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Post #597400

Author
SS4DarthPayne
Parent topic
The 1997 OT Special Edition Trilogy Preservation Standards Thread (* unfinished *)
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/597400/action/topic#597400
Date created
22-Sep-2012, 8:31 AM

Finally a topic I know something about! What I know:

Don't ask me from a technical standpoint why, but most people point to the digital broadcast recordings as the best sources to look towards for the 1997 set. And I trust them. To my knowledge there is the TB set, the G'Kar set, REIVAX and Flunk. However, REIVAX and Flunk only have A New Hope. This is a damper. I personally believe that the Flunk version looks far and away the best. I think this is because it was released as a dual-layer DVD. REIVAX I believe had a French audio track that was the default selection so I always had to change it. I want to say that it was second in quality.

(Sorry for the uncertainty, I am away from my desktop computer for an extended period of time so much of this is from memory).

Then there are the TB and G'Kar sets; the only digital recordings to my knowledge that have all three of the movies. As has been well-documented, the G'Kar set is in German (e.g. the crawls and subtitles and such). Given this, I have always gravitated towards the TB set. Now again, this is from memory, but I believe the consensus was that the G'Kar set picture quality was better, but the whole being in German thing was a problem.

So as is only logical, people decided to try to mix the TB and G'Kar sets for the best possible solution (this is what STENDEC has said he is trying to do). I am inclined to say that there was another attempt at this even before Max_Rebo's 'superset,' but as it stands, the only attempt I remember definitively is the aforementioned 'superset' by Max_Rebo. It's project thread is here: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Max-Rebos-97-SE-superset-preservation/topic/9031/     That project was, while it was going, my most anticipated project on these forums, but sadly it looks like it has died. There is, however, a lot of useful information in that thread if people want to poke around it. 

The last thing I will mention is that, at least to my untrained eye, the TB set's Return of the Jedi looks awful. I could be completely wrong; I am in no way a picture quality expert, but it just looks incredibly blurry to me. I have no idea why this would be. I don't think I was ever able to get a copy of the G'Kar Return of the Jedi for comparison, but the TB Return of the Jedi definitely left me disappointed. Oddly, I do not think I have heard many people mention this, so it could just be me. Also, the TB sets have a white '+' sign and a blue rectangle in the upper right-hand corners of the widescreen bars. That's neither here nor there, but just something to note. 

When it's all said and done, while it may seem blasphemous around these parts, I am very much invested in someone making a nice 1997 set. (As I've said before, I tried myself and failed miserably). Those are the versions I first saw, and the ones I grew up with. Despite everyone's griping, did the fact that I saw the Special Editions instead of the originals turn me away from Star Wars? Not a chance! Star Wars is Star Wars, and awesome in any iteration to me. 

If nothing where to ever happen on a 1997 preservation front, this would be my lineup: Flunk ANH, TB ESB, and TB RoJ. I could definitely live with those, but I know better quality is possible. And to be honest, the Flunk ANH looks pretty damn good anyways, so I am more concerned about ESB and RoJ, especially RoJ.