Question for people who own the 1984 VHS releases — Page 3

Version 2 (much better then the first) I still need to fix Jabba's tail

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1164042/2nd_Attempt.png

Here's a third. I replaced the whole border with a different one that has more stuff. I also fixed Jabba's tail. It's unrotated to persevere detail.

Unless anyone finds any errors I think this is my final.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1164042/3rd.png

Video Collector, that is quite a collection. I think if you posted a high res super 8 cover scan (one without the droids) in this thread some people will be very happy.

doubleofive said:
GENTLEMEN!

If we can get a nice high res cover of the laserdisc, we'll have tiny Lando and tons of more to the side!

Though it does look like Jabba's tail is an early Photoshop job....

Video Collector said: Very good job, Sir. I have that Laserdisc pictured above, so I'll have a go at making a wide version with tiny Lando too.

Wow, that LD cover art may be wide enough to solve the aspect ratio issue that I mentioned in post 39. It would be awesome if that could be made presentable.

Video Collector, do you have or have access to a large enough scanner to scan the LD cover in all at once? Maybe you could do a test with scanning it in at a high DPI and then resampling it to 300 DPI (in an effort to make the halftone dots more or less disappear). If it looks good like that, it would save a lot of trouble; it would leave only the ROTJ text/logo to remove. Just by virtue of its physical size it has quite a bit more inherent resolution than VHS box art (and DVD sleeve art for that matter); it is like scanning in a small poster.

I'm finished for now:

When I get better images to use, I'll be updating the sleeves of course.

doubleofive said:

I can't wait to see what VC comes up with from his collection!

 Same here. This LD release shows even more of the art on either side (definitely enough to solve the aspect ratio issue that I mentioned earlier), including the full lightsaber and Leia's stomach, text-free:

That picture is from Video Collector's site so he may still have that particular release. Unfortunately the ROTJ text/logo is covering some of the Death Star and Vader's helmet, but maybe a scan from a different LD release could be blended in with it. Blending is likely to be easier when working with similar sources (i.e. 2 scans from the same scanner/settings of offset printed LD covers).

I'd also like to get scans (high enough resolution to be able to read everything) of the VHS tape labels, i.e. the ones that look like these:

Inkjet printable DVDs already have a white background so it would be a simple matter (and it wouldn't use much ink) to duplicate those labels in a way that would fit on a DVD and print them. Some people might not want such plain labeling on their discs, especially when inkjet disc printing allows you to print any type of graphics you want, but there are two advantages to making labels that match the original VHS tape labels:

1. It is keeping with the spirit of the project.

2. It works well for people with inkjet disc printers as well as thermal disc printers. Thermal printers would probably even be superior in this case because of blacker blacks. I have an inkjet printer that can print on discs, but if I had a nice thermal printer I would probably use it for this type of label instead of the inkjet printer. 

Scans of the tapes:

http://imgur.com/a/NyAjG#0

penguinofgreatness said:

Scans of the tapes:

http://imgur.com/a/NyAjG#0

 Awesome; perfect. Thanks yet again.

"doubleofive" said:

EDIT:

I'm not sure what I'm remembering, but I could swear my tapes had blue or green stickers. I can't describe it, I just have this feeling...

Maybe you had the 1990 releases, which had the same front artwork as the original 1984 releases, but had overall different designs to the boxes (the backs of the boxes were especially different). Here is an example showing the blue and green label on the tape for the 1990 release.

I just printed out a test disc and scanned it in:

Click here for a higher resolution image.

The word "infringement" in the FBI warning is misspelled as "infringment". That's not my fault; I just copied what was on the original label.

LexX said:

You're doing exactly what I did!! And that's why I like it. ;)

P.S. that ROTJ LD cover scan would be awesome... A high quality scan of that would solve all my ROTJ cover problems, LOL.

Very nice. It looks like you had your work cut out for you on the TESB sleeve; that's quite a bit of text (when you have to match kerning rather than just type it out). Additionally, that text is squared up on both sides of each column, which means the original typesetter had his work cut out for him too. That's the kind of typesetting that they do for e.g. newspapers and bibles. Whoever did the typesetting for the original U.S. VHS releases didn't go as far as squaring the text on both sides of the column. 

Here are mockups for the labels:

The variances between each label are because of the variances in the real labels; i.e., the CBS/FOX logo varies in both size and position (relative to the title logo), and so on. I didn't change anything, not even the physical size of the text and logos (the only thing I did was allow space for the disc's hub). Also, they fixed the spelling of "infringement" for the TESB and ROTJ labels.

LexX said:

I took a few liberties, though. I replaced all mentions of video cassettes to video recordings and all VHS logos to DVD logos. Otherwise I avoided all mentions to DVDs or discs so they would feel more old school. Since the cases still hold DVDs and not videos, you could think about that.

Yeah, I thought about doing that, but I dismissed it. Not only did I want to stay as close as possible to the original box and label designs, but I like seeing the reminders of things that were important when I was a kid, like the VHS and Hi-Fi Stereo logos. The DVD logo holds zero nostalgic value for me.

Actually, I didn't have a clue what "Hi-Fi Stereo" really meant when I was a kid, but I figured it must have been a good thing; despite the fact that I had neither a stereo TV nor a Hi-Fi Stereo VCR (not that I realized that I needed those things in order to benefit from a "Hi-Fi Stereo" VHS tape).

"Listen to that. Doesn't that 'Hi-Fi Stereo' tape sound good?" 

Good old "placebo effect".

By the way, the FBI warning on the tape label does mention "video discs" (originally referring to CED and LD I assume); a term which is coincidentally still relevant here.

Video Collector sent me an ROTJ image that he worked up using msycamore's "Style B.bmp" scan and various LD cover scans from his own collection; and he did a hell of a job. We now have everything that's showing on the VHS cover, plus a little more on the top and a lot more on the sides (more than enough to fit the DVD cover aspect ratio). We have small Lando, more of the Death Star, the entire lightsaber blade, and Leia's stomach:

This has been a fun and interesting project, and I'd say it is pretty much done. I appreciate all the help; I obviously wouldn't have gotten far without it. I need to put together a folder containing 300 DPI PNGs of the CD labels (I need to do a little more tweaking to those first though; centering and such) and the DVD case sleeves and upload it somewhere (very annoying that Megaupload has been killed). Any suggestions where I can upload a .zip or .rar that will probably be 25 MB or more?

LexX said:

Any chance for sharing that? I've been looking for something like this for years now.

PM sent.

MaximRecoil said:

Any suggestions where I can upload a .zip or .rar that will probably be 25 MB or more?

box.com have treated me very well - they've hosted my UK rental cover set for almost 3 years without complaint. They do have a 25MB file limit on the free account mind, though you could of course split the archive.

Speaking of which, I should really give those another go-around. All this talk of 'edited in Word' text has got me feeling guilty...