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Jay

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Administrators
Join date
22-Feb-2003
Last activity
1-Jul-2025
Posts
2,437

Post History

Post
#161841
Topic
Time to grow up.
Time
What the hell is going on?

I've read a lot of crap today, and this is the first time in a long time I've questioned the value of my work in maintaining this place and busting my ass on the redesign. This is the most childish garbage I've seen posted here--ever. I'm now beginning to understand the lousy reputation this forum has developed in the fan community. If I had stumbled across this board recently, I can't say I would've bothered to sign up.

Some of you are going to point your fingers at a certain member. I see a lot of namecalling on both sides and not one of you involved in this little playground altercation can claim to be in the right. Calling someone a dickhead because they like the prequels is unacceptable. Sending PMs with your insults so you can appear respectful in public is unacceptable.

I've always preferred a hands-off approach to forum moderation, believing people can work out their differences given enough time and discussion, but it doesn't seem to be working in this case.

All personal attacks stop now. This includes public posts and private messages. Personal attacks will result in your removal.

No exceptions. No excuses. No warnings.
Post
#160859
Topic
New forum software status - updated 1/4/2006
Time
Sorry, I had to take a break from development for a while. Too much going on and I needed a rest.

I'm back on it now.

I think the week between Christmas and New Year's will be a great time to work on the site because I'll be at work (no vacation days left this year) and no one else will.

I know I said I didn't want to do it over the holidays, but it's looking like that might be the best time to get some work done.
Post
#157591
Topic
If the O-OT ever came out, the future of SW is with the PT fans.
Time
Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
The LOTR trilogy has just as much of an "overuse" of CG, and perhaps more, than the PT. People seem to like the LOTR trilogy so much becuase it is new, and they have nothing to judge against it.

LOTR provides a brilliant mix of old and new with exquisite models and judicious use of CGI when models can't get the job done.

People like LOTR because it's good.


Originally posted by: The Bizzle
It won't have anything to do with the involving storyline, gorgeous cinematography, or sophisticated mythology.

Why so sure? It's not like the Original Trilogy's was all that expertly pulled off.


Never said it was expertly pulled off, but the job that was done on the OT is noticeably superior to that of the PT.

Lord of the Rings, much like Titanic before it, seems to have been very much of its time, and out of that time--it drops out of mind. All this King Kong hype, and how many people you know re-watching Lord of the Rings right now? I love those movies, I find them better than ALL of Star Wars, OT AND PT, due to their emotional depth and storytelling skill, but I haven't felt the need to throw one in the dvd player for about a year now.


I congratulate you on your good taste We share the same opinion of LOTR. I don't get to watch many movies these days, but when I was watching movies frequently, I found time to watch the entire LOTR trilogy back-to-back several times within the previous year.

What's fun is, once again, to look at these comments at the end of the PT, and compare them to older fans comments in 83. People then didn't think Star Wars would perservere with the younger people at the end of the whole shebang, either. And here we are.


Those older fans were disappointed--and rightly so--with ROTJ. What they didn't recognize then was that ANH and ESB were good enough that most fans find the shortcomings of ROTJ forgivable. The prequels don't have that kind of anchor. None of them is particularly good, and I think the young fans of today will grow up and realize there isn't all that much to the prequels.
Post
#157566
Topic
If the O-OT ever came out, the future of SW is with the PT fans.
Time
Originally posted by: The Bizzle
And I'm pretty sure if you could go back in time and ask our younger selves what we liked so much about Star Wars, we're not going to answer "Oh, the Cambellian riffs and the mythological aspects and the glorious cinematography." We'd probably say "the lightsabers and the ships and the "pchooo pchooooo rrrrrnnnnnn" as we run around the room in circles with our arms as S-foils.


Ask those same kids why they still like the prequels 30 years from now--if they even do. It won't have anything to do with the involving storyline, gorgeous cinematography, or sophisticated mythology.

The LOTR trilogy is this generation's Star Wars, not the prequels.
Post
#157430
Topic
redeeming lucas
Time
Originally posted by: TheCassidy
I know he can make other movies - now is the time.


Based on the quality of the storyline, dialog, and acting in the prequels, I find this statement highly dubious.

Either Lucas had no passion whatsoever while creating these films, they were simply a grand experiment in CGI for his personal amusement, or he's lost his edge. There is no indication in these films that the man who created the OT and THX 1138 still exists and is capable of producing quality work.

I can't remember viewing any recent, decent movie where the audience actually laughed at the dialog. Do you know how bad the writing has to be to make modern moviegoers giggle? And how bad is the directing when you have a cast of very capable actors delivering lines like Shaq reading cue cards on SNL?

If the guy who made American Graffiti makes a comeback, I welcome him. I just wish he had come back in time for the prequels.
Post
#157428
Topic
If the O-OT ever came out, the future of SW is with the PT fans.
Time
When you listen to the complaints of many PT fans regarding the OT, you hear one thing consistently surface...the special effects. They complain because the PT looks so "good" and the "crappy" special effects in movies made 30 years ago aren't consistent with this new batch of Star Wars movies.

That should tell you where their priorities lie and how well the PT is going to hold up with these "fans" in the coming years.

Also, I hear all the time how the OT really isn't any better than the PT; it's just our nostalgia that makes it seem better. This is a load of BS. How anyone can look at the OT and not see them as legitimately better films than the PT is beyond me. Are they high art? No. But they're certainly good films (especially ESB).

I don't think the PT has any hope of capturing and maintaining the awe inspired by the OT over the long term. No way.
Post
#153918
Topic
Blade Runner HDTV (Released)
Time
Comparing the low-res screen grabs upscaled to 1920x1080 in Photoshop to the screen grabs of the 6GB capture, the low-res screen grabs have tons of ringing and MPEG artifacts that are practically non-existent on the HD screen grabs, there's more fine detail in the HD versions, and the colors are richer and more vibrant in the HD versions. I'm also not seeing these scanlines you're talking about, unless you're referring to the lines around the woman on the electronic billboard, which are in the source material and just a special effect to simulate monitor scanlines.

I've seen what high-end scalers can do--I've owned several, including an HTPC that put all of the black box scalers to shame. None of them can perform the type of processing it would take to clean up those SD screen grabs and make them look like the HD versions. Faroudja used to be regarded as king of the hill, but they've been resting on their laurels and their scalers are usually regarded as overpriced and underfeatured compared to the competition these days. The Algolith Mosquito is the only processor on the market right now with really good MPEG noise reduction capabilities, but it's not a scaler. HTPCs can perform noise reduction and scaling, but again, they can't make those SD screen grabs look like the HD screen grabs.

And while the HD screen grabs do look a tad soft, we don't know when this master was created, who performed the telecine conversion, or the condition of the original film stock.

I'd say it's very unlikely the HD version is an upconversion unless it's an upconversion from an entirely different and newer SD master than the DVD--and studios don't do SD masters these days.
Post
#153884
Topic
New forum software status - updated 1/4/2006
Time
Not a problem. I deserve some ribbing for all the empty promises of "imminent" betas.

It truly is close now though

A few more days should do it. My database rebuild is complete and there's enough functionality completed that I could let you guys start testing at least some portions of the software while I finish up the rest.

In all seriousness, I think you guys will begin testing at some point over the weekend.