doubleofive said:
Wow. I never thought I'd see the day when XØ would be around. Now, forgive me, but I'm not sure if I understand what the benefit of having another Laserdisc version would do... What's the point of the project again?
Well, originally, this project was devised in order to produce the best OUT laserdisc transfers available. At the time this whole thing began, the only copies of the OUT floating around the internet (to my knowledge, at least) were ones like TR47's, Dr. Gonzo's, Citizen's, Moth3r's, Cowclops's, etc. As good as some of these were (Moth3r's PAL / Dr. M's NTSC versions being the best, IMO), all suffered from quality issues in one form or another (poor colour balance, soft image, low brightness, etc.). Check out these screen cap comparisons over at Apt Irrelevance for examples.
In response, the X0 Project set out to create the highest quality LD transfers possible, first by using the X0 player to obtain as pristine a rip as possible, then by going through the entire film and restoring it (i.e., removing dirt, scratches, garbage mattes... they even developed a program to restore the original starfield in the film's opening title crawl).
Then... the GOUT came along. For some, this meant the X0 Project was dead. However, as the team points out on their website, the GOUT still suffers from a variety of problems, thus still requiring a preservation effort such as this one.
So, now, the question of the X0 Project's usefulness is debatable. Some feel that the GOUT provides a sufficient preservation of the OT, especially when converted to anamorphic video and with g-force's script applied. Others, meanwhile, contend that the X0 team can still turn out a superior product to the GOUT, as evidenced by some of the screencaps and webdocs they've shared with us (check the links on page 1 of the thread or on the X0 website).
