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kk650's Star Wars Saga: Regraded and Semi-Specialized (Released)

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 (Edited)

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.

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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

 

 
 

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.

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!

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The regraded prequels sound interesting. Would somebody upload it to a certain spleen ?

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I don't personally have the ability to re-up to a torrent, but as I said in the original post, kk650 doesn't mind anyone doing that, so long as they give him due credit.

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The prequel regrades sound really interesting. It's disappointing that ROTS is only available in a 7.9 GB version though.

I'll be passing on the OT versions. I just can't stand any of the SE alterations anymore. Harmy's versions are now all I'll ever need (until an official release).

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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Erikstormtrooper said:

It's disappointing that ROTS is only available in a 7.9 GB version though.

If you ask nicely, on tehparadox, kk650 may oblige and encode a bigger 16GB version, I suspect. He probably still has the original project files...

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The Aluminum Falcon said:

Erikstormtrooper said:

It's disappointing that ROTS is only available in a 7.9 GB version though.

If you ask nicely, on tehparadox, kk650 may oblige and encode a bigger 16GB version, I suspect. He probably still has the original project files...

 There's no need to ask.  He's posted a 16gb TPM, a 17gb AOTC, and he said in a couple of threads that ROTS 16gb is coming up soon.

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Awesome news! Thanks for passing it on.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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 (Edited)

Okay guys, i'm planning to release new versions of Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition, The Empire Strikes Back Semi-Specialised Edition and Return of the Jedi Semi-Specialised Edition (details of what SE changes have been kept or removed can be found above in the first post of this thread, very kindly posted by The Aluminum Falcon).

After having seen lots of film prints and releases like Harmy's Despecialised Edition on this forum I have decided to try to modify the colour grading of my semi-specialised releases to better match the fleshtones/look of these film prints, like the shots from this post in Neverar's thread that have a very distinctive look to the fleshtones: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Neverars-1080p-Star-Wars-Color-Correction/post/683002/#TopicPost683002

I'd really appreciate it if you guys could have a look at these regraded shots and give me your thoughts.

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Will you be using the original entry to Mos Eisley, or the Special Edition version?

“That’s impossible, even for a computer!”

“You don't do ‘Star Wars’ in Dobly.”

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The skintones are looking great!

I must say that I have your ROTJ Semi-Specialized Edition and it is my favorite version so far. The color correction on that is subtle but pretty good. I'm looking forward to see how this new version is gonna be.

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StarThoughts said:

Will you be using the original entry to Mos Eisley, or the Special Edition version?

I will be using the Special Edition version but all the Silly CG droid and jawa antics when they enter Mos Eisley have been removed.

So what do you think of the regraded shots?

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bttfbrasilfan said:

The skintones are looking great!

I must say that I have your ROTJ Semi-Specialized Edition and it is my favorite version so far. The color correction on that is subtle but pretty good. I'm looking forward to see how this new version is gonna be.

Cheers! I'm also looking forward to seeing how the ROTJ Semi-Specialised Edition turns out as well. :)

Can you have a look at these three shots and let me know which shot you prefer in terms of flesh tones? (difference is quite subtle, easier to see the difference if you view the images in seperate windows and switch between them)

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Could you also have a look at these three and let me know which you prefer the fleshtones of:

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haha am I the only one that can see the difference between those three shots!? Certainly seems that way from the lack of replies. In case anybody is interested, the first shot has the least green in the fleshtones and as you go down the green increases. The first shot probably has perhaps too much red in the fleshtones and the third has perhaps too much green so probably the best option is to strike a balance between the two and go with the fleshtones from the second shots IMHO.

How about the first set of screencaps I posted though, what does everybody think? Feel free to criticise all you want. You guys on originaltrilogy.com know a lot more about how star wars is meant to look than I do so that's why I'm looking to you guys for advice on how to regrade this. Please help me out here.

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On my monitor here, there's too much green in the second shots, and WAY too much green in the the third.

RE: the screen caps above, still too much green IMO. At least on my monitor.

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Joel said:

On my monitor here, there's too much green in the second shots, and WAY too much green in the the third.

RE: the screen caps above, still too much green IMO. At least on my monitor.

Thanks for the feedback Joel! :)

I agree that the second and third shots have too much green in the fleshtones. On my professionally colour calibrated monitor though the first shots have a little too much red in the fleshtones IMHO, like all the first screencaps I posted. I think i'll be going with something between the first and second shots.

I'll be posting a preview video very soon so hopefully you and others here can give their thoughts on how it looks in motion.

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kk650 said:

Joel said:

On my monitor here, there's too much green in the second shots, and WAY too much green in the the third.

RE: the screen caps above, still too much green IMO. At least on my monitor.

Thanks for the feedback Joel! :)

I agree that the second and third shots have too much green in the fleshtones. On my professionally colour calibrated monitor though the first shots have a little too much red in the fleshtones IMHO, like all the first screencaps I posted. I think i'll be going with something between the first and second shots.

I'll be posting a preview video very soon so hopefully you and others here can give their thoughts on how it looks in motion.

 2nd or 3rd one looks best. Star Wars seems to have greenish skin tones in the technicolor prints, so I'd lean on the side of green. The sample shots look good. Some of the shots look too dark, but that's one of the many, many flaws of the 2004 master. Maybe try brightening the highlights a little?

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First of all, those screenshots show a big improvement, good job!

As for the three images of the control room, I'd be careful about directly adding green to the red, as seems to have happened there, because the red lights have turned a bit orange. I like shots like that because you can play with the colors while directly seeing the effect on the primary reds, blues, and yellows, such as the lights in that room.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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I like the result you've got here kk650 and will be looking out for the clip. On my screen and for my tastes I like the 3rd grading best.

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ElectricTriangle said:

kk650 said:

Joel said:

On my monitor here, there's too much green in the second shots, and WAY too much green in the the third.

RE: the screen caps above, still too much green IMO. At least on my monitor.

Thanks for the feedback Joel! :)

I agree that the second and third shots have too much green in the fleshtones. On my professionally colour calibrated monitor though the first shots have a little too much red in the fleshtones IMHO, like all the first screencaps I posted. I think i'll be going with something between the first and second shots.

I'll be posting a preview video very soon so hopefully you and others here can give their thoughts on how it looks in motion.

 2nd or 3rd one looks best. Star Wars seems to have greenish skin tones in the technicolor prints, so I'd lean on the side of green. The sample shots look good. Some of the shots look too dark, but that's one of the many, many flaws of the 2004 master. Maybe try brightening the highlights a little?

 I definately agree that there has to be green in the fleshtones, that can be clearly seen in the technicolor prints, but not too much and the 3rd is definately too much IMHO, at least to my eyes, the green is pretty overwhelming across the whole film with that setting, drowning out the other colours and changing the reds too much. I'm leaning towards the second right now.

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NeverarGreat said:

First of all, those screenshots show a big improvement, good job!

As for the three images of the control room, I'd be careful about directly adding green to the red, as seems to have happened there, because the red lights have turned a bit orange. I like shots like that because you can play with the colors while directly seeing the effect on the primary reds, blues, and yellows, such as the lights in that room.

Thanks NeverarGreat, i'm glad you like what i've done here! :)

Yes I agree with you 100%, that's the problem with adding too much green, it starts messing with the reds like the red lights turning orange which you definately don't want, its all a bit of a balancing act. Definately the 3rd grading is too much for that reason alone.

It is pretty cool seeing how all the primary colours change in the control room screencaps as you apply more green, I purposely matched the exact frame from the senator image you've got in your thread to be able to use that senator shot as a guide for the colours, so thats really why I selected that control room shot but you're right, its a great shot for seeing how all the different colours are being affected when you change settings.

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frank678 said:

I like the result you've got here kk650 and will be looking out for the clip. On my screen and for my tastes I like the 3rd grading best.

Thanks frank678, glad you like the regraded shots. The 3rd grading has a lot more green than the original screencaps I posted, too much IMHO. The 1st grading is the same as the regraded shots I posted first and the 2nd grading has a bit of green added. I think a setting around the 2nd grading is the way to go.

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 (Edited)

Here is a preview clip I've created with my latest settings. Guys, please check this out and let me know what you think (download speed is very quick):

https://mega.co.nz/#!u8whlTBT!etypokJ6EoWe11FJyb3DeSKeUVEZ8Ars8KJuCtbwToU

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Amazing work in the preview clip, suddenly I don't mind watching the bluray.  I'd love to see clips from others too.

In terms of the settings, this seemed just about right level of green.

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Very nice clip! Like the natural looking balance of tones in this. Makes it really easy on the eye to watch. Please post more.