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Post #242885

Author
zombie84
Parent topic
Star Wars Limited Edition Screen Captures.
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242885/action/topic#242885
Date created
11-Sep-2006, 12:50 PM
I'm actually quite surprised at how "laserdiskey" the image looks. There really doesn't seem to have been any advantage in using the D1 master tape--it just looks like a really good LD rip (i.e. Moth3r). And the quality of an LD-transfer to DVD is as such--roughly 5/10 or so. You can see all sorts of weird stuff going on in the edges, aliasing everywhere, and that compressed quality in really detailed images and shots where there is lots of tonality (ie carbon freezing). Colour seemed to be okay in terms of vibrancy and accuracy but reds bleed like crazy (ie R2's eye), and the general fidelity and detail shows the limitations of 1993 technology. The general softness of the LD is carried over of course, especially in effects shots, although closeups in ESB and ROTJ naturally fare slightly better. The image is generally fairly grainey, though thats due to the print used in 1993.
Even in the screenshots you can see the generally messy and poor video--blow that up to a screen-filling res and it gets fairly unenjoyable to watch, especially if you are paying $20 a pop.

The image jumping around, as someone described, is not due to poor registration on the camera gate from production (Panavision camera's are rock-solid) but due to the registration on the poor 1993 telecine, which did not hold the images 100% proper every time.

Add to this the anamorphic issue as well as the interlacing problems and the DVNR problems, both of which are not evident from the screenshots, and you have a video quality that is--at best--a 5/10, and from someone with a discriminating eye towards video i would give it a 4/10, maybe even a 3. Its just not anywhere near an acceptable modern level, but that is to be expected when the source is a 1993 laserdisk telecine. If you don't care about the video and really just want a version on dvd to replace your VHS then this should be fine for you--but if thats the case, then you should be equally excited for any of the fan-captures, like Editdroid or Moth3r, and exstatic for the X0 version, which has everything the official disk has (minus the crawl) plus frame-by-frame cleanup.