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Star Wars Despecialized Editions - Custom Bluray Set (Released) — Page 4

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I’d love to get my hands on these. Thanks for putting them together!

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Hang tight, new and improved versions are on the way.

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I would definitely be interested as well! Great job!

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I have no plans to convert these to AVCHD or DVD at this stage. It’s already an enormous amount of work to create 3 versions of each film (25gb movie disk, 25gb special features disk, 50gb movie+features disk), and beyond the amount of work entailed to create 9 blurays, this project is about preserving the Despecialized Edition in the best quality possible, which is on bluray.

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You could always get software like Powerdvd to play the blurays, and perhaps plug in to a tv via HDMI? I also know that portable bluray burners for laptops are much more affordable these days.

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Count me in, these look great, I’m particularly interested in the new version of the BD25 special feature disc that uses the original video and audio. I’m happy that I finally put a Blu-ray burner into the new PC I just built. 😃

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njvc said:

Great suggestions, I’ll give this some serious thought. At this stage, I only have access to the lossless video and audio for SW, but am hoping Harmy may be willing to share the equivalent for ESB and RotJ as well. If that happens, all of this may be doable as you suggested. It would be a significant amount of work, but is worth considering.

njvc said:

So with these new found powers, my current thinking is this. I’ll release 3 versions of each film.

  1. The Official release (BD25)
  • Will include as many audio/subtitle options as possible from Harmy’s official MKV release.
  • No special features (as disk will be filled with audio options.)
  1. The special features release (BD25)
  • Similar to my v.1, this bluray will include all of the special features previously listed, but will now include Harmy’s original video and DTS audio tracks for better picture/audio quality.
  • Will also include 32 subtitle tracks.
  1. The deluxe release (BD50)
  • Will include all of the official release audio/subtitles, and as many extra special features as possible to fit on a dual layer disk.

njvc said:

Hang tight, new and improved versions are on the way.

njvc-

So, I am afraid that the train MAY have already left the station as to the format and structure for this project (for other’s reference, my EARLIER post on the subject is here http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/944924).

Just to sum up, the crux of my suggestion was:

  1. Adopt and maintain BD25 sized feature film releases for EACH of the Harmy's DESPECIALIZED feature films (include ONLY the eight BEST “official” audio tracks identified, a current/full set of ALL Project Threepio subs, a menu with chapter marks and, space permitting, POSSIBLY trailers and the “Sources” documentary).

  2. Completely REMOVE bonus content (with the ONLY exceptions being selected “official” feature commentary tracks, and MAYBE trailers along with the “Sources” documentary)…and put EVERYTHING else either onto a matching set of three individual BD25 discs or onto a single BD50.

The reasons THIS will clearly be your BEST model has nothing to do with BD25 vs BD50 sized media…the reason is simply DISTRIBUTION, DISTRIBUTION, and DISTRIBUTION. What is you goal? I would suggest that the PRIMARY goal here might be to provide a working and READY-TO-GO m2ts file-set (alongside Harmy’s “official” MKV, AVCHD and DVD5 releases). The way that you BEST accomplish this goal is streamlining your process for remuxing Harmy's “official” MKV releases into an attractively packaged standard Blu-ray compatible, BD25 sized, m2ts file-set WITHOUT compressing or transcoding content.

AFTER re-releasing your “revised” set of feature BD25’s…PLEASE DO THEN take your time with assembling, streamlining and packaging a QUALITY set of BONUS content (it makes NO DIFFERENCE to me whether the BONUS content comes as three companion BD25’s or single combined BD50), but it is very important that it be distributed separately. Much like the feature content, my suggestion here would be that your focus be on QUALITY over quantity, if you plan to use it find the BEST available source material and bring it to your compilation BONUS Blu-ray(s) with LITTLE or NO compression or transcoding.

Kind regards,

-A.S.

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The idea that he seems to be going with (and that most of us have agreed might be best) will not sacrifice video or audio quality by re-encoding anything.

But I don’t agree with you that it should be the PRIMARY GOAL, mainly because is not really much of a goal. Yes, it is nice to have a menu instead of manually switching the audio track. But that alone is hardly worth the trouble of creating or downloading. But the package with extras, along with the menu, is what makes it a tempting download. And I don’t see why there is any need for him to focus on the main features and get those out before the other parts of the set. We have the films in the same quality already, there is absolutely no rush for this. If anything, he should hold onto everything in case he makes any changes to any part, in order to keep consistency.

I don’t see how the current plan is contrary to your wishes. You’ve said that 2x BD25 per film and no re-encoding is okay with you, and that is the plan. There will also be a 3x BD50 plan for people who want to do that.

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Hey towne32!

So, let’s use some round numbers and get a little more concrete…

EACH of the current “official” release MKVs weighs in at a little under 25gb. With a few surplus audio tracks (beyond the 8 “official” audio track limit) being stripped, it’d be tight, but we should able to remux the video and selected audio from the “official” MKV to fit a BD25 (and I know the actual size limit of a BD25 is a little LESS than 25gb, but let’s just call it 25gb for simplicity).

For simplicity, let’s then say that we have roughly 15-25gb of BONUS content for EACH film. “OPTION A” that BONUS content would fit neatly onto a companion BD25 set (or possibly a single compilation BD50 disc), OR “OPTION B” it would take up roughly half of a BD50 if paired with the corresponding feature content.

The reasons why the separation of content (or “OPTION A”) is important is SIMPLICITY and DISTRIBUTION. It would be inefficient (AND confusing) to duplicate FEATURE content by adopting dual BD25 and BD50 distribution models…that’s 25 MORE gb of storage that will need to be uploaded EACH time Harmy releases a new DESPECIALIZED version. That’s 25 MORE gb that I (and others) will need to host on our computers and seedboxes in a P2P networks OR that would need to be uploaded to and THEN downloaded from other distribution resources. That’s ONE more BD50 (instead of a BD25) disc that I will need to burn with every new release IF I want to be able to watch the latest/greatest on my set-top device (and as just ONE of a few different distribution methods, ESPECIALLY for a project that is under active development, that is just a terribly inefficient distribution model).

The reasons I said:

A_New_Hope said:

What is you goal? I would suggest that the PRIMARY goal here might be to provide a working and READY-TO-GO m2ts file-set (alongside Harmy’s “official” MKV, AVCHD and DVD5 releases).

…are these:

  1. This project is what it is (currently) BECAUSE it is tied to Harmy's DESPECIALIZED EDITIONS (and they would feature the current feature release versions). With more and more people that have access to Blu-ray burners and Blu-ray players but LACK the fair amount of technical skill, time, and or equipment required to seamlessly move from MKV to Blu-ray AND neatly package it with menus, ready access to audio AND subtitle options, chapters all on a highly portable format playable on all standard set-top Blu-ray players (with NO LOSS to video or audio quality compared to the “official” MKV)…a timely released FEATURE only BD25 would absolutely be a compelling option and would be a worthy addition to the current MKV, AVCHD and DVD5 “official” release options.

  2. A GREAT treatment of BONUS content corresponding to those feature films will BEST be realized by the separation of content to help “de-clutter” the project. When removed from a BD50 size where HALF the room on the disc is taken up by the FEATURE content, opting for a (x3) BD25 model basically gives EQUAL size for BONUS content and, hell, if there were some GREAT bonus content on a few well mastered BONUS BD50 discs that’s TWICE the space.

Bottom-line, NO CONTENT (feature or BONUS) is being created here, but rather it is being assembled, streamlined and packaged. Done WELL, this would be a really GREAT benefit to the OT.com community. Not everyone loves Harmy's work…BUT, those same people could be all over a HIGH-QUALITY quality set of stand-alone BONUS Blu-ray content. Some people are JUST going to be after Harmy's latest/greatest DE release and don’t want to be stuck DLing that extra 25gb EACH time. Aside from a SMALL degree of ease-of-use in having all feature and BONUS content on a single disc, I see very little benefit to combining content ESPECIALLY as one of a few distribution options. (I, for one, would not choose it.)

I wish this project NOTHING but success! My suggestions come from experience and I present them in the sincere hope that they might serve to positively influence the course of this nascent project…and represent the end product that I would MOST like to see.

Respectfully submitted,

-A.S.

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I’m still not fully sure that you understand the plan. You will not need to download, seed, or burn anything extra. You will have the option of downloading two BD25s. One will be the feature. One will be the bonus features. Others, like myself, will download the BD50. I’m not sure if you aren’t understanding this, or if you’re just saying that you’ll be compelled to download and seed the BD50 alternative, non-overlapping option simply because it was released. If an updated version comes out, you can download the feature BD25 and not the bonus BD25, if it wasn’t updated. This is assuming that he is even still here and updating the project at that point.

I don’t understand the opposition to allowing other people the option of a BD50 download. If he doesn’t mind uploading it, which seems to be the case (it is not a big deal for those of us without data caps from our ISPs. Literally an overnight upload for the set.

It’s also not like Harmy is pumping out constant releases. They are rather rare events, in fact. Each of the three films is updated on such rare occasion, that it is hardly worth worrying about. And by then, maybe he’ll want to change the bonus features anyway. That’s assuming that he’s still a member of the forum at that point.

Let’s look specifically at the forcasted releases. ESB will probably be out sometime this year. If you don’t want to waste bandwidth, and he does update his discs to ESB 2.5, you probably want to avoid the ESB 2.0 release. After that, it is going to most likely be a very long wait for 3.0. It could be years. It’s silly to avoid a BD50 simply because in 2+ years there is a chance that this guy will make more discs, and you can save yourself from redownloading the bonus features.

As for point 1 that you made, I think that is quite silly. There is no rush to prioritize main feature releases. People who can’t figure out how to plan an MKV are not going to be downloading, burning and playing blu-ray ISOs. More and more people are not really getting into blu-ray burning. They’re using home networking. They’re also unlikely to care about whether audio or video were re-encoded. If they’re technically inclined enough, they’ll find one of the hundred posts on this forum where we all describe the 15 second process of using tsmuxer with MKVs. As I said before, it doesn’t make sense to prioritize anything just so that people can have a menu immediately.

I’m sorry if I’m misunderstanding you. I don’t mean to be rude, but your posts are a bit unclear to me. The capitalizations make it a bit worse and are so frequent that I’m not sure they’re adding emphasis rather than “shouting”. Maybe I’m just tired.

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I know I just posted, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around what you are saying.

A GREAT treatment of BONUS content corresponding to those feature films will BEST be realized by the separation of content to help “de-clutter” the project. When removed from a BD50 size where HALF the room on the disc is taken up by the FEATURE content, opting for a (x3) BD25 model basically gives EQUAL size for BONUS content and, hell, if there were some GREAT bonus content on a few well mastered BONUS BD50 discs that’s TWICE the space.

Can you rephrase this somehow? This is what we are saying.

Option A.

ANH BD50: Feature and bonus features.
ESB BD50: Feature and bonus features.
RotJ BD50: Feature and bonus features.

Option B. People who download option B do not need to download option A

ANH BD25: Feature
ANH BD25: Bonus features

ESB BD25: Feature
ESB BD25: Bonus Features

RoTJ BD25: Feature
RoTJ BD25: Bonus features

The plan we are suggesting is the release of both of these options. It does not inconvenience you because you do not need to download the BD50s. If it is not a big deal for OP to make and upload (for which we would be very grateful), it is not something that makes sense to oppose, as I see it. Does this make sense now?

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TL;DR

Can we just have a dedicated disc for all the special features? Either one per film or one giant disc of all three films’ special features.

And I propose a compromise for the BD25/BD50 question: use a BD25 now while the DE is still locked in at 720p but then upgrade to BD50 when the 1080p v3.0 rolls around.

she/her
mwah

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I say we just let the guy doing the work decide what he wants to do. If he only releases BD50s and people want split BD25s, then one of them can create the two disc set out of the single disc.

I will be VERY happy with whatever he decides to put out, since HE is doing the work and I am merely reaping the benefits of HIS work.

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cybrsage said:

I say we just let the guy doing the work decide what he wants to do.

I believe he had.

clutchins said:

Can we just have a dedicated disc for all the special features? Either one per film or one giant disc of all three films’ special features.

Yep! Option B that I listed has just that. Looks like everyone is in agreement if he really doesn’t mind doing both versions. If he does mind, then there will be more to discuss!

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Hi guys, thanks for the ongoing feedback and ideas. I’ve become a maniac on this project, working several hours on it every night, trying my best to make a definitive bluray set that I, and all fans of SW, will love.

The Star Wars set is almost ready to unveil. I’m just putting the final touches on the special features, then will list them all in detail. I have loved learning what multiAVCHD can do, in combination with Adobe Encore, and as such, am very happy with the end result.

In short, there will be 4 disks released for each film.

  1. 25GB Movie Only version.
    Includes:
  • The original v2.7 video (no reformatting)
  • 24 Audio tracks (including DTS audio tracks, and language/official commentaries)
  • 32 subtitle tracks
  1. 25GB Special Features disk
    Includes:
  • A great list of features that I am nearly finished refining… Will list them tomorrow most likely
  1. 50GB Movie + Features disk
    Includes:
  • Everything listed on disk 1 and 2
  • 11 Audio Commentaries (6 of which did not fit on the 25GB disk)
  1. 25GB Bonus Documentaries Disk
  • This optional disk features 3 documentaries.
    a) Jamie Benning’s Star Wars Begins (2hrs 20mins)
    b) Making of Star Wars (1977) (49 mins)
    c) Empire of Dreams - Part I (2011) (50 mins)

Initially, I wanted the Documentaries on the same 50GB disk, but as I collected special features, there were just too many gems to let go, so I stretched it to another disk. There are also 8 motion menus, featuring scenes from the films, including sub menus for chapters, audio, subtitles, deleted scenes, trailers and tv spots, cast interviews, and my personal favourite section, cultural influence and reviews. Can’t wait to share it all with you soon 😃

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Goddamn this looks awesome. And I say this having only gotten partway through the currently available set.

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Exciting update!

towne32 said:

I think multiAVCHD can also be used to replace srt subtitle tracks with .sup, since the latter will not work with encore.

Just don’t want to loose track of the subtitles. Are you going to use the .sup ones? they are better quality. Also, i want to make sure you are using the most up-to-date subtitles. 9.2 is the latest set for all movies, but catbus has a few fixes for some languages on top of that. i highly recommend getting in touch and making sure you have the latest and greatest. should be a quick update to the final disk.

CatBus said:

Yes, Hungarian accents are already fixed in development and will be available in the next release (10.0).

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Yes, I have the 9.2 versions of Project Threepio subtitles, and have included the .sup files on the disk.

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njvc said:

Yes, I have the 9.2 versions of Project Threepio subtitles, and have included the .sup files on the disk.

Excellent. i figured i would ask now rather than after you post these 😃 You are doing great work on these.

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You are outdoing yourself! Thank you thank you thank you!