Pheran

I'm watching the Star Wars Holiday Special right now for the first time since I saw the original airing in 1978 (yes I'm an old fogey!).  I had forgotten most of it, but I must say it's living up to its reputation.  This thing is just... terribad.  Whoever did the hologram show that Lumpy watched was just seriously high, and now I'm to the cooking show and to quote Steve Martin, "All I can say is WOW!"

:-)

Merry Christmas everyone.

Harmy said:

OK, here's the new xmas clip. It's not quite final yet but let me know what you think :-)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CWGSV7G5

Looks fantastic!

Has anyone made any good disc art for the holiday special?  I found some art online but it looks like the art for some kind of 2-disc Bluray set.

Troy, do those images match the card colors?  I would be willing to grab that whole set off ebay and scan them, but if they really look like that it seems that it would be a waste of money.

Harmy said:

@Slynger: Yes, there is a v2.0 planned for ESB and Jedi as well. There's a lot to do on ESB, I think it will actually be a larger project than SW v2.0; eg. many more of those zoomed in cockpit shots were recently discovered. Also, while I'll probably be keeping the recomposited shots for Falcon's cloud city approach, I'd like to recolour the ship to look more like in the original.

And while there's almost nothing I want to change on Jedi, I am now using better software, which will enable me to render it in better quality with less compression, so that alone makes it worth redoing.

Great to hear that you are planning on improving all these, but I just wanted to caution you to pace yourself doing all this work.  As much as I love what you are doing for us, I'd hate for you to burn yourself out on Star Wars in the process.

Still, it's amazing what you are doing here.  If LucasFilm didn't have their heads up their collective arses, they'd hire you as soon as you graduate.  In fact, if you are interested in doing that kind of work, you should definitely consider applying to SFX shops based on the strength of your fan projects.

Pheran said:

I love your DEED disc images, but the black and white borders present around the edge cause some issues with my printing software (Epson Print CD) which automatically scales the whole image to fit the disc, and ends up printing a black ring around the edge of the disc, then the white border.  I'm going to photoshop the images to get rid of the black and white borders, which should fix my problem.  I'm just wondering if it is OK for me to post the borderless versions for download in case it helps out anyone else with this problem?  Thanks.

OK, here are the borderless disc images.  This is Harmy's original work completely unaltered other than being cropped to perfect 1810-pixel circles to remove the border.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TYXOJB4I

I just used Epson Print CD on a Verbatim DL DVD+R with these images and the results are fantastic.  With those discs, I used outer diameter 118mm, inner diameter 37mm and a -1 color correction for best results.  I'm glad I'm able to make a contribution to this project, even if it is a very small one.

Harmy,

I love your DEED disc images, but the black and white borders present around the edge cause some issues with my printing software (Epson Print CD) which automatically scales the whole image to fit the disc, and ends up printing a black ring around the edge of the disc, then the white border.  I'm going to photoshop the images to get rid of the black and white borders, which should fix my problem.  I'm just wondering if it is OK for me to post the borderless versions for download in case it helps out anyone else with this problem?  Thanks.

I'm glad to see things are still progressing on v2 and thank you Troyig88!

I just wanted to post something for the benefit of "dark side powers" that may be watching this thread.  The last time I purchased a home video release of Star Wars was around 1992, when I bought the $100 letterbox VHS Collector's Edition.  I've been ignoring the parade of releases since then, since there was never a decent DVD release of the original versions (the GOUT DVD is not what I would call decent).  Today, I bought the Blu-ray original trilogy set, not because I have any intention of watching it, but because I feel that I need a "license" for HD Star Wars on disc to ethically watch Harmy's version.  If not for Harmy, I would have passed up this release just like all the rest.

Cliff notes: The only reason Fox/Lucasfilm is getting my money this time around is because of Harmy!

On a related note, deepdiscount.com is running a great deal where you can get the whole original trilogy Blu-ray set for $28 (at least in the US).  Same deal on the prequel trilogy, if anyone actually wants them.

I'm amazed that anyone is sad about this.  Good riddance to pan & scan!

I registered on this forum just to post a huge THANK YOU for doing this.  More than just proving that you have "mad skillz" at video editing, you are restoring a portion of many of our childhoods.  Even better, I have a 6-year old daughter.  She's not quite ready for Star Wars yet, but in 1-2 years I'll be able to share these editions with her, thus making them a part of her childhood as well.

It is absolutely stunning to me that GL is so blinded or arrogant that he cannot see the need for the original releases, but for now, your versions of these films are more definitive than anything he has released in the last 25 years.  I eagerly await the v2.0 release.

My hat is off to you, and everyone else that contributed to this project.  Also, I know that it's a "thorny" issue, but if you do decide to accept donations to improve your equipment, PM me, because I'm all in.