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What is your main way of watching the Original Trilogy?

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I mostly prefer the 4K77 and 4K83 versions. In case you don’t know what those are, they’re 4K restorations of the original film prints for A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. They’ll be releasing 4K80, which is a scan of Empire Strikes Back, soon. Until then, I’m going with Despecialized when I want to watch Empire.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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The main way to get them is on the Star Wars Trilogy forums, but those have been closed to new members for a while now. You can still get them on public torrent sites, though.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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I’ve always preferred to watch my Harmy discs, but that HDR on the 4K UHD discs has them making a case for themselves. (I’ve never seen 4K77.)

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If I’m going official physical releases it’s usually the Fox SWE Laserdiscs-standard for ESB and ROTJ and the very hard to find Technidisc for SW. The latter is still sadly the best physical release of Star Wars in something resembling its original form period.
Sometimes I watch my JSC copy of SW and sometimes I get nostalgic and put on the Definitive Collection or SE boxsets. I grew up with the Faces and SE VHS tapes so seeing those in their best form on LD plus in the boxsets it took me years to acquire somewhat balances out that they’re not exactly the best way to watch the OT.

If I go to our wonderful Jedi utility belt of magic and am not looking at the modern achievements I watch the Puggo Grande Trilogy series of 16mm captures with mono audio.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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I had watched Return of the Pug. It was a version someone uploaded in MKV.

Years ago i had traded for the DVD of Puggo Grande, downloaded Puggo Strikes Back. But my go to version now is 4K77 and 4K83. I have nothing for Empire beyond my laserdisc, Puggo edition or gout DVD. I don’t have Harmy Despecialized, or The Grindhouse edition. I think i will wait to see 4K80. But the version i sat down and watched after seeing the new 4k edit, was the Puggo Strikes Back edition.
I know people will think it is absurd but my favorite version on Laserdisc was the CAV issue with analog sound from 1985 for Star Wars and Empire. And i always hated that there was no Jedi issued.

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I’m picky with colors. I don’t tolerate odd colors very well. I just can’t enjoy watching anything that way. I have found issue with most of the color corrections for 4k77 and 4k83 and also with harmy’s Despecialized. I tend to favor my color correction of the GOUT, but that might be surpassed by the D+ semidespecialized (D+77, D+80 and D+83, which isn’t out yet).

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I mostly use the Faces version on Laserdisc, Widescreen VHS and GOUT DVD, with the occasional ESB:Revisited watch.

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StarkillerAG said:

The main way to get them is on the Star Wars Trilogy forums, but those have been closed to new members for a while now. You can still get them on public torrent sites, though.

Really? I made a forum account just a few months ago to get 4K77 and 4K83. I haven’t read anything about them closing it for new members recently, so I’m guessing this is something they did temporarily a while ago?


BTW, I very much prefer the 4K77 and 4K83 versions. I used to watch the Descpecialized versions, but now that scans of original prints have been made available I’ll definitely be sticking to those going forward. I get that some people find them to be a bit too grainy, but I’m personally a stickler for authenticity. Plus, I actually really like the grainy film look just in general.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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I had no idea that there was 4K versions. Since I don’t have a 4K TV, I only watch the Blu-Ray versions! I actually tried to watch A New Hope in the original DVD format and it was really different! The Blu-Ray is really clear and a lot better than the DVD version.

Lets rule the galaxy as father and daughter. -Rose Nessa to her dad

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Rose Nessa said:

I had no idea that there was 4K versions. Since I don’t have a 4K TV, I only watch the Blu-Ray versions!

FYI, you can get regular 1080p versions of 4K77 & 4K83. I neither have a TV or PC that can play 4k, so I’ve been watching the HD versions of the 4k scans.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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The last time I watched the original trilogy as a complete trilogy, it was the 1995 Faces VHS box set. That would have been around…1995. 😉

We used to have something we called Lunchtime Theater at work. We’d gather in the lunchroom, which had a TV, turn off the overhead lights, only ambient light from a glass wall to the rest of the place, get our lunches ready and watch movies in two-day, one-hour, installments. There were typically about ten of us in there.

That was the last time I watched The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. It would be another ten years before I watched Star Wars again (day of the GOUT release). That one time was also the last time I watched Star Wars. I don’t own that set anymore.

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You really should watch one of the fan preservations, Anchorhead. I know you probably don’t want to buy the official Special Edition versions in order to obtain them ethically, but it’s so worth it. I just want you to be able to watch the movies you love again. That’s the purpose of these preservations, after all.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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In between watching the Not so original release with the 1981 crawl, i would listen to the radio drama and play the double LP of the movie. I even read the novelization and comic book to the point of wearing them out. I also at an even younger age had only the Story of Star Wars Album when there was no video release. To the point when i saw the film and on video cassette i had not seen it in the cinema, i noticed Beru’s lines were a different recording. I wonder if anybody just saw the Ken Films extracts and only finally saw the film on video, like i had only listened to the film on a Story Album.

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StarkillerAG said:

Anchorhead. I know you probably don’t want to buy the official Special Edition versions in order to obtain them ethically, but it’s so worth it.

It’s hard to explain, but I’ve become very soured on all of Lucas’s bullshit. I’ve moved on from the OT. If Disney releases Star Wars in its proper 1977 form, I’ll gladly buy it and watch it.

Also hard to explain is how if I think about scenes or listen to the soundtrack, I instantly have that same feeling I had in 77. I remember all of it - film, story, experience, sounds, lines, etc - the magic - the atmosphere - as though it were yesterday.

A proper release would be icing for sure and I’d welcome it, but it’s not necessary for me to enjoy 1977. I lived it while it was happening. As I’ve said before, my emotional connection to Star Wars is perfectly captured in the original trailer. I remember this trailer as well as I remember the movie.
https://youtu.be/WcfYsJ1FRWU

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Do you still like the Star Wars radio drama? I remember buying the limited edition CD set from Highbridge.

Mark Hamill was excellent in the two radio plays he did. Including Empire Strikes Back.Return of the Jedi was a disappointment, less expanded and no Mark Hamill.

I’m surprised with all the fanedits there is no radio drama inspired edit like a serialized number of episodes.

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Love it, love it, love it. Just listened to it about two months ago. That’s my favorite telling of the story.

Forum Moderator
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My recommendation right now would definitely be 4k77 or Silver Screen Edition v1.6, 4k83 and the official 2020 FHD or 4K blu-ray (or D+) for ESB. That is until 4k80 is released. Then it’ll most probably be all the project 4kXX preservations only.

Anyway, these are the only really watchable versions right now, in my opinion. I also prefer the original 4k77 v1.0 and 4k83 v1.0 as basically all the other versions released by fans tend to fix one problematic scene/shot while messing up many others at the same time.

“The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.”

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Recently I’ve been downloading the D+XX versions of the OT, and I think they’ll be my go-to versions from now on. The quality allowed by combining the official 4K with 35mm sources is amazing, and the tiny Special Edition changes that were kept don’t bother me at all.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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StarkillerAG said:

Recently I’ve been downloading the D+XX versions of the OT, and I think they’ll be my go-to versions from now on. The quality allowed by combining the official 4K with 35mm sources is amazing, and the tiny Special Edition changes that were kept don’t bother me at all.

No clue if I can do this or not but do u have any idea on where I can find a link to download D+80? I’m perfectly satisfied with 4K77 and 4K83 and now all I need is an upgrade from my regular copy of Empire to tide me by until 4K80.

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Now that the trilogy is finished, I gotta say the D+ versions by Oohteedee are definitely the go-tos. Maybe the stuff Harmy and Dre are cooking up for Despecialized v3 will top that due to the combo of Dre’s grades and Harmys abilities with mattes, rotoscoping, etc… but for now, using the 4K UHDs as the base and the 4K77/80/83 raw scans as the sources for replacement shots/scenes:

Star Wars D+77 v2.3
Empire D+80 v2.2
Jedi OTD83 v1.0

That’s the OT for me for the foreseeable future. Despecialized might change that, but these versions are as good as the original Star Wars has ever looked and sounded on home video.