+++++ Guide to Downloading Projects from Usenet +++++

IMPORTANT: You must purchase the official Blu-rays or digital HD releases of the films in question before downloading theatrical preservations and fan edits. The projects discussed in these forums must never be bought or sold. I do not condone piracy of any kind.

Introduction

The Users’ Network, or Usenet for short, is a non-centralised computer network of news servers created in 1980 for discussing various topics in newsgroups. After a message is posted to a newsgroup on a news server, it is copied to all the other news servers hosting that particular newsgroup. It can then be viewed by anyone with an account on one of these news servers. While such discussions now usually take place on internet forums instead, newsgroups have been increasingly used for file-sharing due to dramatic increases in internet connection speed over the last 15 years. The same technology used for sharing messages in the original text-based newsgroups has been adapted for sharing much larger music, video and application files in binary newsgroups. Content is uploaded and downloaded using software called a newsreader.

Brief Overview to Downloading from Usenet

To download projects from Usenet, you will need two things:

• an account with a news server;
• a newsreader.

I recommend starting with Free-Usenet for the news server. No personal details are required other than a valid email address. It can be used completely free of charge for as long as you like and with no download limits, albeit at a low speed of 1 Mbps (~122 KB/s). A 10 GB file would take roughly one day to download; much higher speeds are available at a price. Alternatively, you can sign up for a free trial with one of the major Usenet providers. This will give you very fast downloads at no cost for a limited time (usually up to one week), although possibly with a data cap.

NZBGet is an excellent newsreader for Windows, MacOS, Linux and Android. It is a very small program to install (only 8 MB), has a user-friendly interface, takes up few system resources, and is freeware. Note that NZBGet is a download client only, and cannot be used to upload files to newsgroups.

Once these are set up, acquiring projects is a two-stage process.

1. A Usenet search engine, also called an indexer, is used to track down the relevant project. It provides a small NZB file for you to download, containing links to all the project files on the news server. NZB files are named after Newzbin, the first Usenet indexer to develop and use this format. A good free indexer for Original Trilogy projects is NZBKing.
2. The NZB file is loaded into the newsreader, at which point the main download from the news server begins. Once this is complete, the newsreader will automatically verify your downloaded files against those stored on the news server, attempt to repair them if necessary, and finally unpack any RAR files.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Registering with a news server.

• Sign up for a free account with Free-Usenet.
• Check your email for your password and log in to Free-Usenet.
• Click on “Free account”.
• Click on “I’m not a robot” and complete the CAPTCHA.
• Click on “Generate free account”.
• The server username and password listed here will be needed by your newsreader.
• Every 3 hours, your free subscription will expire and must be renewed from this page.

2. Configuring a newsreader.

• Download and install the latest stable release of NZBGet.
• Run NZBGet. The user interface should appear in your web browser.
• Click on “Settings” in the top bar.
• Click on “NEWS-SERVERS” in the left-hand panel.
• Complete the following settings:

    Server1.Name:        A server name such as "Free-Usenet" (optional)
    Server1.Host:        news.free-usenet.com
    Server1.Port:        443 (used for an SSL-encrypted connection)
    Server1.Username:    The username listed in your Free-Usenet account details
    Server1.Password:    The password listed in your Free-Usenet account details
    Server1.Encryption:  Yes (to use SSL encryption for more security)
    Server1.Connections: 1 (the free account won't accept more than 1)

• Click on “Test Connection” near the bottom to check the settings are correct.
• Click on “Save all changes” at the bottom left followed by “Reload NZBGet”.

3. Searching for a project with a Usenet indexer.

• Visit NZBKing.
• Input some key words for the project in the search bar and press Return.
• Optional: click on “NFO” (if present) beside a project to read some information about it.
• Optional: click on “Details” to see the project files, the upload date and the exact file size.
• Click on the “NZB” button by the relevant project to download the NZB file.

4. Downloading a project.

• Run NZBGet if it isn’t already open.
• Click on “+Add”.
• Drag and drop the NZB file onto the pop-up window, or click on “Select file” and navigate to it.
• Click on “Submit”. The download should begin: check the speed by the aeroplane at the top left.
• Every 3 hours, your Free-Usenet account will expire and should be renewed as follows:
  • Shortly before the 3 hours are up, click on the big green arrow to pause the download.
  • Wait for your Free-Usenet account to expire, and then renew it for another 3 hours.
  • Enter the new password in NZBGet’s news server settings.
  • Click on “Save all changes” followed by “Reload NZBGet”.
  • Click on the big orange arrow to resume the download.
• When the download is finished, it may take a few minutes for the RAR files to be verified,
  repaired (if needed) and finally unpacked to this directory: C:\ProgramData\NZBGet\complete.

5. Additional notes on Free-Usenet account expiry.

• If you don’t pause the download before your Free-Usenet account expires, NZBGet will start to think that articles are missing on the server, rather than realise that the server password is no longer valid. Consequently, the health of the download will slowly reduce from 100%. You can nevertheless follow the procedure in step 4 to renew your account and resume the download, the only difference being that NZBGet will have to repair the “missing” articles at the very end by acquiring some Par2 files.
• If the health ever drops below the critical value (usually 90%, assuming there are enough Par2 files to repair 10% of the download), NZBGet will mark the status as “Failure” and move the download to the “History” tab. At this point, follow these steps to recover the download:
  • Renew your Free-Usenet account for another 3 hours.
  • Enter the new password in NZBGet’s news server settings.
  • Click on “Save all changes” followed by “Reload NZBGet”.
  • Click on the “History” tab and find the failed download.
  • Click on “Failure” and select “Retry failed articles”.
  • You should now find that the health is back to 100%.

Appendix 1: Usenet vs Torrents & Cloud Storage

Usenet has a number of advantages over other popular methods of downloading files.

• Usenet is more private and secure than file-sharing via torrents. When downloading from Usenet, you are connected only to the news server and not to other downloaders (known as “peers”) as you would be with a torrent. There is thus no automatic uploading of content to other peers while you are downloading from Usenet.

• News servers on Usenet usually have a high retention: files are often available for 8 to 10 years after being uploaded. Torrents are only available while they are being seeded and can dry up within a few weeks. Download links on cloud storage platforms such as Mega can also expire without warning if the owner either deletes or stops sharing the files.

• Downloading from Usenet via a paid account with a news server is very fast, while torrents can be slow depending on the number and speed of the available peers. (That said, downloading from Usenet with a completely free account is generally rather slow.)

• Usenet features the powerful verification and recovery of damaged or missing files, handled automatically by the newsreader. While torrents allow automatic file verification via checksums, there is no facility to repair damaged files. Content obtained from the cloud cannot usually be checked for download errors.

Appendix 2: Useful Settings in NZBGet

Completed and ongoing downloads are stored in C:\ProgramData\NZBGet\complete and C:\ProgramData\NZBGet\intermediate respectively. You can change these directories with DestDir and InterDir in the PATHS settings.

By default, NZBGet deletes the downloaded RAR files once they have been successfully unpacked. It also downloads the bare minimum number of Par2 files needed for file verification and repair (if needed), deleting them afterwards along with any SFV checksum files present.

• To keep the RAR files after unpacking, set UnpackCleanupDisk to No in the UNPACK settings.
• To download all the Par2 files and also keep them afterwards (along with SFV checksum files), set ParCheck to Force in the CHECK AND REPAIR settings, and empty ExtCleanupDisk in the UNPACK settings.

Appendix 3: File Verification and Recovery with Usenet

The successful recovery of partially corrupted files is a huge advantage of Usenet. Large files and folders are archived and split into multi-part RAR files before being uploaded to binary newsgroups such as alt.binaries.starwars. Uploaders usually include some “parity archive (version 2) files”, or Par2 files for short, alongside the RAR files. These are designed to help newsreaders with file verification and recovery at the end of the download process.

The newsreader first downloads the RAR files in pieces called blocks, verifying checksums at each stage. Occasionally, some blocks will be missing or damaged on the news server. Provided there are at least as many blocks in the available Par2 files as there are missing/damaged blocks in the RAR files, the newsreader will be able to completely restore the latter by downloading the required number of Par2 files. Uploaders are encouraged to produce enough Par2 files to repair 10% of the project. Hence there is no reason to panic if a Usenet indexer lists a project as being slightly incomplete.

Here is an extremely simplified example to illustrate the basic idea behind Par2 recovery. Suppose the file you wish to download consists of the following four blocks of eight bits:

Block
1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1
0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1

Here they are with the row and column totals included:

Block
1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 = 5
0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 = 4
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 = 2
1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 = 4
= = = = = = = =
2 1 4 2 1 3 0 2

The row totals can be written in binary, acting as simple checksums for each block. The parities of the column totals are now shown, with 0 for “even” and 1 for “odd”. This block of parities forms a Par2 file which has been provided by the uploader.

Block             Checksum
1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 = 101
0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 = 100
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 = 010
1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 = 100
= = = = = = = =
0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 ← Par2

Imagine the second block in the file has been corrupted on the news server. It might be entirely missing, or perhaps slightly damaged with an erroneous third bit.

Missing 2nd block                       Damaged 2nd block (3rd bit)

Block             Checksum              Block             Checksum
1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 = 101                   1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 = 101
x x x x x x x x = xxx                   0 1(0)1 0 1 0 0 = 100
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 = 010                   0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 = 010
1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 = 100                   1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 = 100
= = = = = = = =                         = = = = = = = =
0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 ← Par2                  0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 ← Par2

As the newsreader downloads the blocks and verifies the checksums, it becomes apparent that there is a problem with the second block: the data is either missing or inconsistent with the checksum. The Par2 file now comes to the rescue, allowing the newsreader to completely restore the corrupted block. The three good blocks are added to the Par2 block bit by bit, and the parities of the column totals reproduce the original second block.

Block
1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 ← good 1st block
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 ← good 3rd block
1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 ← good 4th block
0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 ← Par2 recovery block
= = = = = = = =
0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 ← recovered 2nd block

Further information on the Par2 recovery process can be found here: http://www.quickpar.org.uk/.

++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bluto, Original Trilogy Forums
September 2019
++++++++++++++++++++++++

One solution to acquire some of the more obscure projects in these forums is via binary newsgroups on Usenet. However, the learning curve can be a little steep with plenty of jargon to wade through. I have written the following guide to help fellow members of the OT community get started with Usenet, and hope it is useful. You must have purchased the official releases of the films in question before seeking out alternative versions. I do not condone piracy of any kind.

Thank you, SilverWook - that sounds a very plausible explanation and I’ll take it!

Not being a Trekkie in the slightest, I have never heard of these Talosions. According to Wikipedia, the pilot episode wasn’t aired back in 1965 but much of the footage was used for a two-part story in 1967 including this alien race. It may well have been an influencing factor for the casting of Marjorie Eaton.

Bluto

Just seen this thread. In case you haven’t already found what you are looking for, this post may be of help:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Harmys-Despecialized-Star-Wars-1977-Color-Adjustment-Project-for-v27-released/id/48257/page/45#1290653

Bluto

Thanks for sharing that link. There’s some great information there, particularly concerning the true identity of the actress in question. As for why a woman was cast in the role, one of the posters in that forum conjectures:

“It is interesting that they chose a woman for the role originally. I guess they really wanted the Emperor to appear weak and vulnerable by using a slender old lady.”

Perhaps… But I’m not convinced. A slender, old man could have been cast if the only criterion was to make the emperor seem weak and vulnerable. I suspect there is another reason why they chose a woman, and am still curious about it after all this time.

Bluto

Just returning to the original topic a mere 14 years later!

I have often wondered why Irvin Kershner/George Lucas (or the casting team) cast a woman in the role of the emperor in 1980 for ESB. It’s hard to tell admittedly, due to the dim lighting, the flickering hologram and also the superimposed chimp eyes. But it still seems a strange decision. The character is clearly supposed to be male: he is referred to as the “emperor” rather than “empress”, and Clive Revill’s voice is unambiguously male. Why then cast an elderly woman instead of an elderly man?

If this has ever been discussed in an interview or documentary, I’d be grateful for the details just to satisfy my curiosity. I can’t find any discussion of it in this forum.

Bluto

I prefer the original 1980 ESB, although I agree that of the special editions, ESB was the least butchered. Taking the main changes I can recall in turn:

1. Recompositing and patching up effects. A good change, this. The speeders don’t look pasted onto the background in some shots, making the effects more believable. Fixing some of the speeder cockpit issues and the Wampa arm were also arguably good changes. (Although I must confess I had never noticed either of these until they were pointed out to me afterwards.)

2. Extra Hoth Wampa scenes. I’m on the fence here. I thought the shots themselves were very well done, despite taking away a little suspense. As for the Wampa not being quite the same as in the other shots, there was already a discrepancy in the fleeting appearances from 1980. Adywan wrote at length about these - and fixed them - when making ESB:Revisited.

3. New emperor scene (from 2004). While there was a clear lack of continuity between the 1980 emperor and 1983 emperor in both look and voice, the new ESB SE dialogue is an absolute travesty. Overall, I prefer the 1980 version but would have been happy with something akin to ESB:Revisted for this scene. (When I was a kid, I just assumed there had been a change in emperor between the events of ESB and ROTJ and didn’t worry too much about it…)

4. Boba Fett redub (from 2004). Aarrgghh. No one will ever replace Jason Wingreen for me; his voice was absolutely perfect for the role. 1980/97 all the way.

5. Bespin. I liked the new fly-by footage in the SE (as I did with Mos Eisley in the Star Wars SE), but preferred the claustrophobic interior shots from 1980.

6. Luke’s scream. Only used in the 1997 version, and a bizarre addition which was thankfully removed in all future versions. Without this, the 1997 SE would be about neck and neck with the 1980 version for me.

7. Alert my star destroyer… As many have mentioned before, this new line - together with the new shuttle footage - wrecked the pacing towards the end of the film. The original “Bring my shuttle” was also delivered perfectly, conveying a real feeling of annoyance. Perhaps some of the new footage could have been inserted elsewhere to good effect? I did like seeing Vader’s shuttle with the Tie escorts.

8. Audio. I don’t have a separate sound system, relying instead on my TV’s inbuilt stereo speakers, so I can’t comment whether or not the audio was generally better or worse in the SE. But two things did strike me as worse. The slight echo from 1980 in the conversation between Luke and Vader in the large chasm is gone, taking away some atmosphere from that iconic scene. And Chewie’s growl while strangling Lando now completely drowns out some of Leia’s dialogue.

Bluto

Seconded. Torrenting doesn’t have much of a learning curve if you read about the basics first, and uTorrent is pretty good. I use version 2.2.1 (build 25302), which I believe is the last one released before version 3 when the software became bloatware. It’s really small and works well.

When browsing torrent search engines (such various incarnations of the infamous “bay”), I would advise running your web browser in a sandbox such as Sandboxie. This should make it virtually impossible for any malware to get onto your system.

Bluto

Please refer to my post dated 3rd July on the previous page (also kindly quoted in full by ChainsawAsh for your convenience on 19th August) for details of how Adywan’s ESB 1997 may be obtained. It’s a very nice preservation and worth acquiring. Alternatively, if you have a Spleen account, you’ll find the MKV (14 GB) version there. Invites to the Spleen are sadly closed, so it isn’t currently possible to join if you are not already a member.

I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to your second question. Adywan is currently working on SW Revisited (HD) and RotJ Revisited, so I suspect he already has his hands full.

I am referring to his 1997 version when I say that Hoth is very white.

Here is a quick comparison between the 1997 and Revisited versions:
https://imgur.com/a/O9HEvx1

There was a long debate somewhere in this forum a few years ago regarding how white/blue Hoth was when seen in the cinema in 1980. If I recall correctly, the consensus was that there was actually a blue tint, albeit not as much as on the official Blu-ray.

Both the MKV (14 GB) and AVCHD (8 GB) versions of Adywan’s ESB 1997 are already in full HD (1080p). The former is slightly higher quality, but the latter is suitable for burning to a DVD9 disc and playing in a standalone Blu-ray player.

The colour-correction used makes Hoth very white (i.e. the snow has virtually no blue tint to it), making this presentation rather unique.

Is your VHS missing Jango Fett’s headbutts in the fight with Obi-Wan? I seem to remember buying the Australian DVD rather than the UK DVD in circa 2003 for that very reason.

Out of interest, is the UK Blu-Ray of AOTC cut, too? I have never watched the prequels on Blu-Ray.

Bluto

The DVD-5 versions were made by Chewtobacca. They are designed to fit on DVD-5 discs (i.e. single-layered) and play in a standalone DVD player. Two of the films are available on Usenet in this format: SW v2.7 and ROTJ v2.5. They can be found by searching for chewtobacca on the NZBKing search engine. I’m not sure how to get hold of the DVD-5 version of ESB v2.0 any more, now that most of Harmy’s links on Uloz are sadly broken.

If you want discs which will play in a PC DVD player (as opposed to a standalone DVD player), then a better option is to go for the AVCHD versions. These are about 8 GB in size and designed to fit on DVD-9 discs (i.e. dual-layered). With the video in 720p and of almost the same quality as the larger 20 GB MKV files, they are a great compromise. Most well-known PC video software (e.g. VLC) will play AVCHDs burned on DVD-9 discs fine, as will most standalone Blu-ray players. But standalone DVD players will not usually read these discs at all.

The AVCHD versions of all three films are available on Usenet. Try searching for despecialized avchd on NZBKing.

Bluto

Welcome!

Sadly, nearly all the manual/multipart files on Uloz for Harmy’s Despecialized Editions are dead. Checking Harmy’s posts (click on a user’s name to see their post history) reveals that he was searching for a replacement host in May & June, but I do not think he has uploaded the files to a new site yet.

The mkv files you have found on Uloz look suspicious/unofficial to me; I suspect they are re-encoded and heavily compressed.

Fortunately, some kind soul appears to have uploaded the most recent mkv files for all three films on Usenet within the last year. Search for “despecialized” on NZBKing. If you haven’t used Usenet before, I recommend getting a free account from the “free-usenet” provider along with NZBGet software (also free).

Bluto

JEDIT: See this guide to Usenet.

Adywan’s ESB 1997 was released in MKV (14 GB) and AVCHD (8 GB) formats. Both can be found on Usenet by searching for “adywan 1997” in the NZBKing search engine. If you are new to Usetnet, try NZBGet software along with a free account from the “free-usenet” provider. I do not think any ROTJ 1997 has been reconstructed, but a number of laserdisc rips are available.

Bluto

If I recall correctly, Team Blu only released Star Wars 1997; it seems to be difficult to track down outside of the Spleen. I don’t think they completed ESB 1997 or ROTJ 1997.

However, Harmy made his own Star Wars 1997 called the “Respecialized Edition”. The thread for it is here:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Harmys-STAR-WARS-Respecialized-Edition-97-AVCHD-and-MKV-now-out/id/16682

To download it, follow the link for the “Ultimate Guide” in the first post of Harmy’s main thread for Star Wars here:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Harmys-STAR-WARS-Despecialized-Edition-HD-V27-MKV-IS-OUT-NOW/id/12713

As for ESB 1997, Adywan released a nice version in both MKV (14 GB) and AVCHD (8 GB) formats. Both are available on Usenet by searching for “adywan 1997” in the NZBKing search engine. If you haven’t used Usenet before, I would recommend NZBGet software along with a free account from the “free-usenet” provider. It might take you a day or two to download, but hey - it’s free!

I am not aware of any ROTJ 1997 versions out there other than Laserdisc rips.

The faded colours aren’t too noticeable when watching on an actual TV rather than a PC monitor. Besides, there’s something wonderfully creepy about this particular grindhouse release.

Happy 39th anniversary, ESB.

Bluto

I didn’t warm to it either… Interesting as a separate mini fan-film, but it seems out of place to me with the rest of Episode IV. I felt the same way about the end of Rogue One - while Darth Vader’s antics worked quite well in that film, they didn’t seem to flow naturally at all into the beginning of Episode IV where he calmly enters after his troops and does very little dirty work other than to pick up and choke Antilles one-handed.

Vader in this YouTube clip also lacks the stature of Prowse to be convincing; he’s barely taller than Alec Guiness. (That always irritated me at the end of RotS too.)

Bluto

All the changes annoy me intensely; I don’t think I could narrow it down to just one. But the one change that disappoints me most is the redub of Fett’s lines in ESB, as mentioned in a few posts a couple of pages back. This is arguably a relatively minor change, but Fett was always my favourite character due in no small part to Jason Wingreen’s superb, menacing delivery of his lines. Temuera Morrison’s redub sounded indifferent to my ears - almost bored. (I suspect he could have sounded fine, but the lines just seemed to have been rushed and recorded in one lousy take.)

Here is a comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y07PmuVgxj4

Bluto

(Reply deleted as off-topic.)

arnautovic - Check your PMs.

Thanks for the info, Dek - I hadn’t come across this before. What software would allow you to apply this LUT to the Grindhouse ISO in order for the output to be another Blu-ray-compatible ISO?

Bluto

Looks like it has been uploaded twice to Usenet, and both sets of files are available according to NZBKing.
Bluto

I’m not sure about the error, but even with a successful burn these ISOs do not seem to play with VLC. I have managed to get the extras to work with VLC, but the actual films themselves cause it to crash. (The mkv files are fine with VLC, however.) The films should play fine in a standalone Bluray player, and from memory I believe other posters have had success on their PCs using Leawo Player or PotPlayer software.

Bluto

Just a thought - perhaps the servers Mega use aren’t particularly reliable, and data can get corrupted with no automatic back-up? I wonder if any other users here have had similar problems with their own files on Mega. Although I have a Mega account, I don’t use it much (and not with huge files) and haven’t experienced any issues yet.

Bluto

OK - check your PMs (click speech bubble at top right).