Why was the '04 DVD set such a botched release? — Page 2

I suppose because this particular company released the only DVD transfer of a classic masterpiece on a non-anamorphic format, whereas most other companies are releasing anamorphic versions of their films on DVD.

seventiesfilmnut said:

You are fudging the issues here mate - this has NOTHING to do with not being grateful for the many releases here. I don't think anyone on this board has been ungrateful for any release.

since you are being civil, i will reply,

then why the complaints from some people about the quality of Lucasfilm releases

being low? why the constaint complaints about re-issues, and about a project that

was released 2, and 4 years ago?

The quality of the HD SE are indeed incredible, BUT I want to see the films I grew up with WITHOUT any digital tinkering, bad musical edits, and incredibly bad re-colour timings... I have some decent play back equipment, but even with upsampling the GOUT looks pretty bad on my projector on a 100" screen. I paid the same price for the DVD I would for any other modern release, and yet get sub-modern playback quality, labelled as THX. It's a joke!

yes, you're looking at it now, i mentioned about when it was actually released, how many

people had widescreen tv's that supported HD back then? i didn't.. did you? if so, you were

in a very tiny minority...

Not sure I like your rather snide comments about moaning and yet not contributing. I've contributed my fair share of (hopefully) helpful comments on this board over the years, plus my RIPs of the 1989 LD soundtrack to Star Wars and Empire are out there, in addition to some other LP rips.

i wasn't speaking about YOU in particular, i was talking about people that only complain,

don't you think i spent a lot of time thanking everyone for there hard work and contributions?

You also seem to have a bit of a 'laying down the law' attitude in your posts: As a consumer, I have every right to complain about a release if it is sub-standard, and the GOUT is most definately that. That's partly the reason this website exists no? Until Lucasarse releases a decent version of the original trilogy I think every film fan has EVERY right to complain about it.

yes, of course you have every right to complain, and you don't have to buy it either..

if you do buy it, thats your choice .......but again, why doesn't anyone TRY to use

the tools out there to fix it, run the GOUT stabilization scripts, use the HD rescaling

and upscaling tools, everything we need is either available as freeware, there are

tons of resources, and technical help available to do it ...  is constant complaining

by a small minority going to change anything SOON, no.... so instead of waiting around,

that's why i'm trying everything i can, to improve what i have..

Also remember not every fan has your money to purchase original film reels, let alone the cash to get it all transferred. This is not something WE should have to do - that should have been done by Lucasfilm.

We'll just have to agree to disagree I think - life's too short etc etc.

Out of here.

- 7FN

i'm not a rich person by any stretch of the imagination ...

think about all the money you've spent on other hobbies, or on star wars

merchandise, or movies, or anything else.... don't you think in the 4 years

that have passed since the DVD's that came out, WE as a community have

invested a ton of money on video equipment, computers, media, etc that

could have been pooled to purchase a print by now? don't you feel someone

could have obtained a print even before the DVD's came out? i know there

was mention a few times of people with prints, but something always happened,

and they disappeared? is that true.....     don't you think that's going to happen

to me also? ......

i've never spent a lot of money on anything in the past, and the cost of these

prints is less than most brand new computers, and you must have bought a

computer at some point in time?

also, the same applies for the money for the transfer, don't you think that

by now, with all the people here, that we could have found or figured out

a way to get the transfer done for free, or for a reduced cost? well, that's

exactly what is happening, all the dealers i've talked to are using their

contacts to see if they can work out deals.... i've talked about a disconnect

between sellers/dealers, and the fans that are on this board, we need

to leverage that to our advantage.... its NOT ABOUT MONEY, i've gone

to several places, with the MONEY READY TO DO IT, and they would

not touch it, so its not just about money, you have to work your contacts,

talk to people, get involved ... i'm constantly asking for help here, and guess

what, i don't expect everyone to contribute, but every little bit of encouragement

helps , and you never know where the big break will come from...

once again, DONT TAKE THINGS SO PERSONALLY, we wouldn't be having this

discussion if someone had taken the steps that were being advocated right

here on this board ...............   if a casual person can come to this board, and

within 2 months obtain 1) rare 16mm star wars trailer 2) complete ESB 35mm print

3) star wars reel 6 35mm 4) possible complete print of star wars 35mm print ,

was does that tell anyone from the outside?( that looks at the efforts of the people here..)

we need to band together, and support each other about what the goals of this

board are ...

not to continue to constantly gripe / complain and be bitter about

1) the past SE dvds

2) the GOUT dvd

3) the lack of a good transfer

4) George Lucas, Lucasfilm, Lucasarts and any activities from them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go ahead, and waste your time (NOT YOU PERSONALLY, the other people) looking

back at the past...

I'd rather spend it working on the future, and hopefully contributing something

significant back to the Star Wars community that gave me so much..

i might be 'negative1' by name, but i'm completely positive about this board,

this project, and what we will accomplish regardless of the outcome..

later

-1

iRantanplan said:

Back to topic. Yes I'm aware that I'm able to basicly improve the DVDs with the help of the community. Actually I could do that only using google. But the point is I shouldn't have to do so, should I? For example I don't have a PC atm, my old one broke down. So for the moment I'm stuck with actual standalones and it's pretty annoying to switch cables and connections for every occasion. And the actual zoom function in my TV isn't really that great (I don't think there is any out there with a good scaler, really) and you can do much better with software scalers. All we're doing could at least have been done by Lucasarts themselves without too much efford. That's what makes me angry the most.

 ok, i'm going slightly offtopic here, i was going to buy a new laptop, and new dvd

player -> oppo 983, that has SACD, DVD-A, and upscaling built in

http://www.oppodigital.com/dv983h/

it is supposed to have some of the best up-scaling chips/circuitry available in it, and

try it out on the star wars DVD's .....  

from their site:

The DV-983H provides a rich array of features for serious home theater enthusiasts. By applying source-adaptive, motion-adaptive, and edge-adaptive techniques, the DV-983H produces an outstanding image for any DVD, whether it's mastered from an original theatrical release film or from a TV series. Aspect ratio conversion and multi-level zooming enable users to take full control of the viewing experience – maintain the original aspect ratio, stretch to full screen, or crop the unsightly black borders. Special stretch modes make it possible to utilize the full resolution of ultra high-end projectors with anamorphic lens. For users with an international taste, the frame rate conversion feature converts PAL movies for NTSC output without any loss of resolution or tearing. Custom home theater installers will find the DV-983H easy to integrate into whole-house control systems, thanks to its RS-232 and IR IN/OUT control ports.
 

[of course *AHEM* i've had to put off any new purchases, due to job issues, and

buying the star wars print, which is not a problem, since the hardware will probably

get cheaper when i can buy it...]

anyways, has anyone tried this player, it's gotten amazing reviews, and its not

that expensive..... i don't want to keep buying more dvd players, but since this

also plays SACD and DVD-A, its still worth it, the upscaling is just extra for me...

but what does anyone think about that? does anyone know of great upscalers,

or hardware, or players that actually have DONE a good job with DVD's?

yes, i know all about the avs forums, etc, but they're way too technical for me..

i meant someone here, that has real world experience with them..

later

-1

iRantanplan said:

Ah yes, my player upscales too. I have the Toshiba HD-EP10 which is actually a HD-DVD player and a very good one. The upscaling itself is also very good. But there is a difference between upscaling and zooming the picture. Upscaling simply means to convert the picture from 720*480 (or 852*480 for anamorphic DVDs) to 1080p/720p/whatever but not zooming into the picture. The player handles the letterboxed videos as it they were 4*3 DVD. The oppo will do the same.

I'm currently building a HTPC which eventually will be able to zoom even with HDMI connection. But this will require some assistance by software that violates the DMCA and will not be discussed here I guess. Honestly not my desired scenario. Well at least I can use VOBSub again I guess.

i agree, that the HTPC is the way to go, i currently have PC hooked up my widescreen,

but it can only do 720p/1080i resolutions...and not 1080p, like i can see on my smaller

monitor..... but the convenience is well worth it for zooming/scaling, etc..

later

-1

Sluggo said:

This thread is in the wrong topic.

 sorry, you know me...i get distracted easily..

don't worry, i'm done (for now!)

later

-1

But videogames don't need to suck the plot twist in the first Kotor Game is better than the prequels story.

But then again Drew Karpshyn who also wrote the Best sci fi Rpg ever Mass Effect wrote that, not George Lucas.

It is absolutely Pathetic that The upcoming Video Game Force Unleashed is better written than all three prequel flms because Lucas brought other writers in.   He is also bringing in other writers on the clone wars cartoon tv show and the live action tv show and it is about fucking time cause the dude cannot write.

It is absolutely inexcusable that Lucas did not bring other writers and directors in on the prequels.  A few More Script Drafts and some good screen writers as well as a couple good directors on Clones and Revenge would have been better. 

But he did not want to spend the minimim of a 500 thousand dollars to pay other writers to write the 3 scripts.  I believe he should have Directed Phantom Menace just to get the ball rolling but other editors and better actor directors should have been brought in to make it a better movie.

The best kind of friends a writer can have are not yes men they are people who will tell you your story is shit if it is.  and in the end your book or movie comes out better.

To this day i find it amusing that Marcia Lucas the editor made George Lucas the director look Good as a story plotter, and writer when the visceral quality of the oot at least of the first film was made in the editing room and With the LSO scoring the film.  Also the witty dialogue and snappy lines were not even written by him Their were written by Williard Huyck and Gloria Katz.  Empire was written Mostly by Kasden with Input from Lucas, Kurtz and Kersh as well as the actors.

Kasden says to this day he did a final draft on Return of the Jedi to help George, but it is obvious the story was Lucas.  On Jedi Lucas regained control over star wars to the detriment to the franchise.  He brought in a a BBC documentary Filmaker sympathetic to him someone who Liked doing things on the cheap Richard Marquand.  How much better would have Jedi been if it kept the adult tone of Empire was written well and had a real director of actors Like Kersh who buy the way understood drama, stage plays and shakepeare and good acting.

We all know what happened with Kershner out as Director of Jedi replaced by Marquand, and Kurtz Replaced as Producer By Howard Kazanjian a school friend of lucas and a yes man.  We got Ewoks we got a kiddie esque film with Ewoks, and another death star.  and the Pussyfying of star wars had begun.  IT only took til 1999 for things to hit Rock bottom with Jar Jar Binks.

"These are Kiddie movies anyway so it does not matter that they suck.  I am an Independant Studio i don't need film lets shoot on HD Video to save costs.  I am an Indpedant studio so i don't need real effects i'll just do them in a computer to cut costs, I am an Independant studio so that is my films sucks at least i have an excuse." 

These are Lucas escuses for the prequels suckage.

Lowry cocked up Cinderella too.

*hugs 1995 Cinderella laserdisc*

iRantanplan said:

AFAIR LOWRY did the restauration, not LucasFilm.

I think YCM labs did the original restoration on the prints, and from what I understand, Lowry never even had access to actual film- Lucasfilm just gave them hard-drives with the films on them.

I still don't think anybody knows for sure at what point the blue tint was introduced, though.

Janskeet said:

Another thing that I wish would be on the DVD set was a behind the scenes look at the restoration of the films. Taking us through a tutorial of the technology and work involved in restoring the films would've been cool.

 one of the james bond dvd remasters has this.. i don't know which one

though..

later

-1

Janskeet said:

Negtive1, most of us here don't have skills or time to do restorations of the movies like you do. Even if we do, some of us choose not to aquire the skills to do video editing work. We just want Star Wars to get the restoration respect it deserves. I am greatful that there are a lot of people on this board who have the skills and desire to do the work of preseving and editing the films to their taste. Lucasfilm has all the best resources to do this work so why shouldn't we bitch, especilly when he can do this for profit while we have to do this for free, even though it seems most of you don't want money out of this (even though I think you deserve it).

 i have no idea whether your complimenting this effort or complaining????????

i don't have the skill either..... but why are you even on this board?

this is the OT board dedicated to the preservation of the OT... not the

'lets constantly complain about Lucas, Lucasfilm, and not having the OT' board..

what did you expect to find here?

how much help in getting the OT restored has complaining accomplished????

do you want everybody to sit around, and just complain all the time,

and not do anything at all??? how exciting.....

do you not want to see what happens if we try to restore it???

do you have no interest in learning anything new about film,

video, or technology??????????

look at my sig, look at it very closely, someday it will make sense to  you..

otherwise, i feel very sorry for all the people here, that will never know

the potential that exists on this board, and will constantly wish they had

something better, when the answer was sitting there right in front of them.

later

-1

negative1 said: 

look at my sig, look at it very closely, someday it will make sense to  you..

"[no GOUT in HD?->gout stabilize  ->color correction ->upscaling to HD ->GOUT IN HD !]"

I think there's a terminology misunderstanding here.

The GOUT is a term that specifically refers to the non-anamorphic DVD release from '06. There's no way it can be made into hi-def.

Do you mean the OUT or OOT? Those are more general terms for the Original Unaltered Trilogy or Original Original Trilogy and they don't refer to any specific release.

You're right. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. :-)

There never would have been a Donner Cut of Superman II if the fans had kept quiet.