Director

Caston said:

ArcherEdits said:

The '97SE vhs tapes are the Star Wars OT I grew up on, but I’ve rally struggled finding a good quality version of them since, really bums me out 😕

Check the 1997 Special Edition OT Preservation Projects category of the An Index Of Projects & Help Thread for Star Wars Preservations thread for all the 1997SE projects, including some HD projects that have been released.

Most of the preservations have yellowish colour, especially during A New Hope cantina scenes.

Knightmessenger said:

Why was the Lowry “restoration” even necessary. I mean wouldn’t most people have been pretty happy with the quality of an anamorphic transfer from the 1997 prints?

Remember, most of the Empire of Dreams footage is from the 1997 version in anamorphic widescreen and I think that looks pretty good. Why did they need to spend all that money on a restoration that just screwed up the video and audio presentation? So they could claim “digitally remastered” on the box?

What the hell? Why does every movie have to be “Digitally restored” or whatever? I mean what if the film already looks pretty good? Do studios think people won’t buy something unless they spend money on restoring it anyways?

Most people would have been amazed at the improved quality simply by it being on dvd. After all, not many people have even heard of laserdisc, fewer had the movies on that format so their previous reference would have been the vhs tapes. Seriously, how could a dvd not be light years ahead of fricken vhs?

If I had seen the 2006 original version dvds back in 2004, I would have thought they were amazing. Because I didn’t know anything about video technology then and I always had the impression of the Star Wars movies looking very bad on tape. Just seeing a video master without the blurriness added by vhs would have looked stunning to me. But by 2006, I knew what laserdisc was, knew what anamorphic widescreen meant and my family purchased a widescreen television.

Totally agreed!

for anyone who wants the special editions right now as they were in cinemas in 1997, I have made a preservation about this.

screams in the void said:

Director said:

“The special editions were not that bad, but people insult them because after the release of the VHS/LaserDisc/DVD of the 1997 Special Edition”

Well ,the 97 Special Edition was never released on DVD , but even further changes were made to the movies in 2004 for the DVD debut of the OT , and then again in 2011 for the blu ray , and again in 2019 for D+

" people realised the original versions will never be re-released again."…you got that right , its the reason this here site exists .

and the 2006 DVDs were a slap in the face

The Special editon was released on DVD, but not many have the DVDs of them.

What will be the audio mix of this preservation?

v2.0 is unlike to ever be released, just for note.

DVD-BOY said:

I was hoping you would speak about the sources you used, and how you created the project, but your previous response said it was too long to mention.

Well done for getting this project over the finishing line and released, because a lot of projects are announced but fail to materialize for one reason or another.

Thank you, this was not easy, and since either the 1997 projects are not finished and will never be, or the announcer is inactive, I spent a lot of money to actually get this done.

DVD-BOY said:

So what resolution are the mp4 files?

Was there anything else you wanted to ask?

G&G-Fan said:

Director said:

You can give me suggestions. I am not sure yet.

If you’re gonna put the Death Star near a planet, I’d recommend something like Coruscant or Geonosis. It’d be cool if it was a rather alien planet and not too Earth-like.

Thank you for the idea, I might as well actually make the Death Star near Coruscant.

DVD-BOY said:

So what resolution are the mp4 files?

They are currently 480p, because the AI and other services constantly mess up any attempt of upscaling.

DVD-BOY said:

So what is the source for this? You mentiom film prints, but the final file is a very small mp4 file.

Could you explain more about your workflow and the technical process?

How does this project compare to the other scans of 35mm Special Edition prints that already exist?

Can you please post some screenshots?

The files were converted to mp4 with resolution lowered since the original files were almost 200 GB each, they were not mp4 originally, but I made them since mp4 is the easiest format. And I have no much to say about it right now, but for example most scans are yellowish, especially during Greedo/Han scene, the frames are extremely yellowish, but for example in my version, it is corrected to look like it was in 1997. The technical process itself is too long to mention right here, but I am likely going to update it in the future, since I have to focus on 2 preservations and 1 fanedit.

If you have more questions that I did not answer here, ask.

G&G-Fan said:

Ok and what are the changes besides logos and a couple you have listed for ANH?

ANH is currently in production, it has changes I have not listed, but when I have time to add the changes to the list, I will add them.

Update: The original trilogy is currently in progress and will be ready soon.

Can I get the subtitle files?

For anyone who already got the files; Should I make a v2.0 in the future?

ImBateman said:

Hi everyone!

As the title suggests this is an HD reconstruction of the 1997 version of ROTJ. This is a project I’ve been intending to do for a while now and I finally have something that I can call watchable. Since there are two very well made reconstructions of the 97 versions of ANH and ESB (thanks to Harmy, Team Blu, and Adywan) I figured ROTJ needed a reconstruction done in some capacity!

**V3 update: V3 is now live, and is finally exactly how I like it, thanks to me switching to Davinci Resolve. Regrained, better color, and video synced up to the audio down to the last frame (v2 seemed to always be slightly out of sync). The “Return of the Jedi Visual Comparison” was used, so there are no post-97 changes in this version at all!

I used 5 sources for this project (updated for v3):

• 2019 Special Edition Blu Ray
• Max DNR version of 4k83 (to undo post 1997 changes)
• ROTJ LD upscale and multi-capture merge (thanks ZigZig and Rancor022/DarthPyro!)
• 2004 HDTV broadcast provided by schorman (for opening logos)
• althor’s LD capture (for reference and DTS audio, LD audio, subtitles, and chapters)

Extra things done:
*added a 35mm grain palette over 2019 BD, 2004 HDTV, and LD footage to blend in better with 4k83 footage
*color corrected a handful of 4k83 clips to blend in with surrounding scenes
*I did leave the color of the 2019 BD alone since it appears that they did use the 1997 versions as a color reference.

Video dimensions: 1920x1080p (cropped to Disney’s 2.39 aspect ratio), 23.976fps
File Size: 19.53gb mkv

PM me for a link and share some feedback here if you’d like. Thanks!

I highly doubt this person gives links anymore but if you want to see this film’s 1997 Special Edition like it was in theatres in 1997, check my preservation of that. The films are all available.

edit in 2025: didn’t think when writing this, that my 20 years late response would revive this thread.

The Special Editions are what most members grew up with, but not all members. The special editions were not that bad, but people insult them because after the release of the VHS/LaserDisc/DVD of the 1997 Special Edition, people realised the original versions will never be re-released again. (forget the 2006 bonus discs). And that is the reason why so many complain about the Special Editions, but sure, there are some who actually hate the special editions.

That guy with no name said:

Haarspalter said:

Hal 9000 said:

Why make this available only for a limited time?

Maybe he wants to pay homage to the 2006 GOUT DVD advertising? 😉

More like the '93 Laserdisc releases. “One Last Time” that was a huge red flag.

Btw, the One Last Time was the 1995 LaserDiscs.

PM me for the links.

The trailer is out now and the films will be fully available soon,

Hi editors and others. First I thought since these editions are so hated, I would release them only for 10 days but now that I have received many complains on PMs and here, I have decided that this will not be limited time only but will be available at all times.

timdiggerm said:

Hal 9000 said:

Why make this available only for a limited time?

This like Disney putting movies “in the vault” just to build hype & demand back in the day, only without the existing demand, reputation for quality, name recognition, etc.

Plus, anyone who receives the files can just distribute them as soon as he says it’s no longer available.

Yes, anyone can, but they should not say “I created this preservation…” , but this is only for a limited time since I could accidentally delete the mp4 files while emptying device space, but if you manage to download the mp4 files, I will not be demanding you to delete it.

That guy with no name said:

why is this in only 480p? and how can something be both stereo and 7.1 surround sound?
I’ve sent you the pm’s btw.

Some parts are stereo and some are surround, and it is 480p since the print is low-resolution and the AI messes up while up-scaling so I have no choice, plus it saves space.