Return of the Jedi 1997 Special Edition HD Reconstruction

Hi everyone!

As the title suggests this is an HD reconstruction of the 1997 version of ROTJ. This is a project I’ve been intending to do for a while now and I finally have something that I can call watchable. Since there are two very well made reconstructions of the 97 versions of ANH and ESB (thanks to Harmy, Team Blu, and Adywan) I figured ROTJ needed a reconstruction done in some capacity!

I used 3 sources for this project:

• 2011 Blu Ray (for changes made in the 97 edition)
• NEW SOURCE DNR version of 4k83 (for scenes that weren’t altered in the 97 edition i.e. Shaw force ghost, blinking Ewoks)
• TB SD broadcast (for a 5ish second clip in victory celebration)
• NEW SOURCE 2004 HDTV broadcast provided by schorman

There are still a few things that need to be done to make this reconstruction complete (if anyone would be willing to help with these things send me a message!) :

1. Adding theatrical style subtitles for when Jabba says, “Ah! Do that again!” before the Jedi Rocks scene
2. Zooming in and color correcting the TB broadcast clip so the black bars and color are consistent with the other scenes before and after it
3. Syncing to the DTS or Laserdisc audio

I’m not sure how long it’ll take for me to get around to doing these things that still need to be done since I am busy with college classes at the moment, but I’ll get around to it eventually!

Video dimensions: 1280x720p
File Size: 12gb mkv

PM me for a link and share some feedback here if you’d like. Thanks!

A difficult task and I can’t wait to see what you come up with. We have had similar ideas at the same time, except I won’t be using the despecialized at all. I’m going to use 4K77, the Dreamaster DNR version of TESB, and 4K83 as well as the BR and the HDTV broadcast of the pre BR edit. Plus both preservations of the SE broadcast from the EU. I don’t know if I will be sharing my work or not. I almost have my restoration of the 2011 BR finished. Even it has required dipping into 4K77 for some shots that are just too horrible to fix.

I had thought about using 4K83 but since Harmy used Blu-ray for his main source and I’m using the Blu-Ray to restore some changes I figured they would blend better. You’re projects sound interesting and I hope to see them get released! I bet they’ll be miles better than what I’m able to accomplish. I’ll pm you a link to what I have done!

Edit: Looks like I’ll be using 4k83 after all!

Yes, every preservation is worth it, especially when it comes to a version for which little has been done so far.

Many thanks, and count on me if I can help!

Thanks for the interest! This will definitely be a group effort so I’d be happy to receive help of any kind!

And I have a minor update regarding the subtitles for Jabba’s extra scene. I used Illustrator to recreate the theatrical subs and they came out pretty well! I’ll still have to make the resolution of the subtitles match the resolution of the film to make it blend in better. Would I be able to use this png to add subtitles on video? (I’m using Movavi Video Editor if that helps answer the question)

Interesting.

schorman13 said:

It might be easiest to just render that out using AviSynth. I can do it for you if you want.

If you could do that, that would be great! I really appreciate it! And also I’m looking forward to your revised HDTV broadcasts 😃