This might be useless info but I found this very good quality pic of the original senate scene, I couldn’t find where it originally came from but I’m hoping that there’s a clip of it in this quality.
It’s from starwars.com and there’s no corresponding video.
Yep, it looks like that’s in 4:3, and the rest uses the DVD masters. A pity. (Interestingly, in the web interface, the pilot is listed in season 1 as an extra).
Wait, you’re getting it in 4:3? I get the 16:9 DVD masters on my Prime account (US). I wish it was the 4:3 copies. I’ve been meaning to give this show a watch, but I haven’t wanted to shell out the cash for it on VUDU.
Fixed link for the 2nd one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJoEadLlaMc
The new 70mm track is by Hairy_Hen. You can see what’s new here: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-1977-70mm-sound-mix-recreation-stereo-and-51-versions-now-available/id/11348/page/27#1207818
The new 35mm stereo track is by schorman13. The one on the latest version of DE (2.5) was done by Hairy_Hen, which fixed a number of audio drop outs and issues from the laserdisc. They are both primarily sourced from the Japanese digital laserdisc, but the one done by schorman13 uses the newly available optical audio to determine which dropouts and crackling were present in the original theatrical version, and which ones were not for maximum accuracy.
It should sound very similar to all the previous versions of the 1977 35mm stereo track that have been released, but it’s the most accurate to what was heard in theaters.
I don’t know if this has been posted before, but the latest version of the Star Wars Digital collection uses the Struzan art for their covers. Here are some hi-res copies. These have a big logo on top of them and some of the stars are digital edited somewhat, but its a different source for these posters.
https://imgur.com/a/9wGcIBp
This looks great. Will you be utilizing schorman13’s rip of the theatrical Podrace in HD? The digital copy of TPM came with it as an extra.
I thought of trying to get a sympathetic person from librivox (public domain audio-book recordings) to do it, but it might be tricky to advertise, because the project is very clear about not using copyrighted materials. We could try DM-ing people individually.
Another option, after searching around I found there are people who do audio books for fanfiction: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Audio Book/works. We could find one with a decent voice and mic, and reach out to the person.
Yes, we have all of those (some are SE), and that’s where our scripts came from, by and large. The trick is that the audio quality is actually pretty bad on all of them, and I’ve concluded it’s not worth despecializing them. If you’re watching an audio-only version of Star Wars, a subpar soundtrack seems kinda insulting. Also, some of the voiceovers get stuff just plain wrong or are SE-specific, and I just can’t tolerate that.
My plan? Record an all-new voiceover track (essentially mono), which could then be placed over any track you like. Probably a nice top-quality Laserdisc-based stereo track, but could also be the mono mix or even a 5.1 mix.
For Empire and Jedi, I remember only having muddy sounding 97 SE’s and 2011 ones, but for Star Wars we have a decent sounding one synced to the original release. Or does it have more issues? I figure they had to have made similar versions for Jedi and Empire, which would certainly be better than having nothing synced up. Of course, if we get a nice sounding voice actor, making a new one is a great idea.
- The HELP_WANTED file now asks for help with creating a descriptive audio track for the visually impaired. It’s not technically part of Project Threepio, but it is the biggest gap in our overall objective of making these historic films as accessible as possible. We have scripts, we have soundtracks, we have audio editors standing by – what we don’t yet have is the voice talent. Applicants please send me a PM, and also while you’re at it, please be Mark Hamill.
Have we had US forum members check their local library or library the blind for narrated VHS’s of Jedi and Empire? I checked mine, and they only had Star Wars (which we already have a copy of). A caveat: some libraries require you to be blind or disabled to get materials loaned to you, so don’t try and use the service if you aren’t.
Well folks, it turns out the rumors of my doings are true: I have indeed produced a new version of the 70mm soundtrack, which can be found on the just-released 4K77 project.
[…]
Wow, that sounds like an incredible project. Hats off to your hard work-these are always wonderful tracks to listen to.
Any suggestions of which setting on our AVRs we should choose to get the full effect? I have for example: DTS direct, DTS mono, DTS THX Cinema, Neo 6, etc. Also, besides the Falcon going into the Death Star, any other scenes we should especially check-out?
Edit: I typically use DTS Dolby PLIIx Movie with THX Cinema - is that a good choice?
Hairy_hen already upmixed the Dolby surround with the Shure HTS-5300. So you just let the 5.1 track play as it is.
evilronin said:
Awesome. I didn’t think you could do it digitally. I’ll do more research. I’m trying to pick up a rf demod from eBay. Nostalgia is going cost me. Can you give me any direct links on the process? No worries if not, I’ll dig around myself. Thanks.
I haven’t done it myself, but you basically need a sound card and recording set-up that can capture audio bit-perfect. That can actually be more of a pain than it sounds; a lot of cards and software re-sample stuff.
That’s just my basic understanding. If you have any questions, there’s many members here and on fanres that will be happy to help if you make a thread.
evilronin said:
Hopefully, I’m an idiot and don’t know what I’m talking about and there is a digital way to extract the AC-3RF from the laserdisc while retaining its original quality
There is. People do that on these forums all the time. If you have a RF demodulator that can bitstream DD, then you can just capture that with no re-encoding.
This is utterly crazy considering there’s a skit on the Saturday Night Live Season 4 DVD set that has both Coke and Pepsi products shown in it! That had to have been cleared for the video release. Maybe NBC/Universal was willing to cut both companies a check?
Yeah, using the original posters would be fair use. There’s no need to clear licensing on anything. The only reason they were blurred to begin with is the movie had a deal with Pepsi, and that deal is definitely not in effect today. I wonder if they don’t have the original, un-blurred negative, and figured that replacing the blurs would be less distracting. It still doesn’t explain why they removed the coke logo from the cooler. I guess for consistency.
Essentially when dealing with PD titles it is the new restoration or version that can be copyrighted but anyone else is free to make their own release or version from the non-restored still PD materials or whatever they get a hold of.
Again, in the US at least, there is ample legal precedent that establishes that you can’t re-copyright a restoration, because the basis of copyright is originality. Now, you can re-copyright a remixed soundtrack or an extended cut of a PD film, because those are creative decisions, but a faithful restoration, no matter how much work is involved, cannot be copyrighted. It is not a new creative work or a derivative work. Some restoration houses register their restorations with the copyright office, but based on current legal precedent those copyrights would not hold up in court.
Here are some examples from earlier in the thread:
http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1186550/action/topic#1186550
http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1186553/action/topic#1186553
They are still very much under copyright. Why do you think Disney bought Lucasfilm for billions? Distribution has nothing to to do with a work’s copyright status (it should, as currently their are tons of pieces of art and literature that are under copyright with no one distributing them-so called “orphan works”). Lucasfilm has thankfully ignored the existence of edits on here (and the rules stress that you should buy the official blurays), but fan-works still exist at the whims of Disney’s legal department.
Absolutely nothing. Most of the edits here remain 100% illegal under our terrible copyright laws. This thread is about movies that are currently public domain.
That refers to re-copyrighting foreign works that were in the public domain in the United States but were protected by copyright in the country they were created in (restoring a copyright). http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/copyright-restoration.html
It’s not related to art restoration.
The clip at 24:14 is Lakeview Terrace.
I’m glad they at least have the resources to do support and continue to provide firmware update. But this is really sad news.
Since bluray it’s been less essential to have a really nice player, as you just need something that can pump everything through HDMI (to a nicer TV/receiver/speakers) and won’t break. This is probably one of the reasons they hit trouble. But Oppo made really nice machines.
They’re asking if they use the same transfer. If they do, then the US bluray is the one worth working from, as it’s 1080p progressive and can be sped up to 25fps easily, whereas the AUS BD would have to be deinterlaced. (the BD spec only allows 25/50fps in an interlaced form.)
Very cool.
I don’t think there is a similar project for empire and jedi that is in sync with the blurays.
JawsTDS did some one pass color regrades for the blurays. You might ask him for the color settings for empire and jedi and see if you can apply something similar in avisynth.
You_Too actually posted avisynth scripts way back in 2011, but the curves are now offline, and he hasn’t been around here in a while.
Those options sound good. BTW, if you have the DVDs, the opening logos on each review come from the intro to the DVD menus, so you could get a properly deinterlaced source.