Oldfan

Please forgive me for being confused, but I am interested in downloading this off fanedit.info, but I'm not sure which one to grab now. I am in the US, so I would probably want NTSC, but there doesn't seem to be DL NTSC Miami version, only SL NTSC or DL PAL. There also doesn't seem to be a SL PAL version listed. I can play PAL DVDs but I would rather not have any speed issues, but on the other hand I want the best picture quality also. I noticed in the nfo above you mention the SL PAL is progressive and has a sharper image, plus proper chapter points - so would that look better than the DL PAL? Which should I be looking at?

When I logged in and caught up on things recently, I was amazed at how rude one of our members was toward another member who was only expressing his griefs and heartfelt concern toward Adywan. I don't need to mention names because we all know who I am talking about here. It seemed to settle down before I had come on, so I choose to not get involved. And yet I find myself logging in again tonight, and feeling disgusted yet again over the same member being abusive towards a different member, who just asked a simple question. This time I cannot bite my tongue.

I am usually very quiet in here because I usually don't feel like I have too much to contribute, other than praise and support, but I do enjoy coming in and seeing the new developments, and like everybody else in here, I am very anxious to see the final results. I get disgusted whenever I see a forum member treat another member like dirt, no matter what kind of forum I'm in. There's just no need for it. In another forum I frequent, the creator and moderator just the other day put a word of caution up that if people cannot be civil to one another, then people will get booted out. It only takes a few people to ruin a forum. I am starting to think the same thing is in desperate need of happening in here. It's a shame too. Most of us are here to offer ideas and support to Adywan. This one in particular I am talking about never has anything nice to say other than to Adywan. To everybody else, he is rude, cold, and insulting. It seems the only time he has anything to say is when he quotes somebody and fires an insult at them. Just because he has always been that way does not mean it should be accepted.

He claims that he supports Adywan, yet when Ady came on with bad news, everybody else was voicing their sadness, when this person decided to throw insults and profanity at another member, starting up a multi-page war. Is that what he means by supporting Adywan? Because I'm certain Adywan does not want to come in here and have to read all this garbage.

I am very sorry to continue this, but I just had to say something. I have been coming here since this thread started, and I cannot count the number of times I have seen this member treat other members badly. It really needs to stop, before nobody wants to come in here anymore. This is generally a very well-behaved forum, other than some tendency to stray off course when it gets slow, but I don't mind that so much. I have seen some people in here making some very generous contributions, and that shows the level of dedication and camaraderie that exists in here . I don't know what this person's problem is - I'm not exactly a people person myself, and I have gone through some very tough times in life, but that doesn't give me the right to verbally abuse people in forums where we are supposed to be friends. If this person can't act civil, then maybe he needs a "time-out".

Adywan, just got caught up here in the forum, and I'm very sorry to hear the news about your father. I know that's an enormous weight to carry around. I wish you and your family all the best.

Wow, what incredible news. Way to go, Janskeet. A very generous act.

Personally, I think this is getting blown out of proportion. Firstly, it doesn't look fake, not at all. I think most of us can agree with that. The X-Wing stops dead in its tracks because it just met a blast from a Star Destroyer head-on. Vaporized - instantly.

Secondly, Who says this scene has to be a 100% victory for the rebels. How was it ever a victory anyways? They are getting their asses kicked down on Hoth, and are forced to escape before their base is completely obliterated. That doesn't sound much like a victory to me. They are escaping by the skin of their teeth. That's not a victory - it's a desparate emergency exodus. The whole film is dark, including the Battle of Hoth. It seems much more believable and exciting to me now that Star Destroyers literally fire on the escaping ships.

This is war after all. Did the fact that X-Wings and Y-Wings got destroyed during the Trench run in A New Hope take away from the Victory of the Death Star getting destroyed?

Personally, I think that complaining about the pronunciation of names is getting a little bit too picky to me. People do pronounce people's names differently. That's not something that is an error and needs to be fixed, it's just how different people talk. As for the pause before he says Tatooine, yes there's a slight pause, but again, that's not a continuity error, it's just how Mark delivered the line. Listen to how people talk in real life - people stumble over their words all the time. I don't think it's a big enough deal to even think about, but that's just me. I know sometimes little things can bug us all.

On another note, I'm really sorry to hear about the AT-ST being removed. I'm so used to seeing it in there, and I did feel like it added something, like the Empire really does have all these different machines at their disposal. I understand Ady's reasoning with continuity, but since half of cloud city's design breaks continuity anyways, I wonder if it might be better to let continuity slide in this case in order to retain such a familiar shot (or two). I'm sure in the end Ady knows what he's doing, but it's a shame there couldn't be a compromise in order to keep a brief shot of it.

Sluggo said:

Or maybe the film crew us up where he is looking and George is telling him "Same thing, only better."

I almost spit out my drink at that one, lol. I can see the whole scene in my head.

Ady, hope you take it easy for a while. Like others have said, your health is the most important thing of all.

Loved the last clip, Ady. Adds a lot of realism. I don't have any problem with the timing of the blinking lights. I don't see why the top and bottom lights would not be able to be in sync if that's what was intended. If cloud city can be constructed, I am certain that the technology exists to time blinking lights in sync.

Also, I like the simple set of Lobot's room, and it seems a bit unnecessary to change anything. I agree that in this case, less is more.

Ady, hopefully you'll hear good news from the doctor when you finally see him. Glad to hear you have decided to go.

Wow, really good catch. That's a pretty big goof, but I imagine that would be very difficult to fix in motion.

I love the new test shot you posted, Adywan! What a difference. The matte shot never really looked bad, but it definitely lacked a feeling of "depth". With the new motion added it really looks like a camera zoom in a real set. Fantastic.

I hope Ady is feeling better now - that sounded pretty scary there about his headache and vision loss. He really needs to be careful not to stretch himself too thin.

Wow, that clip looks just fabulous! The shots near the end of Cloud City are incredible! So much to see!

What a nerve to use your trailer for their own purposes. Hope they end up regretting it.

Hey, Happy Belated Birthday, Adywan!

Wow, what a surprise! This sounds like quite a treat. Can't wait to check it out.

Honestly, I just don't know how you can do it all, Ady!

Bingowings said:

So true which is why I would really love to see Leia line "Star Destroyer" removed.

In a film that is so visually intelligent (even after Lucas fiddled with it) having Leia do the Princess Obvious thing sticks out like a sore thumb in a way it never would in the PT.

I don't mind Leia saying that. Although it is obvious to us, the audience, that there is a Star Destroyer, in the heat of the moment, it seems quite natural that Leia, or anybody for that matter, would shout out "Star Destroyer" if you suddenly saw one. If you were driving along and suddenly a bus was coming right for you, your passenger is quite likely to shout out "LOOK OUT - A BUS!", even though it would be quite obvious. It's just a knee-jerk reaction.

Glad to hear those shots are getting some help. Something else that I find distracting is at the end, when you see some close-ups of the Millennium Falcon, and then it switches to inside the cockpit with Lando - the exterior shots really don't match up very well with the live set. The lighting looks way off, and it's very obvious that Lando isn't inside from the exterior shots. This is probably difficult, but can anything be done to help with that?

I don't remember if this was mentioned before or not. In the shot just after Yoda says "You will be...you will be", and just before the tie bombers are dropping their charges in the asteroid, there is a shot of the Star Destroyer firing at several smaller asteroids. To me, this shot doesn't look very good because of the way the asteroids get zapped. As they are hit, there is a flash of orange "plasma" around each asteroid, then they just vanish. To me, it would look way more realistic if there was a real explosion, even a small one, when hit, followed by the asteroids actually breaking into tons of little bits and pieces, like the asteroid is breaking apart.

Or maybe if the explosion was big enough to completely engulf the asteroids as they are hit. As it stands now, it just looks too fake to me.

Another shot that doesn't look great is right after Han & Leia kiss. An asteroid smashes into the Star Destroyer, and the entire top of the ship seems to disappear upon impact.

Slightly off-topic, but I have a question about Adywan's color-corrected 1080p episode V. I see there is the AVCHD version, around 7GB, and there is also an mkv version that is around 14GB. I understand what mkv and AVCHD files are, but I wasn't aware that Adywan made an mkv version. Is the mkv version actually done by Adywan? If I just want to play it on my PC, will the 14GB mkv look any better than the AVCHD version, or will they look the same? Does the MKV have a higher bitrate? Seems to be a pretty huge difference in file size.

Ripplin said:

^A Vectrex machine?! :o

Nice! I wish I had owned a Vectrex back in the day. I have a feeling I would have loved it. They cost a fortune on Ebay now.

I just read through the last 5 or 6 pages, trying to keep up, and I've had a few great laughs along the way. Probably a bit too late in the game, but as far as the "falling mystery object" is concerned, I admit that I have always been a bit confused over what that was. I have always assumed it was "supposed" to be his hand, though it didn't seem to look right, and seemed improbable to me, or maybe a ripped part of his clothing falling or something. It never occurred to me that it was part of the vane breaking off. I think if we heard some type of snapping sound, or maybe saw it actually break off, that would have helped a lot.

I'm just amazed at how much confusion is involved surrounding the entire Cloud City portion of the film. Nothing seems to quite match up, and there's lots of guessing and general confusion as to what this is, what that is, where this place is, etc. It must be a nightmare for Adywan to decide what needs to be fixed and what can stay.

Vaderios, I really liked some of the mock-ups you've been doing involving the weather vane close-ups. Adywan may be right about the perspective possibly being off somehow, but I do like seeing the actual vent in those shots. It somehow looks right to me, especially when you can see in the awesome behind-the-scenes shot that was posted that the vane is actually very, very close to the vent (much closer than I realized, actually). It seems to me that you would be able to see at least some of the vent in at least some of those shots.

Ric Olie said:But do you have any idea how hard they are to pull off convincingly?  I'm not talking about creating the shot - I'm talking about the actual flying.  Forget space camera placement and all that jazz, 'cause the real skill is in piloting that ship as close as you can to the camera without taking out either the camera itself or the crew.

Trust me on this, when you've done one successful flyby, you'll want to do 'em over and over again.

 

That gave me a nice chuckle.

Adywan, this might not be very constructive, but wow, that flyby looks like a million dollar shot (okay, maybe not a million, but you know what I mean). The sunrise looks spectacular, and the motion is perfectly smooth. The comparison clip shows just how incredible this shot is. I understand the point that was made about dynamic flybys perhaps being overused in the prequels, but I think this will fit into ESB:Revisited just perfectly. Thanks for the 720p!

This sounds like a very interesting project. I am definitely looking forward to seeing this get released.

Myself, I like the idea of the Falcon arriving at sunset. I think that because that has always been how it was, it will feel very strange for me to adapt to sunrise instead. It is not only a change in the visuals in this case, but a change to the actual timing of events. For some reason, I just like the lighting and the mood. Of course, it would have helped if Lucas had done a better job with the timeline in the first place. You would think that if they spent the night, we would have been treated to at least one nice night shot of Bespin.

I also like the original reveal shot of Bespin. I agree that seeing it so small and far away helps to emphasize its actual size as they get closer.

I find it fascinating that the vinyl plays at such a different speed than the anthology/special edition discs. Just goes to show how messed up the releases were.

Very, very sorry to hear about your loss, Ady. I hope you spend some time with your family - the project can wait. Take care of yourself and the family.

I think it would be great if, along with the AVCHD , Ady creates a 720p .mkv encoded in x264. The quality is extremely high, though compressed, and is playable in many different media players, on any computer that has the proper codec, as long as the computer can keep up with HD playback. It also benefits from a smaller file size; a 2-hour .mkv in 720p usually can fit on a single DVD-5 for storage. I would definitely want the AVCHD for the ultimate quality, however, I don't even have a blu-ray player yet, nor an HDTV, but I can play .mkv's on my pc and they look incredible. It would be a great alternative for folks who don't yet have blu-ray capability. On the other hand, I think AVCHD will play on the pc as well. Just a thought - I'm a big fan of .mkv at the moment.

By the way, I was playing Trivial Pursuit earlier with my girlfriend, and the question she got was "What are the odds of navigating successfully through an asteroid field, according to C-3PO"! (The category was space). I thought that was hilarious. I wished it had been my question, since at least that was one I knew.

Please forgive me for this being slightly off-topic, but I have a feeling some people here are gonna love this. Just read about this amazing FLYING X-WING over on a tech site. Apparently, it was shown at the CES Consumer Electronics Show, but due to obvious reasons, will never hit retail. What a shame.

Here's a clip of it in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=271vZfJRMSY

And here's the tech site article:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/01/ces-rcx4-star-stryker-is-an-x-wing-by-any-other-name.ars

Who wants one?

Ady, very sorry to hear about the bad news with the car. Glad your wife is okay though.

Wow, the latest .ts clip looks amazing.

I didn't think that the inconsistent snow on Luke's back was a big deal, but I gotta say, after watching the clip again, it is a bit distracting, especially after that first shot of him, where the snow is literally caked on, then suddenly it's gone instantly. It sure would be great if something could be done, but I don't know if that's something that can be done.

Love the fur!