DrDre

Actually I'm not that young. I lived through the original Star Wars craze. I remember a time when George Lucas was seen as a visionary. The prequels turned him into a punch line. Like I said, success is hardly a measure for quality. 

The fact is that Heir to the Empire and Shadows of the Empire were bestsellers in the mid 90s, and the home video releases sold like crazy, so Star Wars was hardly in obscurity. I'm pretty sure it would have had a healthy following even if there would have been no prequels. It would not have been the media circus it is now, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Lord of the Rings did fine with only a handful of books for more than fifty years, before Peter Jackson made his magnum opus. 

I don't consider the prequels enrichments to the universe, but rather dilutions. The Star Wars mythos became blurred and inconsistent. The Clone Wars were a big step in the right direction, getting the saga back on track. 

I don't believe this is true. I think degrading the originals is too hefty a price for popularity. The image of Star Wars and the image of it's creator took a huge dent, because of the prequels, and the constant tinkering with the OT. I would never trade quality for popularity. I would rather have a great film in obscurity than a popular mediocre one.  

I understand that comparing SW and TESB is comparing apples and oranges. However, looking at these projects from the perspective of someone who doesn't care about the type of print used as a basis for a 35mm preservation, and is simply comparing the quality of the source material, the TESB prints are more pleasing to my eyes than the LPP. The same is true for the replacement shot, although like you said it's only that one shot. I also watched the 35mm shots you used in the 8mm Grindhouse, and they seemed to be in a better shape than reel 1, although I'm saying this from memory, so I could be mistaken. That is in no way a critisism of the great work you guys have done cleaning up these prints. 

When I say there's some work to be done, I'm assuming the team will want to achieve a consistent look for the entire film. Therefore certain scenes will probably need a little more work than others in terms of contrast adjustment, deflickering, etc. 

Anyway, I certainly very much admire the work that went into this, and I'm very much looking forward to the release. 

Thanks for sharing the previews! The cleaned Grindhouse looks awesome! There is great detail, sharpness, and dynamic range in the two samples you provided. If the Fuji print is in better shape than this, we're really in for a treat. I can't wait for both this release and the official release in the hopefully not to distant future. 

First of all, thanks for sharing the previews with us! The cleanup looks very impressive. You guys did an amazing job! The first reel of the LPP print looks to be in a worse shape than some of the other samples I've seen of the other reels, and TESB Grindhouse. Looks like there's still some work to be done in that respect. The replacement shot looks really good, though. I hope you can approach the dynamic range of this shot for the other scenes in reel 1 during post-processing. 

Great! Thanks for the public release. It's much appreciated!

That's great poita! Video samples are always welcome! ;-)

Empire and Jedi should be finished in less time. I'm using one setting for all frames now, so in principle that should also work for Empire. Jedi may take a little adjusting, but I suppose that should not be too much work. The rendering now takes ages, though. Once the video sample is finished, I will render Star Wars completely, if the sample looks good, an will do Empire immediately after that.

@ thorr

I don't think that video would work, as you need common elements in the frames, and in this case the elements are averaged with elements from the other movies that move in a different manner.

Yes, that's an unfortunate side effect of the antialiasing/denoising. 

Sorry, then I misunderstood the first post, because the way I read it is that you wanted to preserve a 35 mm theatrical version of Star Wars, and that the Spanish LPP was one of the means and not a goal in and of itself. 

That being said, the Eastman print does seem in far better condition, but I could be mistaken as we've only seen tiny portions of it. 

The difference is indeed quite stunning. Makes me wonder why you use the LPP in the first place? The replacement shots appear to have far more depth, clarity, and detail. 

Looking realy good! Well done!

Thanks! There have been a lot of iterations, but like Zyrother said, it's been a community effort. 

Inspired by one of Mike Verta's great videos, I decided to take a look at Star Wars most notorious frames:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131885

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131886

That clip looks really good! Great work! 

It's awfully slow with the new additions, but it should be finished in 4 days. I've been watching C3PO take baby steps for a while now... ;-)

Hahaha, thanks! Couldn't have done it without you my friend...

When did you feel George Lucas was turned to the Dark Side? 

First of all like many of you I'm not a fan of the current official versions of Star Wars or the prequels. However, there was a time I was actually exited about the prospect of Special Editions. Who didn't want to see the movies restored in the movie theatre? Who didn't want to see an extended cut? Jurassic Park was a sensation, and CGI seemed to have a bright future. Reviews for the Special Editions were also generally very favourable. I couldn't wait to get them on video, at the time. So what happened?

For me things changed with the prequels or actually after the second prequel. I didn't hate TPM, but didn't love it either. For me the love scenes in AOTC were rock bottom. These scenes rank to me with the worst scenes in movie history. Then the OT came out on DVD, and things started to take a turn for the worse. Prequel characters and voices in the movies I loved. Now I could not even enjoy the OT, without the stink of the prequels. That's when I got a very bad feeling. How about you guys? 

Here is one of those frames that is massively enhanced by the script:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131726

Well Mike, I finally took the time to watch all the movies you posted on Vimeo. All I can say is, I wish George Lucas and Lucasfilm in general had the same reverence for the original 1977 release of Star Wars that you obviously have. 

It seems unlikely we'll see the final result without Lucasfilm approval, but it's good to know that a complete restoration of the original Star Wars will be in existence somewhere in this Galaxy. 

I am in awe of your work and dedication...

Looking good! You can definitely see more details in the new upscale, and it has less artifacts as well. Nice!

Here's SRV11 vs SRV12 for the C3PO frame:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131579

The lables are indeed wrong and should read SRV11 and SRV12 as you said. Here's the C3PO closeup with the new settings:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131562

Here are a number of comparisons between SRV11 and SRV12. I've adjusted the settings for SRV12 somewhat. 

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131522

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131524

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131525

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131526

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131527

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131530

V11 is without dehaloing.

That may be true, but there are ~142000 more frames. ;-) I will post a few more comparisons.