Star Wars: Clone Wars [ Micro-Series ] - Original Episode Format / Restoration (RELEASED)

The ultimate restoration of the “Star Wars: Clone Wars” micro-series to its original episodic format has finally been RELEASED. This preservation project enables fans to experience the series exactly as it first aired on television, with each chapter presented as a short, individual installment. Not only does this release offer the full visual fidelity of the DVD picture quality, but it also includes the original, unaltered sound from the Cartoon Network broadcast—allowing us to relive the nostalgia in its purest form.

If you own the “Star Wars: Clone Wars” DVD-discs of Volume I and Volume II, do not hesitate to PM me in order to obtain them in their original episodic format. For those of you who own the show and have been provided with the link for the previous release, the URL remains the same.

ABOUT:

Recently, I found myself transported back to the years between 2003 and 2005, a time when, as a kid, I was consistently glued to the TV screen, eagerly anticipating and relishing the three to twelve action-packed minutes of animated Star Wars content on Cartoon Network. This was "Star Wars: Clone Wars," the Emmy-awarded micro-series, which encapsulated some of the most cherished moments of my childhood.

After all twenty-five episodes concluded their initial broadcast, the series eventually found its way into home media, allowing enthusiasts like myself to enjoy them in the form of two full-length films, each on its own DVD-disc, with multiple episodes seamlessly edited together - Volume I (Season 1-2 / 20 Episodes) and Volume II (Season 3 / 5 Episodes).

While these DVD-discs remain prized possessions on my shelf, I couldn’t help but long for the nostalgia of experiencing each episode individually as they originally aired on Cartoon Network / Toonami or streamed on good ol’ Hyperspace fanclub.

Thus, I took matters into my own hands and embarked on a journey to meticulously restore the original episodic format, striving to recreate each episode to the letter, for all twenty-five installments.

PROJECT LOG:

• The preservation project uses the DVD sources from Volume I and Volume II, while the audio was sourced from TV broadcast recordings captured on Digital 8 tapes using a Sony DCR-TRV120 Camcorder.

• The video has been deinterlaced and frame-rate corrected to a progressive scan, while preserving the DVD-quality visuals entirely.

• The audio has undergone meticulous restoration and cleaning, with interpolation from the DVD audio where necessary, bringing the overall quality to match modern home release and streaming standards.

• The title card for the opening sequence of each episode has been faithfully recreated to mirror the original presentation.
  
  
  

• For the opening and ending shots of each episode, the DVD edits had shortened these sequences and added transition effects between chapters. To restore them fully, frames were repurposed from the video source, and the original fade-in/fade-out effects were reinstated. In some cases, scenes played differently or in reverse order in the original broadcast, so these were edited to match the broadcast versions precisely.

• Burnt-in captions have been added to Chapter 6, as they appeared in the TV airing during Count Dooku’s dialogue with the Cauldron Henchman.
  

• Only Chapters 20 and 25 originally contained end credits sequences. To maintain consistency throughout the series, these credits have been removed, and the standard ending bumpers have been used instead.

VIDEO PROFILE SETTINGS:

Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L3.1
Format settings : CABAC / 5 Ref Frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Bit rate : 6 932 kb/s - 9 750 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive

AUDIO PROFILE SETTINGS:

Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : A_AAC-2
Bit rate : 512 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)

TOOLS USED FOR THE RESTORATION PROCESS:

• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Aegisub
• Audacity
• AVIDEMUX
• CyberLink PowerDirector
• FRE:AC
• HandBrake
• iZotope RX
• MakeMKV
• MKVToolNix

SPECIAL THANKS:

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the preservation hero and esteemed member of the OriginalTrilogy community, “pufnstuf”. His invaluable efforts in capturing, preserving, and providing the broadcast recordings have been instrumental in bringing this project to its fullest potential.

FAQ:

• Why was this project necessary?

When the series first aired on Cartoon Network, the episodes were originally released as short, individual segments. In 2006, these episodes were made available for purchase on iTunes, but Apple has since removed them from their store. The only official home releases currently available are DVD-discs that combine the episodes into two full-length films. Unfortunately, there is no longer any way to own them in their original episodic format. This project aims to preserve this piece of lost Star Wars content, ensuring it remains accessible in its original form.

• Why use the DVD-discs instead of HD, upscaling, or Disney Plus sources?

1. Legal Considerations: To ensure this fan preservation project complies with legal standards and avoids potential copyright infringement, it is distributed using only material that individuals can already own physically, specifically DVD-Video.

2. Preserving Original Quality: When digitally upscaling video from its original resolution (in this case, 480p), the image can suffer from a loss of detail and minor alterations. These changes were never intended by the creators, and may distort the viewing experience.

3. DVD Remastering: While the Disney Plus versions are available in 1080p HD, they use the older masters of the series, which include faded colors and minor visual glitches from the original broadcasts. The DVD releases, however, feature a remastered version with enhanced colors and improved picture quality. The creators revisited the source material specifically to refine and polish the visual presentation for the DVD release.

Ultimately, because this project is focused on preservation, it is important to use a source that is considered definitive by the creators themselves.

• Can I use these sources for my own personal project or upscaling?

Yes, you are free to use these sources for your personal project, provided that you own a legitimate copy of the show and do not engage in any illegal distribution of the material. Please note that I do not hold any rights to the content, so it’s important to ensure your use complies with copyright laws and respects the original creators’ rights.

#StarWars #CloneWars #Original #Vintage #2D #MicroSeries #MiniSeries #AnimatedSeries #FullSeries #Volume #Season #Episodes #Chapters #Shorts #TV #DVD #DisneyPlus #Lucasfilm #CartoonNetwork #Toonami #Broadcast #Preservation #Restoration #GenndyTartakovsky #2003 #2004 #2005

Unfortunately there isn’t a documented list so far, but I can point out the most notable:

• Chapter 2: The ending of this episode uses an alternative footage when the droid sniper focuses his target on the ARC troopers getting out from the LA-AT wreckage.

• Chapter 9: The episode begins with a high vantage view of the Muunilinst sky and buildings and then the camera pans down to the street level where Obi-Wan passes through on his speeder.

• Chapter 18: Starts with a shot of Anakin dueling Ventress which did not make it into the Volume I edit, but a glimpse of it can be seen during the DVD Menu if I remember correctly.

Other than these, there are some other shots which were cut shorter so the transition effects can be more on point when it comes to the home release edit’s progression.

UPDATED / IMPROVED NEW RELEASE:

I was unhappy with some aspects of the edit, so I released an updated version of the restored “Clone Wars: Micro-Series” chapters.

With this latest release I perfected the quality of the sound and added more audio cues so that we can get closer to the original broadcast format.

“RESTORED THE MICRO-SERIES HAS BEEN.”

If you own “Star Wars: Clone Wars” Volume I and Volume II, do not hesitate to PM me in order to get all 25 restored episodes.

Twenty years ago, right at this hour, the Emmy-Awarded TV Series, “Star Wars: Clone Wars” was being broadcasted - for the very first time - on “Cartoon Network”. In order to celebrate, I created a digital cover for my fan edit:

Indeed, the D+ versions are superior in quality, but in order for this project to meet all the necessary / required criterias of a fanedit, I used the best official source released to home media.

I own both PAL and NTSC versions of these DVD-Video disc releases.

When it comes to the superior release, PAL is the winner.

The series was made for 480p, so I’m doubtful about there being much difference in quality between D+ and a DVD fan upscale. I also much prefer the colors on the DVD version, so going with that is the right move for me.

The D+ is not actually upscaled. It uses the original unaltered source without the small losses in quality which always come along through the DVD encoding process.

As for upscaled versions, animation upscale is something that only destroys the original picture / detail if not performed manually on the source material. This kinda’ sums up my opinion when it comes to upscaling in general.

So yeah, I will always go for Standard Definition instead of HD if there is no actual work done to the film masters / source.

First of all, Happy Holidays and “Our only hope to rescue Jedi, to Ilum we must go!”

I am glad to announce that a NEW VERSION / UPDATE of the “Star Wars: Clone Wars - Original Broadcast Restoration” project has been RELEASED.

During a thorough scavanger hunt, I was able to finally bump into some old VHS recordings of the broadcasted show. To my surprise, some parts of the audio stream quality were in very decent shape.

Even though not everything was salvageable enough to be part of a DVD-realease and most of the tracks have already been manually edited to be on a par, some of the original episode ending cues were exclusively used for the aired version, so they could not be recreated via effects / reverb / repurposing.

Thus, in order for this preservation / restoration project to be whole, the original audio cues have been meticulously mastered and integrated within the following episodes of this release:

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 14

For those of you who have already been granted with the link, the download source remains the same, otherwise if you own “Star Wars: Clone Wars” Volume I and Volume II, do not hesitate to PM me in order to get these.

The edit retains the 25 FPS rate exactly as it is on the PAL DVD. Nothing was touched from that perspective.

However, I am working on a definitive version for this restoration. This upcoming release will use a high bitrate AVC encoding transferred to NTSC / 23.976 and a lot more fixes / additions to preserve the episodic broadcast format.

I cannot make up my mind if I should go on a 4:3 aspect ratio (the aspect format from Hyperspace.com / CN / Toonami) or stick with 16:9.

Which aspect ratio shows more picture?

The 4:3 aspect in which the show was originally broadcasted and streamed was done via letterboxing - the full picture, but with black boxes at the top / bottom. It would be the same exact framing, but zoomed out basically.

Either way, I decided to stick with the 16:9 proper widescreen as it is on DVD/D+.

The final and definitive version of this project has been released.

For more details, feel free to check the beginning of the thread.

I watched this today and it turned out really good. Congrats on the restoration project!

GabinDayback said:

The final and definitive version of this project has been released.

For more details, feel free to check the beginning of the thread.

Nice to see this project. Back in the day I had captured the season 1 and 2 on a Digital8 tape (stereo using a TRv120 camcorder) and then authored them to DVD in both episode and movie format. Not sure I still have the Digital 8 tapes anymore, but I have my exported DVD projects somewhere if you need any audio queues at this point. Let me know and I can try to dig them up if needed.

That’s pretty promising. Sounds to me that the audio might actually be in very good condition quality-wise. I would love to take a look at your material. I will open a PM thread so we can discuss further.

While I previously announced that the latest release would mark the conclusion of this restoration endeavor, recent developments have inspired me to take this project to even greater heights. Armed with the necessary resources, I’ve decided to dedicate additional time and effort to create an ultimate “Final” Definitive Version of the “Star Wars: Clone Wars” micro-series, faithfully restored to its original broadcast and episodic format.

You might wonder why another release is necessary. Well, thanks to the invaluable contribution of a preservation hero and member of our OT community, “pufnstuf,” I have obtained the highest-quality TV broadcasts of the show. These recordings, captured on D8 tapes using a Sony DCR-TRV120 Camcorder, offer unparalleled fidelity and nearly match the audio quality of the DVD disc tracks.

Currently, I’m diligently addressing a few dropouts in the recordings through spectral repair to ensure a seamless viewing experience.

As usual, the project’s status has reverted to WORK IN PROGRESS, and downloads will be temporarily unavailable until further notice. However, rest assured that once the re-release is ready, users who have been granted access to the content will find the download link unchanged.

Stay tuned for updates and prepare to experience the “Star Wars: Clone Wars” micro-series the way they were originally intended to be.

This is good news all around and I can’t wait to check out version 2.0

Looking forward to this!

i am also very excited very this release!!