CatBus

If you did a mashup of every comment that went "I think they should release the OOT but still including these certain Special Edition changes" and "I think that a properly-restored OOT wouldn't pass muster with today's discerning viewer based on my experiences with a decades-old home video transfer rather than my experiences with other properly-restored films of the same era, or because Lucas said so", you'd get something a lot more concise.

1977 5.1 and 1977 stereo are very similar.  If you have only a stereo system, the stereo version will likely sound a bit clearer due to lack of mixdown, otherwise I prefer the 5.1 mix.

1977 mono mix is another favorite here.  It has many interesting differences from the other 1977 mixes, but the audio quality is not as good.

1985 is, in a lot of ways, a merger of the differences in the 1977 mixes.  It sounds okay but there's no dynamic range to speak of.

1993 is a good-sounding mix overall, and like the 1985 mix, merges together elements from the different 1977 mixes.  But it's often criticized for including sound effects that were not original audio, so it's not as authentic.

Hope that helps.

Wow, I seem to be popular in Brazil these days!  PM sent.

At least a while back, tehparadox had this weird IP restriction thing, which I'm sure had some sort of other purpose, but it only succeeded in making me swear off ever using the site again (I used to post Project Threepio links there, but I got blocked from connecting there so frequently I figured PM's were easier).  It was a complete PITA, but I understand others don't run into it at all.  Maybe I've got some serial spammer in my ISP's DHCP pool and I'm just collateral damage.

If ? is -1, there will be MAXINT-7 more posts. The key is the key.

SilverWook said:

I've yet to see a Slave Leia where the paint job on the face didn't make her look cross eyed or stoned.

Suuure, blame the paint job.

PM sent.

PM sent.

Okay, one last update.  The current SRT files for RTL languages (the ones with an -rtl extension), only really work in software that fully supports RTL and BiDi, which, as far as I can tell for media players, is none of them.

So, if you're interested in Hebrew or Arabic SRT files, I now have a new set of SRT files with a -compat extension, which should work much better.  These will be released in the next version of Project Threepio, but are available now via PM.

I tested only VLC, MPC, and Notepad (Notepad is the definitive dumb text software) but all three worked, with the exception of VLC displaying a small and fairly inobtrusive garbage character on two lines in Star Wars.  Other software may behave differently, because after all, we're talking about software that doesn't behave correctly to begin with.  I haven't figured out a way to get rid of that garbage character in VLC without introducing worse problems, but I'm still looking into it.

So in the next release, each RTL language will have two SRT files: "-rtl", which is still used for making changes and generating graphical subtitles, and "-compat", which is created by running the "-rtl" file through a subtitle-mangling routine to create something that works better with software media players.  So if a change is made to the "-rtl" file, that file needs to be re-run through the mangling routine to propagate that change to the "-compat" file.

Also, you'll need to use a subtitle editor that fully supports RTL/BiDi to edit the "-rtl" files, but finding one of those is, thankfully, a whole lot easier.

Wait a sec. Are we about to see two Star Destroyers? Are we trying to get our co-pilot back home in time for the holidays?

Thanks, it's always good to get confirmation we're doing a good job.

I do accept corrections, if you want to make them.  Making intentional stylistic mistakes like that is beyond my abilities, but if you explain the changes you made, I'll incorporate them in future versions ;)

PM's sent.

And FYI, I already kinda knew this but now it's confirmed--the Hebrew and Arabic SRT files aren't terribly usable right now for people who use software playback--but I think the graphical subs are fine.  The problem is that none of the major video players really supports RTL very well, and you kindof have to mangle the SRT file to get things like punctuation appearing on the correct side of the text.  I'm working on this.

Bingowings said:

 I'm going for RicRollie.

Wow, that's an excellent name.  I'm never gonna give that one up.

PM's sent.  Regarding Operation Eyestrain, I'll keep your offer of help in mind for emergencies, but I'd like to keep following our existing process right now.

The reason is that the Japanese conversion has a lot more artistry in it than the other conversions, and I'd like to keep the same person doing it if at all possible.  For example, Furigana just doesn't work in SRT files, so sometimes a different translation is preferable, that sort of thing.  Plus the Japanese subs still say "Revenge of the Jedi" I think, and that's historically cool but not the best translation ;)

I'm sure we'll have the Japanese ROTJ in text form soon enough; in the meantime the graphical ones are actually very solid, just not as flexible as I'd like.

1 2 0 3 2 0 1 4!

*gasp*

You mean he's a... ?

Run, rabbit, run.

Darth Id said:

darklordoftech said:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ancient_Order_of_Pessimists

 So a whole race of C3-PO, huh? They must be wildly popular.

Nobody likes a guy who's always right.

Also, not that we've really heard of staying on topic around these parts, but there is a separate thread for the despecialized versions of Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi.  Movie-specific questions can be posted there to get the best response.

But yeah, Vader's eyebrows are fuzzy because the highest-resolution version of them we had at the time was an old Laserdisc master, thus the fuzziness.  We have some 35mm elements now which should be worlds better in this regard.

Also, I don't know if this is still the case, but at least for a while, Harmy preferred problem reports to be sent via PM rather than posted in the discussion thread, so's not to "ruin the magic" for people (once you know about a bug, it's really hard to unsee it).  The ones I've mentioned are ones people have already mentioned in the thread, but there are others I've reported privately that are also pretty minor.

AntcuFaalb: the credits in 1.0 were from the GOUT, and were a dramatic loss in quality after a pretty consistently stunning presentation.  The reconstruction was, at the time, the only way to improve quality.  Now I believe Harmy has 35mm elements for the next version, so no worries.

Well, "wrong" is subjective.  You'll find on this forum that one eyebrow hair or speck of dirt out of place draws howls of rage.

That I know of, the video has extra frames, causing a slight (and frankly totally unnoticeable) sync problem with the audio.  The most noticeable thing is rampant typos in the credits (they were a reconstruction).  Everything else is much, much less significant than those two things, IMO.  Others will add that there's a missing bead of sweat on Luke's forearm or somesuch, I'm sure.

EDIT: Yes, of course we have subtitles for ROTJ. We're not complete savages here.

AVCHD's are in a format that can be burned to DVD-9 and played back on many Blu-ray players.  They are significantly lower bitrate than the MKV's, and therefore aren't as good, although it should be noted that they're surprisingly good considering their bitrate.

EDIT: And yes, Harmy's still working on the 2.x series.  Jedi is up next, then probably more work on Empire (it's not perfect yet).

darklordoftech said:

CatBus said:

Fang Zei said:

Well, we've now seen an actual trailer for Episode 7 without having heard anything from Disney about the OOT.

Anyone think they'll keep this bait-and-switch going all the way up to release?

By "this bait-and-switch", you mean selling the SE as if it were the OT, correct?  

The blu-rays have updated copyrights. There's a big difference between only releasing the SEs and marketing the SEs as the OOT.

If the Special Editions are marked as "Special Editions" in marketing/packaging, then it's not a bait-and-switch.  Otherwise it is.  It should be noted that the original home video releases of the 1997 SE's were explicitly labeled as Special Editions, so were not a bait-and-switch. The decision to remove all unambiguous differentiating text came later.

That's settled then.  Sync it to Funky Cold Medina, -1.  Get to work, you!

Yes (it's posted in the first post of this thread)

Filesize confirmation, even MD5's, are kosher.  ~18GB seems about right for the current (version 2.x) MKV of both Star Wars and Empire.  ~7GB seems about right for the older (version 1.0) AVCHD releases, which is current only for Jedi.

They're big because Harmy don't make no crap ;)

Fang Zei said:

Well, we've now seen an actual trailer for Episode 7 without having heard anything from Disney about the OOT.

Anyone think they'll keep this bait-and-switch going all the way up to release?

By "this bait-and-switch", you mean selling the SE as if it were the OT, correct?  Personally, I think they'll keep it going for years after the release of Episode 7 at the very least, quite possibly indefinitely.  A proper OOT release just over the horizon seems a pipe dream at best.