Info Wanted: USA Star Wars Marathon episode 4 Pre-SE recording.

I recently rediscovered a old tape a friend of mine gave me years ago.

It’s a VHS with several recordings on it.

Star Trek The Doomsday Weapon.

Star Wars Episode IV USA Networks Star Wars Trilogy- Pre SE

A english dub recording of Demon City Shinjuku

I think everything else is old MTV recordings of Beavis and Butthead.

I’m not for sure when it was recorded, but it seems to be the Original film since there are no added CGI effects. But isn’t there a Star Wars SE from the late 80’s or am I wrong?

I’m really wondering if any of you know if USA did Star Wars Marathons Annually like Spike does now. Was it uncommon? How rare are Tv recordings of the original films? Does anyone else own any?

The other rareish VHs recording is a old Doctor Who Recording of
The Five Doctors.

What I really want to know is if it’d be viable to transfer this to a digital format. What’s the best way to preserve this. I really wish the recording had commercials to get that TV feel.

If someone else was willing to transfer it for me I’d really appreciate it. I’d gladly mail it to someone who could.

Thanks for any info you can give me on the Tv Broadcasts of Star Wars.

P.S I’ve been looking to upgrade my VHS player. I need one that has component Capabilities. Since Component is the best next to HD HDMI for Analog possible. Does anyone have any recommendations for what to use. I’ve seen people Recommend JVC.

Along with CRT’s I’ve seen most people recommend either. Sony Trinitrons or Professional CRT Sony monitors. Those are mainly for video gaming though. I’m not for sure how they do for say watching films.

I’m asking because I love collecting Old Anime as well as just finding oddities on tape.   If there is a thread on the forum concerning older video formats and TV/CRT discussion I’d love to join the discussion.

One thing I'd like to comment on the clarity of this recording compared to my old CBS FOX set.

The Biggest difference other then overall quality is during the action scenes and the light saber dual. The flashes of light are far less intrusive and in your face.

The CBS FOX tape has very bad bright flashes flashes that actually hurt to watch. Though this may have been partly since I was watching on a Digital TV and not a CRT at the time. Though the overall issue with flashing is not present in the USA recording I have. 

I'm not for sure if the tape has stereo sound at all. My VHS player only supports RF and composite mono. I'd really love to get a better one some day. Though I really don't know much about sound and VHS. 

poita said:

VHS is not a component format, so even players with component outputs will not output the standard VHS tape via component. If any did, it would be the same as using a composite to component converter anyway.

Weird to be correcting poita of all people, but... Although VHS isn't fully YPbPr, it is Y/C thanks to the color-under process. S-VHS machines benefit from this with S-Video output of standard VHS tapes. A few of the enormous "broadcast" decks also have component outputs from their TBCs, along with some D-VHS. Whether they look any better than the S-Video output of the same machine... I very seriously doubt it since the color bandwidth is so low.

A few VHS-DVD combos also offer component and even HDMI output of VHS, but apparently some of them have dot crawl so they don't use a fully separate path.

JayArgonaut said:

Molly said:

SE was 1997.

USA did air the three movies together in a marathon run, I'm pretty sure they did so on Christmas of either 1993 or 1994 (based on where I was living at the time).  It was my first exposure to any of them.

Yes, it was December 1994 but not quite Xmas. Two decades on, I remember this vividly because I was in the Caribbean at the time and a friend of the family had the USA Network on their cable option.

Watching TESB and ROTJ was one of the highlights of the trip. :)

Edit: just had a flashback of the promo for the marathon, so I did a YouTube search with the term "Star Wars USA Network" and it appears the OT was shown on USA from summer 1993 through to 1995.

Here's one of the promos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zp0TaxwxZ8 

Man...that brings back memories. I remember that logo, but I also remember a promo that involved scenes from the movies being projected on Darth Vader's helmet. I'll see if I can find it.

I can confirm without a doubt that USA aired the OT more than once. I do believe they aired it as a marathon on Christmas, but they also did it in the middle of the summer. There was also one or two other times during the year that they would air each movie on a separate day. My brother and I would watch the summer marathon every year...good times. I don't remember when they stopped running it. I think it was after USA went through a revamp in the late 90s.

The few days where my brother and I could actually get along, even if all it involved was laying on the couch in front of the TV. It's funny how one of the few things that could bring us together was Star Wars. I miss those days.

Umm...hi. *waves* ^_^

I found it! Runs from 5:53 to 6:23. This appears to be a promo for Sci-fi though, never remember seeing it there. USA must've got the rights to broadcast the whole trilogy later? They also had individual promos for each of the films, like the one Jay posted for ANH. I can't find the other ones though.

http://youtu.be/Sm10QNFZQeQ?t=5m53s

Nevermind, I found the RotJ promo. The ESB one still eludes me though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxFTIPpaNWo

Here is the service manual for the AG-1980. Perhaps you can tell me whether it maintains a separate path. Trying to read the schematic is over my head.

Wow, now *this* is the Star Wars I grew up with! My dad recorded one of these USA broadcasts of all 3 movies when they originally aired. I was still a baby at the time, having been born in 1993, but when I got older I watched those tapes over and over again. I didn't even know of the SE's existence until I saw "Empire of Dreams" on TV one day!

That promo that JayArgonaut linked to really brings back memories, since it was at the beginning of the first tape.

From an objective standpoint, I'm pretty sure this is just yet another TV broadcast and probably has little preservation value. Looking through the rose-tinted nostalgia goggles, however, I would LOVE to have a copy of this! I still have my original tapes, but they're in poor condition from being watched so much over the years.