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Harmy's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Despecialized Edition HD - V2.0 - MKV & AVCHD (Released)

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 (Edited)

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - DESPECIALIZED EDITION v2.0

 
Last update: August 7th 2014
 

 
www.facebook.com/despecialized 
www.youtube.com/HarmyDespecialized

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This is now on tehparadox (JDownloader) and myspleen (torrent).

 

The Ultimate Introductory Guide - a particularly helpful guide by HanDuet; a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in the Despecialized Editions

 

This is a fan preservation. Fanedits and preservations must not be bought or sold. Please report every fanedit or preservation you find for sale to webmasters of originaltrilogy.com. Fanedits and preservations are an artform and to be shared among legal owners of the officially available releases only. Do not support piracy.

 
 

HARMY PROUDLY PRESENTS…

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - DESPECIALIZED EDITION REMASTERED (v2.0)
 

This is a reconstruction of the 1980 theatrical version of The Empire Strikes Back. The original shots were painstakingly restored using various sources (listed below) and the film received an extensive shot by shot colour correction.

The remastered version (v2.0) represents a significant improvement in picture quality over the earlier 1.0 version due to the use of better encoding and higher quality sources and replacing many of the despecialized shots with higher quality ones.

A gallery showing all the changes can be found here:

https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/109609428403596349302/albums/6044645069501365185

The MKV version contains a large number of audio tracks, including the latest versions of the preservations of the original audio mixes in DTS-HD, three different commentary tracks, an isolated score and dubbing tracks in 13 different languages.

The AVCHD version contains the latest versions of the preservations of the original audio mixes, three different commentary tracks and an isolated score.
 

VIDEO SOURCES:

  1. STAR WARS Episode V The Empire Strikes Back Official Blu-Ray 2011

  2. STAR WARS Episode V The Empire Strikes Back 2006 Bonus DVD
      (sourced from the 1993 Definitive Edition Laser Disc Master - upscale by Mattman Omega)

  3. Adywan’s THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK 1997 Special Edition Reconstruction 1080p MKV (HDTV source)

  4. The Empire Strikes Back 1997 Special Edition (“TB” DTV capture)

  5. Team Negative1 35mm print scan

  6. Custom mattes, 35mm film cell scans etc.

  7. Adywan’s THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK 1980 Theatrical Reconstruction NTSC DVD

  8. Puggo Strikes Back (16mm print transfer)
     

MKV Technical Specifications:


CRC32: C4BF0283
MD5: 1E34878403B05924F71354E961016FCE
SHA-1: 66FD71200749FE96123888228868789ACDBF34C5

CONTAINER: MKV

SIZE: 19.7 GB

VIDEO: 1280x720p H264 23.976 fps

AUDIO: Special thanks to hairy_hen, Schorman, ABC, Puggo and Mavimao

TRACK  1) 5.1   DTS-HD-MA   [English]        (1980 mix)

TRACK  2) 2.0   DTS-HD-MA   [English]        (1980 mix)

TRACK  3) 1.0   DTS-HD-MA   [English]        (1980 16mm mono mix)

TRACK  4) 2.0 Dolby Digital [English]        (1993 Laserdisc mix)

TRACK  5) 2.0 Dolby Digital [German]         (1980 dub)

TRACK  6) 2.0 Dolby Digital [French]         (1980 dub)

TRACK  7) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Spanish]        (1980 Castilian dub)

TRACK  8) 1.0 Dolby Digital [Spanish]        (1980 American Spanish dub)
 
TRACK  9) 1.0 Dolby Digital [Portuguese]     (1980s Brazilian dub)

TRACK 10) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Japanese]       (1980 dub)

TRACK 11) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Italian]        (1980 dub)

TRACK 12) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Polish]         (1995 Voiceover)
 
TRACK 13) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Czech]          (1992 dub)

TRACK 14) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Hungarian]      (1982 dub)

TRACK 15) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Slovak]         (1997 dub)

TRACK 16) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Russian]        (1989 dub)

TRACK 17) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Russian]        (1980s Voiceover)

TRACK 18) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Ukrainian]      (2004 Voiceover)

TRACK 19) 2.0 Dolby Digital [English]        (1993 LD Audio Commentary - silence filled with 1993 LD 2.0)

TRACK 20) 2.0 Dolby Digital [English]        (2004 DVD Audio Commentary - recut to fit this release)

TRACK 21) 2.0 Dolby Digital [English]        (2011 BD Archival Interviews Audio Commentary - recut to fit this release)

TRACK 22) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Isolated Score] (by ABC)

SUBTITLES: (Project Threepio v8.0) Special thanks to CatBus

Project Threepio is a collection of subtitles for the Star Wars Original
Unaltered Trilogy, synced to the GOUT (the 2006 DVD Bonus Disc) for
compatibility with many popular preservations.

LANGUAGES INCLUDED

English                 Brazilian Portuguese  Polish     Swedish   
     English SDH             European Portuguese   Ukrainian  Bulgarian 
     Mandarin (Simplified)   Indonesian            Romanian   Finnish   
     Mandarin (Traditional)  Japanese              Croatian   Danish    
     Cantonese               French                Thai       Hebrew    
     American Spanish        German                Dutch      Norwegian 
     Castilian Spanish       Turkish               Hungarian  Slovenian 
     Arabic                  Korean                Czech      Icelandic 
     Russian                 Italian               Greek

More info here:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Project-Threepio-Star-Wars-OOT-subtitles/topic/13794/

 

AVCHD Technical Specifications:


FORMAT: AVCHD DISC (ISO)

SIZE: 7.9GB (DVD9)

VIDEO: 1280x720p H264 23.976 fps

AUDIO: (all Dolby Digital) Special thanks to hairy_hen, Schorman, Puggo and Mavimao

TRACK 1) 5.1 1980 mix @ 640Kbps

TRACK 2) 2.0 1980 mix @ 224Kbps

TRACK 3) 1.0 1980 16mm mono mix @ 112Kbps

TRACK 4) 2.0 Isolated score @ 224Kbps

TRACK 5) 1.0 1993 LD Audio Commentary @ 64Kbps (silence filled with 1993 LD 2.0)

TRACK 6) 1.0 2004 DVD Audio Commentary @ 64Kbps

TRACK 7) 1.0 2011 BD Archival Interviews Audio Commentary @ 64Kbps

SUBTITLES: (Project Threepio) Special thanks to CatBus

English [eng] (pgs)
 Chinese [chi] (pgs)
 American Spanish [spa] (pgs)
 Castilian Spanish [spa] (pgs)
 Arabic [ara] (pgs)
 Russian [rus] (pgs)
 Brazilian Portuguese [por] (pgs)
 Japanese [jpn] (pgs)
 French [fre] (pgs)
 German [ger] (pgs)
 Turkish [tur] (pgs)
 Korean [kor] (pgs)
 Italian [ita] (pgs)
 Polish [pol] (pgs)
 Ukrainian [ukr] (pgs)
 Dutch [dut] (pgs)
 Hungarian [hun] (pgs)
 Czech [cze] (pgs)
 Greek [gre] (pgs)
 Swedish [swe] (pgs)
 Finnish [fin] (pgs)
 Danish [dan] (pgs)
 Norwegian [nor] (pgs)

 

ORIGINAL 1st POST:

OK, since I’m now done with the ROTJ Reconstruction, I’m officially starting work on the PARTLY DESPECIALIZED EDITION v3.0 and since this project will be quite different from the previous versions, I decided to call it just DESPECIALIZED EDITION and start and new thread, in order to avoid confusion. I’ll be posting everything regarding the new versions here now.

I’m starting with TESB, since I can use Ady’s Theatrical Reconstruction as a source and won’t have to wait for DJ’s GOUT V3. And since Ady’s done such a great job on the reconstruction, it should also be the easiest and I’m gonna do most (and some more) of the changes that Ady did. But I’m gonna try to just use Ady’s reconstruction for rotoscoping with HD materials, so as to keep it as HD as possible.

I’m going to use the 14GB MKV of Ady’s ESB 97SE and higher bitrate versions of SW (I’m not using Ady’s AVCHD of SW this time) and ROTJ. V3.0 will be 720p DVD9 AVCHDs; I’m absolutely decided on that, I don’t want to make these Blu-Ray because I haven’t got access to a BD burner and the uploads would be painful too but I want it to be playable on BD players. 720p looks great - actually I’ve got a 6,5GB 720p version of AOTC and it looks way better than an 8GB 1080p version because the compression took away more detail on the 1080p than what was gained by the resolution. I’ll also be encoding HQ 2PASS this time to keep as much quality as possible. Noticing the loss of quality and detail in the previous PDE versions was actually the main reason that prompted me to make new versions, so I’ll try to make these the highest possible quality given the source materials.

 


 

Mod Edit: These two threads may also be of some interest and help for alternative possibilities in acquiring the Despecialized Editions - as well as for any technical assistance or ‘How do I do this?’ questions or issues:-

Some info & help for Harmy’s Despecialized Editions of the Original Trilogy… - in ‘General Assistance’.

Despecialized Editions by Harmy : Index of ‘How-To’s & Help’ Threads | Index of ‘General Despecialized Threads’ | ‘Where are they? And how do I get them?’ mega-merge thread… - in ‘How-To’s and Technical Discussions’.
 

The three main Despecialized Edition project threads on the OT•com - Star Wars : Empire Strikes Back : Return Of The Jedi

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Fistpump:

http://www.realhiphopsince79.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Kip-Yesss-napoleon-dynamite-387.gif

It's only as naughty as you want it to be. ;-)

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Harmy the clouds look very good and the window shot is even better , very impressive keep it up.

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Harmy there seems to be a problem with the third link, everytime i try it says  the file is temporary unavailable.

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Loving these new clips. But Harmy, can I ask what was changed in the second clip from the previous PDE? It looks awesome though.

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Looks great, I can't wait to get these.

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rockin said:

can I ask what was changed in the second clip from the previous PDE? 

In the previous PDE, it was just an upscale of Ady's reconstruction, in this one I rotoscoped the original background into the HD footage. Youtube compression is so bad that you probably couldn't tell the difference, so that's why I uploaded the mp4 instead.

Murry Sparkles said:

Harmy there seems to be a problem with the third link, everytime i try it says  the file is temporary unavailable.

It seems fine now, so probably just some temporary fluke :-)

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The clips look good, harmy. The window shot looks more stable than the SE version.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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That is really amazing. I need a tissue!!

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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Good to hear Harmy!

It looked really good anyway, but I just wasn't sure. Now that you mention the changes, I have since compared and it's looking waaay better than before.

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Harmy said:

Murry Sparkles said:

Harmy there seems to be a problem with the third link, everytime i try it says  the file is temporary unavailable.

It seems fine now, so probably just some temporary fluke :-)

 Yes the link is fine now Harmy, the flyby looks excellent .

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Murry Sparkles said:

 Yes the link is fine now Harmy, the flyby looks excellent .

Thanks, but I need advice on which of the two versions in that clip to use:

Harmy said:

OK, guys, I need your opinions, here's another little experiment: 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GSH8AQPT

It is the flyby clip. It is there twice- 1st is the latest version of the composited one and 2nd is the very same clip with a layer of Puggo Grande added to it. The point is that the 1st one is clean and HD at the beginning and at the end, but there is quite a jarring transition to the GOUT material, while the 2nd one is HD but looks kinda like as if it was an HD scan of an old 35mm print but the insertion of the GOUT isn't as jarring and we have to keep in mind that this particular shot would have been noisier even in the original negative due to multiple compositing. Let me know what you think.

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I prefer the first version of the flyby. The second is too grainy in my opinion.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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I prefer the details of the first, and the colours of the second. Sorry to be picky. :D