s feet stuck in the Wampa’s cave since it was zoomed in on only for this version
  • Used Harmy’s Despecialized ESB to replace all of the zoomed in Millenium Falcon cockpit shots (except for one shot that was zoomed in for the 97 version)
  • Used Harmy’s Despecialized to replace all scenes with lightsabers since they were redone for 2004 (and were still present in Adywan’s version)
  • Used Harmy’s Despecialized to replace scenes on Bespin where Han’s shoulders have shadows on them which creates the illusion that he’s wearing his vest (shoulders were digitally lightened in 2004)
  • Used Harmy’s Despecialized to replace scenes where the Imperial rank badges on some characters have been digitally re positioned (2004 change)
  • The entire film has also been synced to the cinema DTS and LD 5.1 track

There are still a few things that are 2004 changes that are still in here, but they are just re composited elements that look almost identical to the 97 version.

Pm me for a link (it’s a 20gb file so it’s a megalink this time)

The user formerly known as “Trillary Dump” (it was the 2016 election…)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Some screenshots comparing the changes (using LD and Blu Ray screenshots not from this preservation):

The user formerly known as “Trillary Dump” (it was the 2016 election…)

Author
Time

Is there going to be color correction? Harmy said Adywan’s version was very Gout like in color which is incorrect for the 1997SE.

Author
Time

and this,i´d like to watch too.
if a new hope is ready,a link would be great.
thanks

Author
Time

Weren’t these ESB and ROTJ 1997 preservations meant to be accompaniments to Harmy’s existing ANH 1997 preservation?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

ChainsawAsh said:

Weren’t these ESB and ROTJ 1997 preservations meant to be accompaniments to Harmy’s existing ANH 1997 preservation?

Yep that’s right. I have no intentions of doing ANH, Harmy and Team Blu have perfectly fine preservations!

The user formerly known as “Trillary Dump” (it was the 2016 election…)

Author
Time

stretch009 said:

Is there going to be color correction? Harmy said Adywan’s version was very Gout like in color which is incorrect for the 1997SE.

I wasn’t planning on doing a cc since I really like the completely white Hoth scenes, but if I were to replace the Hoth scenes with a regraded Blu Ray source so it’s slightly blue again, would anyone be more interested in that?

The user formerly known as “Trillary Dump” (it was the 2016 election…)

Author
Time

trillary dump said:

stretch009 said:

Is there going to be color correction? Harmy said Adywan’s version was very Gout like in color which is incorrect for the 1997SE.

I wasn’t planning on doing a cc since I really like the completely white Hoth scenes, but if I were to replace the Hoth scenes with a regraded Blu Ray source so it’s slightly blue again, would anyone be more interested in that?

I am interested in that.

Author
Time

As long as you remember to swap out the couple bits of ESB Revisited and a few other things, Hal’s custom ESB SE would probably be a good source to work from for more accurate color.

Author
Time

A Bluray regrade would be more accurate and of higher quality than Adywan’s version as well.

Author
Time

Yeah, Hal’s v1 of his custom SE used Ady’s 97 ESB (same as this), but for his v2 he switched to a regraded Blu-Ray. The 1080p encode of his v2 is very high quality, almost certainly good enough to use as a source.

Author
Time

He may even have a regrade without his customizations. He is collaborating with Dre on an ESB regrade.

Author
Time

Any thought of authoring your 97 reconstructions to blu-ray?

After being beaten and battered by prequel hate, I promise not to be that to the next generation.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

WDW203 said:

He may even have a regrade without his customizations. He is collaborating with Dre on an ESB regrade.

Yes, that was for his custom ESB. I don’t believe he has a version without his customizations rendered out, I’m pretty sure applying the color LUTs was the last thing he did before rendering the final version out.

There’s not that much that would need to be changed video wise, though - you’d need to use the BR or HDTV version of the Wampa scene, the shot(s?) of the window on Cloud City, and Vader’s shuttle ride, and Despecialized for the Emperor hologram, which you’d have to do anyway. Plus, of course, all the other 1997 reversions that are already a part of this project.

Author
Time

I’ll do just what Ash said, give me a few days to throw this new version together and hopefully that’ll turn out better!

The user formerly known as “Trillary Dump” (it was the 2016 election…)

Author
Time

dgraham414 said:

Any thought of authoring your 97 reconstructions to blu-ray?

Yeah I have thought about it but I wouldn’t know where to start if I were to make menus for them. I usually just put the mkv into tsMuxer (I think) to create a Blu day iso without any menus just the film.

The user formerly known as “Trillary Dump” (it was the 2016 election…)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

In theory I’ll be putting out a ‘DrDre ESB color correction’ version of ESB once he’s generated all the necessary individual LUTs to his satisfaction.
For my Custom SE version I just had him do enough for me to be able to mess around with them and get things good enough. I wasn’t necessarily going for a sense of accuracy per se, though the 1997 colors for ESB are what feel best to me subjectively. The Hoth nighttime scenes are a bit bluer than that, though, to better meet the (mostly) Revisited version of the Wampa scene I used in the middle.

My stance on revising fan edits.

Author
Time

Just finished using Hal’s Custom SE and KK5SO’s version (for unaltered cloud city scenes) and I must say, DrDre did a great job on the color grade! I’ll have a link available for it tomorrow.

The user formerly known as “Trillary Dump” (it was the 2016 election…)

Author
Time

You probably already know and took care of this since you were very thorough when talking about your last version before using Hal’s work as a source, but just a quick reminder since you didn’t mention it in your post - the Wampa scene and the Emperor scene also require a different source than Hal’s custom SE.

Author
Time

ChainsawAsh said:

You probably already know and took care of this since you were very thorough when talking about your last version before using Hal’s work as a source, but just a quick reminder since you didn’t mention it in your post - the Wampa scene and the Emperor scene also require a different source than Hal’s custom SE.

Yeah I should’ve mentioned it. I used the 2004 version for the Wampa and KK5SO’s version had the original Emperor

The user formerly known as “Trillary Dump” (it was the 2016 election…)

Author
Time

Yeah, I assumed, but I also know what it’s like to accidentally overlook something like that and not notice until after you’ve released the thing, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to mention it.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

If anyone has the link to the latest version (post-October 25) please PM me the link. Thanks.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I am really curious as to how you got the 97DTS track to sync.

Is this reconstruction frame accurate so the audio just worked? Or did you have to make changes to the soundtrack to fit the video?

Author
Time

Stotchy said:

I am really curious as to how you got the 97DTS track to sync.

Is this reconstruction frame accurate so the audio just worked? Or did you have to make changes to the soundtrack to fit the video?

Since we have frame accurate versions of the 97se and the DTS tracks are by film reel, it is rather simple to align them and sync the video to it.