Harmy's RETURN OF THE JEDI Despecialized Edition HD - V3.1 — Page 65

Nearsighted Scrappile said:

Hey Harmy,

I’m sure you’re already aware of this, but there is a closeup of Luke on the Tatooine Skiff that looks worse than a TeleSync. It only lasts a few seconds, but man does it shock the eyes!

No idea what you’re talking about - there is only one such shot of Luke at 0:30:34 that’s been replaced with a 35mm source, because a big chunk of it was missing in the SE but it looks awesome - you can tell it’s a bit less detailed than the other shots, if you’re really looking for it but to me it seems to fit in perfectly, so you can’t be talking about that one.

Harmy: Have you gotten a better source for the “At last we have the mighty Chewbacca” shot, that you originally did some neat smoke effects for to mask the GOUT? I know you dropped 1.0 shots in for most of the subtitles in the workprint. So, not sure if it will be upgraded.

Of course I have - I mean, have you seen the workprint?

Yes, it was at 30:34 that I was talking about. When I went back to the scene and played it a second time, it definitely did not appear nearly as jarring and fit in nicely. Again, I can only thank my crappy eye condition for needing a second viewing. Sorry for any trouble that may have popped up.

cranyx said:

Harmy do you know of any ETA on when 2.0 will be done? I know it probably won’t be before TFA, but I’m just curious.

Facepalm

I’ll have it out ahead of TFA:SE.

I’m not sure if this works with the SUP subtitles, but for the SRT, just rename them to the same name as your video file but with .srt instead of .mkv and put them in the same folder - this way it will work on most devices - like both my BD players and my TV can show subtitles that are muxed in but my parent’s BD player and TV can only show subtitles if they are added the way I described above.

Also, someone put the workprint on myspleen, which I’m completely fine with, though it would have been better to check with me first.

Also, FWIW, MPC-HC allows you to add an external subtitle file to whatever video file you’re playing (File/Load Subtitle), and it works with the SUP format too.

So, you guys remember this?

Harmy said:

In the ROTJ Blu-Ray there’s this whole section which is extremely soft. Here’s a comparison of a shot of Han aboard the shuttle and the same angle from a couple of minutes later:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/150516

And this drop in quality persists for several minutes up until the speederbike chase and I’ve seen some HD scans of prints, which clearly show that this drop in quality wasn’t there in the theatrical prints, in fact, even the theatrical prints actually have much better detail in this section than the BD, so it’s definitely a problem specific to this transfer and it may seem too careless even for Lucasfilm but that’s what happened - my guess would be that the scan did actually go a bit out of focus in that section, but because the master was being done for DVD and for DVD the detail was still fine and they were in a big hurry, they probably just threw a sharpening filter at it and it looked ok on DVD. But this transfer should never have been used for an HD release.

Also notice what I call the carpet syndrome - thin vertical lines running through the whole image, making it look like it’s being projected on a carpet - this is actually present throughout the whole transfer but it’s most obvious in this segment, (which only goes to prove they sharpened it more than the rest, which would make this kind of artifact more visible). It can be dealt with using a slight horizontal blur, which is why it’s not visible on the HDTV captures, which are quite a bit softer than the BD but I’d really love to know what caused this, because I’ve actually seen this effects on many studio masters I’ve worked with in my job and it’s a bit of a mystery to me.

Here’s a quick and dirty fix for that carpeted shot:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/150537

Well, hold on to your hats, because I finally got my hands on a scan of reel 3 from an LPP print and here’s a comparison with the Blu-Ray:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/153998

The difference is shocking!

By the way, this problem is present pretty much exactly throughout the second half of reel three and definitely ends precisely with the last shot of reel 3 and since the negative is actually split into smaller ten-minute reels, it definitely points to them just mucking up the scanning of what would be reel 6 of the negative and instead of re-scanning with proper focus, they just threw a sharpening filter at it.

Holy…

That is fantastic.

Also, that 35mm scan is very, very clean. Since it’s near the end of a reel, I’m assuming it gets more beat up as it goes on? What’s the overall condition?

Shocking, yes!
BTW, for those who like to ‘try this at home’
the 6th 1000ft reel comprise workprint frames 68664-83373

I chose a very clean frame on purpose for the comparison - there are sections that are more damaged than others and the ends of reels are really beat up. Also, just to clarify - cleaning up a whole big section like this is a pretty big task, so it’s not likely to be swapped for a print scan in v2.0. In v2.5 though, I’ll definitely at least try.

Harmy, in the immortal words of Zefram Cochrane as he gazed upon beauty for the first time:

“SWEET JESUS!!!”

…wrong franchise.

Danfun128 said:

…wrong franchise.

No shit. It’s from a concept entitled “humor.” 😃

That’ll do, Bunny.

just for a slightly registered, histogram matched version of that comparison:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/154019

cfighter said:

Hello!

Im new here and so I apologize if this question is an old one, or if for whatever reason you find this offensive:

Is the current Despecialized Edition of Return of the Jedi the [for all intents and purposes] final version? Or are you still working on it? Im very excited to download the trilogy and I plan on burning them individually onto BR disks and creating custom menus and whatnot for them, so Im just curious to know if I should wait off on Jedi for the time being if there is another version being worked on.

Thanks for all of your hard work!

A workprint for the upcoming version 2.0 of ROTJ is currently making the rounds. It’s more or less a test and feedback kinda thing. But, the finished v2.0 will be done as soon as Harmy can make it happen within his schedule. If I were you, I’d wait for 2.0 to make a label and burn a BD with.