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Using the '04 SE DVD version to restore the Original (with lots of info)

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 (Edited)

I’ve done some experimentation on using the 2004 version of Star Wars and trying to come up with a semblance of the original form of the movie, granted this is with an xvid encode, and encoding it again doesn’t come out all that nice, I did the Greedo scene. It so happened on my source, that I could take and delete from the first keyframe after “I’ll bet you have” to the screen full of smoke, and it doesn’t seem all that bad. I also added the subtitles into the encode, though they don’t look like the originals… they still look pretty good (well, they are from the stylesheet I use to sub widescreen anime…)

Is it safe to post a link, or does it fall under the category of pirating the official DVD? (It’s only about 4.5 MB.)

Moll.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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You beat me to it!

I have just "backed up " my dvd set and was going to have a look to see what could be done with the following scenes that bug me big time


1.Han/greedo

2.The New emperor thing

3.Alet my star destroyer

4.Hayden force ghost

5.Awful kiwi voice overs

btw if your using a mac, mac the ripper is very quick
Egon "Don't Cross the streams it would be very bad"

Peter "i'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing"

Egon "lmagine the 97 Star Wars Special Editions"
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Working with an XviD rip, using Virtual Dub (lol). Not a lot of CPU power in this beast. It's a 700 MHz Celeron with 64MB RAM. Still gets the job done. Windows 98 SE, latest OS that'll run on this thing (well, besides Fedora 1). Be nice if I had the CPU power to run Adobe Premiere or something, though.

Moll.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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If you're serious about that you'd at least want to use the PAL DVD's.
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Originally posted by: DanielB
If you're serious about that you'd at least want to use the PAL DVD's.


Why?

If you use the PAL dvds, you change the speed of the film. I tried it with a PAL version of ESB and it just comes out funny. Everything seems a bit sped up.
The Jedi are all but extinct.......
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My source is the PAL dvds, mac is Dual g5 2gig ram
mpeg2works is a handy tool for pal>ntsc>pal conversions
Egon "Don't Cross the streams it would be very bad"

Peter "i'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing"

Egon "lmagine the 97 Star Wars Special Editions"
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Well, since everyone here is like-minded, I'll go ahead and say it... This is something I've been planning for a long time. I happen to own a visual effects/post-production company, and we have all the facilities to author an amazing hybrid. We've already done tests where we can intercut between the new DVD footage and the LD to fill in the gaps to restore it to OT, and it's nice.

There are a ton, I mean a TON of problems even with the DVD images.. scenes like the Tantive jump all over the map in terms of color timing - very poor work. On our calibrated displays (and consumer displays, for that matter) the Tantive interior, for example, is extremely blue-shifted. And then there are things like the complete over-chroma boosting of R2's blue that has such horrific implications for the rest of the picture... Have you seen the glowing escape pod hatch, yet? We've already been able to correct much of that, and for certain scenes, we're prepared to treat them like visual effects shots, and take the time to roto specific areas for more complete control.

We're going to correct the garbage mattes once and for all, even if it means rotoing every single ship in the movie... bottom line, I don't have any faith that an OT version is coming, so we're going all out on this one.

You may have noticed that on the DVD, the receeding Star Wars title card moves way too fast... first time we've seen that in 27 years, and it's correct on the DVD for the alternate languages. Today we created the new title crawl by seamlessly combining the title card from an alternate language with the English language crawl. Fortunately, the background elements were identical, pixel for pixel, so creating a composite was no problem.

This will truly be a labor of love. We already have both the first pressing CLV LD and the Definitive LD online, and we are doing 3 way frame-by-frame comparisons, along with pouring over an ungodly amount of references to best determine the color timing for each shot. We've been preparing for the arrival of the DVD for 2 years, and have everything ready to go. Progress will probably be slow - we're only going to do this once, but we feel it's worth it.

And it is good fortune that we have state-of-the-art facilities, and time, at our disposal.

Naturally, this is of course just a project we're doing in-house to practice the art of compositing and color correction, as no exhibiton or distribution of such a project would be legal.

But we appreciate input, and will be documenting the process extensively, so if you're interested in hearing about what we're doing, you can always email me!

_Mike

View the Restoration and join the discussion at StarWarsLegacy.com!

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Originally posted by: DanielB
If you're serious about that you'd at least want to use the PAL DVD's.


Click on the pics in the links to see comparisons between the R1 and R2 DVDs

http://www.filmz.dk/filmz-compare-sw.php?ep=4
http://www.filmz.dk/filmz-compare-sw.php?ep=5
http://www.filmz.dk/filmz-compare-sw.php?ep=6
Green is as Green does
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Naturally, this is of course just a project we're doing in-house to practice the art of compositing and color correction, as no exhibiton or distribution of such a project would be legal.

nudge nudge, wink wink, right Mike? How can you possibly get all of us drooling and then say we can never watch the final product?
When you get this thing done, I'll send you postage and 3 DVD-Rs. Maybe a fine cigar too. Now that's not illegal, is it?

"For Star Wars to return to its roots it must be based more on emotion than explanation."  -- J.J. Abrams

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Click on the pics in the links to see comparisons between the R1 and R2 DVDs


interesting
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Well so far I have got the vobs off the dvds (using mpeg streamclip for anyone interested) and onto my HD and have been just comparing them to the LDs. One thing I did notice is that the wampa cave is very blue compared to the LD scene, but only having FCP and other prosumer apps theres only so much I can do, good on you mike and everyone else for taking the time and effort

Did edit the greedo scene though and it don't look to bad.
Egon "Don't Cross the streams it would be very bad"

Peter "i'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing"

Egon "lmagine the 97 Star Wars Special Editions"
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Hey, I have access to an Avid, as welll as dvd burning equipment.

I could probalby restore the '04 versions to the '97 versions without too much difficulty. The point of doing this would be to have the 5.1 sound and the dvd quality with the originals, but without the stupid changes in the 04 versions.

So basically I'm talking about removing the '04 changes...nothing more than that. After I do that, then I could try to tackle restoring them to the original versions.

But like mverta was saying, it's a lot of work...so I won't try it unless a lot of people ask me to.
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Mike, you dog you. You have to be able to share that, once you've gotten it perfected. Since you are just "practicing" and not actually distributing for profit, sharing amongs friends is legal. And I'd be more than happy to purchase your personal, expensive blank, dual-layer DVDs and pay the exhorbitant shipping cost just to take a look at your "practice session" and see what is possible, and use it as a "learning tool" of my own as I discover the art of post-production visual effects.
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"I did the Greedo scene. It so happened on my source, that I could take and delete from the first keyframe after "I'll bet you have" to the screen full of smoke, and it doesn't seem all that bad."

If I'm reading this correctly, you've eliminated the scene altogether?

Unacceptable! Wait 'til Rikter sends me the .VOB files. I'll put that scene right again.

"On our calibrated displays (and consumer displays, for that matter) the Tantive interior, for example, is extremely blue-shifted."

I've been noticing that as well. What the hell happened to THX standards? Is this another "Highlander"? LOL

"Today we created the new title crawl by seamlessly combining the title card from an alternate language with the English language crawl. Fortunately, the background elements were identical, pixel for pixel, so creating a composite was no problem."

I intend to recreate the original pre-ANH crawl with elements from the crawl in "Empire of Dreams".

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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I've done a "draft edit" of the first half of ANH. It sucks but it's just an experiment. The video ends with Han, Chewie, Luke, Obi-wan and the droids in the small room.

The following changes have been made against the original source (PAL DVD encode):

* All segments have been slowed down to 23.976 fps.
* The FOX/Lucasfilm logo is the 1977 one (but with the 2004 music).
* "Look Sir, Droids" - restored from DE.
* Binary Sunset sequence - restored from DE.
* Original Krayt Dragon call restored.
* Entrance to Mos Eisley restored from DE.
* Wolfman restored.
* Greedo shooting Han removed; the scene now plays the same as in the 1977 version.
* Jabba scene excised.
* Alderaan explosion restored from DE; but with the sound tweaked (small bits of static; thin layer of brown noise; bass expansion on the right channel)
* A shot of an officer being shot in the chest soon after Han et al exit the Falcon on board the Death Star, restored from DE.

No other changes. This is a draft, and I'll consider working on it further, if I can try to improve it.

Moll.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Sounds good moll, I just picked up the SE LD pal versions so I can replace the emperor scene with the LD scene.

Can't wait to see all these 04 OT edits!
Egon "Don't Cross the streams it would be very bad"

Peter "i'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing"

Egon "lmagine the 97 Star Wars Special Editions"
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Any plans to make these avaiable to others?

If you can't post information, PM me. I'd love to hook up with some DE-SEized DVDs.

(the picture quality is finger licking good)

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Mike, count me in with the others. I'm really interested to see what you cook up. Should be interesting to see. Like the others, I'd be happy to cover the cost for shipping and such.
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I'm going to let this post stand for now, but it's crossing the line a bit. Why?

The 2004 editions are a completely new product. You can buy them in the store.

If you own the box set, that's great. Mix it up all you want with rips from other sources.

However, those of you offering to buy bootlegs made mostly from the 2004 editions with LD cuts spliced in should own the box set. If the end product is 90% 2004 Star Wars with 10% LD rips, then it's only right you pay Fox/LFL for that new content.

I'll let the conversation continue, but no more discussions about the buying or selling of such a hybrid project please.
Forum Administrator

MTFBWY…A

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MBJ - No, the original goes "Yes, I bet you have" shot, then the immediate next shot is Greedo blowing up w/ blaster sound. The SE inserted a wide shot so they could have Greedo shoot first, so cutting that shot and adding a blaster sound pretty much restores the scene.
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Naturally, this is of course just a project we're doing in-house to practice the art of compositing and color correction, as no exhibiton or distribution of such a project would be legal.


Jay, just to be clear, I said this, and I meant it. Other people took it upon themselves to interpret this as "code" and offered to purchase copies. My hope is that my restoration will help others with their own restorations, by both illustrating the myriad issues with various releases, as well as providing solutions.

In the next couple of days, interested parties can view the restoration effort at www.starwarslegacy.com

For now, people can see the effort at this temporary page:

Star Wars Legacy Edition


_Mike

View the Restoration and join the discussion at StarWarsLegacy.com!

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That all makes an interesting read mike, thanks for the insight
Egon "Don't Cross the streams it would be very bad"

Peter "i'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing"

Egon "lmagine the 97 Star Wars Special Editions"
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Nice stuff, Mike. Any chance of borrowing your "Lucasfilm" and "A long time ago" titles?

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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I actually did purchase the box set. I enjoy it, but not as much as I'd enjoy the original original made from it. I, for one, don't consider what Mike is doing to really be anything wrong. Granted, I'm not in charge here, but that is just my two cents. I've said before that I was going to purchase the DVDs, I did, and I want to see what Mike can do.

Of course, I would really like to have a copy or at least watch Mike's restorations. If that is not to be, then I guess I won't be able to. But I certainly don't feel that, since I actually purchased the discs from Lucasfilm and Fox that there would be anything wrong with it at all.
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Now THIS is something to follow

Mike--If you really do want to use the older 20th Century Fox Logo, there should be other DVD's with that old logo in scope. I think it looks good enough (compared to the LD image on your site) that most viewers probably wouldn't notice that the animated one had been replaced.

I also understand that you're trying to restore this thing to the original version, but if you're contemplating swapping the new Logo in at the beginnings, you might also want to contemplate keeping the new "A Long Time Ago.." as it matches up to every other "A Long Time Ago" in the series.

Got your site bookmarked, even if it's not up yet
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