LegendaryPOO

Finally got around to watching this in the past couple of nights. It is a movie I can say that I have rarely watched in one go. Always too much of a movie in a single sitting.
Still, was awesome to see the scenes that are missing from the theatrical, which I find boring. The extra scenes help give something to look forward to.
The video quality was excellent, can barely fault it. The audio does have a lot of dropouts and crackly times. Has it been altered? The sound goes quiet to loud between some scenes, but this could be reinsertion of the deleted scenes from the original track.
I played this VHS over and over again in my youth, yet I do not recall the overture at the start ever being in the SLV. Have you added this? If so, potentially this could be the one time that using the D.E. overture with the starfield may actually be something to include.

Still, excellent work. This will be my go-to version.

Had an initial quick look, and I must say so far is impressive at 2 minutes in 😃

Where is the audio sourced from?

I’ve been putting off rewatching The Motion Picture for months, hoping to do the SLV. The laserdisc was full screen so I wanted to see it in the widesceeen glory. The theatrical cut is very boring, and will be a while before an HD directors edition.
I would love to watch this version, and look forward to hopefully being able to locate it.

Rewatching the movies now, all these small differences between the movies keep popping into my head, and was after input from others about what you see is different over the course of the movies, and may have come to accept. Some of these should have been fixed with the new Blu-Rays, some should never be touched. This isnt an GOUT unaltering topic, but if Lucas fixes some things, why doesnt he meddle in others?

A few examples -

Millenium Falcon cockpit door - Not present in ANH, but there in Empire.

Lightsaber battles - Green flashes present in ANH & Empire (possibly Jedi, yet to rewatch). Not in the prequels.

Lightsaber colors - An obvious one, much discussion made in other topics.

Vader helmet - Sith, Empire and Jedi have the shiny reflective helmet, why wasnt this redone in ANH?

Millenium Falcon engine - Blue in ANH, white in Empire and Jedi.

I am one to still look forward to these blurays. I am not fooling myself in any way that I will get to see the UOT anytime soon, and I for one liked the changes when watched in 97 (then a few weeks later I came to my senses). The biggest problem isnt that Lucas has made alterations over the years, its that he is doing them half arsed.

I have problems with colours to start with, so not totally upset by pinkish bits here etc. Hoth in my mind has always been white, from the early 80s VHS it imprinted in my head. 97 still looked fine, then 04 made it blue. Too blue. My fav movie of all time and thats still the problem I have mostly.

Anyway, he spends some time making a really convincing rock face for R2 to hide behind. I like it, very convincing. How he gets there is questionable. He improved on the Death Star battle, lots of new effects make it more convincing. But when you see Luke holding a poor 70's effect lightsaber on the Falcon (and in Ben's house), you gotta wonder if Lucas is happy with that result. It has jagged edges, flickering pretty bad. Compared to Ben's saber, which while not being prequel material, is pretty impressive. Another is R2 in the Xwing - why was ESB & ROJ fixed, but still black panels in this one? Why are garbage mattes still evident, more obvious than ever before? Why is the blue screen of the falcon cockpit not fixed up with proper shades and colours of them inside (just compare to ESB).

There are another bunch of changes that could have improved the movies, but instead does some effects quite well, then others left in the poor standout-ish state. Quality Control has a lot to answer for.

 Notice how there are no confirmation screen caps, leaving speculation til you get it. I still think they are dvd rips upscaled or hdtv toyed with.

If MF.com pictures are to believed, then R2 is still black in the death star trench run. And if thats the case, then there is no hope for these being the perfect movies that George Lucas intends us to see.

TV's Frink said:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/08/23/actually-ilm-told-me-the-star-wars-films-on-blu-ray-havent-been-altered/

???

I mean, Yoda doesn't count?

Yoda was altered 6 years ago as evidenced by the Ep3 DVD. They might not be lying in that nothing has been done for the BD release specifically.

Has anyone considered that George Lucas does not hate the original theatrical movies, but actually wishes he could release them again?

Consider that when the SE was being created, he told his 'yes men' to go and clean up the movies, create some new effects and replace the old footage, but by accident or misinterpretation that they lost or destroyed the original footage? Surely he isnt as cruel a man as everyone makes him out to be, and above all else, he is about making money.

Surely with the few million it would take to remaster the theatrical versions (if existed) to make hundreds of millions, he would swallow his pride and release all that he could.

It just could be impossible to recover even if he wanted to, so hes making himself out to be a grinch instead of a fool.

R2D2 said:

Dianoga [Ep4] looks really full of video noise:
http://d2np6futyd7kp6.cloudfront.net/images/1000px/ep4/EP4_ILM_138.jpg

Another example of visible Matte lines and lots of video noise:
http://d2np6futyd7kp6.cloudfront.net/images/1000px/ep4/EP4_ILM_117.jpg

Another example of visible Matte lines:
http://d2np6futyd7kp6.cloudfront.net/images/1000px/ep4/EP4_ILM_2.jpg

This pic from speeder bike chase [Ep6] looks funny:
http://d2np6futyd7kp6.cloudfront.net/images/1000px/ep6/EP6_ILM_118.jpg

Simple solution for the visible matte lines: Dont have the brightness turned up so high on your TV!

Or could use the THX optimisers, they tell you to adjust your brightness just below the visible matte line level (or so I would assume that Lucas set it up that way).

Why complain about the matte lines anyway? Arent you wanting the video to look as close to the original product as possible? Removing the matte lines will mean more tinkering, which everyone is complaing about. Im so confused by the indecision about fixing stuff and leaving it the way it was.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

Ripplin said:

Seriously, though, I'm sure the PT BDs will be of excellent quality.

Not necessarily. Remember how AOTC and ROTJ were only shot at 1080p. I'm not sure how well the CGI in them would hold up too.

I dont see how they could look bad played at the exact resolution they were created in.

CG Yoda in the Ep1 clip is not conclusive that these scenes are taken from the Bd's.

I know the BD's will be of excellent quality, I just know it.

none said:

 

 

 

Maybe you eyes are better then mine, but what color variation do you see between the HTF wampa pics?

Oh no, the one thing I was hoping from Empire was they would return the the really white Hoth colouring, that I remember from the old VHS days. If this is a blue Hoth like in the 2004 DVD, I will cry just that little bit (but will still power through the best movie of all time).

I am fascinated and frustrated at the same time as to who was given the task of creating the pan & scan versions of these VHS releases.

My best memory of Jedi is from the 1986 release, and while I never saw the whole widescreen image for many years following, was following the onscreen action of someone controlling what fullscreen image was best to see. For almost 10 years I knew where the image was panned to, and never thought much of what was missing. When the 1995 THX editions came out, I was full frustrated because the pan and scan image was directed at different images. I could never appreciate these superior quality versions, and silly me bought the fullscreen 97 SE's too.

Wasnt until 2000 when I got the widescreen SE re-release did I start appreciating the whole image, what I missed out on all this time, but I would still love the opportunity to go back and watch all the movies the way I remembered. 84 Empire, 86 Jedi, and I believe the 92 Star Wars. I could go back to those versions now and know exactly what the image was focused on.

Ah, memories.

Are we fearing the stormtroopers being redubbed?

For me, I am not upset by the changes being done in the OT, the new scenes being inserted in. It makes the movies be rewatchable another few times within a short amount of time, because im fascinated with the new stuff (Alien 3 and LOTR extended editions come to mind, because after seeing theatrical versions for so long, its hard to process the new additions and must be viewed again).

The problem I have are audio changes. Boba Fett's voice being changed in Empire was the absolute worst thing that occurred in 2004 changes. (except for the lightsaber issues. And the biggest one of them all being Luke having green saber on the Falcon in Star Wars. Its the least talked about saber error!).

My memory doesnt process images the same that it does for sound and voices.