Cobra Kai

Agree with the above.  You can burn the Dark jedi V3 to a regular dual layer dvd for use on your standard dvd player.  Then when you have a blu-ray you can check out Harmy's V2 after he finishes.  With these 2 versions you'll pretty much be set.

Read about where to get DJ's V3 here:  http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Original-Trilogy-Theatrical-Editions-Info-ALL-versions-SEE-FIRST-POST-FOR-INFO-AND-AVAILABILITY/topic/10550/

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chris101t said:

 

I’m new to these forums, so please forgive me if I’m not following all of the rules of etiquette. I was in my mid-20s when Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope was first released on May 25^th, 1977 (I’ll let you do the math). Yesterday, my son who’s in his early 20s gave me three burned DVDs with Harmy’s ‘despecialized’ versions of Episodes IV, V, and VI. For me, Harmy has done what George Lucas could (I’ll avoid the contentious ‘should’) have done – created the definitive restored versions of the original theatrical releases. Thank you, Harmy, for helping to preserve these classics. The burned DVDs have now replaced the commercial ‘special’ version DVDs in their DVD cases. Note to George: When someone – even the creator – tries to change a masterpiece in order to improve it, they will fail.

 

You and your son need to be on the lookout for Harmy's new versions.  Star Wars should be available very soon and totally blows away his first effort - both in terms of picture quality and theatrical accuracy. 

Zottig said:

It really is amazing work... I mean I felt kind of crappy for even mentioning any flaws because on the whole it's SO good.  But I am glad the goal is to make it even better!  I can't WAIT!

 

Ben

Zottig, i assume you haven't seen any workprints of the new version, so just to let you know... V2.0 simply puts V1.0 to shame.  Its not even close.  Not that it is perfect of course, but given the sources, i believe it looks about as good as is possible. 

the trilogy goes for about $25 used.  not too bad.

djchaseb said:

 I was at best buy at 9am the day it came out, can't believe I keep giving George Lucas money lol.  At least Spielberg releases his Theatrical releases along side director's cuts or newer altered editions. 

Spielberg already said he deeply regrets making changes to ET, and will never change anything else again.  Here is a quote from him on the upcoming Indiana Jones blu-ray release:

"This is the best I think it’s ever looked, because in preparation for the eventual release on blu-ray we had to correct the print again and get the original negative out of the salt mines, and then we had to do the separations, and basically the files, which are just amazing, with all the technology of today, without changing any of the movie materially, we haven’t removed anything, we haven’t added CGI, there’s no digital enhancements! It’s purely the movie some of you may remember from 1981."

if only this was Lucas talking about the SW blu-rays...

-1 was very specific on the blog that he was going to shut it down and that this past weekend was going to be the last update, at least until the project was completed. 

He did one final "farewell" post on Friday night.

doubleofive said:

I LOVE THE INTERNET:

http://twitter.com/#!/theharryshearer/status/183263530261286913

That's pretty cool.  I had never heard mention before of Shearer being in Star Wars.

Harmy said:

You'd think so, wouldn't you...

bad news?

just off the top of my head...

Empire, Jedi, ET, Raiders, The Thing, Aliens, Die Hard, Predator, Terminator,  Ghostbusters, Ferris Bueller, Spinal Tap, Blade Runner, Breakfast Club, Amadeus, Big Trouble in Little China, Raising Arizona, Robocop, Princess Bride, Scarface, Christmas Story, Lost Boys, First Blood, Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop, Karate Kid, and a ton of other classics. 

And i pity the person that cant enjoy movies like Death Wish 3, Breakin,  and the countless other cheesy 80's movies that make this a truly unique decade in American cinema.

Plus Hong Kong produced a ton classics as well with movies like City on Fire and A Better Tomorrow. 

The 80's Rock.

walking_carpet said:

 what was it about so many 80s movies (worst movie decade ever) that had this look?  

:O  Worst movie decade ever?  did i read that correctly?  wow, i don't even know what to say...

TheObi said:

Jup, that's pretty much sums up my reservations with Harmy's version, but I still will give them a try someday. :-)

 

So yeah, I think Dark Jedi v3 it is for me! Looking forward to see the original version again :-)

Definitely check out Harmy's next version when it comes out.  No need to have any reservations - It looks awesome!

TheObi said:

but if someone really has an "official" source about the original color timing, I have no problem with some slight color adjustments! But nothing to drastic.
And I just don't want someones own interpretation of how he thinks Star Wars has to look. Or even worse trying to make them look "modern and cool"... I have the official Blu-Rays for that and well... you probably all know how they look :-)

Nobody here wants them to look all "slick and modern" like the blu-rays.

And yes, Harmy has probably the best source possible for the original color timing. 

That being said, both of these versions are a HUGE upgrades from the GOUT, and they both have attempted to recover the colors as much as possible to their original glory.  You can't accomplish this with "slight adjustments", as the GOUT has a very washed out, desaturated look, compared to how it actually looked in 1977.  So the "drastic" color-correction in both of these versions is a very good thing. 

Hey Omen, you still around? 

djchaseb said:

Reel 4 looks great.  I love the color and detail, noticing all kinds of things in the background that I've never noticed before.  The special edition is stupid dark. 

I'm sure I missed it, but do I need to order a Blu Ray drive for this? Or AVCHD again?

He's releasing the AVCHD first, and then I'm pretty sure he said he was going to release a blu-ray version sometime after that.

jhdiesel said:

Harmy, thanks for the awesome achievement. I really appreciate your efforts. 

I'm sorry for the newbie, technical post, but I can't find any instructions on authoring physical media from the iso's. The search function returns no hits for DVD, Mac, or anything else of interest, and I couldn't find what I was looking for in the technical forum.

I have a stack of DVD+R DL disks, and a Snow Leopard Mac that can write to them. Toast Titanium was not helpful in making disks from the m2ts file. I just want something I can pop into my BD player so I can watch on a proper TV set. 

If there's a thread or post that answers this, I'll of course be happy to take this discussion there. Thanks in advance for whatever help you can provide.

I use a program called iskysoft.  That being said, you should wait on Star Wars.  Harmy's soon to be released version 2.0 is going to blow that one away.

that just shows whether you're online or not.  mine is usually lit up because i'm so freaking obsessed with this blasted site and of Harmy's project, lol.

jabbo5150 said:

Cobra Kai said:

CatBus said:

Actually I plan on burning the MKV to Blu Ray.  It will be better quality than the AVCHD, and for you video snobs in the room, AVCHDs need to rotate much faster than Blu Rays which makes them relatively noisy even on normally quiet players.

Interesting, i didn't know that about AVCHDs.  I don't have blu-ray burning capabilities (i'm a mac guy) so I was just planning on doing a dvd9, but if the difference will be noticeable I will try to find some way to burn a blu-ray.  I'm sure one of my buddies has a burner.

I am a Mac guy too, but it is my understanding that if you drop a Blu-ray burner into a Mac, you can burn Blu-ray discs using Toast with the HD plug-in

I think you might be right.  Only problem is that it would cost me $100, and I'm pretty poor right now.

stst415 said:

Okay, I downloaded all three of the despecialized movies, but they're all in ISO format.

Forgive me.  I am pretty knowledgeable about basic video editing and burning, but I've never done anything in regards to Blu-Ray and HD quality videos.  I also only have a regular DVD burner (and I can't burn them to DVD since they're all higher than 8 gigabytes), so my question is....

Is it possible, for now, to simply watch these videos on my computer?  How would I be able to view them?  Can it be done in the current ISO format or would they need to be converted to something else first?

(And, yes, I did google this first.  Thus, I installed "DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced" and mounted the ISO file to the F: drive on my computer.  But neither Windows Media Player nor Roxio were able to recognize the file format).

Thank you!

Download VLC to watch on your computer.  And I would hold off on watching Star Wars.  That version is about to be obsolete.  Go back and read part of this thread if you would like to educate yourself on the new updates.   If you are as big of a Star Wars fan as the rest of us, you will really appreciate the amount of work that Harmy and others involved have put into this.

Harmy said:

I think I'll do Jedi v2.0 next, because there will be very few changes from v1.0 other than the quality increase from using the BD as a source and Premiere for editing, so it should be a quicker job.

 

Harmy, I may be underestimating it a bit, but I would think Empire would also be a relatively quick job?  I assume you may have some new sources to work with for the cloud city backgrounds and the bits of the original wampa scene, but other than that and the color corrections, what all needs updating?

thanks.

CatBus said:

Actually I plan on burning the MKV to Blu Ray.  It will be better quality than the AVCHD, and for you video snobs in the room, AVCHDs need to rotate much faster than Blu Rays which makes them relatively noisy even on normally quiet players.

Interesting, i didn't know that about AVCHDs.  I don't have blu-ray burning capabilities (i'm a mac guy) so I was just planning on doing a dvd9, but if the difference will be noticeable I will try to find some way to burn a blu-ray.  I'm sure one of my buddies has a burner.

looks perfect! 

Yeah I do actually have memories of seeing Empire at the theater when I was 3,  and then of course Jedi in 83 (i sat in the first row with my best friend). 

none said:

1980 Edmonton: Waiting in line for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fkhZvdF5Ak

A short 8mm film clip of my cousin and my friend waiting to go see Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back at the Paramount Theatre on Jasper Ave. in Edmonton Alberta in July of 1980.

 

That's pretty cool.  would love to see some more clips like that.  I was born a few months after Star Wars was released in 77, so i missed all of the mania.

Harmy said:

Cobra Kai said:

Harmy said:

Oh, no, it's good that you pointed it out (though I probably won't be doing anything about it in this case). As to that red sky shot, that is very much intentional.

The shot right before that one looks really blue.  I'm guessing that this is not how it looked originally, but that the blu-ray color-timing makes it impossible to restore to the original look?

 

On the contrary, this is very much how it originally looked. I was quite surprised by it because in the GOUT this scene looks much less blue but this is what it looks like on the IB print (or well, close to this anyway).

Wow, that's interesting.  Yeah I looked at the GOUT too, and it's not even close to this.  I know the GOUT is not reliable, but you would still expect them to be in the same ballpark.  I wonder why they are so different?