waspattck

Considering that this print has been around for 35 years and that it was probably heavily used, I think it's in surprisingly good shape. All the detail is definitely there and whatever damage there is seems pretty minor. The red shift could be a lot worse and there is quite a bit of remaining color information.

For old folks like me, it brings me back to seeing matinees at the mall after the title had been out for a while. Before the internet, before home video on any meaningful scale. This was it and it was pretty great. Personally, I think the effects hold up pretty well compared with CGI.

Thanks to -1 for the memories and I look forward to SW '77! 

RU.08 said:

That's not true, the main file itself should fit on a BD-R (without the extras). The main issue is that it's not BD compatible and your player may or may not be able to play it.

Running only the main 1080p file through TSMuxer (no extras) renders a Blu-ray burnable result of 25,264,586,752 bytes. Too big for a single layer.

Of course, the MKV @ approx. 24 GB could be directly burned, but would not be compatible with every BR disc player.

I think both versions are just slightly too big for physical disc, even with a small overwrite.

I'm going to compromise and put the 720p version on a BD-R.

^^

When I eventually burn the disc I will probably do that. For streaming via HDD to my Sony BR player, AC3 just seems to work better.

^^

I wanted to filter the video through Handbrake as well, since it didn't play via external HDD on my Sony player. Nothing but sound and video noise.

I suspect there are at least some scenes that are stretching the specs for my capabilities.

I've downloaded both the 1080p and 720p versions. The 1080p won't run on my laptop via VLC, I assume because the specs just aren't good enough (AMD A8 processor, 6 GB RAM, onboard Radeon graphics).

The 720p version does run fine and is gorgeous! Beautiful grain and detail.

I tried burning a Blu-ray from the 1080p version, but the size was about 250 MB too big after putting it through TSMuxer for the file structure. The 720p version has AAC for audio which requires conversion before burning it for Blu-ray, so I'm doing that right now via Handbrake (AC3). If it looks as good on my 55" LCD as on my laptop, I'll be very happy.

Regarding the documentary, I think it's great. The only pieces of advice I would offer are to include some of the elements that made the "Sources" documentary so exceptional:

1) More Music.

The doc starts out strong with some great background music, but when the interview portion starts, the energy from the first part seems to trail off. There are brief portions in the first half that seem kind of "empty" as well. I think more SW soundtrack music would liven it up quite a bit. Hard to go wrong with John Williams. 

2) More Clips.

The interview portion is now better with the added windows. Now I'd suggest inter-cutting it with clips from the film during transitions or pauses, either in windows or full frame.

3) More Relaxed Narration

This is very tough to do, I realize. It's a fine line to not sound like a script is being read when it's actually being read. The voice is great, but sounds too scripted, and a bit too quiet in some sections. Good content in the script, though.

Sorry if this sounds like I'm some sort of an "armchair" critic, but I do think that some of these additions could help.

I agree with the predominant opinion which states that the amount of detail this team has drawn from the GOUT is nothing short of amazing.

Well done.

I watched the first film so far and wow! These preservations are great! The color and detail, pre DVNR, is astonishing.

It seems to my eye that much of the laser fire throughout the first film is brighter than in other video versions. Could this be due to the fact that it was transfered so long ago and that the source print would have had less fading?

I also actually don't mind the bits of dirt on the film. It's a subtle reminder to me of the beauty of motion picture film, the way it was used for 100 years before all of the new age digital cameras.

Donated. Wish it could have been more.

yoda-sama said:

Static text on a menu page stating which track number has what could take care of that, if nothing better comes along.

 I agree with this. Just have a static menu "index" page that lists all the audio tracks and their respective descriptions. People can then simply navigate to their preferred track using their remote.

The index could even be duplicated on a pop-up screen so people could access it without pausing the film.

This is very cool. Thanks for the upload.

Harmy said:

In my opinion, the ideal way to do a restoration of the original SW with the access to all the archives would be to use the original negative wherever possible for the luma information. Even if they did actually cut up the negative for the SE, they surely did keep the cut parts in a vault, not to do so would be insane, so they could scan those separately. There should be no need for any guessing games of "was this shot recomposited" or "was this wipe redone" because the original bits should be easily recognizable by their markings and the kind of stock used.

And then whereever the o-neg may be too damaged or faded, they should use the next best source, be it an IP or IN or only in the worst case scenario a theatrical print.

All this should be done to reconstruct the o-neg in digital in the best possible quality.

Then they should scan a non-faded print (be it I.B. or LPP), color correct the scan, so the colors correspond to the print being projected with a 70s projection light bulb and then apply only the color information from this to their reconstructed negative.

Then a carefully controlled cleanup should be done to remove any remaining dirt and scratches but keep the grain structure of the negative intact.

And then SW would be ready for not only BD but also a 4K release (provided the work was done in 4K of course).

But I'm afraid that a release like that is just a pipe dream.

I too don't believe the cuts made during the SE era have gone anywhere. Fox and LFL know exactly where they are and it would be a rather simple matter to get everything together again.

Reconstruction of the o-neg, wet gate scan, professional color timing to match a 70s era print, and storage in 4k may sound like a lot, but compared to the historical value involved in such a project, the cost would be very little.

I'd love to know what (if any) agreements Disney made to GL prior to the sale. Wait 'til I'm dead? Never? It's fascinating to think about.

Also, for those who keep insisting that Fox has any rights other than distribution for SW 77, I'd like to see evidence of that. Compared to Disney, Fox is nothing and Fox will do pretty much whatever Disney dictates at this point.

Disney wants George Lucas to be a consultant on the three (or more) upcoming films, so they don't want to upset their cash cow at the moment. If they think an OOT would upset him right now, they'll wait, and so will we. It'll happen, though.  

Interesting 60 Minutes segment from 1979 on videocassette piracy, including Star Wars:

http://youtu.be/DukKT0oMv04

http://youtu.be/BmstpdD2L-U

 AntcuFaalb said:

waspattck said:

The PQ was awful and it was pan and scan, but it was cool. I was, however, the only person in my extended acquaintance who had a VCR in early '82.

I own this VHS as well. Which version do you have? I have the Video Rental Library one.

I had the same; somewhere along the line I sold it. I still clearly remember the hard plastic case though, and the cover art. Compared with Harmy's edition, that thing was downright awful. Who knew back then?

I suppose it still has some nostalgic value..............

AntcuFaalb said:

waspattck said:

In 77, home video didn't exist yet

Yes, it did.

My coworker owned an RCA VBT200 VCR in 1977 (it was released in the US on August 23, 1977).

In 1978, his father purchased him a bootleg VHS of Star Wars: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/NEW-possibly-2nd-Generation-77-78-Bootleg/topic/14341/

This was the exception, not the rule. It didn't exist on any meaningful scale until the early 80s. I bought my first VCR in 1982 for $700! Star Wars had just been released legally on VHS and I eventually purchased it for over $100.

The PQ was awful and it was pan and scan, but it was cool. I was, however, the only person in my extended acquaintance who had a VCR in early '82.

The percentage of households in the US with a VCR prior to the early 80s was very small (single digit %s). Even by 85 according to Nielsen stats, that number had only reached about 15%.

All the minor errors and continuity problems in Star Wars are simply a sign of the times in which the film was made, at least originally. In 77, home video didn't exist yet and Lucas I am sure never dreamed fans would be scrutinizing every frame of Star Wars 35 years later.

The head "bonk" was likely filmed during the time when Fox execs were pressuring Lucas to finish the production fast or be shut down. 3 units filmed simultaneously during the final week(s) and I am sure something as minor as the head bonk was simply deemed too minor to re-film. As time went on and it was possible to fix, maybe it was thought of as a mistake that gave the movie character. I don't know.

People forget that even adjusted for inflation, this was a low-budget movie. Things changing color or disappearing from shot to shot were due to budgetary restrictions as much as anything else.

I saw this film in theaters in 77 and I never noticed the stormtrooper hitting his head, or the shrubs that appeared in the Lars household, or the hundreds of other minor fixes fans feel a compulsion to change now. No one cared. It was fun to watch and that's what mattered.

Now, the music cue was lazy, but until a few months ago, I didn't notice that either.

Has anyone been able to encode more than 16 audio tracks with Blu Disc Studio? I got my trial key yesterday (after about 30 minutes), and was just doing some simple design, when I noticed the directory/properties on my project only listed the first 16 audio tracks, even though I had input all 21.

I haven't encoded any tests to see of all 21 tracks are there and the software is just saving space; I'm not sure.

On the bright side, BDS seems pretty easy to use, once you get familiar with the basic layout. People with Photoshop skills will definitely have a leg up as in many of these programs, since there are import protocols for entire menu structures created in .psd.

johnlocke2342 said:

No matter what we get, it can't be worse than the Blu-ray's menu (and version of the movie, of course).

Actually, I thought the official Blu-ray menus were really well done. Can't say much for the special editions, but Lucasfilm obviously had some $50,000-plus software at their disposal to create the menus.

When I burned my Verbatim BD25 at 2x, it took about 40 minutes. I did use ImageBurn and I ran a verify pass to look for errors.

jdryyz said:

No problem.

So my only concern is why the BD structure isn't playing smoothly. Is there anything in my steps I should double-check?

 

1) Extract video and audio tracks using MKVExtractGUI.

2) Move files into tsmuxer, create chapter markers, output as Blu-Ray disc.

 

You shouldn't need an ISO file to play this is VLC. All I did (after your "step 2") is go to the BDMV/STREAM folder and play the .m2ts file in VLC. Worked like a charm.

jdryyz said:

 

So, then regarding my choppy playback and erratic chapter skipping, is this also normal when reviewing a Blu-Ray disc in VLC? How do I know my iso is not damaged?

It is not"normal" for the video to be choppy or skipping around during playback, so it could be your ISO or VLC. Not sure about the VLC framerate, but when I tested my BRD mux via VLC, it played flawlessly. You can confirm the framerate of the file you'll be burning by looking at the .m2ts file in the "STREAM" folder and confirming the detailed properties. If the framerate is at 23.976, you're fine and your BR player and TV will recognize it as such. Does your computer have the specs to run video well?

My BD-R is at 720/24p, although my player "upscales" to 1080. 

Harmy said:

Two BD25.

This is a very good decision, since I recently started pricing BD50s. Yikes.

How about McQuarrie-themed menus??

screen shots" />

Designed a simple menu in multiAVCHD. I did have to restrict this version to six audio tracks and I can't quite figure out how to adjust the audio descriptions so they're not truncated, but it works for the short-term. Slow learning curve for me...............................