77FN

Nanner Split said:

For those having Blu-Ray issues: there are several Blu Ray players out there that just will not play BD-Rs, period. Be sure to Google the model number of your player and see what it says (I found this out the hard way: I was working on a BR for a commercial release and some of our QA testers just could not play their test copies at all for this exact reason).

I'm using an Oppo BDP-83 - never had any problems with any BD-R disc until this one alas.

Hal 9000 said:

I'd also like to hear if anyone tried and had or didn't have this problem with v1 or v2. I believe I raised the bitrate very slightly this time around, but still low enough to easily fit onto a BD25 with room to spare. 

If indeed that's what's causing this problem, all versions must have been straddling this very fine line. I doubt it, though. 

If that's the case though then wouldn't the retail Star Wars Collection blu-rays also not play properly, or are your files at a higher bitrate than those? The official set plays fine on my player - I just don't want to see those ;)

I tried splitting the MKV into smaller files to test it on the USB input of my blu-ray player. Lots of stuttering like the file was corrupted, but the audio was fine. The full MKV plays perfectly fine on my Mac mini via VLC though. Wishing I could solve this one as I'd love to play this through the projector.

Anyone else got any suggestions for remuxing it into a fully bluray compliant file? Cheers.

Hal 9000 said:

Am I right to assume that it plays fine on a BluRay player through USB? I'm sorry to hear that you have wasted resources trying to get this to work. I don't have any prior experience authoring BR discs, and don't have any myself. All I did was use Compressor's build-in BluRay video preset. Stuttering makes me suspect the bitrate, but I authored it well within the appropriate range, so I really can't say what's causing this problem.

I haven't tried that yet - unfortunately my player is restricted to the FAT32 file format which I think restricts me to 8GB file sizes? I guess I could try splitting it into sections though and see how my player (an Oppo BDP-83) handles that. I don't know much about it either, but if I find something that works I'll let you know. Will try de-muxing, and re-muxing it again and see if that works.

At any rate, thanks for such an awesome piece of work. Trying to make any of the prequels watchable is commendable ;) I've just had a quick scan through of various scenes on my computer & it looks fantastic. Looking forward to seeing the results of all your re-editing.

avantdark said:

Thanks for V3 of this brilliant Fanedit. I love this.

But I have a Problem with the Blu-Ray compatible 1080p MKV.

I'm using tsMuxerGui to create the BR iso. I did it with Harmys MKVs an it worked nicely. But with the same settings your Video stutters in my Blu-Ray Player. Audio works nice, Video not.

Cant someone help me what setting I have to use?

I had exactly the same problem this evening. Wasted a 25GB disc, so not going to risk trying it again until I know what the problem is. Plays on the computer fine but obviously something needs changing to make it fully blurry compliant?

Isil said:

Hi. Sry to bother you again. I've just finished downloading all three movies in DVD-5 but I think they dont have any subs. Is there a way to add subs to the DVD-5 files?

This might be of use to you, but you'd have to rip the DVD to your hard-drive first I think.

http://www.vso-software.fr/faq/add_subtitles_to_dvd/add_subtitles_to_dvd.php

Hope this helps.

-7FN

TV's Frink said:

I sure wish this tired discussion would walk out of this thread...

I sure wish you'd stop with your usual inane comments which a few might find occasionally amusing from time to time, but many are getting increasingly sick & tired of... Do you ever have anything of use to submit here?

team_negative1 said:

The Bluray compatible ISO and isolated soundtrack are up on Myspleen now.

Artwork can be found here:

=================

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Team-Negative1-Empire-Strikes-Back-35mm-Grindhouse-cover-and-Disc/topic/17386/

Team Negative1

Thanks so much for going to the trouble of preparing this iso and replacing the end scenes which were corrupted in the orginal encode. Going to watch this tonight on a 110" screen :)

moviefreakedmind said:

imperialscum said:

moviefreakedmind said:

No, I'm confused as to whether you think that the original line was delivered too angrily or not. You seem to imply that the original line was delivered angrily, which I guess it was, but no more angrily than any other Vader line in the series (like "I find your lack of faith disturbing")

All other lines were delivered without any anger... with a sole exception "Tear this ship apart".

And this the best example of Vader... cool, intelligent, witty, sarcastic.

Of course this is speaking in general. As for why anger ESPECIALLY does not fit in that particular section of the film, please refer to this post and this post.

Cool? Witty? Sarcastic? Those are some of the last words I'd use to describe Vader as a whole. He always sounded very pissed off. He rarely shouted but always seemed intense and serious. Someone who chokes officers, usually to death, on a regular basis can hardly be described as "cool"

"Apology accepted, Captain Needa" doesn't strike you as cool, witty or verging on sarcasm?!

As for the "Bring my shuttle" delivery in the original, clearly Vader is disappointed, pissed off. Conflicted even (Luke picks up on this in Jedi afterall). Things didn't goto plan for him. He failed himself, and the Emperor by not capturing his son. His son showed the ability to rather kill himself than joining the dark side. My reading is that all this stuff is going through his mind in that one line. He's pre-occupied & lost in thoughts on the Star Destroyer bridge too. Knowing your son is out there, then actually meeting (and fighting him face to face and physcally damaging him badly) him is another. I think it's all played brilliantly.

Does the script say anything about the delivery of those lines?

I saw it the weekend of the week it came out, at the Odeon in Leicester Square. My heart sank very early into the film. The title crawl didn't exactly reel me in from the outset, read like some very bad fan fiction I thought. The opening shot - what was meant to be THE opening shot for the entire saga! - was utterly forgettable too, though the Star Destroyer opening from Star Wars is damn-near impossible to top to be fair. It was seeing the absolutely awful masks, bad accents and lip-sync on the Nute Gunray character and his minions that made me think this film was going to be bad. Then there was the introduction of Jar-Jar Binks... and I just sank deeper into my chair hoping it would redeem itself at some point... I was sank so deep into it when the film ended I think I was sitting in somebody's lap a few rows behind...!!! ;)

When the film ended, everyone just exited the cinema in stone-cold silence. You could sense the confusion and shock. Then outside we all suddenly started coming out with desperate "well parts of it weren't so bad" comments. I sat there in the pub with my friend and we both knew full-well it was a steaming pile of utter shite, that Lucas had utterly dropped the ball, but where too shell-shocked to admit it. I've never - before or since - been so disappointed in a film, though Prometheus came a little close.

Beber said:

Happy new year, guys!

How come you changed from PCM to AC3? PCM is Blu-ray compatible.

I'm sure it'd be easy to demux the audio from the existing release, and mux it into the forthcoming blu-ray compliant version, if you wanted to. Might do that myself actually.

Awesome news - many thanks to all at Team -1 for their efforts.

A very Happy New Year to everyone here too! ;)

waspattck said:

Considering that this print has been around for 35 years and that it was probably heavily used, I think it's in surprisingly good shape. All the detail is definitely there and whatever damage there is seems pretty minor. The red shift could be a lot worse and there is quite a bit of remaining color information.

For old folks like me, it brings me back to seeing matinees at the mall after the title had been out for a while. Before the internet, before home video on any meaningful scale. This was it and it was pretty great. Personally, I think the effects hold up pretty well compared with CGI.

Thanks to -1 for the memories and I look forward to SW '77! 

 Ditto! :) It really is a dream release for me & I'm very thankful to all at Team -1. I never thought I'd be able to see the original version of Empire like this again, and I'm still pinching myself! My download has only just finished (took 4 days with our out of date connection) so hoping to see this tonight. Great way to see in the New Year. Unfortunately we have a family member who we're literally waiting to pass on (he's no longer being fed & just on sedatives) but this release has helped to take my mind of things a little.

I'm wondering if these were private prints, or would have been shown in a theatre during the original theatrical run in 1980? Pretty amazing if they're actual prints used during original screening runs - You can't get more authentic then that! :)

Alderaan said:

imperialscum said:

It seems it is pointless since we just have different opinion on the whole matter.

It may be pointless but there's no harm in civilly discussing a topic.

I find it interesting in your response to Ryan you only mentioned "his plan". "Plan" again. And so on. You say you understand the emotions going on in the scene, but you didn't reference any. You simply kept coming back to an agenda, as if Vader is a static character merely trying to succeed in his goal.

What I'm trying to point out is that, unlike Star Wars, Vader's character is not presented in a static way in Empire. There are a series of setups and payoffs that painstakingly try to humanize him and make emotional changes in him plausible. Entire scenes and lines of dialogue earlier in the film were specifically created so that Vader would seem like a human being capable of vulnerable emotions by the end of the film ... but you are arguing that he was a 2-dimensional "calm and cool" character just trying to get his job done.

It's clear the scriptwriter did not feel the same as you. And if you listen to the subtext conveyed through the changing intonations of Vader's voice during the Bespin duel, it's clear James Earl Jones did not agree with you. And if you listen to the increasingly explosive sound effects and visual fx during that duel, it's clear the people creating those effects also espoused the view that Vader's emotional outburst was growing and swelling as the duel proceeded towards its climax.

It's highly unlikely that all of those people shared the same interpretation by mere coincidence.

All in my opinion of course.

And you've mirrored my opinion of this scene too. Excellently argued points, and all correct.

team_negative1 said:

We are actually working on a bluray compliant version. We will see about fixing the final scene also.

Team Negative1

Fantastic! Any idea on a timescale for that? I'll cancel my existing 1080p download if its only a few days or so away.

Is there a problem with the final scene on both the 720p and 1080p versions?

RU.08 said:

That's not true, the main file itself should fit on a BD-R (without the extras). The main issue is that it's not BD compatible and your player may or may not be able to play it.

I'm going by what waspattck said above in regards to the file size & burning to a Blu-ray disc.

That's indeed the main issue. I prefer to watch films using the bluray player and projector, when possible, rather than have to use the computer and take that downstairs. I'll try a variety of options once its downloaded to try & get a playable and compliant bluray starting with magicyuv.

waspattck said:

I think both versions are just slightly too big for physical disc, even with a small overwrite.

I'm going to compromise and put the 720p version on a BD-R.

 Damn. I think I'll cancel my 1080p download then if it won't fit onto a bluray. 

Whilst I'm extremely grateful to all at Team -1 for the hard work that's gone into this release, I wish some thought had gone into making these a little easier to burn onto a bluray in regards to file size and color spaces.

Once downloaded (our connection is pretty slow) I'm going to try putting the 1080p file through the following software, to see if I can get a 4:2:0 blu-ray compliant colorspace file for burning. Anyone used this piece of software, or something similar?

http://magicyuv.com

Jonno said:

77FN said:

Chewtobacca said:

Jonno said: Is there a quick route to BD-friendly video without re-encoding?

 No.

 

I own an oppo bdp-83 which I believe is compatible with several color spaces. Can I therefore still burn this with the usual bluray folders, or will this not work?

 I think the issue is that, while decent BD players support a range of colorspace outputs, the BD video spec is only ever 4:2:0. Still it may be worth passing the file through tsMuxer to see if you can get away with structuring it that way, and see what your player makes of it.
And as for watching something like this on a PC (as distinct from HTPC), I can't imagine that would be a very pleasurable experience - don't folks like to get immersed in movies any more?

It's a shame it wasn't released with bluray compliant burning in mind, though I suspect their reasons for doing so may have partially been to lesson the likelihood of any sellers palming discs off on Ebay for a profit. I went and ordered a blurry burner and discs a couple days back too - doh! That'll teach me for being so impulsive... I can play it on my Mac mini, but the cinema gear is downstairs and it would be a lot of hassle to unplumb the computer and move it downstairs for one film. Wondering what options exist to convert this somehow so it can be burnt to a 25GB bluray?

Still, overjoyed to have this edition, and the efforts by everyone concerned that made this release possible. This is THE version of Empire I'll keep returning to now, all LD transfers are now part of the past for me now. This version and Harmy's are all I need until the official OOT is released. Even then this 35mm Grindhouse version is way more representative of what I saw back in 1980 in our local fleapit of a cinema ;)

Chewtobacca said:

Jonno said: Is there a quick route to BD-friendly video without re-encoding?

 No.

I own an oppo bdp-83 which I believe is compatible with several color spaces. Can I therefore still burn this with the usual bluray folders, or will this not work?

FrederikOlsen said:

Yeah, sure. Snapped a bunch of 1080p PNGs using VLC Media Player:

http://imgur.com/a/Alo9E#0

You should be able to download the full-res pictures on the page. Apologies for the screwed-up order.

Thanks every so much - really appreciate it. Man they look great! :)

Could somebody post some uncompressed shots of the cloud city approach from this Grindhouse release please? It's going to take our connection a few days to download the MKV, and this is probably my favorite scene (visually) from Empire. Ta muchly ;)

This is truly a dream come true! It really is. The digital equivalent of owning ones own 35mm print. Even if an official release does actually happen, it'll be ultra clean and probably closer to a digital projection rather than an organic looking release print. This is about as close as its possible to get to see Empire as it appeared in cinemas in 1980 I should think, short of building a time machine! Thanks to everyone at Team -1 who made this release possible. Can't wait to see this projected via my Epson 3200 later this week :)

Beats me why folks would want that many spoilers anyway, especially when there's still just under a year to go. That list above is a prime example - avoided! What's the point in having the films story/plot and other information (if legit) made available before one has seen the film? Takes away much of the enjoyment, and has almost become a competition amongst a certain sub-section of fandom - who can get the most spoilers. All thimgs considered I preferred the pre-internet era for films. There were more genuine surprises, and greater enjoyment overall of films without being dissected to death. Or maybe I'm just getting old ;)

By the way, anybody know how makingstarwars.net get all their information? Seems a bit odd they haven't been shut down by the powers that be - they post so much behind the scenes stuff - unless items are deliberately leaked of course... Does Jason Ward have links with Lucasfilm?