'RotJ' NFO:
Return of the Jedi
1983 Theatrical Edition
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Custom BD-50
Source: Premiere HD, Sky HD,
Return Of The Jedi Theatrical (GOUT Sourced) Custom DVD - by DarkJedi
Length: 2:11:42
Video: 1080p23.976 MPEG-2 34.70Mbps
Audio 1: English PCM 2.0 1536 Kbps (LaserDisc audio by Belbucus)
Audio 2: English AC3 2.0 Dolby Surround 192 Kbps (Official DVD)
Audio 3: English DTS 5.1 1509 Kbps (LaserDisc upmix by hairy_hen)
Audio 4: English AC3 2.0 384 Kbps (LaserDisc audio from DarkJedi DVD)
Subtitles: None (hardcoded English for Huttese)
Chapters: 50 chapter marks from DVD
Menu: None (use your remote to switch audio)
Authored with: Sonic Scenarist BD 5.2
http://comparescreenshots.slicx.com/comparison/71685
(The last one is to show you that any artifacts you see were already present
in the original cap.)
I wasn't planning on doing this one since I thought it would be unwatchable
like the first one, but then I realized that the bulk of this film was
unchanged. And I used a cleaned up source for the DVD. The image is perfectly
stable, there are no lines on the side, almost no aliasing, and the noise has
been cleaned up (OMG DNR!). Thanks to DarkJedi. I think it blends pretty darn
well with the HD. Judge for yourself. And again this is just a straight edit
between the two versions. No fancy CG restorations. There is only about 5
minutes total of DVD footage. The rest of the movie is from the 1080p cap.
Sorry for the first release of "Star Wars 1977 BD" sucking so bad. After I
finished it I decided it wasn't worthy of release but then I changed my mind.
And then I changed it again. Just like Lucas! Please delete all copies of it.
It's an embarrassment. My own personal Holiday Special. I do plan on
revisiting it at some point with much better source material and not being so
anal about restoring every tiny change. Stay tuned.
If you didn't download "The Empire Strike Back 1980 BD" because the first
release scared you off, please do get it. It is actually quite good and is
undoubtedly the best quality out of all three, mostly due to adywan's
restorations. Search for bd-tesb1980 in cause you forgot :) Google "rapidoor"
for the standard password.
What was restored:
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-All audio changes are restored in case that is not obvious from the track
listing. But please note that the 5.1 upmix has changes so it is not fully
theatrical, and the AC3 2.0 384Kbps track doesn't appear to have surround
encoding.
-Opening Logos
-Lapti Nek music sequence
-Removal of 2 new shots of Boba Fett in Jabba's Palace (blatant pandering to
fanboys...). I had to use one subtitled shot from the DVD, and it's in the
black bar unlike the HD scenes. Sorry. I suppose a better person could have
re-rendered the subs. But at least it's the same color.
-No more Banthas in desert
-All shots of Sarlacc pit
-No rope around Han's feet
(The next 85 minutes is pure HD since there were no SE changes. Hooray.)
-Anakin's death scene. How dare Lucas erase the amazing performance given by
Sebastian Shaw's eyebrows! (A couple of Luke shots probably didn't have to
come from the DVD but it makes the scene flow better.)
-Shot of rebel fleet flying away from Death Star
-Shot of Death Star explosion
-End celebration including Force Ghosts and Yub Nub!
-End credits (The last shot was heavily cut in the SE so it had to be
restored no matter what, and it wipes to the original credits.)
What was NOT restored:
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-Any minor special effects clean-ups (duh). There are a lot of them.
-Lightsabers
-One shot of Black&Blue R2 in spaaaaaaaace
-No color co-wreck-tion. Seriously, just stop doing this. It never looks
right. I doubt anyone is using professionally calibrated monitors when they
are trying to "fix" the colors. And they probably aren't doing it
scene-by-scene either. A one-time blanket adjustment is not going to do the
trick. Most of the ones I've seen just end up having a yellow tint instead of
a blue tint. It doesn't look anything like the previous transfers. And the
crushed blacks is obviously not something you can fix either. Just leave it
alone. You can't really "correct" the colors without losing something with
it. We are not working from an original source here after all.
The new transfers are not that bad other than maybe the lightsabers in
a few shots. You get used to the blue tint after a while too. It seems like
almost every new HD transfer on Blu-ray gets this blue/aqua tint now (Star
Trek II, Gladiator re-release, Gangs of New York re-release, Blade Runner:
Final Cut, Heat, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, et al.). It's just par for
the course nowadays. Deal with it. And who is to say how accurate an old 1993
SD master was in the first place. It does look pretty dull by comparison now.
I never understood why people said Yoda was green until I saw the new
transfers. So there!
Nerd stuff:
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I probably could have used a couple of shots from the DVB broadcast of the
1997 Jedi SE but it just has too much blockiness.
FYI the official Jedi theatrical DVD has an error at 0:47:43 on a reel change
where two frames are essentially missing. The HD cap is NOT missing these
frames however so an audio edit is required here (these frames were on
previous LaserDisc versions so we know it's not an SE change). There is also
another DVD error at 1:38:33 on a reel change but there is nothing missing,
there's just some combing.
The SE DOES have an extra frame at 0:36:24 on the Tatooine fly-away though.
It's actually the second to last frame of the shot. It's an extra in-between
frame of the X-Wing flying away. Maybe the original was just missing a frame
here all along and they fixed it. I could have kept it and edited the audio
to match, but I decided to cut it out in order to stay pure to the original
version of the film. :P
Most of the time when there is a new shot inserted in the SE the original
shots around it are actually cut by a few frames. In case you are wondering
why some shots were restored even though there is no visible change, that's
why.
And in case you don't know, the opening trailer on this disc was shown with
the original theatrical release of Return of the Jedi in 1983. ;)
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BTW adywan, your name was never mentioned when I first referred to "retarded
fan edits" but I'm glad you assumed it was about yours, and then proceeded
to attack me like a little crybaby. Maybe it's just your ego thinking that
*your* fan edit is the only one anyone has watched. Or maybe you think your
edit is retarded too. For someone who is supposed to be so widely regarded
you sure do act like a petulant child.
The reason why I didn't use your insignia scene in Empire is because I didn't
like the artifacting in the part of the frame where they were replaced. This
change didn't bother me and I wanted to keep as much original high quality
footage as possible as I stated. (BTW you still missed another fixed reversed
insignia on another officer in a later shot. Plus some later shots of blue R2
and one shot of Cloud City. Not to mention countless audio changes. In your
own words: epic FAIL!!!) Otherwise I am grateful for your restoration work
and that is why I used it with proper credit. Which is still better than
butchering someone else's film with a retarded fan edit, not thanking him at
all for making the film in the first place, and all the while cursing him for
making HIS own changes to HIS own film.
And pro-tip: up the bitrate on your encodes and stop trying to fit HD onto
DVDs. Your AVCHD releases are absolutely pathetic. I don't know how anyone
could miss all of that obvious pulsing on Episode IV. It's clear as day.
Everyone who is praising these releases at originaltrilogy.com needs to get
their eyes checked. Seriously. Or just stick to your VHS since you all
obviously know nothing about HD quality.
adywang's AVCHD vs. source:
http://comparescreenshots.slicx.com/comparison/71838
This is what the kids call EPIC FAIL!!!!1111oneone
Isn't it funny how "old" MPEG-2 beats the pants off this low bitrate
crapfest. I guess it's more about who is using the tools rather than the
tools themselves.
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(What's up with fan edits anyway? I don't get it. If you don't want the
filmmaker to change his film why would you want some random person on the
internet to do it instead, with even lamer looking CG and more unnecessary
"fixes"? Anyway...)
Oh and uhhh...thanks to the Fat Bearded One. And I don't mean Zorba the Hutt!
Look ma no password