This thread is for discussion of the Shea’79 VHS Bootleg.

The Shea’79 Bootleg is a VHS bootleg of Star Wars from 1979, on a Magnavox tape, introduced to us here at OT.com by PhotoDroid, with ownership attributed to a friend of his named “Shea”.

PhotoDroid sent me the tape for digitization in March 2013. I completed the project in a few days, using a Panasonic AG-1980 VHS deck, an AVTools TBC, and a Canopus ADVC-100. It is letterboxed widescreen, and seems (to me) have the 35mm mix. I suspect that it was originally telecined from a 16mm print, judging by the additional reel change dots in the same places as the Puggo Grande.

The quality, as expected, is fairly poor, exhibiting the typical bevy of old VHS symptoms - smearing, floating colors, wavering, etc. But the color balance seems very good and so it may be of some interest as an early color source.

I have added a webpage devoted to the Shea Bootleg on my Puggo website:
http://www.hardbat.com/puggo (then click on Shea bootleg)

Screen caps to follow!