Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released) — Page 557

I'm pretty new to this, too, but here's what I understand.

The main questions are what format did you download and how do you want to play it back.

In my case I burned a Bluray, but then decided I'd rather stream them. I have an Apple TV and I found an app that can stream to it. (I did it that way because my ATV is connected to my home theater receiver.) If you already have a media streamer that's even easier.

Another approach is to load it on a USB stick and if you have a Bluray player or other device that takes USB storage you may be able to play it back from that.

FrankT said:

But hey, we're getting new customers, right?

Step 3: Profit!

(What's step 2, again?)

Hey guys! I literally found out about the Despecialized Editions today. I'm downloading them onto my MacBook Pro with JDownloader2 and was wondering how I would be able to play them on it.  Yes I could use Google, but I figured it would be better if I asked someone here. 

zhadow said:

Hey guys! I literally found out about the Despecialized Editions today. I'm downloading them onto my MacBook Pro with JDownloader2 and was wondering how I would be able to play them on it.  Yes I could use Google, but I figured it would be better if I asked someone here. 

 I'm on a macbook and I use vlc media player to play anything that isn't MP4 

zhadow said:

Hey guys! I literally found out about the Despecialized Editions today. I'm downloading them onto my MacBook Pro with JDownloader2 and was wondering how I would be able to play them on it.  Yes I could use Google, but I figured it would be better if I asked someone here. 

 VLC for the Mac plays them fine! However I had to choose the 2nd audio option because the 1st audio preset was 5.1 or something and would never play on my laptop speakers. 

That's just as well, since the dynamic range of the 5.1 track is so high that laptop speakers will never be able to do it justice.  Track 2 is a stereo mix with reduced dynamics, which is much better suited to smaller speakers, so I'd recommend it for anyone who doesn't have a dedicated audio system.

One issue that stuck out for me in the version 2.5:

In the wide shot when Luke, Ben & the droids are arriving in Mos Eisley, the dewback near the cantina sticks out unnaturally green and bright (it is better in the following closeup shot).

Harmy, if Disney does properly restore the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy and release them on Blu-Ray how would the Despecialized Editions compare to them?

riddler95 said:

Harmy, if Disney does properly restore the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy and release them on Blu-Ray how would the Despecialized Editions compare to them?

No way to know until they're actually available for scrutiny, but if I were a betting man I'd say that the official editions will have a much higher bitrate and be free of the (mostly very minor) compositing artifacts that remain in the Despecialized versions, but will have pretty sloppy color correction, in keeping with past releases.

cmckendry said:

riddler95 said:

Harmy, if Disney does properly restore the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy and release them on Blu-Ray how would the Despecialized Editions compare to them?

No way to know until they're actually available for scrutiny, but if I were a betting man I'd say that the official editions will have a much higher bitrate and be free of the (mostly very minor) compositing artifacts that remain in the Despecialized versions, but will have pretty sloppy color correction, in keeping with past releases.

 If Disney does perform a restoration I really hope they get Robert Harris to do the job because he would aim for the quality of film and he'd nail the colour correction. When he restored Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo he went as far as locating original costumes so he could be able to get the colour correction just right.

Harmy said:

I just said this in the ROTJ thread:

Until there's an actual official announcement, I'm not stopping this project (though it has been on pause for a while now, because I'm super busy in real life, plus I'm waiting for some behind the scenes stuff) and then if there is an announcement, we'd still have to wait and see what the quality is like before abandoning these fan projects - remember the GOUT?

 Thank you for the info.

Flexicon9 said:

You can pretty much count on them screwing it up... the only saving grace is that it will give Harmy some extra resources to make the definitive restoration.  The color correction, attention to detail, overall care and of course, the magnificent custom made soundtracks on Despecialized will always best anything else out there.  Disney won't put the much needed time and effort into it that Harmy did.

 If Disney is willing to put the right amount of time, effort, money, and if they get a top notch preservationist then we will get phenomenal HD Presentations of the Theatrical Cuts and they'll most likely look better than the 2011 Special Editions.

I have lots of respect for Harmy and I appreciate all the time and effort he put into the Despecialized Editions. hairy_hen also did great job with the audio.

Molly said:

On purpose, no.

But looking at the way they handle their own films suggests that they'll probably just make a fake OTV out of a SE, the way they did with Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King.

  I do prefer the original theatrical versions of both Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. My guess is it was easier to for Disney make fake OTVs from the newly created SE Versions because both those films were sourced from the original CAPS Files. Even the Platinum Edition DVD of Aladdin from 2004 featured a slightly altered version of the film. Disney touched up some of the animation and backgrounds to make them work better for DVD.

Now for The Star Wars Trilogy the film elements of the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions STILL EXIST. If all the existing film elements can be located then yes the three films could be scanned in 4K and fully restored.

Having talked to someone on the restoration team at disney I have to say they know what their doing when given sufficient time and funds for a project.  The problem is that if the executives don't think that the film will bring in big money from the re-release, they will give them not enough time and not enough money to do a really good job so we end up with crappy restorations.  To see what they're capable of with enough time and funds, look at the blu ray of Bambi.  I think it looks pretty spectacular. No frankenfilm there.

Darth Lucas said:

Having talked to someone on the restoration team at disney I have to say they know what their doing when given sufficient time and funds for a project.  The problem is that if the executives don't think that the film will bring in big money from the re-release, they will give them not enough time and not enough money to do a really good job so we end up with crappy restorations.  To see what they're capable of with enough time and funds, look at the blu ray of Bambi.  I think it looks pretty spectacular. No frankenfilm there.

 You mean the restoration person that (IIRC) you spoke to this summer, right? 

Also, was Bambi not entirely rotoscoped over digitally the way most Disney animated 'restorations' are these days?

Yeah same guy.

No Bambi was not re-rotoscoped this way, at least not for the most recent release. At least according to this guy as I made a point of asking if they dI'd during his demonstration.