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Info Wanted: What is the Best Quality OT Fan Preservation Set?

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Just wondering what you guys would consider the best quality fan preservation set out there? I’m talking strictly about video and audio quality on the films themselves here since most sets that have any special or bonus features have pretty much the same material anyhow. Curious to hear arguments in favour of your fave set. I’ve decided to stay neutral since my experience with any of the sets is limited to the original TR47/Cowclops release. Please feel free to chime in with any sets not in the poll. The TR47/Cowclops Release 2.0 set is included in the poll due to its impending release any day now. Hopefully this thread will act as a guideline for newbies to the forum that are looking to aquire a set via download/trade/donation and will help them decide where the time and effort is best placed.

Gentlemen start your debating!

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My favorite set is the EditDroid Collection
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How 'bout Moth3r's PAL transfer? That's pretty damn nice.
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Yes, the pics of mother transfer certainly look good lots of detail
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Kind of unfair, seeing as everyone is hot off the Editdroid set.
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i also prefer the editdroid set...
however i am still kinda keen to my anamorphic widescreen set...

just for the fact that it was my very first bootleg...

however im very much looking forward to Zions
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Kind of unfair, seeing as everyone is hot off the Editdroid set.


oooh I dunno. I think the detail level on moth3r's ANH is fantastic, much better than the equivalent NTSC transfers, but I think the colour balance on editdroid is better.
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Thanks Karyudo for the mention.

Although it should be noted that my "set" is only 33% complete (well, more like 45% now I've capped the raw video from the TESB discs). If you live in Europe/Australia, and you have a widescreen TV, then I can say without too much fear of being accused of blowing my own trumpet that my version of ANH is the best in terms of video quality. It's not perfect and there is still room for improvement, as you will realise if you read some of the comments in my thread.

I'm not really fit to make a judgement on audio quality, as with my system (and my ears which have probably suffered permanent damage from too music loud music when I was younger) I cannot tell the difference between AC3 @ 192kbps and LPCM @ 1536kbps.

I wouldn't recommend the Farsight version to anyone; the white level is set far too high. Disappointing as setting brightness and contrast correctly is the first most important aspect of any transfer.

Dr Gonzo's version scores highly on presentation, and is the most popular version seen for sale on eBay and for download from torrent sites. Personally I find the image detail to be slightly too soft for my liking.

ISOMIX seems to be a bit noisier, but otherwise is similar to both the TR47 and EditDroid versions; all three are very good transfers. (I assume that "Row47" is essentially identical to the TR47 version in terms of AV quality). All three have a slightly different colour balance, ISOMIX is perhaps a bit too red. ISOMIX and TR47 suffer from chroma-subsampling artefacts due to DV compression, whilst EditDroid suffers from dot-crawl. There's not much to choose between the three, but EditDroid probably wins out because of its overall quality (including presentation/menus).

I'm optimistic that future versions can improve on the good work that's been achieved already. For example, when Dr Gonzo produced his version (in 2001/2002?) I'm guessing a "fast" PC would have been around 1GHZ. My PC is nearly three times faster, but even so with the advanced noise filtering in use it took me about 48 hours to encode the video. That level of video processing would just not have been feasible a few years ago.

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Moth3r - I just got a copy of your ANH and great golly even after being down converted to NTSC (mintek 1600) - it looks amazing...


“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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I just voted for Moth3r. Damn, this transfer looks GOOD.
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Originally posted by: Moth3r
Thanks Karyudo for the mention.

...(I assume that "Row47" is essentially identical to the TR47 version in terms of AV quality)...


Yep. I just added title pages to all three TR47 discs and fixed the blank spot in TESB.

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Originally posted by: Rikter
Moth3r - I just got a copy of your ANH and great golly even after being down converted to NTSC (mintek 1600) - it looks amazing...


Unfotunately my good DVD player, a Denon 1910, can't play PAL discs, so I did a NTSC conversion over the weekend to see if I could. The conversion turned out pretty good... I'm going to do another one with some minor color tweaks and maybe some other tweaks that will be based solely on my own personal preferences. If they turn out well I may send a couple out to interested parties, that way everyone can share the joy of Moth3r's work.


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Originally posted by: RowMan

Yep. I just added title pages to all three TR47 discs and fixed the blank spot in TESB.


I included the "Row47" Edition in the poll because there will be those out there that have this version yet have never seen the original TR47 version. Also I suppose you could technically say that it has better A/V quality because it doesn't have the error in ESB that the original TR47 version has. Though I must say that I am suprised that to this point neither one of these variations on a theme has received a single vote. To this point "EditDroid" and "Moth3r" appear to be running away with it. Wonder what will happen when the new Cowclops/TR47 release hits?
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Originally posted by: 88keyz
Wonder what will happen when the new Cowclops/TR47 release hits?


Or anything from the X0 Project?

I think eventually the X0 Project should be included in a poll, but it's sort of unfair to both the poll and any newer transfers if current "vapourware" is included after a whole bunch of votes are cast. People looking for reliable information won't know, for example, that TR47 2.0 and/or the X0 Project weren't available for comparison during the first week? month? of the poll, and could therefore be getting skewed info. They could be mistakenly thinking that an older version is better, just because it's been around to collect votes longer.

I feel like maybe this is a poll that should be re-done every month or two; this existing poll should definitely have a defined "shelf life." Like it should be labelled the 2005-05 poll, with results valid only until some new transfers exist and are ready for inclusion, at which point the poll should be closed and superceded.

Moth3r's transfer being included is cool, though, because that already exists, and it was added the same day the poll opened...


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Vote early and often.
What's to stop somebody from stuffing the ballot box ?

Originally posted by: 88keyz
I've decided to stay neutral since my experience with any of the sets is limited to the original TR47/Cowclops release.
I've stayed neutral since I haven't seen all the sets.
I might choose a favorite among those I've seen, but that'd be choosing the lesser of so many evils
if I haven't ever seen the best ones.
A vote from anyone who hasn't seen all the sets could skew the results.

However, in practice you must take into account the “fuckwit factor”. Just talk to Darth Mallwalker…
-Moth3r

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Originally posted by: dumb_kid
Originally posted by: Rikter
Moth3r - I just got a copy of your ANH and great golly even after being down converted to NTSC (mintek 1600) - it looks amazing...


Unfotunately my good DVD player, a Denon 1910, can't play PAL discs, so I did a NTSC conversion over the weekend to see if I could. The conversion turned out pretty good... I'm going to do another one with some minor color tweaks and maybe some other tweaks that will be based solely on my own personal preferences. If they turn out well I may send a couple out to interested parties, that way everyone can share the joy of Moth3r's work.



I suggest going to wal-mart and picking up a cheapo Apex or Mintek DVD player ($35.00) that can play the PAL discs and save time converting...


“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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Originally posted by: Rikter


I suggest going to wal-mart and picking up a cheapo Apex or Mintek DVD player ($35.00) that can play the PAL discs and save time converting...


I doubt those cheapo's have DVI output and a Faroudja chip to upsample to 720p or 1080i. Now granted on normal 19" CRT TV any dvd player will do; my xbox can play PAL for my living room tv. But the above features really help out when you have a 10ft screen and a native 720p projector. I love my setup and it loves me

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Originally posted by: Darth Mallwalker
Vote early and often. What's to stop somebody from stuffing the ballot box ?

First, you have to be a member and logged in to vote. Second, as far as I know each member can only vote once in a poll. I'm sure some could find a way around that if they wanted to but the only advantage would be to make a set that you had a hand in producing look better. I think that most of the people that put the time and effort in creating these sets for us to enjoy have better things to do than tamper with a poll, like going back to the drawing board and making said set better so that it will fair better against the competition next time. Padding the ballot box is not the way to improve on the quality of your set.

Originally posted by: Karyudo
I feel like maybe this is a poll that should be re-done every month or two; this existing poll should definitely have a defined "shelf life." Like it should be labelled the 2005-05 poll, with results valid only until some new transfers exist and are ready for inclusion, at which point the poll should be closed and superceded.


I definately agree with that statement. It is something that needs to be renewed from time to time. Not only so that you can include new preservation sets but so that members that have expanded their viewing knowledge of the sets get a chance to revoice or change their opinion/vote.
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Originally posted by: dumb_kid
Originally posted by: Rikter


I suggest going to wal-mart and picking up a cheapo Apex or Mintek DVD player ($35.00) that can play the PAL discs and save time converting...


I doubt those cheapo's have DVI output and a Faroudja chip to upsample to 720p or 1080i. Now granted on normal 19" CRT TV any dvd player will do; my xbox can play PAL for my living room tv. But the above features really help out when you have a 10ft screen and a native 720p projector. I love my setup and it loves me


THEY SURE DO!

Spend about $75-$100 and you can score a PROGRESSIVE SCAN player with DVI out - If you have a LCD projector why not just run your PC to it and let the PC convert the PAL on the fly?



“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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Originally posted by: Rikter

Spend about $75-$100 and you can score a PROGRESSIVE SCAN player with DVI out - If you have a LCD projector why not just run your PC to it and let the PC convert the PAL on the fly?



I completely see where you coming from in terms lines of resolution PAL vs NTSC... but for me I compared the output from my XBox that plays the PAL version, my PC output, and that of the coversion I did for my NTSC Denon. To my eyes the Denon, with my conversion looks better for my particlar setup. Progressive scan vs hardware upscaling are two very different things. The raw PAL version when blown up(again this is for my setup) looked more noisy and had jaggy issues. The Forudja chip in my Denon really makes jaggies go away and also limits noise, even more so than my PC.... better algorithms I suppose. Overall it just made the viewing experience better for me. To each his own that's all.

Plus it seems silly for me to by extra hardware when I own software that can convert PAL to NTSC properly without any picture stuttering or sound issues...


OK we should be doen hijacking this thread... sorry.
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Have to go with Dr Gonzo's set - love the anamorphic widescreen, and still looks damn fine 3/4 years after it's 'release'.


See that 2 people voted for the CowClops v2 - didn't know it was out yet. Anyone done/doing a review yet?

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

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‘How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com - includes info on how to ask for a fan project and how to search for projects and threads on OT•com.

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Only two people have seen the TR47v2 - TR47 and Cowclops themselves. Unless someone has been voting on the jpg in that thread!

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Hey... I've seen them both, too! But other than the fixed blank spot in TESB, there is no difference between the two in terms of picture and sound quality. No compression was necessary in just adding title screens.
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Are you confusing the "Cowclops/TR47" v2.0 with the "Row47" patched v1.0?

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