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ADigitalMan

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Join date
26-Sep-2004
Last activity
1-Dec-2025
Posts
2,951
Web Site
https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalMan-jc3xy

Post History

Post
#79754
Topic
MagnoliaFan Edits: Ep I "Balance Of The Force", and Ep II "The Clone War" (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/79754/action/topic#79754
Time
Originally posted by: Hal 9000Hey AdigitalMan, how exactly do you acess the subtitles on a DVD folder file?

I am thinking about purchasing a DVD burner and wouldn't mind changing some of the subtitles (tastefully, and only slightly of course).
Like correcting a few minor type-os, changing the "oh shit!" to "help me!", etc.


In short:
I used DVDDecrypter to rip the disc into its individual streams. File splitting was turned off, so the video was one big file and the audio was one big file. Made re-synching a non-issue.

Then I ripped MF's original subtitles (from the original DVD, not from the Demuxed streams) using SubRip and converted to a text format using the OCR utiltity. This was perhaps the most tedious process, but I got them in okay on a few passes, after several hours of trying. Skip this step because I've saved you all the time and effort by saving the file, as noted further down in this response.

I then used Subtitle Workshop to make the edits and to create a format that DVD Lab Pro could import. I added then used said tool to import the video file, the audio file, and now the two subtitle files. I then exported the movie project, burned it to a re-recordable to test, and after testing went OK, burned it to a recordable for archiving.

I ditched the original menu simply because I didn't know how to make the menu select subtitles. Instead, I just added a subtitle note in the first few seconds (during MF's title card) stating that this was my edit, the date (for version control purposes in case I update the file down the road) and that MF's original subs were on stream 2. You can select them with the subtitle button.

The entire compilation sans-menu was about 4.28 GB, which leaves room for more subtitle files to be added by additional editors who care to do so.

To save you all the SubRip and Subtitle Workshop steps, I've saved the text based SRT files which will import into DVD-Lab pro. Feel free to update them using the text editor of your choice, then re-mux into a project of your own.

You can download MF's Original Subtitles and my version and edit to your heart's content.

May the force be with youse.

Citing my sources: I used a combination of tools and methods based largely on this guide and this other guide and then customized them as the project and my instincts dictated.
Post
#79750
Topic
MagnoliaFan Edits: Ep I "Balance Of The Force", and Ep II "The Clone War" (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/79750/action/topic#79750
Time
MF points out what I thought everybody realized in his edit. The entire subplot of Dooku as Palp's Apprentice (and therefore a sith) was entirely woven out. Not just the yellow lightsaber and final scene on Coruscant, but also the dialogue between Jango and Obi-Wan. He did a very careful job with this. What I was getting at was an alternate take (based on a really missed opportunity on Lucas' part) where the Sith relationship would be revealed, perhaps in Episode III (where it will inevitably be revealed) and have Dooku with a purple saber instead of Mace. The purple would have been derived from using one blue crystal and one red crystal, if you know your lore on Lightsaber construction. Having Mace with purple denotes him having more of a Sith connection, which isn't who the character is.

As MF's edit stands, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the yellow saber. It works because he did a top-notch editing job on the plot points surrounding the color change.
Post
#79613
Topic
Censorship of the original films
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/79613/action/topic#79613
Time
Moved from the MeBeJedi forum to get that room back on topic and yet to still weigh in with that room.

Originally posted by: DanielB

ADigitalMan, to answer your question. Do people look at original art for any particular reason? Why do people look at picassos rather than MY IMPROVED "picasso paintings"? Are you telling me, if Picasso painted a dull looking picture, and I made it look better you would prefer to look at my version of it rather than picasso's original?

I have three points to make, then I'm done with this issue:

1) DanielB, you have no problem using the forum's editing function to revise/fix your thoughts after they've been published. Don't cast stones in your house of glass.

2) How many Picassos do you own? How many Picassos have you seen in person? Do you not think that looking at a Picasso in a book hasn't had some form of alteration to make it appropriately presentable in the medium in which you've viewed it? If there is no point in viewing a Picasso except as intended by Picasso himself, then one should ONLY view the version hanging in the gallery, and never own a lithograph, a book, or a photo, because ALL OF THESE CONTAIN ALTERATIONS FROM THE ARTIST'S ORIGINAL. It's inescapable.

3) Getting back to Star Wars, I have nothing against preservists preserving the O-OT. But which O-OT gets to be preserved in your mind? Why is the DE LD worth preserving when it too contains revisions from the original theatrical version? You crap all over somebody correcting a frame that needs correcting, but yet you say nothing about the drastic changes from the 1977 theatrical version to the 1981 theatrical version, AND you accept the 1993 Laserdisc version which we know sports changes from the original.
Post
#79608
Topic
MagnoliaFan Edits: Ep I "Balance Of The Force", and Ep II "The Clone War" (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/79608/action/topic#79608
Time
What might have been neat would to have Mace's saber the traditional blue or green, and have Dooku's saber as purple. This would have done far more to underscore the "Is he Jedi or is he Sith?" question. George punked out to Sam L. when he made the blade purple, and as MF said it earlier in the thread, all bets were off at that point on saber color. The Red-saber/Sith connection never bothered me in Attack of the Clones, but the yellow-saber change MF did was really cool too.

And though I'd have probably left in the final scene with Dooku and Sidious, showing them in allegiance as the final twist, MF deftly handled weaving out the entire subplot and making his notion of Dooku simply a rogue Jedi totally work.

MF, regarding this idea about Dooku and a purple saber, would that have addressed any of your issues with the red flashes any better? i.e. Would the purple have done more to hide the red than the yellow did? And again, I think the yellow saber with the red halo and flashes actually looked pretty bitchin' on the whole.
Post
#79098
Topic
STAR WARS: The Torrents thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/79098/action/topic#79098
Time
The version on myspleen is the cruddier version but with the fun bonus features of the Muppet Show and the Kenner Commercials. The second version to which you refer is positively marvelous ... for the SWHS anyway. Excellent transfer that's probably not going to get much better unless Lucas relents and releases it officially. I doubt that will ever happen, and certainly not without a ton of his revisionist crap.
Post
#79090
Topic
Thought on de-SE'ing the DVD
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/79090/action/topic#79090
Time
Thanks guys. Some good things that I'll get to trying ASAP.

One other thing, do any of these programs edit M2V viles? I assume the correct process is to demux my discs to their individual streams, add the streams into an editing project, and then make my edits where necessary? I've found that nothing seems to edit M2V. Will virtualdubmod edit the VOB files or the M2V files? Or should I be converting demuxed M2V into another format before editing?
Post
#79020
Topic
Thought on de-SE'ing the DVD
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/79020/action/topic#79020
Time
That's been my argument all along in my correspondence with LFL. They claim "deliberate creative decision" so in that case, they're deliberately screwing over the foreign language viewers. Or, as we all KNOW, they screwed up the english language ANGLE/Track streams and aren't owning up to their mistakes.

I'm surprised that sites like DVDReview.com and TheDigitalBits.com haven't been holding Lucas accountable. Those sites incited a boycotting campaign on Back to the Future for far less offensive errors and they got the doggone thing replaced.

Getting back to the topic at hand, regarding the PAL xfers that were posted earlier, will they be problematic when trying to replace the NTSC video with those rips? I know my 5-star SE doesn't look close to the clarity of the DVD and these rips look much better, but if there is a problem with the frame rate not matching up, then what do we Americans need to do?

I myself want to create a watchable 2004 SE with the following changes:
- Correct the title card in ANH
- Han shoots first (and only)
- Correct Luke's green saber
I'm cool with the rest, including the new Jabba. His pulling of a punch on Han for stepping on his tail put the whole thing into a more believable perspective.

- Re-integrate Boba Fett's original voice in ESB (I'm holding out on editing the Emperor's dialogue until I see how it fits with Ep III)

- Restore Lapti Nek into Ep VI
- Restore Sebastian Shaw as the ghost

I thought about trying to edit some of the "Jedi Rocks" video into the "Lapti Nek" CD version for sh!ts and giggles. But I still haven't even gotten a working software solution to do frame-accurate editing, so I'm merely thinking aloud in this thread. I've gotten some good help from MBJ, but if any of you have additional advice on how to get frame-accurate editing on my system, please PM me. I tried the trial download of Premiere Pro, but it only installs on XP and I'm a Win2K dinosaur.
Post
#79008
Topic
<strong>The Cowclops Transfers (a.k.a. the PCM audio DVD's, Row47 set) Info and Feedback Thread</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/79008/action/topic#79008
Time
I'm a fan of the PCM soundtrack simply because it's a direct rip from the source. That said, MBJ's 5.1 is quite promising (the sample sounded GREAT) due to the hard work that has gone into it. But because PCM is available from the original source, I'm glad it's being preserved on all these different projects. It is, after all, the soundtrack that was purposefully designed to accompany the DE LD. Makes sense that it's being preserved. It is a space hog, and that's why we'll hopefully have it preserved on DL versions of the different sets.

WickedLemon, good minds do think alike.
Post
#78995
Topic
<strong>The Cowclops Transfers (a.k.a. the PCM audio DVD's, Row47 set) Info and Feedback Thread</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/78995/action/topic#78995
Time
TR47, will a DL be made available in this set for those who want one? For those with DL burners, as I understand it, you could burn half the VOBs on one 4.7 and the other half on another, and then the user could reassemble on their own end. Given the cheap cost of 4.7s this may be a solution for those who can reassemble them on their own end. I'm not one of those people (yet) but I am thinking ahead.
Post
#79038
Topic
Is General Grievous really Maul??
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/79038/action/topic#79038
Time
I think he should be Maul, but doubt he will be. Just one of many more lost opportunities by Lucas as a writer. Consider this as an easy "what could have been":

Qui-Gon's saber being blue, Obi-Wan's being green. When Obi-Wan's is lost during the Maul duel and he takes Qui-Gon's, he then wears it for the rest of his days as his own. This also would explain why Luke's own saber, which he built from parts in Obi-Wan's hut as an unfilmed (but written and included in comics and in the novel) scene in ROTJ, ended up being green, and not blue.
Post
#78889
Topic
<strong>The Cowclops Transfers (a.k.a. the PCM audio DVD's, Row47 set) Info and Feedback Thread</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/78889/action/topic#78889
Time
Received this set over the weekend and have spot-viewed it for the first time. It has rendered my previous version (which looked like a crappy camcorder pointed at a TV) to being coasters. Literally. I now have an expensive set of three Star Wars coasters thanks to a simple even trade for TR-47.

Can't yet give a very critical review. The picture is fairly nice on my version. A curious wavy-pixellation thing during the darker sequences that is likely the result of the compression down to 4.7GB (I assume), but still, this is probably the cleanest transfer currently in existence. It's the first time I've really been able to sit and watch the OT since the SEs came out, and I'm re-discovering my love for certain things while appreciating some of George's changes at the same time. Mos Eisley is too doggone busy in the SE and I am now appreciating the original version in this entire sequence because of the sparseness. Smugglers could really hide out there, just like in some no-name Mexican town. The sparseness serves the story better. And in Jedi, I still love Lapti-Nek and roll my eyes at Yub Nub.
Post
#78832
Topic
***The MeBeJedi feedback thread ***
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/78832/action/topic#78832
Time
Whereas I wouldn't mind a "warts and all" offical release of the OT on DVD (considering that we've been given a "warts and all" release of the 2004 Special Edition) I really have to wonder about what some people are getting out of Star Wars when they complain about matte lines or bad saber shots NOT being present. I mean, do some people really sit around watching the trilogy and when vader's saber is seen to be white through the blast doors, scream out "Yayyyyyyy!!!!! THERE IT ISSSSSS!!!!! HOOOOOOOORAYYYYYYY" ?

Kinda missing the point there. Changing character arcs is bad. Even changing out old FX shots for entirely new ones is revisionist at best (though they don't personally offend me). Fixing simple rotoscoping errors is something totally different. Had Lucas released the O-OT with stuff like the mattes and sabers fixed but nothing else, there might *might* be a hundred people on earth who would get worked up over it. Most of them are on this forum.

Compared to the thousands upon thousands who care about the O-OT not being released in any form (cleaned up or grainy), there is clearly a threshold. Lucas is so far on one side of it, he can't see it. Same goes for certain others on the opposite side of the issue.

I haven't heard my earlier points addressed. What about that "Episode IV: A New Hope" being tacked on to the title crawl? That's not clearly causing certain forum member's panties to get in a twist. But it is a change from the original release of Star Wars. Everybody has their own threshold, and the vast majority seem to want a restoration of the version seen on the DE or Faces laserdiscs. If five frames of saber FX are corrected, what is the BFD? Don't like it? Follow the guides for captures being offered on this site (and others) and do your own f'ing captures. That's what's great about partcipants like MBJ and Zion and MVerta. They're doing this restoration out of a labor of love and are sharing most (if not all) of their secrets openly to provide a map for others to follow suit.

Remember, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.