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First Impressions of the OOT ... — Page 7

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My first impression was that the movie (Star Wars) did not look as good as I'd have liked. I kinda got the impression it was better than the laserdiscs, but it didn't look that much better to me. My first impression was spent analyzing sharpness, detail, artifacts, ghosting, grain patterns, wobbling starfields, scratched up crap print contrasting with beautiful undamaged sections, and all sorts of visual minutia brought on by too much reading of posts on this board. Sheesh. I barely enjoyed the film at all.

I look forward to watching it again without all that over-analysis going on in my head.

It was also more pleasant than I anticipated to see shots and segments that were not corrupted by special edition uselessness.

It was more of a disappointment than I anticipated when the fog of my 1977 illusion was lifted with the first wave assaults of 80's revisionism that affected the audio mix.



I appreciate the reviews of Empire and Jedi ... but despite promises of better picture quality than my laserdiscs, I'm not going to buy the DVDs. For movies I might watch 3 more times in my life, I will suffer with the laserdiscs that have, to my knowlege, been played exactly once since purchase in the laserdisc era.




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Originally posted by: boris
Originally posted by: umdesch4
Well, I've watched the so-called OUT from the new DVD on my reasonable DLP projection setup. The bottom line was that I had fun watching it, but there's one thing that bothered me.

If you're going to call it 'Original', doesn't it need to have those blue matte boxes around the ships, and all the other artifacts that I remember so well from seeing in the theatre when I was a kid? Hell, it was those blue boxes that first got me interested in how movie special effects are made. It was charming in the way that seeing the monster's zipper in an old horror film is charming.


WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!!!

They're still there, but not as obvious as they may have been on some cinema screens in '77.

Actually, I don't think the garbage mattes were very obvious at all in the original theatrical prints. I think they're much more noticeable in all of the home video incarnations (except for these DVDs, for some inexplicable reason....)

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The garbage mattes were there in the theater, but you would have been hard pressed to notice them. On home video they artificially brightened things up a bit, which made those mattes plain as day. Even with the previous to DVD home video releases you could get rid of the garbage mattesd with the right contrast/brightness setting. Most of them are still there on the 2004 SE, but they are just not artificially brightened so they don't show up quite as easily as they did on previous home video releases.

I think these look pretty good for what they are. I really like the film grain. I don't think it looked this grainy on the laserdisc, which just goes to show that it's at least a cut above the original lasediscs, which back in the day were amazing. I like the dirt, scratches and image instability, because it really makes me feel like I'm back in '77 watching this in a theater.
Your focus determines your reality.
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Dude, what the hell is wrong with you. Dirt and scratches are not part of real film. They are defects. Real prints, prestine prints are clean and clear and look better than DVD.
There's good in the Original Trilogy, and it's worth fighting for.
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I saw very little dirt on the DVDs, and what dirt I did see was identical to the LDs. There were a couple of scenes in SW where the dirt was obvious (like the training scene on the MF, when Luke gets hit in the ass) but hardly any on ESB or Jedi.

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Dirt and scratches are a part of a film as soon as it's been unspooled once, and it gets worse each time after that.

I'm just saying this is how I remember it "feeling" in theaters when I originally saw them.
Your focus determines your reality.
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I never saw any garbage mattes on this release except for a few barely visible ones in ROTJ. By contrast, I constantly saw garbage mattes in the '04 set. Go figure...

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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I just picked up the tin at Best Buy, and I was so impressed with the tin, I couldn't be happier. It's a more than perfect way to store my new DVD's.

Right now I'm halfway through Star Wars (it was great to see it without "A New Hope" In the Crawl) and it looks excellent. My bootlegs were very fuzzy, even on the black bars, and there's none of that on these. It has the perfect amount of grain and the perfect soundtrack to make it feel simply magical. It's an old film, yet completely timeless.

I don't think I could be happier right now. The individual DVD's have great packaging, the tin is wonderful, and the movies look better than I could have imagined. I don't care about Anamorphic. This is my definitive version of the movies.



So, what has everyone been doing with thier 2004 discs. For Empire and Jedi I removed them, put disc 2 in disc one's place, and replace the discs with A Musical Journey and the 2004 Bonus Disc, respectivally. I also reversed the Disc order on Star Wars but don't have a bonus disc to put in there.
Watch DarthEvil's Who Framed Darth Vader? video on YouTube!

You can also access the entire Horriffic Violence Theater Series from my Channel Page.
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Who's sending the '04 discs back?! Somebody please answer this time!

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
I never saw any garbage mattes on this release except for a few barely visible ones in ROTJ. By contrast, I constantly saw garbage mattes in the '04 set. Go figure... Same with me! I thought that was very strange......
Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
Who's sending the '04 discs back?! Somebody please answer this time!
Sorry! I saw you ask that before, and I forgot to answer. I decided to sell my '04 DVDs instead of sending them back. I'm going to keep the SE discs that came with the OOT discs.

I've also decided to sell some of my laserdiscs, but I probably won't get much $ for them. I was thinking about selling my 2 widescreen VHS sets too- but I like the boxes they came in.

Originally posted by: Darth_Evil

I don't think I could be happier right now. The individual DVD's have great packaging, the tin is wonderful, and the movies look better than I could have imagined. I don't care about Anamorphic. This is my definitive version of the movies.

Good! I'm so glad you're enjoying them! I got the tin, too.

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Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
The garbage mattes were there in the theater, but you would have been hard pressed to notice them. On home video they artificially brightened things up a bit, which made those mattes plain as day. Even with the previous to DVD home video releases you could get rid of the garbage mattesd with the right contrast/brightness setting. Most of them are still there on the 2004 SE, but they are just not artificially brightened so they don't show up quite as easily as they did on previous home video releases.


Out of all the home video releases I own, I never noticed garbage mattes until I saw the laserdiscs. I had no idea what they were called at the time, so myself and friends coined the term "blue screen boxes". I figured they were artifacts from the blue screen. Heck, when we first saw them, all we noticed was some weird blue thing following the TIEs and changing shape rapidly. It wasn't until we looked closer that we realized what it was. Of course now I always see them.

F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
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I love the graphic novels that I got. They include a lot of the deleted scenes. The Star Wars one even has the Jabba scene, long before Jabba's design was finalized, so he looks rather like a sickly Chewbacca. It's great fun.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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I didn't get the Wal-Mart graphic novels, but I have the original comics, and I love that in the ESB book, the scene where Luke and Leia attempt a kiss before Threepio enters the room is in there. (there's a snippet of that cut scene in one of the ESB trailers).

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I went to circuit city and got all three movies for 45 bux so i saved 15 from walmart or best buy, but they were out of the new hope lithograph, but they gave me a standee instead, im willing to trade some stuff lol, see my other thread here: http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=6564

I watched all three movies already and my tv has some awesome ability, its zoom function is soooo awesome i swear the dvd looks like its anamorphic, that alone allows me to be 'satisfied' with this release, if no other release was made or no other fan preservations, i wouldnt be nearly as unhappy as i would be without this release, doesn't mean i wont still be grabbing new releases tho, adywans version is more of an edit than a preservation but its the version im most looking forward to, totally new movie, its like super-duper special edition, but its actually good and not a crap lucas production lol
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I dunno. I'm annoyed at the faint wobbling of the picture in spots. But just to have an official copy of the original DVDs, I'll probably buy IV and V (since I bought VI at Wal-Mart today instead of waiting; they only had one widescreen left) just to have them around. The picture quality itself doesn't bug me, because when you grow up on taped VHS, then only slightly better VHS, you don't mind as much.

Though some parts are noticeably pixelated, to put it bluntly. Sigh.

And is it just computer problems, or has anyone else noticed the left and right edges of the picture have oddball colored stripes instead of extending all the way across?
Something witty.
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Mentor: as far as I know D1 master tapes have the same vertical resolution as laserdisc (they didn't have the tech to resize nicely then, so the telecine was at the same res as the final output).
They do have slightly higher horizontal resolution, especially colour.
Darth Lucas: I am altering the trilogy. Pray I don't alter it further.
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Now that I've seen all of Star Wars...

The first half looked great, and so did the second....except for the fact that I could see lots of matte lines in the scene after they escape the death star and have that firefight in space, and in the final death star scene. They were a little distracting, but a lot less notable then on my bootlegs. Can't wait to watch ESB.

And to anyone who hasn't bought these yet...do it, especially if all you have is VHS. And get the Best Buy Tin. It's the best way to keep the films. The tin will never wear out like a box, and it looks awesome. Plus, its pretty slim and will fit on any shelf with ease.
Watch DarthEvil's Who Framed Darth Vader? video on YouTube!

You can also access the entire Horriffic Violence Theater Series from my Channel Page.
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First impressions...

It was great to be back in 1977 again. The transfer was not great on the disc, but it looked just like the movie exists in my memory. The thing I enjoyed the most about it was the original color of the movie. So much more natural than the oversaturated SE's. LFL certainly could have done better, but I don't regret buying it. I hope that answer changes next year.
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Is it just me, or is mverta really intimidating?

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Well, I watched the "new" Star Wars DVD in its entirety yesterday.

There's an abrubt pause after Tarkin says, "Terminate her--immediately!". I believe that this was the disc-flipping/switching transition point for the laserdisc. For the DVD, the transtion (for what I presume is a DVD layer-switch now) has been pulled off rather clumsily.

Interestingly, the Spanish and French audio tracks on the DVD appear to be based on the theatrical mono sound mix for the film (dubbed foreign-language dialogue aside). Certain sound effects are missing (such as all of the "exploding glass" sounds when Luke and Han blast the various cameras and such in the Death Star's detention center), and certain sounds have been added (such as metallic clicks when Artoo and Chewie press buttons on the holographic chessboard). Hmm.

Checking out a few scenes from Empire, the Spanish and French audio tracks also appears to be based on a different mix (possibly 70 mm) than the Definitive Collection/theatrical DVD version. There's a high-pitched engine whining sound as the last snowspeeder crashes (right before Veers blows up the Rebel power generators), and the TIE engine sounds in the establishing shot of Vader's ship (after Luke beheads the illusory Vader on Dagobah) are different.
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Originally posted by: Mike O
Is it just me, or is mverta really intimidating?


It's just you There are a few of us - with access, confidences, materials, and lifelong love for the preservation of Star Wars - who can't come right out and say how we know what we know about all sorts of things related to these movies and the various releases, for all sorts of painfully obvious reasons. Especially if, like me, you actually work on Lucasfilm Star Wars projects. Major pissing-in-the-pool action there. But occasionally, a few of us try and drop some subtle truths into the sea of speculation that exists in places like this. The result, increasingly, is that we get slammed, and the truth gets buried. Which is so depressing I almost can't deal. It's irony writ large, watching the community cannibalize itself. But that's life. In this particular discussion, I've taken my dog out of the race, but I tried. If you're serious about the truth, and the preservation/restoration of Star Wars, I've shown you something very important. Hope springs eternal, though... I'll probably try again sometime.

_Mike

View the Restoration and join the discussion at StarWarsLegacy.com!

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Originally posted by: mverta
Originally posted by: Mike O
Is it just me, or is mverta really intimidating?


It's just you There are a few of us - with access, confidences, materials, and lifelong love for the preservation of Star Wars - who can't come right out and say how we know what we know about all sorts of things related to these movies and the various releases, for all sorts of painfully obvious reasons. Especially if, like me, you actually work on Lucasfilm Star Wars projects. Major pissing-in-the-pool action there. But occasionally, a few of us try and drop some subtle truths into the sea of speculation that exists in places like this. The result, increasingly, is that we get slammed, and the truth gets buried. Which is so depressing I almost can't deal. It's irony writ large, watching the community cannibalize itself. But that's life. In this particular discussion, I've taken my dog out of the race, but I tried. If you're serious about the truth, and the preservation/restoration of Star Wars, I've shown you something very important. Hope springs eternal, though... I'll probably try again sometime.

_Mike


Do you think that we'll ever see a proper release. And I still find you intimidating .

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Yes, the layer switch is the worst I've seen.


(Except for discs that simply freeze at that point ... notorious on some titles, such as Monsters, Inc..)



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Originally posted by: Mike O: Do you think that we'll ever see a proper release?


We certainly could, that's for sure. Personally, I believe that would only happen post-George's death. I began work on the Legacy Edition only after people who would know, suggested as much. Basically, there are people I trust - you would, too - who told me "forget it" and told me why. And I was thoroughly convinced. And don't think I'm not tempted every day to put Legacy out, which with a couple of good torrent seeds, would put right a shitload of wrongs. You would also see a legal smackdown ensue of galactic proportions. But regardless, I just can't bring myself to do it. Just not how I roll.

_Mike

View the Restoration and join the discussion at StarWarsLegacy.com!