JayArgonaut

I can’t offer any help with obtaining a film print but I’m very much interested as to why you feel the H.A.2 Blu-ray is poor quality. The only information I’ve been able to find so far are here: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=12922453&postcount=69 and then very briefly, here: http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/2548/homealone2.html

Can you elaborate about the problems please?

What about the HDTV broadcasts? Are they an improvement or have they been sourced from the same master?

I know the hosting segments with Fisher and Williams and other promo content has been made available but has anyone done the same with the actual Sci-Fi W/S airings of the films?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRN_rnVKKng

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQR38ql0W2A

Aside from the historical value of them being (according to the advert) the first letterboxed broadcasts of the OT on US TV, it would be interesting to see if they differ from the other TV airings and the home video releases.

Bluto said:

Ahh… That brings back happy memories. I had a recording of the ITV premiere of TESB (my sister wanted us to record Back to the Future instead on another channel while we were out, but my dad fortunately did an Indy and “chose wisely”!). It wasn’t until many years later, when watching the 2006 GOUT DVD, that I noticed the odd 30 seconds of dialogue were missing here and there from my VHS recording. From memory, there were a couple of shots involving C-3PO missing, both at times where there were adverts:

• C-3PO reassuring R2D2 that Luke will be alright at dusk, just after Han goes looking for him on Hoth
• Sarcastic remarks from Han made to C-3PO on board the falcon while they are hiding in the asteroid, just after Piett has briefed Vader

I wonder if anything else was chopped out?

I think the scene with Threepio translating Artoo’s calculations to Leia got snipped as well. They also removed the interaction between Han and Leia after Threepio expresses his bewilderment at “human behaviour” and leaves the cockpit.

It seems ITV hadn’t yet discovered the joys of time compression/truncating credits and instead resorted to slashing away footage in order to cram in more adverts. Likewise, I didn’t realise either that there were segments missing till years later when I saw the USA Network airing.

Unfortunately the UK broadcasters have never been forced to carry these sorts of warnings that are commonplace stateside:

As much as I loathe the entire practice, at least that way, it saves you having your time wasted and you can change the channel and watch something else.

Bluto said:

Sadly I no longer have this VHS tape. I lent it many times to a colleague who taught Geography and used it for a particular lesson to introduce glaciers…! Rather tenuous, but time better spent than getting the kids to colour stuff in, I guess. Then he left the school, and I realised only months later that he still had my tape 😦. It also had “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” afterwards, possibly recorded later that day or the next day.

Bluto

My copy (recorded from Thames) has also been lost to the winds of time. However it seems a few people still have the original recordings as the commercial breaks have been uploaded to YouTube. I didn’t record the ROTJ premiere and can’t remember if ITV also applied similar butchery to that instalment.

The real holy grail would be obtaining the actual 1983 ITV broadcast master tape (as happened with the HBO airing) but that’s probably been long since destroyed…

(on a side note, what did/do you teach and which age range?)

Do these ITV recordings contain the full film? The reason I ask is because throughout the 80s, ITV regularly hacked films to pieces in order to make them fit a broadcast slot. I remember that happening for their premiere of TESB in 1988.

$200 for DVD+RW copies? That seems a tad steep, even if we’re crowdfunding.

Thaddäus Tentakel said:

So there’s not very much missing in your record - it’s just the 20th Century Fox-logo and the credits. Unfortunately I deleted my 2012-record from Channel 4 HD after I got the uncut-version from SAT.1 HD and ORF1 HD, but if it helps I can cut the missing parts from one of my records and upload them somewhere. But keep in mind: My 1080i-records are slightly zoomed and have a logo outside the letterboxed-area and the ORF1-broadcast is just in 720p.

Thanks for the offer, from the sounds of things, neither of those options would quite work but seeing as this year marks the 20th anniversary of the film, we’re bound to see C4 or their sister channels repeat it again at some point during 2017. 😃

Thaddäus Tentakel said:

By the way: Is there a HD-version of Channel 4 +1 and 4seven via DVB-T or cable? As you know I receive them via satellite and +1 and 4seven are only availiable in (quite poor) SD there.

In the UK, definitely: I have DVB-T2 and both 4+1 and 4seven are broadcast in HD on my free to air service. Both are also available in the UK via DVB-C2 on Virgin Media. Is there something on 4sevenHD that you wanted? If so send me a PM with the details.

Dek Rollins said:

I’ve finished making it through four long seasons of Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica. I was quite satisfied when it came to an end. Wonderful show, though I hated the cinematography every minute of it. If only they had let him make Voyager like this, but then again, he probably wouldn’t have made this if that happened.

I still wish the original was better. I like it a lot, but it can be rather shallow and downright silly a lot of the time.

Yeah, Moore had stated that Voyager should’ve embodied the Year of Hell storyline themes right from the start. His reboot of BSG is a rare case where the original source material is well and truly surpassed.

Speaking of which, during the early 80s I had BSG: The Movie on VHS and wore the tape right out. In recent years I purchased the German Koch Blu-ray box set and although I enjoyed the nostalgia of watching Saga of a Star World, much of the subsequent series, with the retrospect of adult eyes, feels cringeworthy and toned down to probably appease the TV network. The only episodes I’d probably re-watch are of course, the pilot and the Galatica 1980 standout, The Return of Starbuck

Most recent web series: The Man in the High Castle - which I absolutely loved and I’m looking forward to the next season.

cpalmer2k said:

That would be my luck. Thanks for trying, please do keep your eyes open for the other version should it air again.

Will do.

alexp120 said:

The portions that were not recorded: Would the shot in the beginning of the film where Bodine says, “You’re so full of shit, boss” be among them? That is the first expletive in the movie at 3 minutes and 19 seconds into it.

Perhaps we take the beginning parts of captures from the previous broadcasts–censored or otherwise–and edit them to your current capture.

Just checked, Bodine’s line is there. The recording starts about a minute before that and the first dialogue heard is, “…teen meters, you should see it.” That’s an excellent idea. If Thaddäus or someone else has a copy of the previous broadcasts then this should be a doddle to fix with a bit of editing.

Update time: the recording is underway and there’s good news and bad news…

The broadcast is to my surprise, uncensored with the expletives “bastards” and “horse shit” included but the first couple of minutes are missing because C4 began the broadcast earlier than billed (and even earlier than my PVR’s “padding” compensation feature). If I’d realised in time, I would’ve grabbed the time shifted +1 broadcast an hour later.

Sorry, cpalmer2k - no TV cut this time round and for everyone else, it’s uncut but missing a couple of minutes. 😦

I could always try again in a few months when the next repeat comes round or it winds up on 4SevenHD.

http://www.avclub.com/article/sorry-james-cameron-best-titanic-movie-was-1958-cl-230866

This prompted me to dig out my A.N.T.R DVD and well…

Sougouk said:

I don’t have any 360 exclusives, but here are some of my recommendations:
Bioshock trilogy (1, 2, Infinite) - a Horror themed FPS, a great chilling story
Transformers: Devastation - an Action beat’em up, in the style of the original 80’s cartoon
Darksiders - an Action Role Playing beat’em up, you play as one of the Four Horsemen

Thanks, I’ll check those out soon enough as a little treat once my academic obligations are out of the way for a while. I picked up a 360 with Gears of War 2 and Arkham Asylum, fairly cheaply and whilst I was disappointed that the homebrew scene is nowhere near that of the PS3 and Wii, I’d still like to collect the best of what it has to offer, especially if the versions are superior to the same releases on other machines.

Do you have any recommendations on 360 exclusives?

Any 360 gamers?

How much is it going for?

SilverWook said:

And only people unaware of the forthcoming digital transition would buy one. It doesn’t get Lucas off the hook for offering up a technically inferior product using then 13 year old video masters and calling it a day.

It is sad CRT’s seem to be no longer manufactured. Seeing a Ms. Pac Man machine with a 16:9 LCD grafted into the cabinet just looks wrong. I saw one of those once uber expensive Sony HDTV CRT’s just put out on the curb with the trash a couple years back. Always thought those were cool, even if they weighed more than a subcompact car. 😉

There’s still a demand in the developing world for CRT TV’s and monitors because they represent a cost effective solution for people on low incomes. Outside of the West, 4:3 continues to thrive. I’ve seen TV channels that are still using 4:3 as standard and even crop 16:9 content to full frame. As recent as 2012, I was sent a newly produced video that was ala the GOUT, 16:9 inside 4:3.

Speaking of Sony CRT’s, when my 600hz TV finally died on me some years back, it was so huge and heavy that I had to enlist a friend to help me carry it outside and within less than 30 minutes, someone had taken it…

Thanks for that. 😃 It took a workaround before I was able to view the clip, as FOX had blocked it in the UK, “on copyright grounds” because as we all know, James Cameron’s Titanic has been completely prohibited from sale and viewing in the UK… 😮

You have a deal, I’ll update you once I’ve been able to review the broadcast and confirm its status.

Vader21 said:

Just seems so stupid to destroy a piece of history, fair enough it may have once been common practise but to destroy a piece of film from that ers today is just ridiculous…

George Lucas has made it expressly clear that he places no value on those celluloid artefacts. Fans who politely dared to raise the issue were told to grow up and received a reminder that he owned the franchise, not them. In interviews he has claimed that the originals are “half completed” films, that, as far as he is concerned, no longer exist (and Lucas has certainly worked hard to make that a reality). When the DVDs were released, he was kind enough to inform us that we can find the earlier versions on VHS - if we just might happen to want them.

Excellent news, thanks for finding out!

If possible, can you share some screen images of this please and can you elaborate more about this alternative take? I’d certainly be interested on a sheer curiosity level to gauge the quality and technical details, such as the aspect ratio. Is it pan & scan, 2.35:1 or cropped 16:9?

After realising that the recording was censored, I erased it but as you know, there will be another airing in a few days. We can do a trade if you like… 😃

I’m surprised that you didn’t show your students the “edited for content” NBC and ABC Family broadcasts if the “mature themes” are an issue. What age range are they? Could the parents not sign waivers? I remember one teacher who did that in order to sidestep any potential repercussions.

RU.08 said:

Yeah the BBFC were batshit crazy. Even Attack of the Clones was censored!

Thanks for reminding me, I forgot about that. In part though, it was due to Lucasfilm/Fox aiming for a PG rating and the headbutt requiring a 12A. It was still absurd because the average British child witnesses far worse than that… The BBFC are still batshit crazy, some of the films that they’ve outright “banned” and the grounds for doing so, truly beggars belief.

The legacy of a government facing re-election, pandering to batshit crazy Mary Whitehouse and her uptight army of loonies.

thxita said:

I honesty don’t know what’s the story behind this print other than it was owned by someone in Europe (not in Britain) but we’ll know soon enough.

Finger crossed, it’s good news and I’ll look forward to retiring my Laserdisc. 😃

thxita said:

It’s all in English, no subtitles, either US or British release.

Hopefully it’s not the UK release because that was censored and remains so to this day.

http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/hitsf.htm#faceoff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-jX1eQ5hkY

alexp120 said:

Thaddäus Tentakel said:

The UK-broadcasts on 4 I’ve seen showed much more of that violence but in return such things as Fred Fleet screaming “Basterds!” into the phone are missing there.

It goes without saying that if a capture of the pre-2012 version is made where the violence is retained, but the dialogue is censored, there is no need to discard it. The audio from the DVD/BluRay can be used to replace it.

The Channel 4 broadcasts do not just mute the audio track during the profanity, they remove the scenes entirely.

@Thaddäus: You’re welcome. 😃

Another fun fact: http://titanic.wikia.com/wiki/Titanic:_Secrets_Revealed

This 1998 documentary about Titanic and hosted by Bernard Hill, who played Captain Smith in the 1997 film, is airing in a few hours on UK TV. There doesn’t appear to have been a home video release and the best that YouTube has to offer is a white-noise hiss laden, pixelated capture from a worn out VHS tape.

I’m going to record it and if you’re interested in a copy of this and other Titanic related material. Send me a PM. 😉

sst1985 said:

I’ve read that The Keep (1983) has had a legitimate HD broadcast in Europe. I know someone posted it on a website but it was in German and I couldn’t figure it out. It is probably my favorite movie. I just love the atmosphere and I think the confusing plot only adds to the charm. What I wouldn’t give to finally see this movie in HD. I’m tired of the lousy Laserdisc upscales.

I recorded the UK HDTV broadcast last year and that turned out to be yet another upscale of the omnipresent Laserdisc master. The confusing plot is very likely down to the troubled production history.

That was my immediate reaction too when I saw the brazen nature of the availability. The webmaster appears to have the blessing of WB for the site but does it extend to offering content on that scale, I wonder?