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Info: OT Bootleg DVDs — Page 7
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patiences, all we be revealled by mid summer. They will be made from the Laserdiscs and be a very classy release. Thats all we'll say for now.
well said...
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As for sound it was the first time I had watched a bootleg set not in 5.1 and let me tell you this is the best sounding set I have ever run through my system. The Three other sets were all in 5.1, yes, but it was a mixed up version from a 2.0 source. So what you get from that is sound the wraps around you but sounds very flat once it gets past the front sound stage. I ran this through a Dolby Prologic II receiver and the sound really defused nicely to the rear sound stage. It sounded great. I would be will to take a leap and say it’s the best sounding the Original Trilogy will even sound. Of course I say this assuming that George Lucas will never release these on DVD.
The set has the three movies on three discs all with no menus to eat up space for the movie. They also have quite a few chapters for the ease of navigating the movie. The set also came with a bonus disc with a bunch of boring crap that I fell asleep watching and a fifth disc with files for printing out your own case covers, inlays, and disc covers. That was a very nice touch and something that is greatly appreciated.
My only complaint with this is that it isn’t in Anamorphic Widescreen as I thought it was. Don’t get me wrong this is the best widescreen transfer I have ever seen of these movies but it’s not anamorphic. That is of course easily fixable with the zoom feature on your TV. The movies are (For the first time I know of in bootleg form) actually presented in its true 2.35:1 ratio. I have seen anamorphic DVDs of these movies that actually crop the movie to around 1.75:1 which also cuts off all the subtitles. So I’m more than happy with this non anamorphic set. Of course if you don’t have a 16:9 TV you don’t give a damn about that. But I do so there.
In closing I would say this is as good as it gets for now. To quote Darth Vader…
“Impressive…Most Impressive”
Equipment Used:
57” 16:9 HD Toshiba Projection TV (I can’t remember Model Number)
Pioneer VSX-D810S (Receiver)
Pioneer DV-F727 (DVD Player)
M&K V-1250 THX Subwoofer
Infinity 12” Subwoofer (Again no idea on Model Number)
M&K 550 THX Surround (X2)
M&K LCR-750 THX Front (X2)
M&K 750-THX Center (X2 - one in front and one in rear)
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The quality of all these transfers is limited by that of the Laserdisc (the Definitive edition seems to be the favourite). From what I've seen, the ones TR47 has are nearly identical to the Laserdisc.
It'll be interesting, once the offical SE DVDs come out, to see what kind of a difference in quality there is, and whether anyone tries to combine an OT Laserdisc transfer with the SE DVD transfer.
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There are 4 pictures towards the bottom of the page. All four were captured using IRE7.5 which is what I should have used on my DVD's and will use when I recapture them and create new ones. Two of the pictures had the TMPNGEnc Plus option, Output YUV data as Basic YCbCr instead CCIR601, turned on and the other two had it turned off. I think the ones with that option turned off look better because more stars are visible. These captures were made using composite cables. I used S-Video cable for mine and think the composite ones look better. S-Video is a better standard, but LD is stored in a composite data format, so there is nothing to gain by using S-Video.
Now back to 16:9 enhancement. If you look at the pictures on that link, I think the 16:9 pictures look just as good as the 4:3 ones. You may not gain detail by going 16:9, but it keeps you from having to use the zoom on a 16:9 TV. It also doesn't matter whether you have a 16:9 TV now or not because you probably will within the next 5 years or so. If you play a 16:9 movie on a 4:3 set, it will look correct as long as your DVD Player is set to 4:3 mode. The reason for this is that there is a flag in the MPEG-2 stream that tells the player how to display the video. The player looks at the flag and compares it to the mode it is set to. If it is set to 16:9, it will display it that way. Ultimately, the player's mode setting will determine how it is displayed. Obviously, if you have a 16:9 TV, the player should be set to 16:9 mode.
I didn't having a problem with cropping when I made my DVD's. The only thing I cropped were the black bars on the top and bottom. This has to be done or your image will have black bars on all 4 sides. When I did this, new pure black bars were generated on the top and bottom that looked better than the black bars the LD had. I sometimes could see analog noise in the original black bars, but that is not present in the new bars. I did crop the subtitles out, but it was a very simple process for me to recreate new subtitles which look better than the ones in the bottom black bar. It was a simple process to create new subtitles. I was able to time them perfectly with the original ones because the cropping of the black bars doesn't occur until the encoding stage. The subtitles were created during the editing stage using Sub Station Alpha (SSA for short). The subtitle script was imported into virtual dub as a filter, so I was able to view the original subtitles the same time as mine and was able to adjust the timing until both match. If the timing didn't match, I would change my script in SSA, save it again, reload the filter and script into Virtual Dub, and compare both mine and the LD subtitles until the timing matched perfectly. It was a little time-consuming, but didn't take me more than a few hours. Jedi even took less time even though it had more subtitles because I knew exactly what I was doing by then.
Many may disagree with me on this, but I believe the subtitles for Star Wars look better in the video image instead of the black bars because that is where they were in the theater since there are no black bars there. I really hate the subtitles for Phantom Menace because they have a fade effect which was not present in the theater. I also like yellow subtitles more than white.
To sum everything up. It is easy to convert to 16:9 without losing the original aspect ratio of the image. There is even a setting I used in TMPNGEnc on my encodes called Video Arrange Method which has several choices. I used Full Screen (Keep Aspect Ratio). The new black bars are going to be better than the original ones because they will be pure black and you won't see any analog noise in them like you might if you use the LD bars. Lastly, it is my opinion that the subtitles are better in the video image than in the black bar because that is where they would be if you see the film in the theater. Making subtitles is a little time-consuming, but it is not hard to do.
I'm going by my opinion on this, but I believe it is best to convert any widescreen 4:3 source to 16:9. I don't believe the same to be true if it is a 4:3 full screen source, because there are no black bars to crop. You will just be cropping the image itself. If you don't crop anything, you may get an image that is stretched out of proportion or will have black bars on all 4 sides. If you zoom in on that image to fill a 16:9 TV, it will be stretched out of proportion. If I don't crop the black bars when I convert 4:3 widescreen to 16:9 widescreen, I will get black bars on all 4 sides. Those are the reasons why I crop the black bars. The extras feature both full screen and widescreen. That is also the reason I left the extras disc I created in 4:3 instead of converting it to 16:9.
I'm sure you can easily achieve 16:9 with just about any encoder. I choose TMPNGEnc Plus because it is very powerful and only costs $50.00 U.S. It is very slow compared to some of the other encoders, but I let it do my encoding overnight when I'm not using my PC. I'm sure the Cinema Craft and Main Concept Encoders can do the same and they are faster than TMPNGEnc Plus, but they are more expensive. The pro version of Cimena Craft Encoder is $2000.00 U.S. and Main Concept is $150.00 U.S.
Again, I apologize for all of the techno babble, but I figured I would explain why I prefer to encode in 16:9 and how easy it is.
Patrick
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"Why pay for something that with a little bit of effort I can get for free?"
George Castansa
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Take the O-OT laserdisc set and the SE DVD set.
Transfer both to computer. Then, edit them together so that it is the SE up until a change is made, in which it will revert back to the laserdisc.
That way, you have the best possible picture and sound, and it's the originals!
I can't even begin to attempt such a feat. But that'd be sweet.
I never had the nerve to make the final cut.
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I am hoping for the theatrical version (77, 80, 83) if it even exists any more. But I would be satisfied with the 1993 edition as well.
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aka nostromo777 on myspleen
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ANH would be the most difficult to do if that were to happen.
ESB would be easier.
ROTJ would be pretty easy. The great middle chunk of the film until the end has no changes. ROTJ just has major changes; keeping little detail changes to a minimum.
But yeah, ANH would be a mess to do.
I never had the nerve to make the final cut.
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Originally posted by: Echo3
TR47, I got the dvds today
TR47, I got the dvds today
Would you be willing to sell a copy internationally if you have a DVD recorder...?
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Ive had a chance to look at all 4 dvds, and I must say Im VERY IMPRESSED. I had created my own DVDs with a Panasonic DMRE50 recorder, and those were great, but I think these may have an edge in the compression. These have slighty less digital artifacting, especially when it come to fast motion. I highly reccomend them to anyone considering.
aka nostromo777 on myspleen
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And I'm a monkey, in a long line of kings.
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I'm looking forward to recieving my discs soon - it seems I can finally put my tired VHS copies to rest.
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Originally posted by: Echo3
I may consider shipping internationally soon, but for now, Ive got too much on my plate to handle any extra projects. TR47, I took the liberty of redesigning the bonus disc cover art, if you are interested in it, I can send it to you. I basically got rid of "return of the jedi" across the top, and replaced it with "star wars". On the bottom, I got rid of "bonus" and replaced it with "the definiteve collection bonus materials. I am going to go one step further, however, and totallly new design of the bonus disc cover art.
Ive had a chance to look at all 4 dvds, and I must say Im VERY IMPRESSED. I had created my own DVDs with a Panasonic DMRE50 recorder, and those were great, but I think these may have an edge in the compression. These have slighty less digital artifacting, especially when it come to fast motion. I highly reccomend them to anyone considering.
I may consider shipping internationally soon, but for now, Ive got too much on my plate to handle any extra projects. TR47, I took the liberty of redesigning the bonus disc cover art, if you are interested in it, I can send it to you. I basically got rid of "return of the jedi" across the top, and replaced it with "star wars". On the bottom, I got rid of "bonus" and replaced it with "the definiteve collection bonus materials. I am going to go one step further, however, and totallly new design of the bonus disc cover art.
Ive had a chance to look at all 4 dvds, and I must say Im VERY IMPRESSED. I had created my own DVDs with a Panasonic DMRE50 recorder, and those were great, but I think these may have an edge in the compression. These have slighty less digital artifacting, especially when it come to fast motion. I highly reccomend them to anyone considering.
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On to the movies... they work in my DVD player, yay! Initial impressions are good. The picture looks great and is surprisingly clean. Right off the bat I'd say they look much better than my Collector's Set VHS. The THX remaster cleaned up quite a bit so it's a better print as well. I don't have the LDs to compare, but I'd venture a guess and say that they're pretty darn close. Specks and dirt are still visible and colours are muted, but small object detail is decent as I can see stuff I never noticed before. It's a soft picture overall, but I suspect it's true to the source. Those used to the new digitally scrubbed transfers of today's blockbusters might be dismayed by the heavy amount of grain, but this what film looks like and how Star Wars has always appeared. Although the picture isn't anamorphic, compared to a set my friend got in Chinatown which is anamorphic, this looks way better. Sharper picture with none of the digital break up and artifacting. I also got some shots from my VHS set, but I can't post them so you'll just have to use your imagination.
However, they're not perfect. Compression is good for the most part, but there are signs of video noise occasionally, with interlace problems and combing. I watched TESB all the way through and there is one shot of scene distortion in the Hoth base control room. The image on the right side of the frame seems to stretch out for a second and then fixes itself and this is definitely not on my VHS. There is also a long black pause (5 secs) during the falcon when they're doing repairs in the asteroid 'cave' before it cuts to Leia welding. I can only assume this was a poorly handled disc change, and there aren't any other such problems during the movie. Nonetheless, these are relatively minor issues and don't impact my enjoyment of the films. I'll post again after watching the two if I encounter any other problems.
The sound is excellent. I've never heard Star Wars like this at home. Thumbs up. The only menu is on the extras disc and it's nice and simple. The trailers look really bad, but I'm sure that's just the shape they were left in.
These discs are good enough that I've decided I can finally halt my quest for the pricey LDs now. In fact I think I will see if I can back them up as I've heard that DVD-rs can die out, and in case anything happened to them I need a safety set, just so I can watch them whenever I want or maybe lend them to my brother. So despite a few quibbles I'm quite happy with the discs and heartily recommend them to anyone who is considering picking them up from TR47. I especially can't wait for this new set that he might have cooking up soon, so until then I can live with these versions of the original OT.
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And I'm a monkey, in a long line of kings.
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And I'm a monkey, in a long line of kings.
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And I'm a monkey, in a long line of kings.
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Originally posted by: TR47
Try this site for info:
http://www.prillaman.net/starwarsdvd.html
You should add that this offer is (unfortunately) only for U.S. citizens. Try this site for info:
http://www.prillaman.net/starwarsdvd.html
*sniff*Doc
Harold: The way of the warrior doesn't stand a chance against the way of the wife.
('K2', 1991)