CatBus

Oldfan said:

I think a DVD-9 would make a huge difference over a DVD-5, especially if multiple soundtracks will be included.

Oh sure, with multiple soundtracks the DVD-9 makes a lot more sense.  DJ's V3 was a DVD9 where the video itself was only 5.5GB and the rest was all soundtracks.  That would be a good use of the DVD9 capacity--but I'm just not convinced a 7.5GB video with one soundtrack would be that much better than a 5.5GB video with one soundtrack, since they're both constrained by other more significant factors (SD, MPEG-2, DVD maximum bitrate).

Harmy has said he'll be fixing some issues in the BD that were not fixed in the MKV, but aside from the fixes the overall image quality will be equivalent.

Harmy said:

Most people still don't have BD burners (got beaten to it), so the AVCHD may be their only way to watch this in HD on their BD players na the encode quality is still very very high. And I think that if there's another SD DVD, it will be a DVD9, because this is very grainy and that doesn't agree well with mpeg2 compression.

I dunno, my opinion is that the whole point of a DVD downscale is to cover the lowest common denominator, and a DVD5 does that better than a DVD9 (media, layer-change issues, tech-savviness, etc).  Also I actually think Chewtobacca's DVD5 downscale looked fine for SD (weird software playback glitches notwithstanding).  I'm not really sure throwing more bits at MPEG-2 SD content would improve matters that much.  I guess it's a bit early to argue that one though.

FWIW, here's how I see the releases in different formats:

BD: everything and the kitchen sink, hell yeah!

DVD5 downscale: still a must-have for visiting relatives and friends, lots of people still can't do HD.  I'm hoping your 2.1 release gets the DVD5 treatment too.

AVCHD: Neither here nor there.  Not as pretty or feature-rich as a BD and not as compatible as the DVD5.  I don't see much point now that it's not the top video-quality tier for the DeEd anymore.

MKV: I actually still like this as a way to get the best-quality video without all the extra bulk from lossless soundtracks and (yes, I admit it) subtitles cluttering up the thing.  Then again, I'd actually like a .264 download which would work just as well and would be even more bare-bones ;)

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot.  The point of AVCHD is people without BD-burners.  I think this is a shrinking market, the media and burners have both been down to reasonable prices for a long time.

I'd have to concur.  Both the 640 and 448 audio extracted fine for me, no errors.

We have some developments with regard to Thai subtitles.  I have Thai subtitles (scaled graphics only, like Japanese) for Star Wars, but I do not plan to update the project until we have Thai subs for all three films, and this may take a while.

I've shared what I have with Harmy (maybe too late for the BD), and special thanks to none for helping get these.

Fantastic, thanks much!

Brooks said:

Vader does not do anything aggressive to them, Han instantly draws his pistol and shoots when the door opens.  How is that morally different?

You're asking on the wrong forum.  I'm sure if you asked the right person, you'd get a nicely warped-to-fit-their-reality answer.  Such as: Vader is actually the aggressor in that scene because he's force-choking a part of Han's anatomy that you won't really be able to see clearly until the 3D re-release.

Any download links to fixed audio?

bilditup1 said:

I've made a torrent for the fixed DVD5 over at the spleen if anybody's looking for it; CatBus nuked his upload of the old one some time earlier today.

 Thanks!

That is the plan, but Empire appears to be next in line after the Blu-ray.

Bahasa Indonesia and Vietnamese were two languages I had SE subs for but could not convert, because the words were so numerous/big they couldn't always fit on two lines at a readable size.  I suspect this could be an issue with any language that was retrofitted with a Latin alphabet to replace its native alphabet, so Bahasa Malaysia would fall into that category too.  It's very similar to the issues faced in the Nordic subs, where literal line-for-line translation would result in word salad all over the screen.

With the help of a native speaker who could handle some trimming and paraphrasing, however, we could make it work.  I'm hopeful.

EDIT: Actually those are the very Bahasa Indonesia SE subtitles I have!  If he's willing to help us trim these down or retime them for the OOT, it would be awesome.  I want to keep all languages to a maximum of two lines of text, three starts to have problems.

I guess it's been formally proven that my ears are crap, then.  That's okay, I'm getting on in years, it was bound to happen.  Thanks as always h_h!

I believe your new emoticon should actually be :-,

Is this the same commentary track as before?  I recall you weren't entirely satisfied with the levels on the one you included with the MKV.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!

Yeah, I like when R2 beeps when they're at the wrecked sandcrawler too.

Mike O said:

Maybe they're doing great work, but OOT fans are a small clique now, the version of the film that Lucas wants to be the one known in the public consciousness is the one that's winning. Years down the road few people will know about fan-preservation efforts and they certainly won't preserve films, IMO, at least not in the long-term. 

Depends on how you define OOT fans.

Certainly people who like the OOT enough to do something about it (ot.com community) are a small clique, but there are also at least two other types of OOT fans:

1) Those who love the OOT, but have been so discouraged by the SE's that they've given up on Star Wars entirely, let their VHS tapes rot away in the basement, and haven't watched it in well over a decade.

2) Those who love the OOT, and tolerate the SE's as the closest thing they can get to what they want.

Until quite recently, I was type #1.  The difference is knowledge.  Yes, Lucas has the louder megaphone, but you only have to see the Despecialized Edition once to know it's considerably better than any commercial offering.  Conversion is easy--just show a friend.  In the past week, I've already turned OOT fans of both types I've described above into OOT fans as you would describe them, and I don't plan to stop.

That's fine, I was just being flippant.  Choice is always good, as long as the originals are an option.

You must unlearn what you have learned...

Yes, you can demux/remux an AVCHD using tsmuxer.

Now, now... boba, read the first post.

No, you've got it.  It's normal for different formats to have different levels due to varied implementations of dialnorm-type tech.  h_h makes sure his mixes match the levels of existing mixes using the same format.  Just use the volume knob!

Speaking of which, how's the lossless 5.1 coming?  Are we there yet? ;)

I'd be fine with 44.1/16, and would appreciate having a separate torrent for the GOUT-synced stuff.  Does this mean your synced commentaries w/ducked audio are done?  That's actually my main interest at the moment (I hadn't ever heard them, and I'm not sure I want to start with the mostly silent ones).

The anticipation is killing me.  Any status updates?