Harmy

Finished the new version of the covers:

OK, seriously now, Zombie, did you know about this site: http://www.prillaman.net/starwarsdvdreviews.html ?

The guy reviews different SW bootlegs and DVD releases.

OK, say the TESB screening was the 1980 version sporting a nice pristine print...

...

Wait for it...

Let's get conspiratory:

Just imagine that this whole Special Edition deal is just a big, ville marketing scheme carefully crafted by the profit-master Luca$ and with this notion in mind take a little tour through the history with me:

In the early 90s the STAR WARS franchise is pretty much dead, there are a few devoted fans but most people have moved on to other things. Lucas hires a renown sci-fi writter Timothy Zahn to write a trilogy of books that would basically be sequels to the SW Trilogy. When those books come out, they are an immediate success and give the old hype for SW a new spark.

In 1995 Lucas announces the production of the SEs and says that the current VHS and LD release will be the last time the original SW will be released on any home video format, thus maximizing the sales.

1996 the Shadows of the Empire project comes out, further reinforcing the new SW hype.

In 1997 Lucas has the SEs made not for his money but for the 20th Century Fox's and releases them theatrically not only bringing all the long time fans into the cinemas but even the casual viewers, who were curious about the "newly enhanced sound and visuall effects" and thus making enormous amounts of cash in the box office.

Later that year the SEs come out on VHS and LD selling greatly because the general public wants this new improved version of SW.

This year also sees the debut of a new format called DVD.

2000 The SEs are re-released on VHS along with Episode 1 with covers that fit the E1 release, making many people buy them to look good on they're shelf. The fact that these are the SEs is not mentioned anywhere which is justified by Lucas by stating that these are the only versions of the OT from now on.

2002 DVD surpasses the VHS sales and the fans demand their favourite films on this new widespread format. When the demand is not met, the bootleg market for SW DVDs starts growing rapidly.

2004 The massive bootleg sales don't  escape Lucas' notice and he succumbs and releases SW Trilogy on DVD. Although it is a half-arsed release of the SE only, it sales incredibly well because the general public doesn't care. And it is enough to kill the market for the SE bootlegs. But as Lucas keeps saying the SEs are the only existing versions of the films and he will never release the OOT, it opens a door for the OOT bootlegs, which are mostly sourced from the 1993 Definitive Collection LD.

2006 Seeing that SE release didn't kill all the bootleg activity he recognises that there is a big enough market for the OOT and releases it on DVD and thanks to stealing the bootlegers' idea and using the 1993 LD masters he makes the release only a little bit better than all the available bootlegs. Not only does this put a definitive end to any bootleg market for the OOT, it also gives him a chance to pull a massive double dip releasing the OOT as a bonus material to the previously released 2004 edition. Production cost of a 2 DVD release for each film? Close to zero. Profits? Doubled.

2010 A nice clean print of the original STAR WARS is shown publicly, proving that the original STAR WARS could look great in HD and leaving many fans with a bitter sweet taste in mouth.

Shortly afer BD release is announced but it won't have the OOT included, although GL seems less militant agains it.

Now, lets start guessing:

Not long after that a nice pristine print of TESB is shown publically reinforcing the effect of the SW screening.

Some time later a good print of ROTJ surfaces somewhere and gives fans another proof and making them hot with rage and determined to go and bring the message out there.

2011 The BD set comes out and makes enormous profits although it doesn't include the OOT and is the same master as the 2004 DVDs because the general public doesn't care as it is not even aware of these issues and thinks that the OOT looks like it did on the 2006 DVDs. But as it was proven by the more active fans that a great release of the OOT is possible, the official home video sites and magazines start a campain for it, slowly making the general public aware of this and want the OOT to be released. But GL still insists that an OOT restoration  would be too expensive.

2014 when the seling potential of the original Blu-Ray set is past a new deluxe Blade Runner style release containing all versions of the OT films on several discs plus a new definitive making of documentary is released for each film separately for an enormous price and thanks to the general public wanting the OOT now, it sells gorgeouly and George doubles his profits like with every other previous format...

zombie84 said:

Steve Sansweet has his head so far up George Lucas' ass he could probably see Rick McCallum's feet.

Sorry to go so far back but it just made me laugh so hard my brother came from the next room to see what I'm laughing at :-D

SilverWook said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKT5cvWt48E

I suddenly want a PS3, just to go hang out on this! ;)

Guy_in_that_video said:

"... all the people dressed up as maniacs, sith lords, stormtroopers and chicks in bikinis, who are probably actually guys sitting at home dressed up as stormtroopers..."

Love that quote :-D

Oh, and I forgot, I also own TPM VHS, which I got as a gift and AotC VHS and RotS DVD, both of which I bough from a video rental sell out for like 1€. And most of my SW VHS are 2nd hand.

Fang Zei said:

Normally I would say "It's still the Special Edition, so who cares?" but for the sake of people who will be handing over their money for this LFL will hopefully correct all those problems.

Sure it's still just the SE but if it was a new transfer, which would be faithful to the original photography in colour, brightness, contrast and depth it would at least be a great source for future fanedits and preservations.

There are quite extensive colour settings on my Samsung (like separate highlights, midtones, shadows RGB settings and stuff like that) and I even tried toning down the blue for the 2004 ESB HD broadcast before I got Ady's AVCHD and while the result wasn't perfect, it was definitelly a lot better.

Ooops, I'm awfully sorry, sir, my memory is apparently getting quite rusty, please accept my endless apologies and thank you for being oh so kind to me ;-)

If it is just a matter of a light blue tint which is present in about the same amount thoroughout the whole film, you can always correct that with your TV settings (at least I can)...

Yeah, I was going for a kind of new-retro look. It also probably reminds of an LP because the AR of the BD cover is closer to square than DVD.

Finally got back to the covers, I remade just SW so far:

What'd you think?

Hey, I don't remember asking you personaly, so how about you mind your own business and shove off...

And you deserve a medal? Yeah, right, you can get together with Chewie and bitch about how it feels...

*EDIT: Just to be safe

Well, you can tell why they used so much DVNR on the later transfers, the dirt is apparently beyond cool on the IP they must have used on all the 3 releases. I think those 90s video releases might be beyond saving. The 1995 PAL still seems to be the best of the 3. It seems to have a balance between keeping too much dirt and overdoing the DVNR.

You know, DVDNR doesn't necesarily need to be a bad thing, when used carefully. In 1993 the DVNR was something new and actually at the time of it's release the 1993 LD was cosidered really good. I've read a contemporary  review of it from some home video magazine and they said that it was the ultimate release to show off your home theater system... And no wonder it seemed like really good picture when watched on a small CRT TV and being compared to a dirty noisy picture of LDs like the JSC...

Chewtobacca said:

I need to learn about the process by which studios make transfers and masters really.  I think I understand the basics, but I need to lean more. 

I did some research on the subject and found this article, it may not give you any new technical information but it is very interesting nonetheless:

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/features/2008/01/blade-runner-how-great-hd-made

So is it actually confirmed that they will be using the same 2004 masters for blu?

Well, to be honest, from what I can tell from the screenshots, the quality is definitely inferior to GOUT, it would have to be a really really good transfer of the PAL LD to beat GOUT but I was just interested to see how the smearing looked in a better transfer as the one I got the screen from is just VHS and has a lot of video noise and a very low resolution.

OK, I checked out the screenshot thread but there are no high-motion shots, so the DVNR is really hard to recognise there. Mother, could you perhaps post the 4eyed stomtrooper shot from your PAL LD preservation?

Sounds really good, I think I'll go with that, thanks :-)

Yeah I was thinking something along those lines, like the PARTLY DESPECIALIZED EDITION, you know...

I thought about editing the EE of FOTR down a bit too, because I like some of the aditions but some were admitedly rather redundant. And then it would be a complete trilogy, to put on my shelf and watch as a whole rather than watch the orig. FOTR and then TTT and ROTK edits... :-) Also I removed most of the Aragorn - Arwen storyline from TTT with the intention of putting some of it to ROTK as that storyline is more drawn out in that movie, but I might put some of it to FOTR (the parts which were a flashback to FOTR)...

A for the title, I was thinking something more of an under title, I'd like to keep the name The Two Towers as that is the title of the book it's based on - I was horrified when I'd heard they considered calling it something else back in 2002, because of 9.11. So I'd like it to be:

The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - Something.

Well, that would definitely prove you right and as you, unlike me, can provide a quote of your information source, I'm gonna have to bow my head and back up on this one :-)

EDIT: Although he could still mean just the parts that were different in those versions, which would make a lot of sense given the use of seamless branching...