The OT set art is better, but it's time for the custom cover artists to get busy.
-NJM
adywan said:
PT box cover art now revealed:
Goddamn that's ugly! Yoda is also one of the least consequential characters in the whole PT (even Mace Windu gets points for trying to kill Palpatine). Throw Anakin, Obi-Wan, or someone of more significance up there, please! Again, hate to be a hater, but this is not turning out well, in my view.
-NJM
Also, that Facebook app link is busted, too. I keep clicking on it, but it keeps saying the web address cannot be found. If this was my idea, I'd be soooooo damn embarrassed. It's too pathetic to be laughable. Six hours of sleep only to wake up to this farce. I hate to be a hater, but when they make it this easy, you can't blame me.
-NJM
I also don't like that this is only DTS. Why? Because my stereo receiver is not DTS compatible. I always said that Star Wars would be the title to make me upgrade, but this is one step too far. I have to replace the whole home entertainment system with an HDTV, Blu Ray player already, but now, a few extra hundred dollars for a new stereo receiver. That's all money I already don't have, and no way I'm gonna be to convince anyone to buy it all for me. I could've gotten the HDTV as a gift, and might've been able to get the Blu Ray player on my own. The receiver is a big deal breaker. It's too much. The one I have has worked fine for the last nine years. No reason to chuck it, and I'd rather not bother selling it unless it's going to fully cover the cost of a new one.
Sigh.
Did they even release the packaging art for this? If not, it's an underwhelming announcement. Maybe it's at the end of this video that's gonna take all day to "reveal." Such bullshit, IMHO.
-NJM
This project is not dead. It's just on hiatus. I'm very busy, and backed up with more pressing obligations right now. I need to finish shooting a movie from 2009.
-NJM
While I printed all three of my covers out, ithis is the one that I have chosen for my display purposes.
-NJM
You could very bold, and just make his saber pure, neutral white. Other than that, orange seems like you're only possible option.
-NJM
You could always try the non-canon "yellow" saber for Dooku (which pops up in many fan films).
-NJM
Adywan, you DID fix some of the transparency issues! Watching the 2004 DVD, you can see right through the cockpit of Rogue 2's speeder. Now, it appears entirely solid and opaque. Nicely done!
-NJM
The idea is good, but the voice is too low / deep. Protocol droids tend to have softer voices.
-NJM
Yeah, I had previously downloaded the .rar files for the purist only for Part 14 to have been removed from rapidshare. I asked Adywan, but as expected, he didn't have the files anymore. So, I abandoned the pursuit after much google searching.
-NJM
After 15 hours, Adywan's EMPIRE restoration got converted.....with a botched up aspect ratio. It all looked fine on the screen, and the pixel dimension settings were right with the PAR Anamorphic option. So, I'm gonna have to re-do it, but after another 15 hours, I got ANH converted properly. So, I know how long it takes, and exactly which settings to use.
I decided to not bother with the deinterlacing, and that's probably a major part of why it was taking as long as it was before. So, it's just 1700 kbp/s VRB with subtitles (for Greedo & Jabba), and 720x304 (w/o black bars).
-NJM
Well, you see her disgust when Luke says that Vader is his father, but she has a fairly tamed reaction when Luke says she is his sister. In the least, it should evoke a mixed reaction, but it's about 27 years too late to do anything about that.
-NJM
Already got MPEG Streamclip. From my math, it seems to go faster (maybe a 10 hour convert). Though, that is without chapter markers, and it keeps botching up the aspect ratio. I set everything correctly (including the crop settings), but it keeps defaulting to the iPod preset dimensions instead of my custom resolution. The only way I find to get around that is usually to convert to a regular QuickTime MOV, and then, into iPod format.
I'm a slight bit surprised the films have never been released on iTunes. Maybe they're waiting for the full-on HD BluRay release.
I saw the 48 hour ETA when I came home after work the other night. It had been converting for five hours prior. Though, I had the wrong aspect ratio settings, and it was set to "fast de-interlace." I have an eight hour shift today. So, I'll likely give it another try.
-NJM
Keeping my computer running for 48+ hours to convert one film to iPod format is the real kicker. If I want to do all six films, that's practically two weeks straight. I'm still uncertain if I made the right call for Christmas a few years ago - new computer or new camcorder. I chose the latter. For the record, my Mac G4 has these specs:
Mac OS X 10.4.11
1.25 GHz PowerPC Processor
2 GB DDR SDRAM
2 Internal HDs - 60 GB & 80 GB
300 GB / 320 GB / 500 GB Seagate External HDs
128 MB NiVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 Video Card
LaCie All Format DVD/CD LightScribe Burner
And you know what? My original G4 had a Dual Processor. It appears my current one does not. How's that for loser's luck?
-NJM
I wanted to put all the Star Wars films on my iPod, but it's going to take two whole days to convert just one film. I started out with Adywan's ESB theatrical restoration since I figured Handbrake could read the movie faster off of a mounted disc image file than a physical DVD. This likely all boils down to the fact that I'm on a seven or eight year old Mac G4 with all of a 128MB video card (the maximum Apple says it is compatible with). Converting to H.264 or MP4 has always been a pain in the ass, but with iPod, there's no other compatible format.
The only downloads I could find of the already iPod converted films were all PAL encoded (25 FPS) with low resolution / low bitrate. I'm trying to convert at 1700 kbp/s variable bit rate in full resolution with the black bars cropped off, and the chapter markers intact (all of which Handbrake does). Basically, the same settings as most any official iTunes Store movie download. They tend to end up between 1.2 to 1.8 GBs.
So, my inquiry happens to be, is there any faster way to do this, or am I just totally screwed because of my painfully obsolete computer?
-NJM
I've looked high and low for a rapidshare or megaupload link for the purist edition, and none exist. At least, not one with a complete set of .rar files. All that's left are torrents, but who is even seeding it anymore? No one.
-NJM
Even though it likely wasn't the intention, I always felt that Luke calling for Leia with The Force at the end of ESB was a hint of that familial link. Considering there had been this slight underlying "maybe" attraction between Luke & Leia, I suppose this was another suggestive hint. Still, it works better as a possible retcon idea. Vader reveals he is Luke's father, and then, the next (living) person he calls for help is Leia, who happens to be his sister. It strengthens the theme of family bonds in the saga like Anakin's nightmares about Shmi & Padmé. So, the whole line about, "I've always known," does fit for me. If you push it further to that Leia never actually met her mother, but had visions of her through The Force, it fits even better. It means that she always knew there was a special power she had, or an extraordinary bond with her biological family.
-NJM
Let's hope they have a better reason than Wikipedia.
-NJM
Bingowings said:
I notice the Wiki article has been pulled.
Don't get me started on that, again. I typed up a very long post on the ESB:R Facebook page about how idiotic their reasons for pulling it are.
-NJM
For those who need to get up-to-speed on the wish list: http://doubleofive.wordpress.com/rotj-fanedit-wishlist/
-NJM
I believe that it should take some extra firepower to blow up the reactor core. A few laser blasts from an X-Wing and a proton torpedo or two from the Falcon isn't all that climactic. It must be one weakly built reactor to cripple under that kind of small scale firepower. Just from a practicality standpoint, you'd think that there would be some shielding around this thing just for general protection. The place is under construction, after all. Things do go haywire during construction jobs. Granted, the first DS was taken down by a single torpedo, but even that is a stretching things.
I also like the idea of the DS2 having a more realistic explosion. Having it break apart and such. Just give it a more cinematic ending instead of just being atomized with no debris of any kind.
-NJM
What about Lando?
-NJM
And I do have to say, and being meaning to say for a long time, that all the mock-ups on doubleofive's blog are absolutely gorgeous and stunning. Praise beyond words to everyone who worked on those.
-NJM
Well, I'm just talking about perceived size, essentially. I just believe that the DS2 should appear to be more massive next to everything else in the film. For example, at the end of ESB, you see the size of the Falcon and TIE Fighters next to the Executor, and they look like insects in comparison to it. The Super Star Destroyer is obscenely gigantic next to these little ships, and you finally get that relative scale. You don't get that with the Death Star II because all we really see it properly in scale to is the Endor moon, and it doesn't look that large.
-NJM
