Star Wars coming to Blu Ray (UPDATE: August 30 2011, No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!) — Page 289

MJPollard said:

Lestrade said:
Disappointing that Bill Hunt gave the movie a big shrug and a, "Well, it's Star Wars on Blu-Ray" like everyone else.

To be perfectly honest, I'm starting to respect Hunt's opinions less and less these days. The fact that he (and The Digita Bits by extension) is a Blu-ray whore is a big part of the reason, and his "it's Star Wars on Blu-ray!" pandering (while only giving lip service to fans' objections) only serves to reaffirm my beliefs.

TV's Frink said:

I have no idea who this is, but...

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/09/jamie-benning-reviews-the-star-wars-blu-ray-set/

You can skip the review of Disc 7 ;-)

 

EDIT: That's Jambe?  Cool!

So there are some original negatives still in existence it seems.

I would guess that George probably has a 70mm technicolor as well.

Bingowings said:

Oldees and newbies alike, fisticuffs are off topic and are much more amusing over there.

Disagree by all means but if you can't be fun about it please take your aggression to another place.

That's fine - I just don't think it's healthy for posters to lash out and assume that all "newbs" have the same viewpoint. I spoke out against any discussion of Lucas passing away in that other thread, so projecting anger from those other posts at me in here is a bit counterproductive. My posts are far from radical.

What's the overlap on deleted scenes from the prequel dvds and those on the blu-rays? Is all the old stuff included with additional new deleted scenes/animatics?

georgec said:

What's the overlap on deleted scenes from the prequel dvds and those on the blu-rays? Is all the old stuff included with additional new deleted scenes/animatics?

Saw all the SW bluray displays at different stores and, I walked on by. Im currently watching the OOT (faces) VHS versions and loving them.  This is one OOT fan that will NOT cave in and feed the corrupt luca$ machine!

The logic doesn't follow, but I suppose it's a bit of a nod towards the fact that he knows what's going on in this end of the fan community.

doubleofive said:

 

MJPollard said:

Lestrade said:
Disappointing that Bill Hunt gave the movie a big shrug and a, "Well, it's Star Wars on Blu-Ray" like everyone else.

To be perfectly honest, I'm starting to respect Hunt's opinions less and less these days. The fact that he (and The Digita Bits by extension) is a Blu-ray whore is a big part of the reason, and his "it's Star Wars on Blu-ray!" pandering (while only giving lip service to fans' objections) only serves to reaffirm my beliefs.

I'm not really understanding how one can be a "whore" for a format that won its format war. Back in the day, I didn't like how he chose what I felt was the wrong side, but I got over it.

 

It's a totally biased opinion from someone who doesn't care for Blu-ray, has no use for Blu-ray, and is upset that DVD is increasingly being kicked to the curb for Blu-ray. Therefore, it's not supposed to be understood; you're just supposed to nod at it and walk quickly in the other direction. :-)

timdiggerm said:

The logic doesn't follow, but I suppose it's a bit of a nod towards the fact that he knows what's going on in this end of the fan community.

I think it's also a nod to the fact that Robert Harris personally knows of a print in a existence that can be used for a BD version of the original Ep IV.  He's offered to restore it himself, with no response from Lucasfilm (surprise surpise).

You know, maybe Bill Hunt gets too much flack around the web. I liked the comments in his review and thought he was pretty balanced. I also enjoyed this part at the end and felt it was a rational proposal.

Bill Hunt said:

I want to add one last comment here, because it just needs saying: Given the current state of the digital masters, this Blu-ray set is really the best these films can ever look from now on... unless Lucas takes steps ASAP to correct that. Frankly, he should just forget this idea of converting the Star Wars films to 3D, and use the money he would have spent doing that to instead rebuild the digital masters of the Episodes IV-VI and Episode I from the best available negative elements or film sources in higher resolution - at least 4K. It can absolutely be done - film restoration expert Robert Harris has worked miracles with far less that original camera negative sources on such films as The Godfather. Surely the Episode I effects can be re-rendered at a higher resolution if need be. And once the original films have been preserved at a higher resolution, THEN the 3D process might actually be worthwhile. Not to mention which, the films will be better preserved for the future. As for Episodes II and III, it's true that Lucas is stuck with the fact that he shot them natively on video at just HD resolution. But again, the visual effects could all be re-rendered at a higher resolution. And given the advances of computer imaging software, I have little doubt that there will eventually be a software process that allows you to take a lower resolution source, do a deep evaluation/analysis on the image, upconvert it to higher resolution and "estimate and render" the missing detail to create something better. That capability might be 5 years away, it might be 15, but I suspect it will happen one day. In the meantime, the films shot on actual film should be re-scanned and preserved at higher resolution as soon as possible. And when and if that's done, why not also preserve the films in their original theatrical form too, if only out of respect for all those talented artists and technicians who helped Lucas make the films in the first place? Just a thought.

I've been loosely following this site and its forums ever since the 2004 box set came out. That release left me so cold that when news of the Blu-Ray box set started coming out, I had already decided against buying it since I knew it'd probably just contain the 2004 versions with maybe a few more tweaks here and there. Even though I was mentally prepared for witnessing a new slab of unnecessary changes, Lucas still (unfortunately) managed to surprise me.

It's now been two weeks after I learned just how pointless this release is and I've been warning everyone I know about the set. So far, none of them have been much interested to buy it in the first place (because of the half-assed 2004 release) and two of my friends decided to order GOUT instead. It's not much of an achievement but an achievement nevertheless.