Info Wanted: Pre-'93 Japanese Special Collection LD transfers?

So I’ve been trying to find good transfers of the Japanese “Special Collection” or Fox’s “Special Wide Screen Edition” LDs for a while now, but I’m not having much luck finding information on these…seems like almost all of the LD transfers out there are from the 93/95 THX remasters.

I found this thread on Dark_Jedi’s attempts to redo the JSCs, but apparently he cancelled them in light of Arnie.d’s X9 project…which hasn’t had an update since October '09 =/ The LaserDisc Revived project sounds very promising, but it also sounds like it’s going to be a bit of a wait for that one, and I was hoping there was something out already that I could watch within the next few weeks. I did find Arnie.d’s V8 and it looks excellent, but from what I can tell it’s only Episode IV.

Or should I just give up and buy the '92 “Special Letterbox Collector’s Edition” VHSes? I’d rather have something I can pop into the big screen and enjoy, but I keep seeing mint copies of these ending at 0 bids for dirt cheap…

Dark-Sega JSC trilogy is on a.b.starwars since October.
Don't know if that's what zombie84 is talking about.
It's 4:3 letterbox not anamorphic, 30fps interlaced not IVTC'ed.
Preservations of SWE LD's by dark_jedi and Rikter are also 4:3 & 30fps

Zion threatened to upload some of the raw X0 captures.
If he's gonna do that, I'd rather see the JSC ones than any THX/DC/Face

Unfortunately I used up my newsreader thing free trial to get the V8 =/

I was hoping something a bit more up-to-date had been released in the past six years, but I guess beggars can't be choosers...

And yeah, I forgot about the X0. I've got my fingers crossed for that one, though he said he thinks part of Ep6 is missing.

I feel your pain, Asaki. The JSC LD's or the US equivalents is somehow not that important in peoples eyes. I think people are offended by the dirty/noisy picture. But I take that over a cleaned up mess- GOUT. The GOUT transfers are sharper and have more detail sometimes, but only when not in motion, but these are motion pictures afterall. ;) 

If you would color correct these transfers, to get rid of that nasty green/yellow tint in some scenes, these transfers would wipe the floor with most versions out there IMO. They actually look more like films than video. I still hope Arnie.d finish his project someday. His V8 is amazing.

Yeah, I guess what d_j said is also an important factor that we don't see these LD's preserved that often, much more work involved.

Are the JSC LD's still hard to come by these days? I actually consider to buy Empire. I guess they're quite expensive...

Yeah, I just saw that ebay auction.

And then we have this mysterious LD: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Smear-free-93/topic/12190/ Mallwalker is teasing us with. ;)

Maybe you should go back and read Post 8 of that thread.
It doesn't keep any secrets.
Red5 nailed it in Post 7 and I came clean in 8
Catalog number, and even the mint markings of my LD are in the LDDB link provided.

And do you know what else? That ANH LD isn't so lonely anymore. It now has sequels sitting beside it, which I've received from eBay this past week, both also coming from the same Technidisc factory in the post-DC era, and without THX certification.
Haven't watched 'em yet -- we'll see if they're 'interesting' like the first one...

Haven't transcribed the mint marks from the sequels yet, but I will...
No secrets

You should do that set d_j
Lot cheaper than JSC on eBay too, I'll tell ya
Your rendition could easily become the 'best currently available'

Darth Mallwalker said:

Haven't transcribed the mint marks from the sequels yet, but I will...
No secrets

Lot cheaper than JSC on eBay too, I'll tell ya

That was my thought when linkin your thread. ;)

It's still a little mystery though, I don't get it why they suddenly used a different source when silently replacing the earlier flawed pressing? It's very nice however! :)  And sequels... did they have the same issue as SW? or do sequels mean something else in this case?

msycamore said: And sequels... did they have the same issue as SW? or do sequels mean something else in this case?

 

sequels mean ESB & ROTJ wearing SWE jackets, mastered by Technidisc in 1993-94
To my knowledge, they didn't suffer any 'incredible shrinking ratio' like ANH, so maybe they were never remastered, or retelecine or whatever.
It's possible they're made from same master tape as earlier Pioneer pressing SWE, and presumably JSC, so they'd be missing few frames between reels in that case.

On the other hand, if they'd been remastered from '93 telecine they should indclude (nearly) all frames as GOUT, but without THX smear. [This appears to be the case for ANH, at first glance anyway.]
They were cheap enough, so I decided to take the chance and try to answer that question. This is the hypothesis, to prove or disprove...

TV's Frink said:

Best.  Avatar.  Ever.

 Thanks. I figured I've been here long enough, I might as well make one real quick.

Just like the movies, though, it's impossible to say what the real colors are supposed to be...

dark_jedi said:

Darth Mallwalker said:

Haven't transcribed the mint marks from the sequels yet, but I will...
No secrets

You should do that set d_j
Lot cheaper than JSC on eBay too, I'll tell ya
Your rendition could easily become the 'best currently available'

 

You have links to the 3 we would need? on Ebay and LDDB?

He provided the link in that other thread: http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/36787/1130-85/Star-Wars%3A-A-New-Hope-%28FOX%29-%281977%29

Darth Mallwalker said:

sequels mean ESB & ROTJ wearing SWE jackets, mastered by Technidisc in 1993-94
To my knowledge, they didn't suffer any 'incredible shrinking ratio' like ANH, so maybe they were never remastered, or retelecine or whatever.
It's possible they're made from same master tape as earlier Pioneer pressing SWE, and presumably JSC, so they'd be missing few frames between reels in that case.

On the other hand, if they'd been remastered from '93 telecine they should indclude (nearly) all frames as GOUT, but without THX smear. [This appears to be the case for ANH, at first glance anyway.]
They were cheap enough, so I decided to take the chance and try to answer that question. This is the hypothesis, to prove or disprove...

Interesting, thank you for the info. :) Please post some possible interesting finds on the Empire disc when you get the time to check it.

How did you identify the Technidisc versions of empire and jedi?  Do they have "Fox Video" logos instead of "CBS Fox Video" logos, like Star Wars?  Thanks

Darth Mallwalker said:

Zion threatened to upload some of the raw X0 captures.
If he's gonna do that, I'd rather see the JSC ones than any THX/DC/Face

Laserman once offered to send me the X0 capture of the JSC  - under the condition that I claimed it was my own capture, so the rest of the X0 team wouldn't find out.

Obviously I said I'd like a copy, but unfortunately he never sent the discs. :-(

Now I need to buy a "proper" fixed Special Widescreen Edition LD to replace the one I thought was the fixed disc but wasn't.

The technidisc for Jedi would most likely still have the picture missframed because all released before the definitive collection were that way.

I suppose someone who owns it can check to see if the picture is not corrected.

Moth3r as far as i know the japan special collection for star wars does not have the incredible shrinking ratio problem, but i could be wrong.

If it is not screwed up like the US pressing you could buy a copy of the japan laserdisc, if you don't mind the picture being shifted way up in the frame and burnt in subtitles.  Also is in CAV format and not CLV.