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negative1 said:

netflix has to have all their stuff captioned by 2014

guess, that includes star wars eventually..

I doubt it.  Even if Star Wars becomes available for streaming someday, when it comes to movies with multiple editions, Netflix tends to just pick one edition and make only that one edition available.  It's quite possible they'll just stream the Special Editions they currently have on disc, if for no reason other than it's easier.  When browsing titles, Netflix treats the Special Editions as if they were Star Wars, so they probably don't feel like Star Wars is lacking from their catalog at all!

So even if we someday win the war and get the originals properly released, physical media may have become so irrelevant by then to most people that much of the world may not be able to see Star Wars anyway, so the battle just moves to the streaming services.  Bleh to the rental model future.  I'll be kicking and screaming, I tell you.

Two more things: First, when you mux in a sub, that doesn't mean it displays by default.  You still need to select it during playback to make it show up.  Second, if you go through the trouble of getting the SUP files from Project Threepio, you'll discover that there's complete Japanese subs in there (the SRT files only have forced subs).  You may then prefer to have English audio with Japanese subs.

Harmy said:

Here's a new DeEd Remastered video logo :-)

http://uloz.to/xptw48k/deed-r-logo-new-mp4

If only the Ronto could die more painfully... oh well.

Does this mean we're approaching the big day?  If you don't do it soon, we're just going to find more frames that need despecializing...

s/read up/boned up/

I find it easier to use SUP files than SRT files for subtitles.  I'd use the 720p SUP files from Project Threepio (not included in the Project Threepio folder that came with the MKV, but available on MySpleen).  Just add that as a stream just as you'd add an audio track, and be sure to label it with the appropriate language.

Theoretically, I suppose you could still use the SRT file with tsMuxerGUI, but I've never tried that so I don't know if it will work, or how to troubleshoot it.

As for "showing up", that could just be a matter of software.  If you play it in an actual hardware player, subtitles should work if they're present.  MPC-HC shows HD subtitles, but helpfully not under the subtitles menu, but under the filters menu.  VLC recently added HD subtitle support so there may still be bugs.  Depending on how you were playing it back, your AVCHD may have been fine all along.

EDIT: Oh yeah, keep in mind that the English subs are timed to the English dialogue, so they may show early/late for the Japanese dialogue.

TV's Frink said:

...women...

I call BS.

Just to add for SK's benefit, the reason you don't see much difference between 720p and 1080p in the pics Harmy posted is because the Blu-ray was based on a crap scan, and further because it was a crap scan of a negative that had already been Lowry-ized and lost some detail.  A 4K scan of the original unaltered negative should be beautiful.

Bingowings said:

He who controls the Spice Worms controls the Universe Girls.

That is what I want.

What I really, really want.

Space Kaijuu said:

is the color correct? The first version seems more accurate to what I remember when I first saw the movie in the theater. I say this because I clearly remember wondering why the Jawas seemed to have red eyes in the theater but the toys and even home video release they had yellow eyes. The change in tint would explain this. Also, R2 looks a little greenish in the remaster during that scene. Also was the Biggs scene that was added to the SE version originally deleted before or after the initial theatrical release? I've heard both ways citing that it was removed from the home video release due to early limitations of the VHS format. Finally, you mentioned a blu-ray release of the despecialized edition. Will this be in 1080p or 720p?

Doing my best here... others may chime in with more accurate info.  Star Wars was shown on various filmstocks, all with slightly different color profiles.  Harmy's color choices are based on Technicolor IB prints, which are as close to a gold standard as we can get outside the studio.  Other prints, such as Eastman filmstock, were known to go pink with age, so certainly that could explain a reddish shift if you saw a very old print, but that would be over the whole image and not just one detail like the Jawa eyes.  Frankly, though, I think it's more likely than not your memory is just playing tricks--lots of people claim to remember entire scenes that simply weren't there (such as the Biggs scene), and red eyes may just be another one of those.  People read novelizations, etc, based on the film and the two merged in memory for lots of people, causing lots of false memories.  The Blu-ray will be 720p.

EDIT: Ah, screw it.  Everyone here is too fast.

I'm hoping we're able to give the credits the same treatment they got in SW 2.0.

That's how Lucas plans to fix Star Wars in the 40th Anniversary Set and make everyone happy forever.  Three Greedos corner Han in the cantina.  One of them shoots at Han, Han does a backflip to dodge it, and then, while still midway through the backflip and actually still upside-down and facing the opposite direction, he shoots all three Greedos.  With regard to two of the Greedos, Han still shoots first.

And if people still don't like it after that, Lucas can just say that just proves Star Wars fans are impossible to please.

AntcuFaalb said:

Tyrphanax said:

I hope now that Harmy is insanely famous that he doesn't forget all us little people.

I feel like the fame is already changing him...

In what way(s)?

He's grown a beak, and has these scales all over his arms.

Actually some drives do allow you to do bitsetting permanently, not that it matters a great deal.  I do it just because you never know...

C'mon, that original 10-15 minutes of Luke throwing and missing with the grappling hook over & over again WAS pretty tedious...

It's an expectations thing.  A lot of people were upset by the removal of the snake reflection back in the day, heard that Spielberg made some mea culpa statements that altering his films was a mistake, saw that E.T. got changed back to the way it was for its Blu-ray, and assumed Raiders would get changed back to the way it was on its Blu-ray too.  These people will be disappointed--and the other changes, albeit minor, are just salt in the wound that Spielberg did not, in fact, learn from his E.T. fiasco what they thought he should learn.

However, I'd say most people including me think that while theatrical fidelity is always best, there is such thing as good enough--and this Blu-ray is more than good enough, it's very good.  Just, you know, not exactly what you saw or heard in the theatres ;)

I agree, if the OT got this kind of treatment, there would be dancing in the streets.  But I don't think the complainers are unreasonable, they just had different expectations going in.

Mike O said:

Wait, wait, wait, what's wrong with the Raiders BR? What've I missed?

Not much, but there was fiddling.  The whole opening sequence was brightened and it did indeed "blow out" some bits here and there (the sky, for example).  Not exactly terrible, except for the knowledge that it was a totally unnecessary change.  Also the snake reflection (for Indy) is still removed, but other snake reflections (for Marion) are still there, so it's not the theatrical version a lot of people had hoped for.

Also there's some contention that the whole film now has a slight "golden" cast (and I agree with this).  However, this golden cast is preferable to the weird bluish casts of previous home video releases, so it's still an improvement.  Also, the sound is a surround upmix rather than the original, but I think it's a good surround upmix.

"Wrong" depends greatly on your point of view ;)  It's been unnecessarily tinkered with, certainly, but it still looks and sounds good IMO, and taken as a whole it's better than all previous releases including HDTV (although HDTV may have a better opening sequence).

SE screencaps make me sad :(

I've just discovered that Project Threepio 5.1 appears to have been posted to the newsgroups (a.b.sw) and to MySpleen.  It appears to be the real thing, so people can get it from there.  Which is just as well, really, since I'm going to be unreachable for many months, starting any day now (KittenBus is coming).  I'll update the first post so people don't try to PM me for this anymore.

Another vote for Verbatim.  FWIW, layer breaks need to be over halfway through a movie (i.e. layer 1 must have more data than layer 2).  For maximum compatibility, don't use seamless layer changes, burn at no more than half the rated speed of the media, and look into bitsetting optons for your burner (some very old hardware players don't recognize certain media types, but you can make your DVD's appear to be DVD-ROMs).  None of that is gospel, it's just a laundry list and if you hit most of them you should be good.

Okay, I've incorporated Harmywood in my sig.  Our "flag" planted right in Hollywood's backyard seemed to go well next to a world domination map...

We give the man a dedicated superhero thread and he doesn't want to seem vain ;)

I haven't seen such humility since... wait a sec...

HARMY IS ELVIS!

Motion carried.  Sorry folks, I know you wanted to see more Despecialized Editions, but this is important.

Okay, the motion before us is to change Harmy's mission.  He needs to stop trying to save Star Wars, and instead focus on reconciling Johnny Marr, Morrissey, and the gang.

All in favor?  Aye.

Tyrphanax said:

He should join The Smiths.

Ah, Matt, Will and Anna.  Shame they broke up.  Matt's solo career didn't quite match the greatness of the original group.  But he did have that amazing hair.