logo Sign In

4K restoration on Star Wars — Page 286

Author
Time

Harmy said:

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/J1BEFNNU

4K83 > Disney+ > Despecialized Edition v2.5 > Blu-ray
No offense to Harmy but I think the Despecialized Edition is obsolete for Star Wars and Return of the Jedi (at least their current forms).
Team Negative One did a really great job on their restorations and I could say that they look better than the official releases, and this isn’t just my bias towards the original cuts speaking.
I only keep the Despecialized Edition for The Empire Strikes Back and it’s only because 4K80 is taking a bit long.

As for the Disney+ 4K, it’s a great improvement over the Blu-ray and it’s definitely the best release of the Special Editions. Regardless if it’s actually an upscale or if it’s the 4K transfer that Reliance made.

Let’s just wait for Disney to release the 4K masters on disc.

A 4K Revisited from Adywan would be great when the 4K Ultra HD discs come out. And Harmy’s 4K Despecialized would still give the cleanest (though not as authentic as TN1’s 4K releases) presentations for the original unaltered trilogy.

And I’ve loved every pixel of it.
(Clarissa Darling, Clarissa Explains It All)

You’re so right.
(Kylo Ren, Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Author
Time

Adywan is definitely not doing anything more than 720p for his edits still, but I’m planning on creating 4K versions of Revisited via AI upscaling along with a 10 bit upsampled HDR color grade.

I would love to see Harmy do 4K Despecialized however if he’s up to it. Although I’m still wondering about if the detail level is really greater in these new 4K masters.

Author
Time

I’d expect a 1080P Despecialized, which can be upscale automatically by TV/monitors. The 4K77/4K83 and future 4K80 releases can upscale to that size well enough.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

SilverWook said:

I was surprised to see Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore on TCM the other night with it’s vintage 70’s Saul Bass Warner Bros. logo intact. Or does Martin Scorsese have enough clout that they don’t slap a modern logo on his films?

Warner is the worst with that. They seem intent to erase that logo from catalog titles though they ironically slap it on period pieces like Joker and Argo today. Fox and Universal usually don’t disappoint. Even Disney has been preserving the Buena Vista card lately (recently spun the Love Bug and Mary Poppins, both of which look great on blu!)

Warner is definitely the worst. Paramount’s swapped out their logo too a few times as well. One of the reasons I liked the 4K version of Grease was cause it restored the OG Paramount logo. Disney is high on the list as well. Toy Story still isn’t available on BD with the original CG Disney castle and fanfare.

Author
Time

Holy crap. The new color palette looks great for the Ot (Hoth is white again)(Dagoba no longer has the yellow green shift). As for the Pt they look like upscaled versions of the Blu-rays, although Rots is a bit more blue tinted then I remember.

One day we will have properly restored versions of the Original Unaltered Trilogy (OUT); or 1977, 1980, 1983 Theatrical released versions (Like 4K77,4K80 and 4K83); including Prequels. So that future generations can enjoy these historic films that changed cinema forever.

Yoda: Try not, do or do not, there is no try.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

As someone who disliked the fact that too many viewers of the Original Trilogy ended up having to watch the dreadful re-colouration of the 2004 dvd and 2011 blu-ray ‘Special Editions’ over the years…I’m somewhat heartened to know that future viewers of DISNEY+ will at least see better-coloured versions going forward.

Of course, they’ll still be subjected to plenty of dubious additions throughout, but it’s SOMETHING I guess.


SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

  • Why the extra Greedo dialogue?! It’s not even subtitled! What is he supposed to be saying to Han? How does this enhance the scene? AAAND we all know it’s obviously the PREVIOUS shot just zoomed in-…plus, the removal of the dude walking by on the right. They didn’t even remove the bit of light that is visible to the immediate right of Greedos face that disappears as the dude passes by in front of a light.

Good grief! So George went back and had a final tinker with the Han/Greedo shoot-out before things changed hands with Disney…and STILL flubbed the opportunity to just revert things back to their much better original layout…

Greedo’s ludicrous “MACLUNKEY!” line sounds as bad as Han’s ridiculous ‘head-swerve’ looks…so I had a go at slightly amending how George’s ‘definitive’ version of the scene might have sounded if he’d NOT included that line at all!

If you just ignore the way the subtitles are chopped up now, and play these snippets one-after-another, it will give a rough idea of how he could have concocted a similar scene with Greedo’s existing dialogue instead. It would STILL have looked as bad overall, but Greedo might not have sounded quite so laughable this way -

George’s new version - https://streamable.com/k1sca

Slightly altered version of it -

  1. https://streamable.com/1c3w7

  2. https://streamable.com/em59d

  3. https://streamable.com/5av3n

  4. https://streamable.com/3n4u4

Anyway, although I’ll check out the better colouration on these out of curiousity one day, that doesn’t make up for the other ‘creative choices’ they still contain…and while it’s nice to know that mattes etc. blend in better now, and that DISNEY+ viewers will get to see Vader with a consistently red lightsaber as opposed to a pink one every now and then, I’ll still be sticking with adywan’s versions for my own future viewings, thanks…and get the shoot-out just the way I like it too. 😃


CaptRex said:

DominicCobb said:

Something I’m curious about is if Disney+ has multiple versions of any film. The best way to check in my mind would be to see what they have for Avatar.

For Avatar they have two versions Theatrical and Theatrical with Family Friendly Audio. Alas, no Extended Edition (which is my preferred version of the film)

Well that’s a pity, as I’ll never watch a version of AVATAR again which doesn’t include the neat establishing ‘Future Earth’ set-up first.

I’d also be interested to know what versions of ALIEN and ALIENS are available on the service too. Now if only Disney would revert back to the pre-Blu-ray colouration for those as well! 😉


joefavs said:

Just got home and I’m taking a look at the rest of the movies now. I imagine this has already been noted, but I’m just realizing that while the Fox fanfare remains for all of them, the green-to-gold Lucasfilm logo animation has been swapped out for the silver Disney-era version.

Now that’s interesting. I hope it’s the bigger version of the silver LUCASFILM logo, as opposed to the tiddly little one seen in ROGUE ONE. I know adywan ended up using the silver logo for his EMPIRE STRIKES BACK REVISITED HD opening, which quite suited it’s tone…but I’m not sure if he’s sticking with that for his final versions of A NEW HOPE and RETURN OF THE JEDI too, or using the more colourful logo for those instead.

I’m really pleased that the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare has been retained, rather than just using the shortened new fanfare over the LUCASFILM logo…which is what I thought they were going with.

Author
Time

I expected them to get rid of the 20th Century Fox logos entirely, for consistent branding with the other films. I’m honestly not sure why they didn’t.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I honestly find that the “MacClunkey” shot makes it easier to ignore Han’s weird digital neck jerk. Something about what it does to the rhythm of the scene sells it as a gunfight better than before. Obviously I’d prefer they’d reverted it to the original version, but this kind of works for me on some strange, goofy level.

I’d also like to say that I’m frankly astounded and heartened by the medium-positive reaction to the new color grade on this forum. I fully expected to come here to say “hey, this is kind of cool!” and be met with wall-to-wall negativity.

Author
Time

If there wasn’t a stipulation in Lucas’ contract when he sold
It to Disney about making sure the SEs stay around, at this point I’d be very surprised. I’m just becoming increasingly paranoid that it’s the case.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Author
Time
 (Edited)

There’s no contract stipulation, and there never was. It was always just a guess.

Author
Time

crissrudd4554 said:

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

SilverWook said:

I was surprised to see Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore on TCM the other night with it’s vintage 70’s Saul Bass Warner Bros. logo intact. Or does Martin Scorsese have enough clout that they don’t slap a modern logo on his films?

Warner is the worst with that. They seem intent to erase that logo from catalog titles though they ironically slap it on period pieces like Joker and Argo today. Fox and Universal usually don’t disappoint. Even Disney has been preserving the Buena Vista card lately (recently spun the Love Bug and Mary Poppins, both of which look great on blu!)

Warner is definitely the worst. Paramount’s swapped out their logo too a few times as well. One of the reasons I liked the 4K version of Grease was cause it restored the OG Paramount logo. Disney is high on the list as well. Toy Story still isn’t available on BD with the original CG Disney castle and fanfare.

Re: Toy Story, after all these years, I can hum the fanfare from my childhood VHS, even though it’s been years since I’ve seen it except on Blu. Given that modern Pixar flix (e.g., Incredibles 2) have custom logos, it’s baffling that this OG Pixar Cinderella castle and fanfare has been erased.

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

Author
Time

DominicCobb said:

I expected them to get rid of the 20th Century Fox logos entirely, for consistent branding with the other films. I’m honestly not sure why they didn’t.

This could be a GL thing, actually. He insisted that SW77 be preceded by the the fanfare even though it was falling into disuse at Fox at the time. In fact, it was SW’s popularity that led to Fox bringing back the logo+fanfare. So we have GL to thank for that!

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

A few comparisons (1080p):

Opening logos
Opening shot
Tatooine sky changed (sand reverted to pre-2004)
Desert shots
All R2 rocks changed
Sandcrawler shot doesn’t change in brightness like in the old SE
Binary Sunset
Ghost Luke error removed & fly removed from the next shot
Tractor beam matte painting
Lightsabers
Jabba scene transitions redone ('97 Jabba’s tail no longer visible for a few frames)

“Always in motion is the future” 🌌

Author
Time

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

DominicCobb said:

I expected them to get rid of the 20th Century Fox logos entirely, for consistent branding with the other films. I’m honestly not sure why they didn’t.

This could be a GL thing, actually. He insisted that SW77 be preceded by the the fanfare even though it was falling into disuse at Fox at the time. In fact, it was SW’s popularity that led to Fox bringing back the logo+fanfare. So we have GL to thank for that!

I don’t think the short version of the Fox fanfare ever really went away. It was the Cinemascope extension that had fallen by the wayside, as Fox films weren’t being shot with Cinemascope lenses anymore at that point, although Rocky Horror did it’s own unique version of the longer fanfare even though it isn’t a scope film.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

This recent development has me wondering about those Blu-rays that came out a few weeks back. Everyone was aware that they had the 2011 changes on them, but I wondering if somehow they missed out on the fact that it could’ve had a new scan?

I read that it was just the 2011 discs rebranded / repackaged, but can anyone on this forum definitively confirm that?

“That said, there is nothing wrong with mocking prequel lovers and belittling their bad taste.” - Alderaan, 2017

MGGA (Make GOUT Great Again):
http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Return-of-the-GOUT-Preservation-and-Restoration/id/55707

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Depheros said:

A few comparisons:

Opening logos
Opening shot
Tatooine sky changed (sand reverted to pre-2004)
Desert shots
All R2 rocks changed
Sandcrawler shot doesn’t change in brightness like in the old SE
Binary Sunset
Ghost Luke error removed & fly removed from the next shot
Tractor beam matte painting
Lightsabers
Jabba scene transitions redone ('97 Jabba’s tail no longer visible for a few frames)

Thanks for showing these comparisons Depheros, as it’s quite an eye-opener to see how much the O.T.'s re-grading was boosted for the 2004 dvd/2011 blu-ray releases overall. It’s frustrating to think that this was the case for the last 15 years, and at least things have reverted back to a more ‘natural’-looking colour for the ‘Special Editions’ now.

Pleased to see that the opening Tantive IV/Stardestroyer scene actually has redder lasers again (and presumably greener ones too), compared to the strangely washed-out ones in the existing version.

Author
Time

Yesterday morning, when I was getting my Disney+ account all set up I noticed they had all the Star Wars films (sans Solo and TLJ due to their Netflix deals not expiring yet) up and in 4K UHD. I don’t have anything 4K compatible yet, but I still immediately skimmed through Star Wars and ESB to see if anything was new. I was blown away by how much better the colors were than any previous digital (disc or streaming) release! I still vastly prefer the original cuts (and thank God for 4K77, 80, and 83!!) but if you’re gonna watch the SE, at least it isn’t an eye-assaulting magenta and purple horrorshow anymore! It actually looks… nice.

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I might actually watch them! I haven’t watched an SE in its entirety since the VHS era, so that’s saying something!

Author
Time
 (Edited)

JawsTDS said:

This recent development has me wondering about those Blu-rays that came out a few weeks back. Everyone was aware that they had the 2011 changes on them, but I wondering if somehow they missed out on the fact that it could’ve had a new scan?

I read that it was just the 2011 discs rebranded / repackaged, but can anyone on this forum definitively confirm that?

I’m pretty sure the discs from September were the exact same from 2011. Disney probably didn’t want to spend a single red cent re-authoring I-VI, even though we now know they had a new master literally right around the corner. They probably just wanted to get them all out there individually in cheap packaging (not steelbooks) since they closed the Fox buyout only a few months earlier.

But like I said before, now we know why they waited so long to put this new transfer out there. I was convinced we wouldn’t see it in any form until the UHD discs arrived, just so they could blow everyone away with the picture quality compared to any previous release of the films. It’s clear now they wanted to save it not for disc, but for their streaming service. Now they can sell D+ with it and tout streamable 4k hdr versions of all the Star Wars movies.

Author
Time

Depheros said:

A few comparisons:

Opening logos
Opening shot
Tatooine sky changed (sand reverted to pre-2004)
Desert shots
All R2 rocks changed
Sandcrawler shot doesn’t change in brightness like in the old SE
Binary Sunset
Ghost Luke error removed & fly removed from the next shot
Tractor beam matte painting
Lightsabers
Jabba scene transitions redone ('97 Jabba’s tail no longer visible for a few frames)

Wow, okay so it has been pretty seriously desaturated then, a little overkill in the opposite direction in my opinion but maybe it evens out on high contrast monitors and average tv displays.

“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.” - DV

Author
Time

Does anyone have a D+ subscription and the hardware to stream it in 4k (even if it’s only in sdr)? I’d be very curious what the OT looks like at full 2160p res. The compression probably cancels out some of the extra detail, but I would still think this looks better than what we’ve had to live with for the last 15 years.

Rogue One was also finished in 4k IIRC, so there should be some increase in detail, compression notwithstanding. TFA was only finished in 2k AFAIK, but the hdr should impress.

It’s the stuck-in-2k PT that I’m maybe the most curious about, both in terms of the 4k upscale and how it fares in hdr.

Author
Time

Why can’t they just pull a Blade Runner, in which they release another Special Edition while packaging it with the previous versions (original cuts, 1997 versions, 2004 versions, and 2011 versions)?

The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.

I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.

Author
Time

emanswfan said:

Adywan is definitely not doing anything more than 720p for his edits still, but I’m planning on creating 4K versions of Revisited via AI upscaling along with a 10 bit upsampled HDR color grade.

I would love to see Harmy do 4K Despecialized however if he’s up to it. Although I’m still wondering about if the detail level is really greater in these new 4K masters.

Which ANH:R are you going to be doing? The original ANH:R, or ANH:R HD?

The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.

I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.