Theater Performance Edition: Empire Strikes Back betamax bootleg preservation. (Released)

I’m creating a separate thread for this project just to make it easier to index and reference. The original info on this project comes from the Theater Performance Preservation thread (http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Theater-Performance-Preservations/topic/12161/) “originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Theater-Performance-Preservations/topic/12161/)”)

Image:

• 720x576 PAL format, anamorphic
• Bitrate: 4.7 Mbps (Average), 2-pass encoding

Audio:

• Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dual Mono) 48000 Hz, 128 kbit/s

General:

• Menu, cover and discart in Photoshop.
• Cover image from the Marvel Comics Adaption.
• Pre-credit scroll made in Windows Movie Maker.
• DVD authored using TMPEGEnc DVD Author.

Info:

_The Betamax tape that was used for this transfer was bought at a video store in Qatar in 1982.
At the time, there was no pre-recorded video industry in the country, so grey-area duplicates were sold openly.

This particular tape seems to be mastered from a telecine of a theatrical print from the UK.

Members of the OT forum contacted me regarding the contents of this tape in december 2010. I offered to make a DVD duplicate of the contents and send it to a forum member.

The transfer from Beta to MPEG2 was done with a Betamax machine hooked up to a commercial DVD/HD recorder. From there, the raw capture was trimmed using VideoReDo.

The aspect ratio of the original telecine was off, so the file was re-encoded, correcting the image proportions and fitting the file on a DVD5 in the process.

DVD-ROM supplement with cover art, disc art and pictures of the original Betamax tape.
_

The tape and the Beta machine.

Some screens:

The Menu of the final authored disc:

Note the telecine misalignment at the beginning. This also appears briefly at other reel changes.

Glue mark at splice:

More:

Reel change mark:

...and a framegrab superimposed on the same frame from the 2004 DVD.