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What do you think was the best release of the OT at the time it came out? — Page 2

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With Star wars, in a way it feels like it's evolving backwards. Only because in those days the pirate home video tapes were just like additional gravy, since the movie was also available to see in the theater pretty much anytime, often in 70mm, for literally months and years. Now theater showings are basically forbidden.  (and contrast that with Indiana Jones as shown here: http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?t=18467&page=22

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I remember being really disappointed by how much staircasing I could see on the Lucasfilm logo (you know, the newfangled decorative font version) at the beginning of AotC, which was the first movie I saw on digital projection.  And I was in the back row of the theater.

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danny_boy said:

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

danny_boy said:

The 1080/24p Attack Of The Clones was blown up to fill an IMAX screen which has  a bigger surface area than the conventional 70mm screens (that the 35mm Star Wars was blown up to**)----with no complaints.

My friends and I saw pixelization in the theater during AOTC on a normal sized movie screen.

 

12/03/02 10:15 PM
I just saw Attack of the Clones on IMAX and here is my question:...

But I looked and damned if I could find ANY pixelization, vertical or horizontal. How do they do this?

That solves it them, Puggo and his friends definitely didn't see any pixelization.

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 (Edited)

Apologies for bumping an old thread - I saw this while making my way through the Index Thread here.

I had the 1990 VHS boxset in my younger days, and it was the only set I thought I ever needed (until years later for the 2006 GOUT dvds, and later the 2011 blu-ray set to be able to own the Despecialized Editions), I had no idea there were so many differences between the various releases - from an aspect, quality, dnr, sound, p&s/fullscreen/widescreen etc point of view - even before the 97 SE’s and GL’s many changes to the films themselves!

I have much to learn! 😃

^ image is from google, my vhs set has since fallen apart through age and overuse!

The FE Renegades thread; from the people who post ‘go kill yourself’, ‘fuck you’, ‘let’s throw abuse’, and more at OT staff & members. Four years on and still throwing accusations, slurs and abuse at the OT & anyone outside their Salacious Crumb filled clique. + FE Discord “to vent” more at the OT. Wook’s take.

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Awesome set, Fated-Dualist 😃
 

Mine would be the 1989 Technidisc laserdiscs of the OT, I didn’t even have a laserdisc player and got gifted the set of discs from an old friend. I must have just looked at the packaging of them for months on end as I saved up for a player (I never did get one) - and instead just took them around to a friend who had the CLD 97 to watch them on - a lot!

(I think it was a CLD97? The letters and numbers all get jumbled up these days!)

50 Cent is just an imposter

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Mine would be the 1995 THX VHS edition. Though mine was not the ‘faces’ one: the one with the faces on the cover was the 4:3 pan & scan edition. I had to search around all of Cologne, Germany until I found a shop carrying UK-imported widescreen editions. They cost me a pretty penny, back in 1995. Still having them stored away in my parents’ attic.

Side remark: the German-dubbed local versions of the 1995 VHS editions did not have the original German textcrawls but some really cheap-looking CGI recreations instead. But I wouldn’t get them anyway.

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I think while the sonic experience of the 70mm six-track technicolor showings would have been unparalleled at the time, I think a prime Eastman mono print would have been the way I personally would love to see it. The mono mix is so much more sonically alive to me than the Dolby and 70mm versions, and the more washed-out look of an Eastman print might have complimented the visuals more than I think some realize.

I’m just here because I’m driving tonight.

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Tack said:
I think a prime Eastman mono print would have been the way I personally would love to see it. The mono mix is so much more sonically alive to me than the Dolby and 70mm versions, and the more washed-out look of an Eastman print might have complimented the visuals more than I think some realize.

There aren’t a lot of “holy grails” left when it comes to various preservations… A great scan/restoration of Empire on 35mm, of course. THX-1138, too. But increasingly, I’m finding that what you just described is probably the last version of Star Wars I’d need. Even if it was just a brand-new restoration/recording of that original mono track married to whatever iteration of 4k77 is the most “up-to-date” at that point.

I think a warm, full, well-recorded/restored version of that mono track is one of those last grails, for me.

To answer the question, as many others have: It’s probably either Definitive Edition Laserdisc or Executor Set. One of those two. It wasn’t just extras or picture quality for the time, it was just that those sets had real weight to them. Not just literally, as in “these are heavy” but it felt like you owned an actual piece of Star Wars, and that piece was worth a lot, and you could feel that worth when you picked it up.

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Tack said:

I think a prime Eastman mono print would have been the way I personally would love to see it. The mono mix is so much more sonically alive to me than the Dolby and 70mm versions

I absolutely adore the mono version. It’s my preferred mix of the film. I’d love to hear it booming in an actual theater.

I also second the notion that a fully 35mm sourced version of it is one of the last “holy grails” of the OT for me. The Belcubus and Puggo/Jaxxon presentations are nice, but both have their limitations (being sourced from TV airings and 16mm optical, respectively).

I think the Technidisc was the best presentation of the original film on domestic U.S. LD just in terms of integrity.

It’s way more honest about its source material than the Definitive Collection transfer, and obviously a major improvement over the SWE/ISR.

So, a new book came out and we learned so much, and it is called, “Anguilosaurus, Killer of the Living”.

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Space Hunter M said:

I also second the notion that a fully 35mm sourced version of it is one of the last “holy grails” of the OT for me. The Belcubus and Puggo/Jaxxon presentations are nice, but both have their limitations (being sourced from TV airings and 16mm optical, respectively).

I do wonder if the original recordings of those sources could be dug up. If I’m following the chain correctly, the mono audio on these restoration projects is all processed to some degree - it sounds very much to me the “35mm Mono Mix” that’s on both 4K77 and Despecialized has audio artifacting, and it also sounds like a faint reverb effect was applied to attempt masking those artifacts. The software used at the time that track was created (am I right that those specific finished Mono tracks are now about 10 years old?) would be pretty out of date now, and 10 years is a very, very long time in terms of what audio programs can do so far as cleaning and restoring audio.

re-capturing the VHS mono audio (or even the 16mm audio) might be worthwhile too, if that’s possible. I’m coming very late to this, and I’m not trying to cast aspersions on the work that was done all that time ago. But I do think if it’s possible to re-capture that audio source, it might be worth trying, to see if that mono audio could be given a slightly better once-over.