Fang Zei

I hadn’t considered the pirated game discs factor. That would at least make sense, but if playing bd-r movies is yet another thing* the ps4 does that the xbone doesn’t, I’ll continue weighing my options.

The One S had piqued my interest because of the 4k UHD blu-ray factor. I’ve been wanting to get a streaming device for my downstairs tv currently not connected to anything except a “dumb” blu-ray player from eight years ago. I’d prefer to get a device that’s capable of downloading newer apps but also plays discs (yes, I know, “you’ve already got a blu-ray player, just get a roku,” but I want to “vote with my wallet” in favor of physical media while I’ve still got the option. It kills me that my highly educated cousins got a roku but never bothered upgrading to blu-ray).

I’ve got a sony smart blu-ray player for the upstairs tv that is hooked up to a cable box. It’s limited in its app assortment but it’s got the big ones (netflix, amazon, hulu, youtube, vimeo, vudu), but it doesn’t have hbo go or cbs all access, which I’ll apparently need in order to watch the new Star Trek show come January.

Adding further complication to all of this is the fact that Comcast doesn’t support hbo go on the ps3/4 but does on the xbox. To my knowledge, the app isn’t even available on any of the other UHD players on the market so far.

As far as the bd-r issue goes, I’m assuming the xbox one at least supports avchd discs. Or am I jumping to a conclusion there also? I guess I’ve still got the blu-ray players for these kind of things, and something to continue justifying the “dumb” player sitting around, but it really shouldn’t be too much to ask that these newer devices continue to do everything the older ones did, especially when it’s for stupid copy-protection reasons.

*like bitstreaming, not that I see myself getting an atmos/dts:x setup in the near future, but still.

It only just occurred to me: would that mean it couldn’t play MoD bd’s like the ones from Warner Archive?

Bill Hunt gave an update on the 3D PT + TFA rumors. Apparently that’s still what his industry and retail sources are telling him, with the added detail that it will be five discs total.

T2 was at the very least given a “stealth” reissue at some point in the last year or so. It’s still from the same master, but without the filtering on the skynet edition.

Since it’s only 35mm, I could see them scanning at 6k and mastering at 4k. That’s what they did for the blu-rays of Minority Report and Raiders of the Lost Ark. They could certainly scan at 8k if they really wanted to pull every last detail off the negative, but they won’t be mastering at anything higher than 4k. I don’t think there’s been an 8k restoration of anything yet. Lawrence of Arabia was scanned in at 8k but only finished at 4k. Ben-Hur’s restoration was actually an 8k scan / 6k finish. Baraka was scanned in at 8k but I’m not remembering what res that was actually finished at.

It’s the same reason they filmed out the 4K restoration of the Godfather onto a new negative. It was shot on film, so it should be preserved that way.

The documentary Side by Side has a scene that addresses the whole film vs. digital debate regarding long-term storage. Steven Soderbergh is against the idea of preserving his digitally-shot movies on film, risks of data corruption be damned.

The LoC request from Disney (which was first mentioned back in December IIRC) and Verta meeting with the suits are two huge signs that something is happening behind the scenes.

MalàStrana said:

Fang Zei said:

MalàStrana said:

Fang Zei said:
Hermit’s post about a source inside LFL is encouraging, assuming the source actually knew this info for certain. Finding out that they were indeed planning on getting the true OT out there before TFA just sets the speculation wheels in motion. Maybe they wanted to keep a hundred percent of the attention on TFA?

GL making peace with Disney these past few weeks

This is the first I’ve heard about this. What exactly happened? Or are you referring to the possibility of GL producing Indy 5?

No, I’ve heard he has been visiting Rogue One shooting stages.

http://www.cinemablend.com/news/1534900/what-happened-when-george-lucas-visited-the-star-wars-rogue-one-set

Ah, my bad. I’m remembering now that I heard something about this as well.

MalàStrana said:

Fang Zei said:
Hermit’s post about a source inside LFL is encouraging, assuming the source actually knew this info for certain. Finding out that they were indeed planning on getting the true OT out there before TFA just sets the speculation wheels in motion. Maybe they wanted to keep a hundred percent of the attention on TFA?

GL making peace with Disney these past few weeks

This is the first I’ve heard about this. What exactly happened? Or are you referring to the possibility of GL producing Indy 5?

Packaging TFA with the PT just because they’re the only ones ready go in 3D seems like a really odd choice. Bill Hunt’s never been one to post bogus rumors but I seriously have my doubts about this one.

Hermit’s post about a source inside LFL is encouraging, assuming the source actually knew this info for certain. Finding out that they were indeed planning on getting the true OT out there before TFA just sets the speculation wheels in motion. Maybe they wanted to keep a hundred percent of the attention on TFA?

Papai2013 said:

I doubt any home video version has the original colour timing because that would require an expensive scanning of the 35mm and 70mm film sources. I think it will be the same version for the film.
For the 1.44:1 sequences though, they are from the actual IMAX source, so those scenes should be close to the print.

Regarding the original timing, I think they will release a 10th, 15th or 20th anniversary version when they may re-scan the film elements. Also, it’s ultimately what Nolan wants. if he is happy with the TDK Blu-ray, then there will be no re-scans done.

They will certainly do new scans of at least Begins and TDK at some point in the next couple years when they inevitably put out the trilogy on 4k ultra hd blu-ray. It’s possible that Rises has been ready to go with a 4k variable aspect ratio master since it was released. The blu-ray screenshots for that one are very detailed and it doesn’t look like they simply used the Imax DMR master like they did for TDK.

I remember seeing an infographic that basically laid out the very complicated production pipeline for Rises. Nolan is probably the last big budget filmmaker who still insists on finishing his films photochemically and not as a DI, adding yet another step to the process.

The AFI Silver is going to be showing the OT the first weekend in September as part of a John Williams series. They’re playing what feels like practically every movie he ever scored over the next couple months, some of which I had no idea he was even involved with (they’re doing a Valley of the Dolls double feature tomorrow).

I bring this up because the OT will be on dcp, whereas they were definitely still showing the '97 prints just a couple years ago. Between this and the roadshow news, I’m starting to think Lucasfilm has pulled them from circulation entirely.

I’m curious about this as well. Did they not officially state at one point that they were showing the '97 prints? I wouldn’t put it past someone not nearly as knowledgeable about the various versions to have simply jumped to the conclusion of it being the '97 versions (not 2011) and also thinking “prints” (when it’s actually dcp).

Still, IIRC they said “ultra rare screenings of the '97 35mm prints,” which seemed to spell things out in no uncertain terms.

The official site put up an article shortly before the blu-ray’s were released that gave a rundown of all the additional changes for the six movies.

For ESB, the only one I remember off the top of my head was how they digitally fixed the shot where the wampa’s arm is reaching into frame to claw Luke. On previous releases you could see the guy’s actual arm where the wampa arm ended in the corner of the frame. They digitally added more fur to cover it up for the blu-ray, although I seem to recall noticing in the screenshot a parabola* of black pixels in that corner of the image (someone will know what I’m talking about).

I also seem to recall a fix they made to the conveyor belt scene where Chewie retrieves C-3PO from the ugnaughts, but I’m not remembering what it is now. It could’ve been a simple color-timing change for the furnace fire or they digitally added stuff.

Funny how ESB has gained this reputation as the one with the least changes made to it over the years, including '97. But boy oh boy, do I still hear people on the internet talk about how much they dislike the Vader “bring my shuttle” change.

*parabola might not be what the shape is called. Again, someone who knows the alterations well will know what I’m talking about.

Has it already been ten months?

We’re officially overdue for another stirring of the rumor mill.

There’s no way they would remove the logo and fanfare from an OUT release. They would present the movie as close as possible to how it was (at least to the layman if not nitpickers like us), and the iconic fanfare’s absence would be quite a glaring omission.

It’s the SE I was referring to in my post.

I don’t think the 2020 thing makes a difference in terms of the Fox logo showing up on the original versions of Empire, Jedi and the prequels. Disney will own those movies outright after 2020, yes, but I don’t think that legally prevents them from the fox logo showing up in a restored OOT. Think of all the catalog titles now owned by different studios than the ones who originally produced/released them. I’m thinking of all the MGM movies now owned by Warner Bros because of Ted Turner, the Hitchcock titles originally produced by Paramount but now distributed by Universal, or the DreamWorks movies now owned by Viacom because of the folding that happened roughly a decade ago.

The rights issue with Star Wars is a two-way street anyway as we’ve discussed, since Fox owns all versions of the '77 film in perpetuity.

It honestly makes no difference to me if they remove the fox logo from the SE. It will sync up better with VII, VIII and IX anyway. That said, the way they did it in TFA (the lucasfilm logo with no sound) is the way it should be in such a scenario, not the cobbled-together music que they came up with for the digital release of the five non-ANH movies.

From Bill Hunt (of thedigitalbits.com fame in case he needed any introduction), just a couple hours ago:

“File this in the category of rumor, but word coming out of Star Wars Celebration in London is that Disney and Lucasfilm may be preparing a new Star Wars Blu-ray box set, planned for release in time for the holidays, that includes Episodes IV, V, VI, and VII. And VII will include the long-awaited Blu-ray 3D version. We’ll post any official details as they arrive.”

Could be something, could be same old same old. Who knows.

Just thought I’d share.

Laserschwert said:

So, what was shown at Celebration Europe?

I’m curious about this as well. There’s no way it wasn’t some version of the SE, but I’d want to know if it was a newer transfer like RMW’s by some chance.

Would they even be set up to play actual DCPs at the convention? Maybe they just threw the 2011 bd into a fancy player connected to a high-end projector.

The screening would’ve just ended a few minutes ago …

ThiefCobbler4ever said:

I’m still confident will be getting the OOT on Blu-ray by next year. Don’t want to sound disrespectful, but with George Lucas out of the picture, it will be easier for Lucasfilm, Disney, and Fox to release the trilogy (maybe the original Saga) unaltered for DVD/Blu-ray properly.

But it certainly feels like they’re trying not to piss off George, even if there’s nothing legally preventing them from doing so. The man is now one of their biggest shareholders after all, so maybe they do have reason to stay within his good graces despite having bought his company fair and square.

I know this is the umpteenth time I’ve brought it up, but the smartest way to handle this is to basically do what Blade Runner did and put together a “final” version of the movie in 4k while also remastering the older versions. Indeed, it shouldn’t just be the OOT, but the original saga … and the '97 version of the OT thrown in as well. Hell, they could even follow the Blade Runner model to a T and branch the '04 and '11 versions onto the '97 disc if they really wanted to (although they would have to agree on a color grade and sound mix for the vast majority of the movie that they otherwise share in common. Honestly I wouldn’t miss the '04 and '11 versions at all if they were absent, and the “final” version will probably replicate most of those changes anyway). That’s the middle disc, and the first and last discs would be the final and unaltered versions, respectively.

Kathleen Kennedy could bring in George to have his final say on what he wants changed (or maybe even changed back, see: Luke’s screaming fall in Cloud City) while bringing in someone like Robert A Harris to supervise a definitive restoration of the unaltered versions. The prequels wouldn’t even need multi-disc releases, just seamless branching for each movie, and hopefully a color-grade for AOTC closer to how it actually looked. Us OOT/OPT fans finally get what we want, George gets to finish his I-VI saga (giving the SE fans reason to buy yet another release), the copyright owners make their money and we all go home winners.

towne32 said:

For the first question: yes, it certainly does as Luke is hanging from the bottom of Cloud City. Possibly other shots.

It was actually a Bespin shot I was thinking of, but not that one. I thought I remembered reading somewhere, possibly from Harmy himself in an earlier edit of the first post, that he had simply stuck with the recomps for certain shots where that was the only thing making it technically different from the original version. In that four-way screenshot comparison graph, I thought I noticed this in the shot of the Falcon flying through the clouds towards camera with the cloud cars on either side.

Does version 2.0 still use the '97 recomps for certain shots? If so, will 2.5 rectify this?

I’ve never downloaded the Harmy versions, but if I ever were to do so - and the only within-the-rules way of doing so was owning the bd - I’d definitely make sure I acquired it used and not brand new. In my opinion, the more fresh copies of those discs that get sold, the less likely the powers-that-be will see a reason to give us the official OOT release we’ve been going on about for all these years. You shouldn’t have to cast a vote with your wallet in favor of the 2011 versions just to enjoy the original versions ethically.

canofhumdingers said:

Yeah but I’m pretty sure the live action was some other aspect ratio than 2.35:1 (16:9 probably?) hard-matted to the correct ratio. Thus the actual live action footage from AOTC and ROTS aren’t even full 1080p, much less true 2k

Well yeah, but Lucas’ entire goal with shooting it digitally was to remove film from the production process altogether so that he wouldn’t have the extra (and costly) step of scanning in practically every shot of the movie like he did on TPM.

The camera footage was only 1920 by 817, yes, but since so much of what you’re seeing in the finished movie is mostly or entirely cgi (presumably rendered at full 2k), I think we should “ignore” the resolution of the live-action source.

Avatar used 2/3" 1080p Sony cameras much like the ones used on RotS, and some of the 100% cgi shots were rendered at 3k just so they would really shine in the 70mm Imax version.

Clones and Sith will always look jarringly out of place with the other “main saga” films to me, although I have to admit they actually looked okay when intercut with the others during the AFI John Williams tribute the other week. Maybe it was the editing.