Harmy

No, no, no, I'm sorry, I wasn't implying anything in terms of PAL being superior, I just wanted to make it clear which set I'm looking at in case the NTSC was a bit different, is all. I wouldn't have thought the PAL set has better colurs, that wouldn't make sense, especially as it's just a conversion from NTSC anyway, I just know that when comparing stuff like that I have previously been asked whether I'm using the PAL or NTSC version, so I just wanted to avoid that by making it clear right away.

Here's what I mean:

Notice how the letters are more yellow in the GOUT. I don't want to be critical, it is a really fine job you've done there, just pointing it out.

I can't wait for it to be released.

Murry Sparkles said:

 Yes the link is fine now Harmy, the flyby looks excellent .

Thanks, but I need advice on which of the two versions in that clip to use:

I compared V3 and PAL GOUT side by side to see how improved it was and it certainly is an improvement in terms of graininess and contrast, but I'm sorry, the green tint isn't there in the PAL GOUT, you can quite clearly see it on the crawl letters.  Also, what bitrate settings did you use? It seems a bit more compressed than the PAL GOUT.

rockin said:

can I ask what was changed in the second clip from the previous PDE? 

In the previous PDE, it was just an upscale of Ady's reconstruction, in this one I rotoscoped the original background into the HD footage. Youtube compression is so bad that you probably couldn't tell the difference, so that's why I uploaded the mp4 instead.

Murry Sparkles said:

Harmy there seems to be a problem with the third link, everytime i try it says  the file is temporary unavailable.

It seems fine now, so probably just some temporary fluke :-)

OK, guys, here's the first shot I've finished for TESB:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LG9YCDYH

And here's a new one:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=98TGU65N

Also, please check this and tell me what you think.

I'm gonna keep that a surprise. Don't expect anything ground-breaking though. I will say though, that there is an easter egg hidden somewhere in the menu :-)

TV's Frink said:

*fistpump gif*

Fistpump? Is that something naughty? ;-)

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - DESPECIALIZED EDITION v2.0

 
Last update: August 7th 2014
 

 
www.facebook.com/despecialized 
www.youtube.com/HarmyDespecialized

To subscribe to a monthly newsletter go here.

This is now on tehparadox (JDownloader) and myspleen (torrent).

The Ultimate Introductory Guide - a particularly helpful guide by HanDuet; a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in the Despecialized Editions

This is a fan preservation. Fanedits and preservations must not be bought or sold. Please report every fanedit or preservation you find for sale to webmasters of originaltrilogy.com. Fanedits and preservations are an artform and to be shared among legal owners of the officially available releases only. Do not support piracy.

HARMY PROUDLY PRESENTS…

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - DESPECIALIZED EDITION REMASTERED (v2.0)
 

This is a reconstruction of the 1980 theatrical version of The Empire Strikes Back. The original shots were painstakingly restored using various sources (listed below) and the film received an extensive shot by shot colour correction.

The remastered version (v2.0) represents a significant improvement in picture quality over the earlier 1.0 version due to the use of better encoding and higher quality sources and replacing many of the despecialized shots with higher quality ones.

A gallery showing all the changes can be found here:

https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/109609428403596349302/albums/6044645069501365185

The MKV version contains a large number of audio tracks, including the latest versions of the preservations of the original audio mixes in DTS-HD, three different commentary tracks, an isolated score and dubbing tracks in 13 different languages.

The AVCHD version contains the latest versions of the preservations of the original audio mixes, three different commentary tracks and an isolated score.
 

VIDEO SOURCES:

1. STAR WARS Episode V The Empire Strikes Back Official Blu-Ray 2011

2. STAR WARS Episode V The Empire Strikes Back 2006 Bonus DVD
     (sourced from the 1993 Definitive Edition Laser Disc Master - upscale by Mattman Omega)

3. Adywan’s THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK 1997 Special Edition Reconstruction 1080p MKV (HDTV source)

4. The Empire Strikes Back 1997 Special Edition (“TB” DTV capture)

5. Team Negative1 35mm print scan

6. Custom mattes, 35mm film cell scans etc.

7. Adywan’s THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK 1980 Theatrical Reconstruction NTSC DVD

8. Puggo Strikes Back (16mm print transfer)
    

MKV Technical Specifications:

---

CRC32: C4BF0283
MD5: 1E34878403B05924F71354E961016FCE
SHA-1: 66FD71200749FE96123888228868789ACDBF34C5

CONTAINER: MKV

SIZE: 19.7 GB

VIDEO: 1280x720p H264 23.976 fps

AUDIO: Special thanks to hairy_hen, Schorman, ABC, Puggo and Mavimao

TRACK  1) 5.1   DTS-HD-MA   [English]        (1980 mix)

TRACK  2) 2.0   DTS-HD-MA   [English]        (1980 mix)

TRACK  3) 1.0   DTS-HD-MA   [English]        (1980 16mm mono mix)

TRACK  4) 2.0 Dolby Digital [English]        (1993 Laserdisc mix)

TRACK  5) 2.0 Dolby Digital [German]         (1980 dub)

TRACK  6) 2.0 Dolby Digital [French]         (1980 dub)

TRACK  7) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Spanish]        (1980 Castilian dub)

TRACK  8) 1.0 Dolby Digital [Spanish]        (1980 American Spanish dub)
 
TRACK  9) 1.0 Dolby Digital [Portuguese]     (1980s Brazilian dub)

TRACK 10) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Japanese]       (1980 dub)

TRACK 11) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Italian]        (1980 dub)

TRACK 12) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Polish]         (1995 Voiceover)
 
TRACK 13) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Czech]          (1992 dub)

TRACK 14) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Hungarian]      (1982 dub)

TRACK 15) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Slovak]         (1997 dub)

TRACK 16) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Russian]        (1989 dub)

TRACK 17) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Russian]        (1980s Voiceover)

TRACK 18) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Ukrainian]      (2004 Voiceover)

TRACK 19) 2.0 Dolby Digital [English]        (1993 LD Audio Commentary - silence filled with 1993 LD 2.0)

TRACK 20) 2.0 Dolby Digital [English]        (2004 DVD Audio Commentary - recut to fit this release)

TRACK 21) 2.0 Dolby Digital [English]        (2011 BD Archival Interviews Audio Commentary - recut to fit this release)

TRACK 22) 2.0 Dolby Digital [Isolated Score] (by ABC)

SUBTITLES: (Project Threepio v8.0) Special thanks to CatBus

Project Threepio is a collection of subtitles for the Star Wars Original
Unaltered Trilogy, synced to the GOUT (the 2006 DVD Bonus Disc) for
compatibility with many popular preservations.

LANGUAGES INCLUDED

English                 Brazilian Portuguese  Polish     Swedish   
     English SDH             European Portuguese   Ukrainian  Bulgarian 
     Mandarin (Simplified)   Indonesian            Romanian   Finnish   
     Mandarin (Traditional)  Japanese              Croatian   Danish    
     Cantonese               French                Thai       Hebrew    
     American Spanish        German                Dutch      Norwegian 
     Castilian Spanish       Turkish               Hungarian  Slovenian 
     Arabic                  Korean                Czech      Icelandic 
     Russian                 Italian               Greek

More info here:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Project-Threepio-Star-Wars-OOT-subtitles/topic/13794/

AVCHD Technical Specifications:

---

FORMAT: AVCHD DISC (ISO)

SIZE: 7.9GB (DVD9)

VIDEO: 1280x720p H264 23.976 fps

AUDIO: (all Dolby Digital) Special thanks to hairy_hen, Schorman, Puggo and Mavimao

TRACK 1) 5.1 1980 mix @ 640Kbps

TRACK 2) 2.0 1980 mix @ 224Kbps

TRACK 3) 1.0 1980 16mm mono mix @ 112Kbps

TRACK 4) 2.0 Isolated score @ 224Kbps

TRACK 5) 1.0 1993 LD Audio Commentary @ 64Kbps (silence filled with 1993 LD 2.0)

TRACK 6) 1.0 2004 DVD Audio Commentary @ 64Kbps

TRACK 7) 1.0 2011 BD Archival Interviews Audio Commentary @ 64Kbps

SUBTITLES: (Project Threepio) Special thanks to CatBus

English [eng] (pgs)
 Chinese [chi] (pgs)
 American Spanish [spa] (pgs)
 Castilian Spanish [spa] (pgs)
 Arabic [ara] (pgs)
 Russian [rus] (pgs)
 Brazilian Portuguese [por] (pgs)
 Japanese [jpn] (pgs)
 French [fre] (pgs)
 German [ger] (pgs)
 Turkish [tur] (pgs)
 Korean [kor] (pgs)
 Italian [ita] (pgs)
 Polish [pol] (pgs)
 Ukrainian [ukr] (pgs)
 Dutch [dut] (pgs)
 Hungarian [hun] (pgs)
 Czech [cze] (pgs)
 Greek [gre] (pgs)
 Swedish [swe] (pgs)
 Finnish [fin] (pgs)
 Danish [dan] (pgs)
 Norwegian [nor] (pgs)

ORIGINAL 1st POST:

OK, since I’m now done with the ROTJ Reconstruction, I’m officially starting work on the PARTLY DESPECIALIZED EDITION v3.0 and since this project will be quite different from the previous versions, I decided to call it just DESPECIALIZED EDITION and start and new thread, in order to avoid confusion. I’ll be posting everything regarding the new versions here now.

I’m starting with TESB, since I can use Ady’s Theatrical Reconstruction as a source and won’t have to wait for DJ’s GOUT V3. And since Ady’s done such a great job on the reconstruction, it should also be the easiest and I’m gonna do most (and some more) of the changes that Ady did. But I’m gonna try to just use Ady’s reconstruction for rotoscoping with HD materials, so as to keep it as HD as possible.

I’m going to use the 14GB MKV of Ady’s ESB 97SE and higher bitrate versions of SW (I’m not using Ady’s AVCHD of SW this time) and ROTJ. V3.0 will be 720p DVD9 AVCHDs; I’m absolutely decided on that, I don’t want to make these Blu-Ray because I haven’t got access to a BD burner and the uploads would be painful too but I want it to be playable on BD players. 720p looks great - actually I’ve got a 6,5GB 720p version of AOTC and it looks way better than an 8GB 1080p version because the compression took away more detail on the 1080p than what was gained by the resolution. I’ll also be encoding HQ 2PASS this time to keep as much quality as possible. Noticing the loss of quality and detail in the previous PDE versions was actually the main reason that prompted me to make new versions, so I’ll try to make these the highest possible quality given the source materials.

Mod Edit: These two threads may also be of some interest and help for alternative possibilities in acquiring the Despecialized Editions - as well as for any technical assistance or ‘How do I do this?’ questions or issues:-

Some info & help for Harmy’s Despecialized Editions of the Original Trilogy… - in ‘General Assistance’.

Despecialized Editions by Harmy : Index of ‘How-To’s & Help’ Threads | Index of ‘General Despecialized Threads’ | ‘Where are they? And how do I get them?’ mega-merge thread… - in ‘How-To’s and Technical Discussions’.
 

The three main Despecialized Edition project threads on the OT•com - Star Wars : Empire Strikes Back : Return Of The Jedi

You make a fair point, Frink, fanedits could be one of the reasons to buy the PT only, but somehow I get the feeling, that the people who voted for the prequels are probably not those interested in fanedits.

OK, guys, I need your opinions, here's another little experiment: 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GSH8AQPT

Harmy said:

I voted for that too, we all should, even if it's not true ;-)

ChainsawAsh said:

Done.  (And in my case, it's definitely true.)

Sorry, bad grammar, I meant "even if it wasn't true", because unless I can get them really cheap (like second hand or sth) I won't be buying them either.

I voted for that too, we all should, even if it's not true ;-)

I totally agree with Mega Upload, it's the fastest for free downloading too.

I'd love to see this. I'm not much of a gamer myself so I'm not really interested in playing the game but I'd like to know the story and see it as a movie.

OK, uploaded and PM sent :-)

Dunno, it seems like the same saturation just with some blue shift, stormtrooper armours are now blue and so is Obi-Wan's beard and hair.

Also, here's the promised screenshot from GKAR. Just to show how bad the smearing is, I added a 2004 screen as well:

I've only really seen the Rancor scene that was sent to me by Erikstormtrooper to use for my reconstruction and the DVNR ghosting is really bad in that scene, sometimes you can see a trail of movement throughout a whole shot (in the last frame of a shot, you can still see ghosting from the first frame of it.)

Also there is stuff like this, which is IMO also caused by the DVNR:

(A shot from Max_Reebo's 97SE thread).

But like I said, while these screenshots look nice, these versions (and specifically GKAR Jedi) are totally f'ed up by DVNR. I'd post some screenshots but I'm too lazy right now, maybe later.

I don't use usenet but I'll gladly explain what you'll need to know :-)

Thanks Brah ;-) I was at school the whole day, so I just started uploading now. It should be done in a few hours.

Well, yeah, I'm probably gonna try some more stuff but I'll have yet to see :-)

OK, sorry, seems to have been some temporary fluke, it works ok now.

005, it seems that your comparisons are down. Or is it a problem on my side?

EDIT: When I open them from your links here, they won't show the pictures, but when I go to your photos at picassa, they open just fine from there. Weird...

Good news everyone!!! I've just finished the PAL DVD9 and will be uploading tonight.

There is one problem though; I have nowhere to test it right now. I did make an ISO and tested it in a virtual DVD ROM and everything works fine but I don't have any physical blank DVD9s nor a standalone player to test it on, so I'm gonna need some labrats to download and test it for me ;-) Any volunteers?

rockin said:

Has anyone actually thought of recolour timing the 1997 SE versions ? They don't seem to suffer the crushed blacks as the 2004 SE, and the Flunk/Reivax and other broadcast sources seem pretty good quality wise to work with. If we could change the colour timing of those and then convert them to the theatrical versions (like Harmy has shown) we could be almost there.

Not saying this is the perfect solution (far from it) but certainly there would be more colour and detail to work with over some of the GOUT sources.

I don't know, I've just finally found and downloaded Reivax ANH to use for my project (I'm still missing the other two and really really need them :-( ) and while it does look like a proper DVD compared to GOUT and the colours are way better (e.g. the death star colours are really close to what the technicolor print shots show) it's DVNR'd to hell, worse than the GOUT in some places. In fact from what I have seen all the 97SE broadcasts have heavy DVNR smearing, so while they can be useful for other edits and should be preserved for completeness' sake, I don't think they would be a good main base for a whole edit.