Jonno

BobaJett said:

Also, what format is the LD audio track?

The channel format of the 1993 AC-3 track is Dolby Surround, so it’s designed to be decoded via Prologic (L, R, C, S). This will be something like the experience of a newly equipped Dolby theatre in 1977, but the main issue (as mentioned above) is that it’s not the original track, rather a laserdisc-era remix.

The upcoming releases with original Dolby Stereo and mono will be a lot more faithful in this respect, and if they end up syncing with other projects (as seems to be suggested) you’ll also be able to try out hairy hen’s 5.1 recreation of the first run Dolby 6-track mix.

It does sound as if the DLNA route is causing the issue - fwiw I’ve had strange aspect ratio issues with some versions of Plex at various times. I’d be very surprised if a disc burn didn’t work properly.

You’ve probably already tried this, but does your Oppo support TS or M2TS files? You could try muxing one of those out of ClownBD and see if it’s interpreted more properly.

Nice BFI article on film colour:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-best-film-colour-systems

The folder/image choice makes little difference in your case - I tend to opt for folder so I can test the project before burning it.

tsMuxeR is only able to ‘author’ a single video for simple playback from disc - if you want menus and multiple clips, you’ll need to use a more elaborate authoring app (e.g. Adobe Encore, which you presumably have access to with Premiere).

ImgBurn should work perfectly for the burning side of things - not sure where you think you’re getting malware from but if you download from one of the official mirrors (http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download&) and make sure you deselect any ‘extras’ during installation, you should be all good.

tsMuxeR GUI will let you remux the MKV as a TS file - Premiere Pro should import that happily enough, though long h.264 streams tend to get clunky (to say the least).

That said, it’s not clear from your posts why you need to edit it at all - tsMuxeR will also remux to a BD folder to simply burn to a disc without any messing, if that’s all you need to do.

Yes, please do share the alchemy! The test is terrific.

Now THAT is spectacular.

And a nice upgrade for my nearly-7-year-old DVD version!

http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/347811#post347811

madcrow said:

One silly/naive question: when producing encodes for standalone viewing (as opposed to burning to disc), why bother to encode the full 1920x1080 (or 1280x720)? Why not just encode the “active” image area (1920x820 or 1280x546)? I find that any viewer that I care to use (VLC on PC, BSplayer on tablet/phone, built-in player on my Bluray player) can handle the file and readd the black bars on its own.

Full-frame HD images retain the flexibility for those of us who do like to burn to disc. If you crop, that isn’t possible, and this isn’t true of the reverse (media player folks can handle pretty much anything, bars or no).

Wanting to maximise the encode is perfectly understandable, of course (and I’m certainly envious of anyone who can project a true 2.35:1 image in a fixed height setup without transcoding). Once these encoding specifics have been worked over, perhaps there’s mileage in releasing both cropped MKVs and BD (or at least, BD compliant) images.

By the way, I’d be interested to see the balance of folks using media centres vs. those still playing from disc. Maybe we could do a poll or something - might help indicate demand to the nice people making these projects.

Phantom Menace trailer too (1:45):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD7bpG-zDJQ

DuracellEnergizer said:

I wish people wouldn’t call instrumental pieces “songs”. Songs have lyrics.

I’ve rarely agreed with anything more.

I’m basking in the positivity in this thread, please keep it up!

For my part, something that TFA gets absolutely right goes back to a strength of the originals - it keeps moving forwards. In Star Wars the action constantly moved on from planet (to station) to planet, never looking back; this constant sense of ‘but wait, there’s more’ enthralled me as a young viewer. The initial sequels pretty much followed this trend (barring Jedi’s stopovers on Tatooine and Dagobah), but that momentum pretty much stalled in the prequels, which hit a mundane cycle of Tatooine, Naboo and Coruscant (indeed, I distinctly remember my dismay when it became apparent that the climax of TPM would occur on a planet we’d already spent half an hour on at the start).

TFA hops from one environment to another at considerable speed, but never feels like it’s rushing around - no mean feat when a brand new location is even introduced in the closing minutes. I can but hope this giddying sense of an endless universe is maintained in VIII and IX.

VLC identifies it as 23.8 too.

I’d love to see/hear that. Do any of your prints include Dolby Stereo logos?

That’s a good question. According to a few sources, the original Wings trailer (http://www.thx.com/consumer/movies/8492259) was used before Jedi in 1983. That said, though they generally indicate that it was first seen at the Premiere (was it Grauman’s for this one?) they don’t comment on how widespread it was beyond that - indeed, how many THX certified theatres were there in 1983?

So possibly not as much a part of the movie as the Fox fanfare, but still an appealing addition for a certain kind of preservation. I wonder if anyone who saw Jedi in a US theatre during its initial run can comment further?

There's a copy on Ebay UK:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STAR-WARS-III-3-REVENGE-OF-THE-SITH-VHS-VIDEO-VERY-RARE-/390872472707

Asking price is a bit steep but the guy might be prepared to do some better pics / scans for you.

Sky's animated ident for the Star Wars channel is quite lovely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwL5lXxsPV8

Looking forward to finding out more about how edgy and taboo-breaking you are from reading threads on this Star Wars forum.

I'd be honoured! If you'd like a more recent / better quality version let me know - I keep tinkering with it.

As for a US version, I've put together some drive-in style discs - typically double bills - using the old Filmack ads and links. The trouble is that they're quite hard to find in DVD (let alone Blu-ray) quality, and it's harder for me to judge the correct vintage than it is with the UK ads.

Still, the trailers will be the same so it might be worth a go. I wonder if there's any record of a B feature shown with Star Wars? Damnation Alley, perhaps :-)

Wow, that sounds - immersive! For the right audience that could be an intriguing way in to a first viewing.

Of course, there are other opportunities in the 'installation' approach. You could take the Secret Cinema route and do a bit of world building, i.e. turn your screening room into the cantina or a rebel/Imperial briefing room.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/star-wars--the-empire-strikes-back/secret-cinema/

Or for something less labour intensive (and closer to Hooterdear's suggestion) you could recreate a 1970s/1980s cinema, with contemporary decor, snacks and on-screen materials.

Some details of my own efforts in that area here: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/1977-UK-theatre-intro-reconstruction/topic/14490/

And the zaniness continues.

Sorry to detract from all the trolling (what exactly did the - perfectly reasonable - OP do to deserve all the lame attempts at 'humor', anyway?)

Here's a Star Wars drinking game I first read about in a home theatre magazine 20 years ago, though I suspect it may be even older than that:

Begin by inserting your weatherbeaten “Star Wars” videotape into the big slot on your VCR. Play the tape. Dim the lights for dramatic effect if you have not already. The game begins right as “20th Century Fox” appears. Basically, every time one of the listed events occurs, everybody takes a sip of their drink. If you are using alcoholic beverages, I really do not recommend emptying a whole glass each time. You will lose consciousness before Vader even says “Do not underestimate the Force”. Drink whenever:

• Someone has a bad feeling about this
• It is Luke’s destiny
• A TIE fighter explodes for no reason
• Obi-Wan Kenobi materialises for a guest appearance
• Luke discovers a long-lost relative
• Han brags about the Millennium Falcon
• Anybody insults the Millenium Falcon
• Tarkin brags about the Death Star
• Leia insults somebody
• Luke whines
• The Emperor cackles evilly
• Yoda uses bad grammar
• Yoda talks like a fortune cookie
• An entire planet is described as having one climate
• It is their only hope
• R2-D2 gets thrashed
• C-3PO loses a body part (Take two drinks if he is completely dismembered)
• Luke fights monsters or savages
• Obi-Wan plays detective (“… Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise.”)
• Boba Fett talks
• Somebody gets choked
• A gigantic technological marvel explodes in a single blast
• There is a tremor in the Force
• Luke does some nifty acrobatic flip
• Stormtroopers shoot everywhere but where they are aiming
• R2-D2 plugs into the wrong socket and his head spins around
• An old Jedi starts to ramble about the Force (Vader counts)
• An Ewok dies, and the camera lingers longer than it did when the Death Star killed billions of people. (Fourteen seconds. Count em.)
• Somebody’s hand gets cut off
• The Emperor has foreseen something
• Luke teeters on the brink of a chasm
• Stormtrooper armour proves useless
• C-3PO informs us of just how many forms of communication he is familiar with
• It is not someones fault
• One or more heroes are almost eaten by a Thing
• Leia wears an outfit that covers everything except her face and hands
  • Twice if it covers her neck
  • Three times if she is almost totally nude
• A Jedi is much more powerful than he looks
• A woman other than Leia is on screen
  • twice if she is a Rebel
  • the whole container of whatever you are drinking if she is an Imperial (dont worry, it’ll never happen)
• Something doesnt work on the Falcon
• Twice if its the hyperdrive
• Someone exclaims “No!”
• Luke is upside-down
• Someone does something apparently suicidal that turns out to be a good idea
  • Twice if its not Han
• Someone wears the same outfit in all three movies – it counts if they change at the end (I think Han counts, although his clothes do change a little.)
• Luke and Lando are in the same place at the same time
• Twice if they speak to each other
• Vader runs into one of his kids and doesnt recognise them
  • Twice if he tries to kill them
• Someone is mind-controlled using the Force
• Lukes parentage is Foreshadowed
• People kiss
• A Rebel pilot is of a race other than white
  • Twice if theyre non human (co-pilots count)
• A good guy wears white or a bad guy wears black
  • Twice if a bad guy wears white and a good guy wears black (for uniforms – only the first person on screen counts)
  • Three times if someone hovering in between wears grey
• Every time you find yourself talking to the people on screen
• Luke refuses to take someones advice
• An elaborately made up alien has no lines
• Someone or something tries to get money from Han

The game ends when a bunch of Ewoks start dancing. No matter what youve been drinking, you will remember this image. The last person to give up drinking on each cue is the winner. Of course, ties are possible. If at some point you find that no one can successfully operate the VCR anymore, the game may as well be abandoned.

A hint? Um, rhymes with 'pan fez'.

(Spoiler: it's Fanres)

And it's a great piece of work - thanks JF :)

Since I raised the question, I thought I'd best attempt to answer it! Here's the 35mm trailer scan vs. the Blu-ray and PAL DVD:

I should stress that this isn't an identical frame - the shot as used in the trailer is cut at completely different positions, so there's no overlap - but I estimate there's about a 5-6 frame difference here.

The DVD, as expected, is the most conservative of the three, while the Blu has the most picture area in general and the film scan sits somewhere inbetween. I presume the folks who scanned the film* captured every possible shred of picture information; perhaps more than would have realistically been projected. So the previous assertion of a-bit-more-than-the-DVD seems pretty much on the money...

*Since the trailer came from the other site they might wish to keep a low profile here, but I'll certainly credit them if they like!