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Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released) — Page 67

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I'm actually really good at programming menus.  I could do whatever you want.  I was actually planning on making my own menus for these once I was able to find them.

If I had some gum, I’d chew a hole into the sun…

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ChainsawAsh said:

That might be the best thing to do - select audio track, then the menu selection defaults to "resume film" after the audio track is selected.  The user can either press "enter" to resume the film, or press "main menu" to go back to the main menu.  I've seen a large number of retail discs like this.

So instead of having "BACK" to the main menu from the audio menu, maybe I should have just put "RESUME FILM" or even "PLAY"?

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schorman13 said:

I'm actually really good at programming menus.  I could do whatever you want.  I was actually planning on making my own menus for these once I was able to find them.

Can you do Blu-ray menu's to?

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dark_jedi said:

schorman13 said:

I'm actually really good at programming menus.  I could do whatever you want.  I was actually planning on making my own menus for these once I was able to find them.

Can you do Blu-ray menu's to?

Hey DJ - Sent you a message.

Save London’s Curzon Soho Cinema

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ChainsawAsh said:

Alright, well, I've received the discs in the mail.  Preliminary report (I've only skimmed a bit of SW):

- Image quality is simply awesome compared to the letterboxed GOUT.  The MKV sample is a very good indicator of the overall quality of this release.
- Subtitles are perfect!
- Chapters start slightly too early each time.  It's like the chapter stops are timed for the PAL GOUT instead of the NTSC, so while they start just fine, by the end they start about 10 seconds too early.
- There's a little bit of a blue tint to the stars in some scenes, but it's hardly noticeable, and it's nowhere near as bad as the ROTJ GOUT.
- I really wish that choosing an audio option either took you back to the main menu, or started the movie, but that's a nitpick
- I've spot-checked every audio mix at each chapter stop, and they all seem to sync perfectly

Further updates as I have them.  I will say this, though - from everything I've seen so far, this by far the definitive GOUT enhancement project, and possibly the definitive representation of the OOT on DVD.

 Nice to hear your initial thoughts on this set.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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I have to admit, if I was good with menu's, personally I would have LOVED to use the retail GOUT menu's for these, obviously they would need some editing, I think the menu's on the GOUT is actually pretty cool.

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Yeah, they're also anamorphic, it's almost like Lucas is mocking us :-)

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I agree with Dark Jedi and Harmy. For a bare bones release, the GOUT menus were pretty good and it was annoying that they were anamorphic while the main film wasn't. I mean, jeez, if we can make a quick anamorphic conversion at home with programs like DVD-Rebuilder, it's a shame that Lucas didn't do the same and just make the thing anamorphic... guess he really wanted to make the GOUT intentionally bad..

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I agree, I like the GOUT menu's less is more approach with the vintage poster theme, the '04 menu's look like a damn video game, but I guess they suit their content. But in the end I don't think the menu's are that important.

Moth3r made a nice re-edit of the GOUT menu for his "Pwnage" but I don't know how much work there is involved doing it. If you decide to do it at another time d_j, the font Trajan Pro is the one used on the official one.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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 (Edited)

ESB:

- The hotline recordings are really cool, nice addition!
- Picture looks fantastic, as expected
- All audio tracks sync perfectly
- The chapter issue I mentioned with Star Wars is also present in Empire
- The cave scene issue from your V1 set (never got V2, so I don't know how well it was fixed for that) is simply not there at all, it looks just as good as the rest of the film

ROTJ:

- Same chapter issue
- All audio mixes sync just fine
- Picture seems a wee bit bright, but I'm thinking that's just the GOUT and I'm not remembering correctly (Jedi is the one I watch least of the trilogy, so I don't have the same frame of reference I have for the other two).
- Again, subtitles are perfect!

I also figured you'd like to know that I checked out the subtitles for Star Wars and Empire on my old, standard-def 20" Toshiba CRT, and no letters or punctuation are lost in the overscan, it's all there and looks great.

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No, they're not.  Fixing them would require splicing in those shots from a different source, or manually isolating and recoloring the affected portions of each shot.  In other words, more work than it's worth for a GOUT enhancement project, IMO.

The bonus set (JSC transfer) doesn't have these issues (but it has other issues that may or may not be worse), as they're inherent to the 1993 master for some reason.

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 (Edited)

dark_jedi said:

I have to admit, if I was good with menu's, personally I would have LOVED to use the retail GOUT menu's for these, obviously they would need some editing, I think the menu's on the GOUT is actually pretty cool.

I've sort of done this already in preparation.  Basically, only the options menu would have to be totally redone from scratch.  I'll post a screen shot of the one I did a little while back.  

Also, I haven't really worked with blu-ray at all, so no, I can't really handle that one yet.  Are you making blu-rays?

Here's the menu I made a while ago.  It's a redo of the GOUT menu.  Obviously the most important part of the menus is the programming though.  I use DVDMaestro to do this.

 

GOUT options menu for Star Wars (Redo)

If I had some gum, I’d chew a hole into the sun…

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 (Edited)

ChainsawAsh said:

ESB:

- The hotline recordings are really cool, nice addition!
- Picture looks fantastic, as expected
- All audio tracks sync perfectly
- The chapter issue I mentioned with Star Wars is also present in Empire
- The cave scene issue from your V1 set (never got V2, so I don't know how well it was fixed for that) is simply not there at all, it looks just as good as the rest of the film

ROTJ:

- Same chapter issue
- All audio mixes sync just fine
- Picture seems a wee bit bright, but I'm thinking that's just the GOUT and I'm not remembering correctly (Jedi is the one I watch least of the trilogy, so I don't have the same frame of reference I have for the other two).
- Again, subtitles are perfect!

I also figured you'd like to know that I checked out the subtitles for Star Wars and Jedi on my old, standard-def 20" Toshiba CRT, and no letters or punctuation are lost in the overscan, it's all there and looks great.

I blush... :) IMO they aren't but I am really satisfied with them, the true original ones have actually much tighter spacing, but I had to compromise in order to get the position and the overall look of the letters as close as possible, something that was impossible if I did the spacing between letters more accurate as the font I used isn't entirely identical. It's nice to hear that they also seem to be CRT-friendly.

I think the Empire hotline recordings are a nice fitting extra you have included, d_j. :)

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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Hey, let's not forget that the GOUT isn't exactly a perfect representation of the theatrical cuts, either.  Your subtitles don't need to be 100% faithful, they just need to be close - and they are very, very close.  I love 'em.  :-)

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ray_afraid said:

schorman13 said:

 

GOUT options menu for Star Wars (Redo)

Hell. Yes. LOVE it!

Me too. Only thing I'd change in this particular one is "theatrical" crawl, since ANH was also "theatrical", only later one. IMO it would be better as Star Wars or then 1977 and 1981. Of course the 1981 isn't on V3 but just saying. :) Btw that looks pretty funny with all those tracks, haha. Not many films has that much.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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Maybe it's just me, but I don't like that menu picture at all.  I'd much prefer a modified version of the actual GOUT menus.

Someone mentioned before about there being flickering on top of the 'eyes' on the stormtroopers' helmets in the scene where they're bringing Leia to Vader near the beginning.  I've noticed this before, it seems to be an inherent flaw of the GOUT, and it looks like nasty aliasing of some sort.  I was hoping the script would take care of it, but apparently not?  Blast . . .

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@ msycamore and ChainsawAsh, you guys have emails, so please them them LOL.

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hairy_hen said:

Maybe it's just me, but I don't like that menu picture at all.  I'd much prefer a modified version of the actual GOUT menus.

Someone mentioned before about there being flickering on top of the 'eyes' on the stormtroopers' helmets in the scene where they're bringing Leia to Vader near the beginning.  I've noticed this before, it seems to be an inherent flaw of the GOUT, and it looks like nasty aliasing of some sort.  I was hoping the script would take care of it, but apparently not?  Blast . . .

Here's the official GOUT version.  I'm just saying that I would keep all GOUT menus the same, except for the options menu.  I think that one would have to be redone, no matter what.  I think mine was pretty close. It's not the final version anyway.

original gout

If I had some gum, I’d chew a hole into the sun…

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The official menu looks ugly because the poster art has been desaturated i like the above version better looks just like a print of the Hildebrandt poster.

The only problem with the replacement menu i see is the above image is not in the correct proportions for 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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Just read your email, DJ.

I haven't had much of a chance to go over the JSC set yet, I've just peeked at ANH.

I like that you kept the CBS/FOX logo at the beginning, that was a nice touch.

It's nice to see the movie without all the DVNR smearing and other weird GOUT glitches, but the image is noticeably softer, and the colors seem a little wonky in some scenes but a little more accurate in others.

And that's pretty much exactly how I expected it to look, so you've done a good job!

I'll update more when I watch the rest.

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ChainsawAsh said:

It's nice to see the movie without all the DVNR smearing and other weird GOUT glitches, but the image is noticeably softer, and the colors seem a little wonky in some scenes but a little more accurate in others.

And that's pretty much exactly how I expected it to look, so you've done a good job!

Though I'm not a donator and will probably never see this set, I am curious; how does the quality compare to Arnie's V8 and Dark Jedi & Segaflip's collaborative transfer of it?

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skyjedi2005 said:

The official menu looks ugly because the poster art has been desaturated i like the above version better looks just like a print of the Hildebrandt poster.

The only problem with the replacement menu i see is the above image is not in the correct proportions for 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.

This is the image you would use.  The DVD player stretches it automatically to 16:9 as long as you set it up that way.

If I had some gum, I’d chew a hole into the sun…