Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released) — Page 559

Hello, I'm new to the community and I'm trying to find out how to access the newest versions of the films. Mind giving a noob some help? 

Hey guys,

I've recently downloaded ANH, thanks Harmy.

I haven't watched the whole film yet, as I'm waiting for the appropriate moment to watch it with my 5 year old son, in anticipation of the new films coming in December, which I'm really looking forward to. So thanks again to Harmy and others for putting these out.

However, I had a couple of points, and I hope these are not taken as flat out negative criticism, I just wanted to point out a couple of things I've noticed and to see if people had any opinions.

1. Sometimes to my eye, the picture can be a little too sharp. Especially noticeable to me, but not limited to, when Luke is talking to his aunt and uncle 25 mins in.
2. Also for me, the colours at times, seem too natural.  I know apparently the colour tone has been taken from some original source, and it may just be my sub-conscience subjective bias remembering the look of the film from video, but to me, the colours can look a little plain, flat and natural.  I was reading another post somewhere else, with some other fan edit, about the style of shots popular at the time, for this type of cinematography, when the film was made.  And this point relates to all my points really, in that, I think the film did and should have a semi-otherworldly cellular glaze. A movie lens if you will.  Sorry I'm not a pro when it comes to the terms. For me a little skewed hue and softness to the shots added to the make-believe dimension.
3. Thirdly, my final point, and still related to my overarching analyses. In music, when making a record, when collecting a variety of individual instruments from different sources of different studio conditions, there are a variety of studio tricks to help the composition glue and sit together nicely.  One of these, for instance, is compression.  It can make 4 different instruments recorded in 4 different studio environments, say, sound like they were all recorded in the same room.  Now for those not following, I kinda feel this despecialized edition needs an equivalent trick.  I'm sure the combo of consistent lenses and film-type and universally applied effects to films do the same thing.  Has any been applied to the DE, considering, as Harmy says, he has taken footage and shots from a collection of sources?

Anyway, see what people think?  Sorry if I seem overly critical or misguided, I'm an absolute novice when it comes to film editing/cinematography, so I could be talking rubbish.

1. I never really noticed a problem with sharpening. Looking at it side-by-side with other projects, maybe it's  bit sharp or maybe it's the contrast, but it looks good. The scene you're talking about has really awful color and contrast on the blu-ray and is tough to get looking good.

2. The color has been discussed a million times since the new versions came out. I don't think I've seen it described as too natural, yet, though. I do think that your opinion is probably biased by the more recent home video releases. In Harmy's, it generally looks quite good but there are some shots/scenes that aren't perfect, as the 35mm scans they were based on were not corrected to the print yet. I like the attempt to get it to match the IB tech, but I realize it's not there yet. I also really, really like the moderate color correction of v1.0, and kind of wish we had a version of 2.5 with that color. :)

3. I've read this a few times and can't tell what you're actually suggesting. A way of making the sources blend together better? With some kind of filter or what? I think if you had seen the sources going into it, you'd be pretty surprised at how well they match. One thing that I think could use a little color tweak to bring the sources closer together is where Luke, Obiwan, and  the droids are getting out of the speeder at the cantina. But it looks good enough.

I have become convinced that, barring access to the ANH 3 color separations, that the original colors have been lost. Technicolor gives us a low fade print, but not fade free and we can't be sure how accurate a given print is. The color film stock prints have all faded in various ways. The original negative has faded and that is what the SE, DVD, and BR were taken from. I'm operating under the assumption that the prints used to make the DE LD set and the GOUT DVDs, being the oldest well cared for prints I know of and with the transfers done so long ago, that those are probably the best examples of the color. I found that TESB didn't need much more than some contrast adjustment. The GOUT ANH barely more than that. So I'm going to use the DE/GOUT as my reference. It helps that they match so many other references that I've been going over, such as the various behind the scenes videos and promotional photos. But this whole area of color correcting is really a matter of taste. Those who like red faces, don't mind the DVD/BR edition. Those who love Technicolor, go for that. I don't agree with all of Harmy's color choices, but his color choices are way better than the DVD/BR colors and his version is much more watchable. Since I don't agree with his choices, I'm doing my own. I'm obsessed with getting the flesh tones right, some red, but not too much. So that colors how I prefer to see these films and how I am going about changing the colors to match. And a meeting I had today at work may allow a bit more red into what I'm doing (outside observations of real people can be very insightful).

Regarding the colour on ANH, do the earlier versions of the despecialized edition have significantly different grading from version 2.5?

I'm a little confused by something in Harmy's post:

"The ISO image can be burned to a DVD-DL and should work in most Blu-Ray players."

Can it be burned to a Blu Ray? It's an AVCHD, so it seems like that should be able to burn to a Blu Ray. It's a little confusing that he specifies it can be burned to a DVD and that DVD can be played in a blu ray player.

I don't think they respond here anymore, do they?

This may belong in the tech tips section since it's a calibration question, but it relates specifically to the Despecialized Edition, so I figured maybe someone here has experienced the same issue. I've got two TVs that I watch movies on, a Samsung 1080p 50" LED smart tv in the living room and a Samsung 720p 42" plasma in the basement (this is where the bulk of my Star Wars viewing occurs out of courtesy to the family). The DE looks spectacular on the LED display, but on the plasma the seams between the different elements are super obvious and distracting. Does the plasma just produce an intrinsically harsher image, or might there be a fix for this in the screen settings? I'm currently using this guy's settings, and I've made a blu ray from the MKV.