DarkFather said:Is Jenny really a girl?
Jenny could easily be a girl. I've heard that there is at least 3 of them on the net who dig Star Wars.
ok,ok, so now I've vented my spleen, maybe it's time I got a bit more constructive.
I think the basic story and plot arc of those movies was reasonably ok, but like Knightmessenger said, could have done with a lot more tweaking. Get rid of the dumb crap for a start and it would instantly be more watchable.
Like Sluggo said, the Jedi should have been more kick ass and proactive and kick a few heads instead of being totally in the dark and reactive to every situation. Give the Jedi a heart of gold, but throw in a bit of 'Sam Spade' grit as well. It worked for the Han Solo character and I think it would make the Jedi characters more 3-dimensional.
I would also like to have seen the young Anikin use the force and cheat to win the pod race. This would have given us an inkling into a flaw in his character right from the start. That flaw could grow as he got older and ultimately be exploited by Palpatine. I just didn't buy the utterly nicey nicey Anikin character being manipulated so easily and suddenly turning into the complete b*stard that he became in the later movies.
... just another 2c.
Sluggo said:I think I would actually focus on plot elements that actually seemed interesting.
I soooo agree with that.
Episode 1: Jedi actually doing something about the slavery problem on Tatooine. Making the Jedi mere patrol officers of the Republic doesn't give me any emotional investment when they are betrayed later in the series. It would have been awesome to see Jedi acting more like heroes instead of mall cops.
hahaha, 'mall cops' is such a great similie :)
Episode 2: I think Episode 2 was the biggest waste as it had the most potential for an interesting story, and it was ignored.
Personally, I find it hard to decide just which of those 3 movies was the biggest waste.
Episode 3 was Anakin's sociopathy on display and one mess of a movie.
yep, again I totally agree with the 'one mess of a movie', but I think it equally applies to all 3 of them. They are all utterly flawed in some way.
The plot of Episode 1 was a set-up for the podrace and then the lightsaber fight at the end. But Episode 2 had potential. The Sith, working behind the scenes, had orchestrated total control over two major governments in the galaxy and were pitting them against each other with the Jedi caught in the middle. The Jedi were put into a position where they were doomed to be ground-up in the gears of war. And that happened to the mysterious Sifo-Dyas? Even Jango Fett had connections to the cloners of the Republic and the Seperatist droid factories?
I'd forgotten about Temuerra Morrison as JangoFett. That guy is such a crap actor, he could give Hayden 'wots' his name' a run for his money.
That sounds suspicious to me, but the movie didn't do anything with that either.
So many loose ends and interesting edges that could have been, but weren't.
Episode 3: Anakin and Obi-wan should have been the best of friends and Anakin's seduction of the dark sides power should have been heartbreaking. Instead, Anakin kills children and ultimately his wife who he was trying to save. Maybe even a small hint of the birth of the rebellion might have been nice here as well.
You've got so many valid points Sluggo. Maybe GL should have invested in some of that famous 'turd polish' for his script before he started filming... or maybe he should just have bought a case of 'common sense' and 'good judgement' instead.
It's impossible to put into words just how much of a let down these movies were for me personally, especially as they could have been so very much more than the utter crap that they are.
If it were up to me, there are soooo many changes I'd like to see in the prequels. Here are just a few off the top of my head.
First: get rid of R2 and C3PO as they serve no real purpose and just detract from anything going on in the story. Most of their antics on screen were just plain stupid, if not out right annoying and cringe-making. With them in there, it also makes Kenobis' line from SW "I don't seem to remember owning any driods" just sound plain stupid and at best amnesiac (he doesn't remember the cute R2 unit that shared his adventures and saved his life all those years ago???). I really don't think George realises that the series is about Anikin Skywalkers' fall from grace and his redemption through his son (+the whole evil emipre thingy). It really didn't need any other ties or threads to the later episodes at all.
First: I'd replace Hayden 'wot's 'is face' with an elm tree, because it's bound to be less wooden and give a more animated and believable performance in my opinion.
First: get rid of Greg Proops voice in the pod race - grrrr makes me want to kick puppies every time I hear that bit!
First: get rid of the whole podrace. It sucked (no further explanation needed).
First: get rid of the nickname 'Ani', because it makes him sound like a small orfin girl with red hair who sings lots and lots of annoying songs. That nickname is just far too cute. I mean, what self respecting stormtrooper would likely take orders from Darth Vader if they found out his name was Ani? Likely none of them.
First: remove everything that makes you think "holy hell that was stupid!". For example; almost every joke, stupid voice, midi-chlorians, or anything that a 5yo would find incredibly patronising. You know, the stuff that makes you think "just get on with it!" while watching the movie.
First: find a better use for truly great actors like Brian Blessed other than making them sound like retarded Jamaicans. Anyone remember him from The Black Adder1 or Flash Gordon? That guys tallents were sooo wasted in Phantom Menace.
First: get rid of the whole Frankensteins’ monster bit at the end of Revenge of the Sith. That just looked idiotic.
First: use actual models instead of baaaaaad CGI. These 'prequels' not only didn't fit in with the rest of the series superior model effects from the 70/80's, but the CGI just looks far too shiny and has no real 'weight' on the screen. Add to this that if you watch them in episode order, then everything starts out very round in the first 3 movies until Episode 4 when all technology seemed to have jumped backwards about 100 years or more.
First: get rid of the wookies. Sorry, but they were more annoying than Ewoks (hard to believe I know).
First: get rid of the wookie-Tarzan yodel. Comedy mistake#1023: never tell the same joke twice!
First: Keep JarJar and even add a few more scenes with him ... being used in vivisection experiments (anyone see Simon Jansens' death of JarJar asciimation? Classic stuff!).
Phew, I'm almost out of breath now. Man I can't stand those crappy movies. For me the only Star Wars movies are the original ones I saw as a kid in the 70's and 80's. I try real hard to forget that those other abominations even exist.
Many apologies if I went over board, but those movies make me get passionate about something which was a HUGE part of my life as a kid.
... anyways, that's just my 2c.
It looks like TimeFactory for MAC (ugh!) will probably do what you want (I think).
It is mentioned and recommended on Doom9 here. I've never used it myself, but it certainly sounds like it might do a good job on pitch shifting/time compresson etc.
http://cgi.ebay.de/Grosse-Star-Wars-Laserdisc-s-Sammlung_W0QQitemZ180312162281QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDE_DVDs?hash=item180312162281&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1229%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318
Thought someone might be interested.
Many apologies Mielr and Knightmessenger. I had misread your post (I was very tired on Friday evening) and the way I'd read it, I thought that you were saying that the X0 project was solely using the Def Col for the transfer.
Knightmessenger and I have been posting in this thread since 2005/2006!!!!!!
WOW! Six, cont em', six exclamation marks! Think I might have touched a nerve there :/
smithersthree said: (I only wish I understood half of the technical terms being discussed here).
Yeah, I can relate to this. It took me a little while work work out what people were talking about too. If it helps, Moth3r posted this which I found very useful as a starting point.
ummm, did either of you read the whole of the X0 topic? I think you both might have missed a post or two, especially the ones that mention the whole 'black magic' process that Laserman came up with (brilliant stuff!).
The X0 team have stated many, many times that they are using material from a number of LD sources, not just the Def Col. The whole reason for doing this was to get rid of that poxy DVNR smearing that we all hate. They have also posted a number of pics (which I can't find at the moment) which show the results of combining together multiple captures from different LD sources. The results of which are frankly quite awesome to look at and worth searching the forum for.
I will agree with you though that the LD's are softer than the GOUT and this does hide some of the THX nasties a bit.
Yeah, I had a go on Moth3rs shots as well and I totally agree with you. Didn't work unfortunately :(
PUGGO: TOOT = Two Out Of Three.
I've never used TOOT myself, but the idea behind it is just plain brilliant in its simplicity. I can't seem to find much info still hanging around on the net at the moment about it, but you might like to have a look here for a little more information and a basic description of how it works. I think Karyudo is the person who started and owns the whole TOOT project. If you're interested in downloading it and having a go, then it looks like Moth3rs' download link on this page still works. I'm not sure if there is a later version of the filter though.
Moth3r: Many thanks (yet again) for the info. I agree with you that there are many variables that would make an audio-TOOT extremely difficult if not impossible, but thought it a good idea to at least find out.
As it turns out, I have got a few VHS movies and some LP's where I have 2 fairly decent copies of the same material and was thinking of looking for a way of combining them to get rid of any audio nasties. TOOT just sounds like a great idea to me that could have wider ranging uses than purely LD or video restoration.
OK, so we all know TOOT is brilliant for removing rot & dropouts from 3 copies of the same video source.
Is there anything available that will do the same thing or something similar for audio?
Many thanks guys.
Yeah, I was under the impression that you’d used the BT878 tweaker. Sorry, can’t think why I made that assumption. The BT878 tweaker does sound like a really useful thing though. It would be really interesting to see a before and after type capture with and without using the BT878 tweaker.
Yeah, you're right, the PDI/Sweetspot card is better as we expected. Having the ability to squeeze a bit more out of the video from tweaking the BT878 is definitely a good thing.
I still think the MCE is not a bad card though and definitely worth every penny of it's $20 USD price.
Many thanks for posting those images Arnie.
I can definitely see what you're saying now. You're right, the PDI card 'appears' ever so slightly sharper, but the images from the MCE 'seems' slightly more natural to me. Maybe that's because the capture is not quite as sharp and has smoothed some of the noise/colours a bit more. I don't know.
Also, the differences (if any) between the comb filters don't seem all that great either. Some areas on the MCE look better and smoother but in other parts the colours seem less precise and they both show pretty much the same amount of rain bowing.
I really was expecting the PDI card to absolutely trounce the MCE, but I don't think it does. The results are a heck of a lot closer than I would have imagined.
What do the rest of you think?
That’s a shame Arnie. It would have been mighty interesting to see the differences between the cards.
I'm not doubting that Arnie. I'm certain that the sweetspot is a VERY good card and worth every penny and in fact, I pretty much said the same thing in my post.
I was just trying to point out that there is a 'cheap' alternative which may get pretty good results. Obviously when you pay 10x more for a capture card you expect a significanlty better capture, which I'm certain the sweetspot delivers.
It would be interesting to see this process applied to the very first pic that Moth3r posted of the pre-THX LD.
I'll add my 2¢ worth in here as I have also been trying to work out what capture card setup to use.
An alternative to those cards mentioned by Moth3r is the MCE TV capture card.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=MCE-TV-7135-PCI&cat=VID
It's main advantage is it's price - dirt cheap!
This card uses a newer Philips chip than the PDI/Sweetspot cards. I have no idea if the comb filter inside is more advanced or if that will make any noticable difference to the end result. The Philips chips used in the MCE/PDI cards both have 'Adaptive 2/4 line comb filters' as mentioned in their respective datasheets.
The only thing that I can see that the PDI has over the cheap MCE is that the PDI also uses the BT878A 'Fusion' chip. As mentioned by Moth3r here, there is a special BT878 tweaker within Virtualdub which will probably enable better results from the PDI as compared to the MCE.
Neither the PDI or the MCE have BNC connectors, but if you are pretty handy with a soldering iron then BNC connectors probably won't be too difficult to fit.
Yeah, I have been searching and searching and only seem to come across bits and pieces of information that tease rather than enlighten unfortunately :/
I was just having a look at the autodesk combustion page and they mentioned that one of the things they say it can do is quote: "Precise and automatic color matching of footage from different sources". This might be the sort of thing that you're after Moth3r. Has anyone looked into this s/w or used it before and can comment?
I know this thread is realy old, but LM mentioned some really good guides and a lot of potentially very useful information.
Were any of these other guides created, or was the end result the webdocs that feature on the X0project site?
Are these test patterns of any use in the PAL world? Can we use these to help calibrate the sharpness for our LD PAL settings, or is switching sources to the NTSC Video Essentials disc just going to confuse things?
Have you considered getting one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/MCE-TV-Philips-7135-PCI-TV-Capture-Tuner-Card-XP-Vista_W0QQitemZ310087941005QQihZ021QQcategoryZ3761QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
OK, so probably not the best quality capture card on the market, but they do have the necessary built in tuner and they're as 'cheap as chips'.
... just a thought.
EDIT: Have a look here to see how the cheap MCE compares to the PDI/Sweetspot. I'm certain that you'll get a much better quality capture going directly into the RF on the MCE card as opposed to using a VCR to do the RF conversion.
Impressive stuff G-Force! I think the force is strong with this one :o)
Why did you buy the PDI card when you already had a capture card with the later 7135 chipset?
Shouldn't the later and presumably more advanced chipset be better for capturing?