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Fang Zei

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Join date
14-Oct-2006
Last activity
2-Jul-2025
Posts
2,779

Post History

Post
#1231754
Topic
Info: The Disney/Fox acquisition....
Time

Jedi Master Skywalker said:

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

Jedi Master Skywalker said:

the problem now is getting rights for the films from Turner Broadcasting

What? Why on earth do the cable broadcast rights matter?

they own streaming rights.

I don’t think they own the streaming rights. The deal was for broadcast only. I just looked on the tnt app and they’re not on there.

Post
#1231396
Topic
Info: The Disney/Fox acquisition....
Time

ronwlim said:

I have no doubt we’ll get the original versions, but I meant 100% unaltered: Fox fanfare. original non-logo Lucasfilm title, no “ANH” crawl. The 1977 version.

-Ron

I feel like all of those things would be there regardless. If they can scan in the unaltered opening crawl just for the GOUT, then surely it would be there on an actual OOT restoration.

They’d probably just use a source that’s pre-97 anyway (like the separation masters), unless they have a truly foolproof way of scanning the SE-conformed o-neg and making sure they can tell the unaltered shots from the altered ones.

The guy from Fox at that Disney restoration presentation said that the pieces of the o-neg removed for the alterations were put in storage, but didn’t Michael Kaminski say in his article that certain shots in the o-neg had faded completely because of the nature of the specific stock used for those shots? So they’d need to go to an alternative source like seps or interpositives for some of those shots regardless. I think the big expensive restoration of The Godfather used the o-neg primarily and used seps for the shots that were too faded/damaged.

As for pittrek’s memory, he’s probably referring to that via satellite interview with Iger that cnbc (or whichever cable channel) did way back in 2014 or early 2015. The interviewer asked something to the effect of whether we might see a release of “the original Star Wars” and Iger smiles just a little and says something like “y’know, that’s not a bad idea.”

Post
#1230178
Topic
Disney to buy 20th (21st) Century Fox? (Disney has now bought them - 14 Dec '17)
Time

Mike O said:

Well, I look at it this way:we might bet the OOT before we ever get The Abyss and True Lies on Blu-ray. Whoopee.

At this point they’re probably just waiting for the right time to put it out on 4k.

Edited to clarify: I was talking about The Abyss and True Lies, not the OOT.

Post
#1229870
Topic
Disney to buy 20th (21st) Century Fox? (Disney has now bought them - 14 Dec '17)
Time

Collipso said:

can the holiday special be remastered in HD? i thought it had been shot on tape, therefore that would be impossible. what about the ewok movies and the 80’s cartoons, can those be HD?

All the live action stuff in the holiday special (which is most of it, IIRC) was shot/finished on standard def videotape*, yes. The animated sequences might benefit in some way if they were shot on film first and those elements still exist in storage somewhere, ditto for the 80’s cartoons.

The Ewok movies can absolutely benefit from HD and even 4k**, since they were shot on film (presumably 35mm).

*pretty sure this was analog videotape too

**Don’t say it’ll never happen! We already got the Peanuts specials released in 4k UHD with both SDR and HDR versions included, and I’m pretty sure at least one of the Ewok movies actually got a theatrical release.

Post
#1229647
Topic
Disney to buy 20th (21st) Century Fox? (Disney has now bought them - 14 Dec '17)
Time

Mocata said:

The theatrical release of the OOT is probably treated with contempt like the old EU now.

Yeah, but they still kept the old EU in print under the “legends” banner, didn’t they?

I know it’s not a perfect 1:1 analogy I’m making here, but if Disney sees money in something that doesn’t really matter to them anymore in terms of their current goals for the franchise, they’ll do it.

Post
#1220670
Topic
Info: How Many Versions are there of the AOTC?
Time

I remember reading in the earlier days of digital projection that the audio was simply “linear pcm essence.”

Since the digital version was already being delivered on a hard drive, it wouldn’t make much sense to have the dts audio on a separate disc. The whole reason dts worked that way was because it couldn’t be recorded as a track on the actual print the way dd and sdds were. They figured out a way to fit the dts timecode onto the print, which would sync to the dts cd. So whatever dts cd(s) we have for AotC are more than likely the 35mm version.

It’s been 16 years, but I’m still kicking myself for not catching the digital version when it was still playing at one of the closest theaters to where I lived. It was the only theater in Virginia showing it in digital, and of course there were only a hundred or so theaters in the country showing it digitally. After seeing the movie in DC on 35mm opening day, I just wasn’t in a rush to revisit it. It wasn’t until three or four weeks later that I fancied a rewatch, but by that point they’d moved it out of the digital auditorium for Scooby-Doo.

Either way, I’m still 99% certain the “to be angry…” scene wasn’t added until the dvd release. That summer was when I first started lurking and occasionally posting on the TFN boards (shudder). I remember plenty of talk about the alternate shot of Padme holding Anakin by his mechanical hand at the end and not a single mention of an extended bit of dialogue in the garage. Since one of those changes is quite a bit more noticeable than the other, I think it’s safe to say the “to be angry…” exchange wasn’t in the dlp version.

There was one person who swore they saw two different edits of the beginning of the arena scene (when padme is picking her lock), but that’s the only thing aside from the hand-holding that people were talking about that summer.

One last funny story I’ll share. I remember listening to the dvd commentary that November and George mentioning during the big Arena battle that he’d decided after the movie’s release to go back and add sparks to Jango Fett’s backpack. Well, he must not have expected it to already be showing up in the version he was actually sitting down to watch because he stops mid-sentence in surprise, pauses for a moment, and then says to the vfx guys “I just put that in yesterday for crying out loud!”

Post
#1219135
Topic
Interview with Marc Wielage, colorist Star Wars 2004 DVD releases
Time

I think it’s likely that Lucasfilm will restore the OOT once Disney’s buyout of Fox is complete since ANH will no longer be a factor.

Whether or not we ever see the ‘97 SE and the theatrical prequels restored is another story. In a world where we got five different cuts of Blade Runner spread across three separate discs, it seems pretty backwards to not at least include the original/‘97/“final” versions of each OT film.

Post
#1217169
Topic
Disney to buy 20th (21st) Century Fox? (Disney has now bought them - 14 Dec '17)
Time

Handman said:

I don’t think TV is part of the deal, so they wouldn’t get The Simpsons.

Disney would get any and all IP owned by Fox, so they would get The Simpsons.

The Murdochs would hold on to the Fox network itself since Disney owning more than one of the “big four” (they already own ABC) would violate antitrust regulations.

Post
#1211794
Topic
Solo - Han Movie <strong>NON-SPOILER</strong> thread
Time

SilverWook said:

dahmage said:

suspiciouscoffee said:

The IMAX place here just reopened after months of renovation. Should I see Solo there, or not worth it?

Meh. I saw it on a small screen and it didn’t seem like I missed out on much.

There were no scenes shot in IMAX that I noticed. If you don’t have to go too far out of your way to get there it’s a fine way to see it. I don’t think the sound system at my local IMAX is up to snuff as it was the when I saw the first Abrams Trek movie there. Almost like they’ve dialed back the subwoofers.

Really blows there were no IMAX film prints made this time. I worry they aren’t going to bother for Episode IX now. 😕

Solo was an Alexa 65 production like Rogue One. They shot with spherical lenses, which means they could have opened up the frame for the IMAX version for any scene in the movie if they’d wanted to.

As far as I know, they kept it at 2.40:1 for the entire movie in the Imax version.

I guess there would’ve been something wrong about shooting parts of The Last Jedi in actual 15-perf 65mm film only to keep everything at 2.40:1 in the Imax version and then opening up the frame in the Imax version of the movie that didn’t even shoot on actual celluloid.

Post
#1211139
Topic
Han - Solo Movie ** Spoilers **
Time

ZkinandBonez said:

Does anyone else get the feeling that this film will serve as an introduction/segue to the upcoming Boba Fett / Bounty Hunters movie? Even though I knew Maul was going to show up in advance, I was still surprised at how much of him they revealed. I figured they’d only show him wit his hood on, and that’s it. Fan will recognize him, casual viewers won’t. But no, he pulled out his lightsaber and everything. I find it weird that Lucasfilm will just drop that scene ad just expect peope to google how Maul is alive. Plus, the whole Qi-Ra subplot wasn’t resolved, so I have a feeling that Crimson Dawn might be a big part of the upcoming Boba Fett movie. And since Han and Fett have knew each other prior to ANH, they might bring back Alden Ehrenreich as well.

As for my opinion of the movie itself; I don’t really have much more to add than what’s already been said here. It was quite fun. A few oddities here and there, but it worked just fine. L3 got a bit too close to Jar Jar territory for me, but she never crossed the line and she ended up being a somewhat small character. Ehenreich worked fine for me. I saw more of Ford in him towards the end of the film, which makes sense as he’s more cynical towards the end (e.g more like ANH Han). If she returns I think he’ll be more Ford-like then. And I’m overall impressed by how much depth they added to his characters. I was surprised by just how sympathetic and engaging (to me at least) the Han/Qi-Ra subplot was.

I do think it’s funny how they made L3 the reason for Threepio’s comment in ESB about the Falcon’s computer having a weird personality. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen some many EU references in a movie before. Even the Pykes showed up, and I find it amusing that they mentioned Teräs Käsi, considering how generally negative opinions are about that game(though I guess that might be part of the joke). (Did anyone else get the impression that the EU stuff might be Jon Kasdan’s work?)

I suspect they’ll fold this into the Boba Fett movie.

It’s sorta reminding me how X-Men Origins: Magneto simply became X-Men: First Class.

Post
#1210650
Topic
Han - Solo Movie ** Spoilers **
Time

DominicCobb said:

So what did people catch in terms of EU references? The film was chock full. I counted a reference to possibly each of the Smith Lando novels (mentions of Oseon, a “Starcave,” and being inside a temple which I can only assume is a nod to the first book), yet I didn’t notice any reference to the Daley books, oddly enough. Beckett killed Aurra Sing apparently. There were a few other good ones I’m forgetting.

Dryden is eating Colo Claw Fish in that one scene. Qi’Ra mentions she learned Teras Kasi from Dryden, but I guess she was lying since it was obviously Maul who trained her.

Oh, and I love how we’ve arrived at that point in our pop culture where we get to hear Woody Harrelson pronounce “Glee Anselm” in his own special way multiple times throughout a movie.

Post
#1210291
Topic
Solo - Han Movie <strong>NON-SPOILER</strong> thread
Time

Welp, I just now bought my ticket and got into what has to be the shortest line I’ve ever seen for a Star Wars movie here for the 10pm regular 2D showing at AMC Mazza Gallerie. TFA 10:something early Thursday night was the last time I saw a Star War here.

I’ve been in line maybe fifteen minutes and it’s barely increased in that time from twenty people to only fourty or so.

Granted, ticket prices here are the lowest in DC for a reason. No reserved seating, though. That’s why I didn’t want to risk cutting it too close.

Post
#1192090
Topic
Episode VIII : The Last Jedi - Discussion * <strong><em>SPOILER THREAD</em></strong> *
Time

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

SilverWook said:

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

per a suggestion on the blu-ray.com forums, I turned off 24p output on the BD player. Now it works.

That you have to turn that off is ridiculous in the first place. They probably instituted some new copy protection scheme that isn’t compatible with older players.

Probably. But what doesn’t make sense to me is that 24p settings have anything to do with copy protection schemes.

It kinda/sorta makes sense.

I had the exact same problem on my sony S5200 player as well. I picked up the 4k combo thursday morning at best buy on my way into work. I don’t have any 4k gear, but I’ve been future-proofing the physical media purchases whenever possible. In any event, that part is irrelevant since this issue has also been affecting people who only bought the regular blu. It’s the exact same bd whether it comes with a dvd or a uhd.

Anyway, finally got home late that night, unwrapped the plastic, threw the blu-ray into the player, saw what I assumed to be the background for the language select screen Disney always loves showing us first on all their titles and … the languages didn’t appear. Worse, my player completely locked up and I had to unplug the power just so I could start over. It randomly worked the second time, and I watched the movie all the way through (my first viewing since catching a 12:45 AM screening at the Uptown here in DC back on that first Thursday night in December!) before starting the audio commentary and getting a few scenes in before passing out. When I tried it again the next day it froze up again forcing me to unplug the power, and kept doing so even after nearly a dozen attempts. I have no idea why it randomly worked the second time the night before.

I tried messing with some of the player’s other settings. It should go without saying I made sure the firmware was up to date. I swear this is the very first disc I’ve had any problems with since getting the player three years ago. Finally I tried turning off 24p as suggested on the blu-ray.com forums, and the disc loaded successfully.

My theory?

This new breed of DRM that Disney put on the disc is finding something suspicious about the hardware chain in the player and thinks something on the other end of the hdmi connection might be trying to capture the native 24p signal coming off the disc. That’s why switching to 60p gets the disc working, because the DRM doesn’t care as much (I guess?) about the hdmi signal being captured on the other end if it’s had 3:2 pulldown applied to it and is no longer the pure 24p source itself.

Post
#1185954
Topic
Rogue One UAR: anyone interested? (* unfinished project *)
Time

CourtlyHades296 said:

Fang Zei said:

^…^ said:

HDTV

That’s what I thought.

I’m guessing we’re seeing more vertical info in the 1.78:1 hdtv version because the blu-ray was probably cropped on all four sides (in order to keep the aspect ratio at 2.40:1 without resizing/scaling the pixels down to 3840:1600 / 1920:800 from 4096:1706 / 2048:853) whereas the hdtv version simply crops off the sides to get the picture from 4096:1706 / 2048:853 to 3036:1706 / 1518:853. Hence we’re getting the full vertical information in the 1.78:1 version.

Has anyone done a similar comparison between the blu-ray and hdtv versions of TFA aside from the imax scene?

Force Awakens was filmed in anamorphic Panavision, thus the HDTV is pure pan and scan.

That’s a separate issue from what I was talking about.

Even if a movie is native 2.40:1, the 4,096/2,048 width cinema master either needs its pixels resized (which results in scaling artifacts) or needs to be evenly cropped on all four sides (so that the aspect ratio stays the same) in order to match the pixels 1:1 to the 3,840/1,920 width tv master.

But if they don’t need to worry about preserving the theatrical AR and simply want to fill out the 16:9 tv frame, well, then they only need to crop information off the sides and not the top and bottom.

Again, I’d love for someone to check the non-imax scenes of TFA’s hd broadcast to see if we’re getting just a little more vertical information from the original source.

Post
#1184737
Topic
Rogue One UAR: anyone interested? (* unfinished project *)
Time

^…^ said:

HDTV

That’s what I thought.

I’m guessing we’re seeing more vertical info in the 1.78:1 hdtv version because the blu-ray was probably cropped on all four sides (in order to keep the aspect ratio at 2.40:1 without resizing/scaling the pixels down to 3840:1600 / 1920:800 from 4096:1706 / 2048:853) whereas the hdtv version simply crops off the sides to get the picture from 4096:1706 / 2048:853 to 3036:1706 / 1518:853. Hence we’re getting the full vertical information in the 1.78:1 version.

Has anyone done a similar comparison between the blu-ray and hdtv versions of TFA aside from the imax scene?

Post
#1175737
Topic
Harmy's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Despecialized Edition HD - V2.0 - MKV &amp; AVCHD (Released)
Time

Will 3.0 use 35mm scans for the vfx shots that were re-comp’d in the SE or is there too much of a discrepancy in quality from the blu-ray?

I’ve still never acquired a fan project simply out of my desire never to purchase the official blu-rays in order to watch one,* but once this 1080p version happens I might just need to get the saga on the cheap and spend the rest on three dual-layered dvd-r’s and/or a nice big usb stick.

*Between the Disney/Fox deal and everything else going on with the franchise these days, I’ve just been patiently waiting for it to happen for real. I mean, for crying out loud, they’re using clips from despecialized in EW videos now!