ChainsawAsh

I'm just too lazy to keep unplugging my 1TB external from my computer and vice versa.  I have a 16GB thumb drive I picked up for $30 on Black Friday that I use, but that's also a bit of a pain in the ass.

Interestingly, some files (season 3 of "It's Always Sunny" that I ripped in exactly the same way as seasons 1 and 2, for example) always show up as "corrupted data" when I have my external plugged in, but are fine when they're on my thumb drive.  I have no idea why.

Skyjedi, I don't *hate* ROTJ - in fact, zombie pretty much hit the nail on the head.  I just think Lucas overreacted after he was upset with how ESB turned out, and went too far in the other direction.  And since Gary Kurtz wasn't around to say "Uh, George, that's a bad idea," Lucas just kept drifting farther and farther in the wrong direction.

ROTJ just always feels ... off to me.  Plus I absolutely loathe the Leia/Luke sibling thing.  Worst.  Decision.  Ever.

Okay, one last question:

How do I set up a media server from the laptop to the PS3 using the shared ethernet connection?  I've got an app called "PS3 Media Server," but can't seem to figure out how to get it to work at all (it doesn't "see" the PS3) ...

Thank you so much for suggesting that, C3PX!  I had no idea that was possible - it works like a charm :-D I can't thank you enough!

That looks much better!  I'd like to see it in motion, but based on the stills, it kicks the pants off of the first two samples.

And I have no problem with the subtitles at all.

Actually, Lucas was going to make it several times.  He actually considered doing it instead of Star Wars, because it would have been easier to sell (his script was similar to Catch-22 or the 1970 movie version of MASH).  But he ended up doing Star Wars instead, and gave Apocalypse Now to Coppola, whod drastically re-wrote it.

But I agree, the Redux version is awful.

After watching the m2v's of both samples, I feel that sample 1 is better - sample 2 definitely has more edge enhancement, and generally feels to have been oversharpened.

I did notice, however, that on both samples, the red light to the left of Greedo has some "blocking" (best word I can think to describe it" going on.  You can kinda see it on the pictures, but it's more apparent on the moving video.

It has an ethernet port, but it's sitting in my room with me at the moment.  I use wifi on my laptop because our (wireless) router is downstairs, and all the other ports are being used.  So running another cable wouldn't be feasible, since there's no more ports left.

PM sent.

I mentioned it in the message, but I figured I should say something in the open thread as well:

Those samples look fantastic - I'm highly impressed.  I didn't think the GOUT could ever look that good!  Excellent work.

--edit--

Okay, I just A/B'ed the two samples (images, not video).  The first capture is softer, but at first glance appears to have less edge enhancement artifacts.

But upon closer inspection, it seems that both have about the same amount of edge enhancement, it's just that the softer look of the first sample makes them less apparent.

I'd go with the second one.  A little edge enhancement is a hell of a lot better than what we've got to deal with on the official DVDs.

I'm in the process of downloading the video samples right now to compare.

I was typing a request for you, Dark Jedi, when I realized it was far too long and would work better as a PM.

So I'm sending you a PM.  :-)

Glad to hear you're enjoying Mass Effect DJ :-)

I just finished Ghost Busters - man, that was a short game.  Now if only my 20GB-model PS3 (with a 320GB hard drive) had wifi so I could play online ... anyone know if those USB wifi adaptors work with PS3's?

I still firmly believe that every Jedi should have a blue lightsaber, with the sole exception of Luke in ROTJ.

But I love the idea of a purple lightsaber for Dooku - it's a mix of red (evil) and blue (good), and Dooku can easily be tailored to be a very ambiguous character (namely, a good guy that we think is a bad guy until it's far too late).

Being in school for editing, I've learned to accept that just because a producer or studio orders something to be recut doesn't necessarily mean that said cuts are a bad idea.  Often, the direcor is just so close to the material that he can't understand why this fantastic scene doesn't belong in his film, especially if it was particularly difficult to shoot.  For example, George Lucas' films tend to fall under this category (American Graffitti, THX 1138, Star Wars ... ), while Ridley Scott's tend to fall under the "director knows best" category (Blade Runner, Kingdom of Heaven, Legend ... ).

DarkGryphon2048 said:

I got the "Realistic" version shirt. Are there two versions? One Realistic and one Stylised? Oh, I'm in the cemetary right now.

 

*shudder* Fuck the cemetery.  I'm fighting the flying baby statues and it sucks.  I keep dying, then Ray dies right before he can revive me.  Tips?

Nah.  ROTJ suffered because after Gary Kurtz left (was fired?) Lucas arbitrarily decided to throw out the outline that had been written for ROTJ when they wrote the outline for ESB (I *think* the original ESB/ROTJ outline was written as one long outline, and split in two at the best "cliffhanger moment," - then "part 1," or ESB, was written, with the second half to be written later).  I think he did this because he hated ESB (he's gone on record as saying that ESB is his least favorite Star Wars film).

Then Lucas made up an entirely new outline, which would tie up all the loose ends that were originally meant to be left hanging for the "sequel trilogy."  Problem was, he had too many loose ends to tie up satisfactorily in a 2-hour film, so he forced several contrivances (*cough*Leia as Luke's sister*cough*) in order to make it work.

So if the original outline had been written as a script, Leia would not have been Luke's sister, and ROTJ would have ended in such a way that it was a satisfying ending to the Luke-vs-Vader saga.  The sequel trilogy would have seen Luke becoming a full-fledged Jedi (possibly training other Jedi) and searching for his sister, set against the backdrop of Luke vs the Emperor.  while the Rebel Alliance tries to end the Empire once and for all while establishing its new Republic.

Of course, since the original outline has never been released (to my knowledge), that's all just conjecture on my part, based in part on facts.

Probably not.  It is IMDb.

However, it does sound like something Lucas would do.  The true "original theatrical" version of American Graffitti has never been released on home video to my knowledge - scenes were added during its post-Star Wars re-release IIRC, and the movie's stayed that way ever since (not to mention the 1998 opening-shot "enhancement").

I hope you enjoy it - Mass Effect can be very challenging, but the world is so rich and just so damned interesting that I'm sure you'll love it.  All the planets you can visit ... but that rover can be either the most fun thing you'll ever drive or the bane of your existence.  Depending on what's going on around you at the time.

And I didn't get my copy of Ghost Busters at either Gamestop or Best Buy, unfortunately.  I'll do some Googling to see about a PS3 code.

What exclusive code would that be?  And is it 360-exclusive, or would it work on a PS3 as well?

Just started playing Ghost Busters - it's pretty awesome.  Though it kinda sucks that half the time you're standing around watching the other four guys talk to each other.  I wish you could've played as each one of them, alternating, throughout the game, instead of some random new guy who doesn't even have a name.

And the story's not terribly original.  I mean, come on, the library lady ... again?  Stay Puft ... again?  The hotel with Slimer ... again?  Often with the same jokes reused in these sections?  It's fun in videogame form, but it's certainly not Ghost Busters III like it was advertised (at least to me).

And DJ, Mass Effect is insanely amazing.  It's the one game that makes me wish I had a 360, just so I could finish it and play the sequels.  I highly recommend it.  Though after playing it, you'll hate the way every other RPG does dialogue.  It's such an innovative and intuitive conversation system, that it makes every other RPG (including KOTOR) look boring and unpolished (at least in the dialogue aspect).

vaderios said:

I think ChainsawAsh can help.

-Angel

No, I don't have the AVCHD discs.  Sorry.

Meh.  I'm sure it will be on the same level of mediocrity as Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I don't know if I'd spend money to see it in theaters, but I'd watch it eventually.

Oh Christ, I forgot about Men in Black II.  Talk about remake-disguised-as-a-sequel.

And Ocean's 12 I wouldn't consider a "worst ever" - but it's certainly not good.  I was pleasantly surprised by Ocean's 13, though.

Now I'm off to play the Ghost Busters game, aka the "real" Ghost Busters III.  Hope it's good (*fingers crossed*)!

T4 suffers from several problems:

1) John Connor.  His scenes are really rather pointless, at least until Marcus reaches him.  CHUD has a report on the original script before Bale's requested rewrites, and Connor is only in the last 10 minutes or so of the film - his voice is heard on the radio by Reese and Marcus, and when he "interrogates" Marcus he does so via intercom.  He's the one on the sub the entire time, so no one ever really sees him.

2) On-the-fly rewrites.  After Bale joined the cast, initially as Marcus, he decided he wanted to be John Connor instead, but wanted more than 10 minutes of screen time.  So all his scenes were added in, as well as the subplot of the signal that stops the machines (which makes little sense to me).

3) Using Reese as bait to draw out Connor.  If it were me, I would have just had Reese be captured like the others, and put to work as he describes in T1.  Marcus then decides to go get him, etc. etc.  But the whole bait thing was just ... um ... stupid.

4) The ending.  I'm apparently one of the few that would have been just fine with the original ending - Connor dies, and since he's been living on the sub and no one has seen his face except those on the sub, they replace Marcus' skin with Connor's, so now Marcus is Connor.  The ending was leaked, people freaked out, and they changed it to the "heart transplant" ending.

5) The T-800.  There's no reason whatsoever for the T-800 to be in this film.  Especially the way they CG'd Arnold's face onto the other dude's body.  And for fuck's sake, they don't all have to look like Arnold!  He's model 101.  They showed a different model T-800 in T1 in Reese's flashback, and he looked nothing like Arnold.

All in all, though, it was better than T3, but pales in comparison to T1 and T2.

And yeah, Anton Yelchin was awesome as Reese.

A T4 that focused on Reese would have been the way to go, but Bale had to weild his ungodly mega-star power and force rewrites.

That's not to say the original script was amazing - there was the whole "Project Angel" thing ...

--edit--

Here's the CHUD article that details the original script.

X-Men 3 isn't as bad as everyone says it is.  It was disappointing when stacked up against the first two, sure, but it's nowhere near the God-awful shit-fest that Spider-Man 3 was.  Ugh.  And Wolverine ... uuuughhh.

All three Indy sequels are mere shadows of what Raiders was, but I look at all 3 of those the way I look at X-Men 3 - I enjoy watching them all, but consider them non-canon.

Alien 3 also isn't terrible.  The "Assembly Cut" is actually pretty good.  Again, a mere shadow of Alien, and nowhere near as good as Aliens.

Now Alien Resurrection ... *shudder* *vomit*

Same goes for the Matrix sequels.  Ugh.

I feel the same way about the Planet of the Apes sequels that I do about the Indy sequels.  Battle is decent, Escape is mediocre but entertaining, Conquest is awesome, but I have yet to see the director's cut (I really want to) - we won't talk about Battle ....

M:I-2 is absolutely terrible, but I enjoyed Abrams' M:I-3 quite a bit.

Video games?  I loved the first three Spyro games, but anything after that is terrible.