Preserving the...cringe...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released) — Page 14

MattMahdi said:

SKot said:

Let's hope we can see a DVD9 with a new capture of the KCCI soon.  That's the best hope for a SWHS broadcast preservation that we have.

You speak as someone who has reason for hope of such a thing coming to pass?

 I know that there are some in the community who have been working on such a project.  (A New) Hope springs eternal!

--SKot

That's so great...  To the kind soul who may be doing it please try some color/brightness correction, and if possible include the commercials and optional rifftrax.  THANKS

The original handful of transfers have been repackaged so many times... it's exciting to think of something NEW.

Many thanks to the person for his / her hard work and devotion.

balsho said:

Does no one else care about this as much?

Obviously not, but I for one can't resist investigating this kind of thing...

With more comparison, I was wrong, the KCCI does seem to have the edge on quality.  I remember it looking flawless on my 480 set, but dvd compression is more apparent on HDTVs.  It also suffers from being a bit too dark, ...

Yep, I've taken a look and agree with you. The version featuring the rifftrax commentary looks to be have quite a good level of detail, but has some pretty bad compression artefacting. It has also been deinterlaced - but has some dupe frames, almost as if it has been converted to NTSC-film 23.976fps and back again. The Angrysun KCCI version is in the original interlaced 29.97fps video format, so motion is much smoother, and compression quality is much better, although it is possibly a little too dark.

The Rifftrax version is definitely too bright - the black in the starfield/space scenes is a dark grey, while on the KCCI version it is pure black.

I suspect that the KCCI version has had some noise reduction filtering applied, the image seems a little soft as a result. Anyone know it's history? Did Rikter actually have access to the original analogue tape? (Come to think of it, the disc I have is not even Rikter's, someone else re-authored it with different chapter stops.)

One other thing I'd just like to note - if anyone has "obtained" the Rifftrax HS DVD who didn't purchase the original audio, please "do the right thing".

RowMan said:

I had been searching for a few years for the best quality version possible. A few months ago I sent Rikter a disc of the best one I have ever found. I think he made it into his latest Angrysun edition, but I'm not sure. Rik?

I believe that would be the newest KCCI version that Rikter released.

Love the screens Moth3r. It'll be interesting to see how the next version compares. I should probably note that my comment above about the RiffTrax version was in comparison to an earlier Angrysun release - not the KCCI like I had thought.

And yes, definitely donate a few bucks to the RiffTrax guys if you've happened upon a DVD with one of their commentaries. Those guys are awesome and they make some of these DVDs (especially this one) a bit more enjoyable.

Would someone who has a copy of the current best version (the RiffTrax one, it looks like!) email me to set up a trade? I'd really love that. And I do own the RiffTrax! I actually sent them a copy of the WMAR recording they riffed on DVD (different encoding than the one on Google Video, had different glitches, didn't sync to Riff), for which they gifted me the riff.

For me, the KCCI version is still the best in terms of picture quality, despite its flaws (being too dark and over-smoothed). Nonetheless, the disc with the Rifftrax commentary is still worth having if you're a fan of the HS. It was on TPB, not sure if it's still seeded.

I'm pretty sure I have the KCCI version. Got it from Rik many moons ago. The RiffTrax version is still in The Pirate Bay, thanks for the tip on that!

The full rifftrax dvdr is still on rapidshare if piratebay is too slow.  Just do a rifftrax search at rapid.org.  KCCI does have the edge, but its so great with their comments and all the commercials.  With the better versions of the special and commercials out there it still leaves the desire for a new-super-everything edition.  I hope the rumblings of the new one in progress come to fruition in time for the next Life Day.

Has anyone ever attempted to blend two different sources together to create a better quality version?

I ask this because I am currently attempting to combine the video from both KCCI and WBBM and so far the results look pretty good.

I should have a sample clip uploaded to youtube sometime tomorrow.

That sounds interesting, and I'd like to see your results.  To me though KCCI already looks pretty damn good, but its usually without the commercials.  Then the ones with commercials seem to always be lower in quality, especially the commercials themselves.  Then I've seen the commercials by themselves floating around that seem to match KCCI quality.  So blending those could kind of be a nice mix of the best that's currently available.

I guess it would be posted here if there was, but is there any news on the possible new capture/version that might've been in the works?

balsho said:

That sounds interesting, and I'd like to see your results.  To me though KCCI already looks pretty damn good, but its usually without the commercials.  Then the ones with commercials seem to always be lower in quality, especially the commercials themselves.  Then I've seen the commercials by themselves floating around that seem to match KCCI quality.  So blending those could kind of be a nice mix of the best that's currently available.

I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from giving it a shot.  But yeah, since the KCCI and the WBBM are so close in quality, I can't see it making a whole lot of difference in the long run.

I keep hoping a complete version will show up with the entire show and all commercials, uncut, and in great quality.

I guess it would be posted here if there was, but is there any news on the possible new capture/version that might've been in the works?

I haven't heard anything to that effect lately, unfortunately.  Since 2008 (the 30th anniversary), it's been a fairly dry spell for the old Holiday Special...

--SKot

Sluggo said:

Aside from 1979, when hasn't been a dry spell for the old HS?

You've got a point there, Sluggo.  But I'd say it looked something like this:

1978-1979: Holiday Special airs.  One article appears in Starlog in 1979.

1979-1994: Complete dry spell, absolutely nothing on the HS for 15 years.

1994-1996: First new articles on the HS start appearing. Lucasfilm acknowledges the HS for the first time with an Insider article.

1996-1998: Another dry spell.

1998-2000: 2 huge articles by Ross Plesset are published in Filmfax & SFX, with the most HS information anyone has ever seen.

2000-2002: Bit of a dry spell.

2002-2005: 2 big articles in the official German SW magazine. starwarsholidayspecial.com goes live in 2003 on the 25th anniversary. Entertainment Weekly does a blurb on the HS in 2005.

2005-2007: Dry spell.

2007-2008: Acceptance of the HS increases.  Lucasfilm starts producing some actual official HS merchandise, starting with an animated Boba Fett figure.  30th anniversary in 2008 produces the biggest official recognition of the HS with a week of articles on sw.com.

2008-2010: Dry spell again.

Something like that, anyway.

--SKot

balsho said:

That sounds interesting, and I'd like to see your results.  To me though KCCI already looks pretty damn good, but its usually without the commercials.  Then the ones with commercials seem to always be lower in quality, especially the commercials themselves.  Then I've seen the commercials by themselves floating around that seem to match KCCI quality.  So blending those could kind of be a nice mix of the best that's currently available.

It's not perfect but it's slightly better as far as brightness and detail is concerned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie5rddmVmf8

Instead of just splicing parts from each one together I combined both video layers into one using Sony Vegas:

I'm not sure if the slight improvement would be worth applying this process to the entire special, but I figured it would at least be worth looking into.

Tasjo said:

It's not perfect but it's slightly better as far as brightness and detail is concerned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie5rddmVmf8

Instead of just splicing parts from each one together I combined both video layers into one using Sony Vegas:

<snip>

I'm not sure if the slight improvement would be worth applying this process to the entire special, but I figured it would at least be worth looking into.

I must admit, I'm very intrigued.  What was the source of the two video clips used for the composite?  Looks like at least the WBBM was from YouTube, as it has the FuzzyMemories watermark on it...which means the quality would be low to begin with.  I'd love to see what would happen if you combined the two versions from the DVDs rather than the YouTube copies.

--SKot

The WBBM clip was from the fuzzymemories site and the other was a rip of the KCCI dvd.

Is that the fuzzymemories.tv site? I was intrigued (fuzzy = wookiees, of course) and found that it's other, a museum of Chicago Television according to Google, which at least as I try it now won't connect: error 404.

(Still hoping for something more specific, but nothing could rival Skot's site.)

Anyone know if there's a dvd version of the original WMAR version available for download somewhere?  Like from the tape not a redone one off youtube or something.  I'm working on something and I'd like to see it's quality.

Hi guys. Might want to check out a.b.starwars today. ;)

Happy Life Day!