CatBus

jdshald said:

Will there be any difference in picture quality between the more compressed avchd and the blu ray which will be released later?

Tons.  The AVCHD is MUCH more compressed than the Blu-ray will be--as it has to be to fit on a DVD9.  If previous releases are anything to go by, consider the AVCHD to be approximately Netflix HD stream quality, compared to the Blu-ray.

The good stuff is yet to come, pending what problems people might find on the AVCHD.

I've got a question about those commentaries.  I understand what you did with the Laserdisc commentary, but what did you do to the other commentaries to get them to sync?  Wouldn't they all at the very least have chopped off bits here and there due to the SE sections?  Just wondering... seems kinda miraculous.  And if it really is seamless, I'm wondering if the same method could be used to get an audio descriptive track for ESB and ROTJ.

Buster D said:

CatBus said:

SpilkaBilka said:

CatBus said:

Space Kaijuu said:

Will the Blu-Ray version of 2.1 have the 1985 laserdisc remix?

We are trying to package this up for Harmy ATM.  I'm hopeful.

Awesome, glad to hear it.  How's that going?  Been away the last few days, haven't been keeping up with this or the 1985 thread.  Thanks so much for your efforts, and I'm sorry I have absolutely no skills to contribute to this!  :)

This is done now, and I've sent Harmy a link.  DTS-MA lossless stereo FWIW.

What's the bitrate, BTW?  I've noticed a lot of Blu-rays with stereo DTS-MA 2.0 that are higher bitrate than what they would be if they were just LPCM 2.0, but I assume that's because the core DTS was a full 1.5 MBPS.

I don't recall the combined bitrate, but I used a minimal core (255kbps), so it's the smallest possible bitrate my encoder could make.

No and yes, respectively.

animemaakuo said:

Thank you for answering my question. And if you don't mind my asking, will 2.1 be released as a file, or by patch? I figure he'll be done in a couple of months, so, I'm really excited. I haven't seen the 2.0 version yet, just George Lucas' Blu Ray.

2.1 will be a complete standalone release (er, maybe two separate downloads for the Blu-ray), you won't need to already have 2.0 first.  2.0 is stunning, but if you don't mind waiting, 2.1 is just around the corner and will be better.

FWIW, Harmy doesn't really do much with audio, so if you want to learn more about that, you can look through hairy_hen's audio threads discussing the default "1977 70mm reconstruction" audio track.  The alternate audio tracks all have their own sometimes interesting histories.

animemaakuo said:

Will the final version (2.1) be on Blu Ray format? Err, another question of mine is in reference to the audio. During this remaster, has there been any substantial improvements with the audio quality in comparison to George Lucas' Blu Ray release?

Harmy will release files that can be burned onto a Blu-ray, and I believe he said he'll include clear instructions for how to do it.

From 2.0->2.1, there is no change to the default audio, and little-to-no change to the other audio tracks.  This means that compared to the official Blu-ray release, the audio on Harmy's Blu-ray will stomp the official release, wipe the floor with it, and otherwise thoroughly reveal it to be a complete embarrassment to the audio profession.  You will find that the official Blu-ray audio is only suitable for scaring vermin out of your crawlspace.  Harmy's is/will be that much better.

Chewtobacca said:

Harmy said:

Also, a question - when muxing an AVCHD with TS Muxer, which options should I choose when I want to ensure best compatibility

Uncheck Add picture timing info and Continually insert SPS/PPS.

Interesting.  Does that apply to Blu-rays too?

Harmy said:

I should be uploading the AVCHD tomorrow :-)

Now of course I'm wondering if Chewtobacca will downscale the AVCHD to DVD or if he'll wait for the Blu-ray...

Thanks to all who helped and offered help, and Molly in particular for putting the thing together to begin with.  This is encoded and off to Harmy now.

SpilkaBilka said:

CatBus said:

Space Kaijuu said:

Will the Blu-Ray version of 2.1 have the 1985 laserdisc remix?

We are trying to package this up for Harmy ATM.  I'm hopeful.

Awesome, glad to hear it.  How's that going?  Been away the last few days, haven't been keeping up with this or the 1985 thread.  Thanks so much for your efforts, and I'm sorry I have absolutely no skills to contribute to this!  :)

This is done now, and I've sent Harmy a link.  DTS-MA lossless stereo FWIW.

yoda-sama said:

Meh, as far as I'm concerned, as long as it isn't tainting the movie itself, it isn't a huge deal if Episode IV and A New Hope are on the cover, it gives consistency with the other covers if nothing else...  There's little denying that IV is where it lands in the line-up, after all.

For me, it strikes the exact same wrong note as the "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" cover art.  Yeah, it's not on the movie itself in that case either (thank goodness!), but the fact remains it's simply not the name of the movie.  For many years, many fans believed that Star Wars was Episode I and that they skipped a few episodes before Empire.  If we're re-creating the theatrical experience, wondering about those missing episodes is certainly part of it.

Well he's got me fooled.  I totally think he's two different people.

SpilkaBilka said:

CatBus said:

Space Kaijuu said:

Will the Blu-Ray version of 2.1 have the 1985 laserdisc remix?

We are trying to package this up for Harmy ATM.  I'm hopeful.

Awesome, glad to hear it.  How's that going?  Been away the last few days, haven't been keeping up with this or the 1985 thread.  Thanks so much for your efforts, and I'm sorry I have absolutely no skills to contribute to this!  :)

I have the needed tools, but no means to get the FLAC file from the newsgroups.  I've sent a PM to DM but no response yet.  If you can supply it, that'd be fine too.

Just for being offtopic.  Not that this thread seems to stick super-close to its topic...

Those clipped reds are the sort of thing snicker was trying to fix, but he needs a raw unprocessed capture of the ESB Blu before he'd be able to look into them.  You could PM him if you want to see this happen--I don't know if there's time for snickers's (long, slow) process to be of any help to Harmy though.

Space Kaijuu said:

Will the Blu-Ray version of 2.1 have the 1985 laserdisc remix?

We are trying to package this up for Harmy ATM.  I'm hopeful.

Cough, PM sent.

SpilkaBilka said:

So I could probably just ask Harmy to download it from alt.binaries.starwars, assuming he had newsgroup access?

Not a safe assumption at all, FWIW.  He's more likely to have a copy of so-and-so's v3 he could just rip it from (lossy).

Twisty said:

TPM is my favorite PT movie.

Agreed, but this is much in the same way Dengue is my favorite hemorrhagic fever.  "Favorite" just doesn't seem quite the right word.  Least godawful more like.

timdiggerm said:

Was there really anything interesting in the film that one could spoil, if one had already seen the OT?

It was kind of interesting/surprising that it was the worst of the prequels.  I didn't really expect TPM would be as good as the prequels were going to get, even after seeing AOTC.

Dang, forgot the spoiler tag.  Hope I didn't ruin it for anyone.  Sorry.

nos402 said:

What are the various formats? There's talk of the 15GB MKV, AVCHD, DVD5. What are the differences?

MKV: currently the best-quality version.  Can be remuxed into a Blu-ray, or played as-is.  I don't believe an MKV version of 2.1 is planned (see below).

AVCHD: mid-quality, can be burned to a DVD9 and played back in many Blu-ray players.  This format is good for people with Blu-ray players, but without Blu-ray burners.

DVD5: lowest quality, also contains only one soundtrack option (English 5.1).  However, this burns to a DVD5 and can be played back on any DVD player, which makes it a good "friends and family" edition.

Harmy also plans to release a Blu-ray version (highest quality with tons of extras) which can be burned to Blu-ray, and a standalone M2TS which is the same highest quality and functionally pretty much just like the MKV.

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

I too have been holding out for 2.1 - my fiance has never seen SW(!) and I am looking forward to her inaugural experience to be this one.

Same story with me and my son.  So no pressure, Harmy ;)

TV's Frink said:

Harmy said:

If there's anyone I'm forgetting, please don't be ashamed to PM me also, even the smallest contribution counts and I'd really like to give credit where it is due.

All I ever wanted in life was to watch a movie and see "Stinky-Dinkins" in the end credits.

You laugh, but nobody else thought to mail Harmy a pube, and then where would this project be?

yoda-sama said:

One question I have is (if a link to some other discussion is enough to explain, that'd be fine), what does this '85 home mix offer in comparison to the '93 and non-mono '77?  (Okay, I also am not sure what it is '93 [definitive LD sourced, I'm sure] has that's different or desirable either.)

IIRC, '85 is basically the first stereo track that merges back in the mono mix lines like Threepio's tractor beam line.  The '93 one does this too but (among other things) it adds a bunch of sound effects that weren't ever in any of the original audio mixes.  So '85 is desirable because, while not technically an original track, it could be considered a merged form of the original '77 tracks.  Also people remember it from home video releases and like it from there.

Wow, mea culpa on the details, but I think my overall point is still valid--there are certainly creative decisions that were made because of the limitations of the time, so that simply adding in deleted scenes that couldn't be done before cannot possibly re-create the "original vision" sans limitations.

But wow, really?  Both?  Another testament to good editing in the original, I suppose!  Jeeze.