Hello all, just to start, the projects described in this thread are NOT made by me but by kingkong650: a tehparadox user/former originaltrilogy member, who politely asked if I could start a thread for him.
This thread contains the technical specifications and descriptions for all the releases, copied verbatim from tehparadox. It only has information on the Star Wars releases; for all other releases, refer to the upcoming “kk650 regraded mega-thread” in the “Other Preservations and Fan Projects” section.
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Prequel Trilogy
THE PHANTOM MENACE: Regrained Edition
Like many, I was unhappy with the all the DNR (Digital noise Reduction) that the official blu-ray of The Phantom Menace had that scrubbed away lot of the detail, making everybody in the film look very waxy, so I decided to try and see if I could reverse the DNR by adding some film grain myself.
By adding some fine grain to the transfer, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of detail that I was able to recover that I hadn’t even noticed before on the blu-ray. All this detail that had been hiding beneath the DNR had just come right up to the surface, making this new regrained version of The Phantom Menace not only more filmlike but more detailed as well, all considered, a big improvement over the original blu-ray transfer IMHO, especially when viewed in motion.
Available both in 7.82 and 16 GB versions.
----7.82 GB version----
Technical Specs:
Name: The Phantom Menace Regrained Edition
Size: 7.82 GB (fits on a DVD9)
Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976
Audio Track: English Dolby DTS 6.1
Subtitle Track 1: Alien Subtitles in English
Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles
----16 GB version----
Technical Specs:
Name: The Phantom Menace Regrained Edition
Size: 15.6 GB
Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976
Audio Track: English Dolby DTS 6.1
Subtitle Track 1: Alien Subtitles in English
Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles
Karlosfunkster and Makalala requested a 16GB version of this release so here it is. This 16GB version really is a very noticable improvement over the 8GB release in terms of a natural filmic grain look and added detail so I would recommend that everybody check it out. This film really looks much much better in this version than on the blu-ray IMHO, no more smoothed out digital looking waxy faces anymore. I actually really enjoy watching this film now because it has that ‘filmic’ feel again, as it should because it was still shot on film, before GL started shooting on digital for AOTC.
ATTACK OF THE CLONES: Regraded Edition
From the initial release of the Star Wars Complete Saga on blu-ray, I have always felt that Attack of the Clones has easily the worst transfer of the six films. A lot of people think that The Phantom Menace transfer is worse but I disagree because The Phantom Menace just suffers from one problem, from too much DNR, the colours and other image dynamics however are fine.
The blu-ray transfer of Attack of the Clones suffers from two big problems though:
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The transfer of Attack of the Clones has been DNRed to high heaven, in some ways worse even than the massively DNRed The Phantom Menace transfer. Everything looks soft and the whole transfer lacks detail.
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Attack of the Clones has had a strong dark teal tint added to it across the whole film, making everything look underexposed and all things meant to look white now look teal. It makes the whole transfer look pretty dull and awful IMHO. The DVDs never had this teal tint, the hdtv versions never had this teal tint, so I don’t understand why it was added, it really ruins the look of what used to be a very visually appealing film.
So I went looking for the highest quality source of the film I could find that had the original theatrical colours rather than this new underexposed teal look found on the official blu-ray. Using a couple of high quality hdtv streams of Attack of the Clones as sources, I recreated the blu-ray release of Attack of the Clones with the visually appealing colour grading of previous releases. I also found that these sources had far more fine detail than the blu-ray transfer, confirming what i’d already suspected, that the lack of detail wasn’t something inherent to the original digital master like some people had suggested, but that the the original master of Attack of the Clones had much more fine detail and this master has been massively DNRed to create the transfer on the blu-ray.
I personally find this new version of Attack of the Clones to be a big improvement over the official blu-ray, both in terms of fine detail and in terms of colour. Things meant to be white are now white again. I hope you enjoy what I’ve done here with this release.
Available both in 7.93 and 17 GB versions
----7.93 GB version----
Technical Specs:
Name: Regraded Attack of the Clones
Size: 7.93 GB (fits on a DVD9)
Video: 1920x820 H264 23.976
Audio Track: English Dolby DTS 6.1
Subtitle Track 1: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 2: Spanish Subtitles
Hardcoded Alien Subtitles in English
-----17 GB version----
Technical Specs:
Name: Regraded Attack of the Clones
Size: 17.2 GB
Video: 1920x1088 H264 23.976
Audio Track: English Dolby DTS 6.1
Subtitle Track 1: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 2: Spanish Subtitles
Hardcoded Alien Subtitles in English
sceptre208 requested a 17GB version of this release so here it is. This version is definately nicer looking and more detailed than the 8GB release so you should check it out. Due to this release being taken from a high quality hdtv transport stream source that hasn´t been DNRed like the blu-ray, this 17GB release is a lot more detailed than the official blu-ray. Of course the strong dark teal tint is gone as well, so overall this release is much better than the official blu-ray both in terms of detail and colour.
REVENGE OF THE SITH: Regraded Edition
Technical Specs:
Name: Regraded Revenge of the Sith
Size: 7.90 GB
Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976
Audio Track: English Dolby DTS 6.1
Subtitle Track 1: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 2: Spanish Subtitles
Okay, while Revenge of the Sith has always been a very solid transfer in terms of image quality, the colour palette leaves a little to be desired. A blanket green tint has been applied to the whole film, making everything too green and fleshtones a little sickly, so I have gone ahead and removed that green tint, making the colours more natural and the film more visually appealing in the process.
I hope you enjoy what i´ve done here. Please post back here with feedback of what you think of this release after you check it out, it would be greatly appreciated.
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Original Trilogy
Like many, I was unhappy with a lot the changes that were made for the Special Editions and most recently the blu-rays.
Harmy’s Despecialised Editions are great for those that want to see the films exactly as they were when they were originally released theatrically, but some of the changes (especially the updating of special effects) actually make the films better IMHO, so I decided to make ‘Semi-Specialised’ editions of these films to remove what I considered the bad changes while keeping all the good changes/additions.
After working on and off on these three films for almost two years, the Star Wars Semi-Specialised original trilogy is finally finished.
I hope that you enjoy these releases as much as I enjoyed making them. Do please let me know whether you like this release and if not, feel free to say why. If you run into any problems, also let me know and i’ll see what I can do.
STAR WARS: Semi-Specialized Edition
Below is a brief summary of the changes made to this film:
Star Wars:
Audio changes:
Original Krayt Dragon call restored
New lossless pcm audio track created to fit this semi-specialised edition, based off Belbucus’s excellent 1993 Star Wars PCM audio mix
Video Changes:
Regraded to remove blue tint running throughout the whole film that was introduced for the first time in the special edition DVD and was carried over to the blu-ray
R2D2 no longer hiding behind a CG rock when Obi One Kenobi appears
Silly CG droid and jawa antics when they enter Mos Eisley have been removed
Jabba scene removed
Han shoots Greedo first with no awful CG head dodging action
Lightsabers made more consistant so they are not constantly changing colour, Vader’s lightsaber is now red all the time rather than turning pink.
Available both in 7.57 and 16 GB versions.
----7.57 GB version----
Technical Specs:
Name: Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition
Size: 7.57 GB (fits on a DVD9)
Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976
Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus’s 1993 PCM audio mix
Subtitle Track 1: Alien Subtitles in English
Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles
----16 GB version----
Technical Specs:
Name: Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition
Size: 15.4 GB
Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976
Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus’s 1993 PCM audio mix
Subtitle Track 1: Alien Subtitles in English
Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Semi-Specialized Edition
Below is a brief summary of the changes made to this film:
The Empire Strikes Back:
Audio changes:
The emperor’s original dialogue from the theatrical release has been restored
The original voice of Boba Fett from the theatrical release has been restored
Luke’s line ‘you’re lucky you don’t taste so good’ after R2D2 gets spat out has been restored
Darth Vader’s line ‘Bring me my shuttle’ has been restored
New lossless pcm audio track created to fit this semi-specialised edition, based off Belbucus’s excellent 1993 Empire Strikes Back PCM audio mix
Video Changes:
Regraded to remove blue tint running throughout the whole film that was introduced for the first time in the special edition DVD and was carried over to the blu-ray
The original emperor from the theatrical release has been returned (my thanks goes to Adywan for the original emperor footage taken from his Empire Strikes Back colour corrected ‘purist’ edition)
The digitally added sparks for the blu-ray in the scene where chewie is trying to get c3po from the dwarves have been removed
All extra shots of Darth Vader going back to the Executor and the arrival on the star destroyer that were not in the theatrical release have been removed so they do not interupt the escape of the millenium falcon
Lightsabers made more consistant so they are not constantly changing colour, Vader’s lightsaber is now red all the time rather than turning pink.
Available both in 7.74 and 17 GB versions
----7.74 GB version----
Technical Specs:
Name: The Empire Strikes Back Semi-Specialised Edition
Size: 7.74 GB (fits on a DVD9)
Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976
Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus’s 1993 PCM audio mix
Subtitle Track 1: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 2: Spanish Subtitles
----16 GB version----
Technical Specs:
Name: The Empire Strikes Back Semi-Specialised Edition
Size: 15.4 GB
Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976
Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus’s 1993 PCM audio mix
Subtitle Track 1: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 2: Spanish Subtitles
RETURN OF THE JEDI: Semi-Specialized Edition
Below is a brief summary of the changes made to this film:
Return of the Jedi:
Audio changes:
Han Solo’s ‘it’s alright, I can see a lot better’ line from the special edition when he’s aiming his gun to free Lando from the Sarlacc’s clutches has been replaced with the original line ‘it’s alright, trust me’
Darth Vader’s ‘Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!’ at the climax of the film has been removed and his silence restored.
New lossless pcm audio track created to fit this semi-specialised edition, based off Belbucus’s excellent 1993 Return of the Jedi PCM audio mix
Video Changes:
Regraded to remove blue tint running throughout the whole film that was introduced for the first time in the special edition DVD and was carried over to the blu-ray
The huge CG door leading into jabba’s palace that was added for the blu-ray release has been replaced with the original door from the theatrical release
The awful CG fest ‘Jedi Rocks’ has been removed and replaced with the original song from the theatrical release, Lapti Nek
The over the top carbon defreezing effects added to the blu-ray have been removed and replaced with the original defreezing effects from the theatrical release
The CG Dug added to the blu-ray release that walks down the steps of jabba palace just before Luke arrives has been removed and replaced with the original shot without the CG Dug
The creepy CG blinking ewok eyes added to the blu-ray have been removed and replaced with how they were in the theatrical release
When R2D2 gets shot, all the CGI appendages added for the blu-ray release have been removed
All the CG celebration scenes on the other planets have been removed with the exception of the first, cloud city. Jar Jar Binks and his ‘Weesa Free!’ is gone, thankfully.
Hayden Christensen and his creepy glare has been removed from the final scene with the jedi spirits and replaced with the original actor from the theatrical release, Sebastian Shaw
Lightsabers made more consistant so they are not constantly changing colour, Vader’s lightsaber is now red all the time rather than turning pink.
Available with unaltered “Yub Nub” ending and tweaked “Victory Celebration” ending
----“Yub Nub” version----
Technical Specs:
Name: Return of the Jedi Semi-Specialised Edition (with Yub Nub ending)
Size: 16.4 GB
Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976
Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus’s 1993 PCM audio mix
Subtitle Track 1: Alien Subtitles in English
Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles
----“Victory Celebration” version----
Technical Specs:
Name: Return of the Jedi Semi-Specialised Edition
Size: 16.1 GB
Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976
Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus’s 1993 PCM audio mix
Subtitle Track 1: Alien Subtitles in English
Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles
Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles
All releases are uploaded to Uploaded and Netload. Due to forum rules, direct links are not posted here but can easily be found on tehparadox.
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Screenshots are on tehparadox. Sorry, I didn’t post them directly here. But, just google the title of the project you’re interested in, and you’ll find it right away.
Footnotes: kingkong650 is unable to post on these forums at the moment, but sends his best. He intended these releases for the folks here. He hopes you enjoy them…
Feel free to re-upload these, as long as you give him credit, of course!