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Info Wanted: Best ROTJ preservations/reconstructions

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 (Edited)

I’ve just finished my viewings of all the Despecialized films in their current form (at the time of this post SW 2.5, ESB 2.0, and ROTJ 1.0) and I’ve also been grabbing all sorts of other preservations from the spleen and other places. And to preface this post, I have been following Harmy’s progress on ROTJ for a while and am up to date on the thread.

ROTJ is my favorite film of the trilogy but sadly it seems to be the most neglected in the world of fan preservations and reconstructions. I want to know if there is a decent version of the 1983 original version or 1997 SE versions either released or currently underway (preferably in at least 720p).

In terms of high quality preservations and reconstructions, I currently have:

*Harmy’s DeEd (obviously)

Harmy’s Respecialized ANH

*Dark Jedi’s GOUT V3

Team Blu’s GOUT 720p Upscale

Team Blu’s ANH97SE

Ady’s ESB Theatrical Reconstruction

Ady’s ESB 1997 SE

*schorman’s 1080p HDTV Preservations

Reivax, *G’Kar, *TB, and Flunk

Of those listed, ROTJ appears fewer times than SW and ESB. I’d especially like to see something akin to the GOUT upscale and 97 SE preservations. ROTJ is the only film that doesn’t have a decent 1997 preservation outside of TB and G’Kar, which are not quite perfect, we’ll say.

she/her
mwah

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This is the first I've heard of Ady's ESB 1997 SE. This is different from his own SE version?

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towne32 said:

This is the first I've heard of Ady's ESB 1997 SE. This is different from his own SE version?

 I don't think it's on myspleen. It's a 1080p reconstruction of the 1997 SE using what I think is an HDTV source (not 2004 if I remember correctly).

she/her
mwah

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I think this thread would be more helpful if limited to RotJ only - even just listing preservations for SW and ESB is going to throw it off topic.

Q2s RotJ is a worthy consideration as well. 

RotP is in the works.

Poita is going to be working on RotJ first.

Team Blu is working towards an eventual blu upscale.

DrDre is rendering SW superresolution as we speak I believe, and. He has stated intentions to do ESB and RotJ as well

Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000

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nightstalkerpoet said:

I think this thread would be more helpful if limited to RotJ only - even just listing preservations for SW and ESB is going to throw it off topic.

Q2s RotJ is a worthy consideration as well. 

RotP is in the works.

Poita is going to be working on RotJ first.

Team Blu is working towards an eventual blu upscale.

DrDre is rendering SW superresolution as we speak I believe, and. He has stated intentions to do ESB and RotJ as well

 I was just illustrating the lack of high quality ROTJ preservations compared to the other two films. You're right, let's get back to ROTJ!

she/her
mwah

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There's another preservation underway, based on 35mm-prints. It is taken care of by Team Negative 1.

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FekLeyrTarg said:

There's another preservation underway, based on 35mm-prints. It is taken care of by Team Negative 1.

 Personally, I think this is going to turn out as The Team's best result. The first two films will be great for people who want to recreate the fun of seeing a 35mm film in theaters (in what will probably be very nice shape). 

Their ROTJ prints are in good enough shape to turn out a really professional looking release, though obviously not with quite the resolution of a commercial blu-ray. The color looks good enough to be fully recovered, and it doesn't look like details will be lost in the shadows. I think the team is right that there is much less enthusiasm for that project. But, as I've said before, it's by far the one that I'm most looking forward to from them. 

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Personally, I look forward to the entire original unaltered trilogy. RotJ may have its weaknesses, but I still love it. :)

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I can't wait for 35mm ROTJ from either -1 or poita.

she/her
mwah

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Dark Jedi's ROTJ V3 GOUT is quite nice, imo it came out best of the three. I think mainly due to ROTJ GOUT being a better transfer than SW, or ESB.

Part of the reason for what you perceive as a lack of attention is that there are already good ROTJ restorations out there, that and maybe the fact it is widely felt by most SW aficionado's to be the weakest of the trilogy?

Oh, and who cares about the 97 special editions, lol :P

I can understand some younger peoples fondness for them though, as that may be how they were originally exposed to SW? As an older guy who saw SW in the theater and the drive-in I personally don't have much love for the special editions.

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I don't know about the 97 SE, but regarding the original, as was said before, the GOUT isn't quite as bad as the other two films.

The Technidisc/JSC (or are they the same thing?) are really good also, although do suffer from some rainbowing.

Puggo's release should be awesome, and in the future, we should have two different 35mm preservations B)

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JSC and Technidisc are different releases, but from the same master.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Isn't the JSC the least troublesome of the 2 releases from the same master though?

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The SW Technidisc looks better from what I've seen. Though it may indeed be more troublesome?

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dave88 said:

The SW Technidisc looks better from what I've seen. Though it may indeed be more troublesome?

Yeah, I know ANH is totally different between Technidisc and JSC, but I couldn't remember about the other two.

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 (Edited)

From the 2 workprints we have, and a possible third one eventually. Along with a few replacement reels, we've mentioned that Return of the Jedi is already in very good condition, and will not take much of an effort to restore.

The cleanup is fairly simple, and wouldn't take much time. The color correction will take much longer, and that is what would hold things up.

Again, it's last on our list of priorities, and we're not planning a Grindhouse version since it's not in that condition anyways.

Eventually, a better version will come out, and we might highlight some scenes once Puggo's 16mm comes out.

As far as detail goes, maybe not every scene is up to the Blu-ray level, but most easily are. We have posted 4k screenshots in our thread, and other sample downscales which have plenty of detail in them, along with shots from replacement reels.

Team Negative1