Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda

People who say to do zero tweaks, just slap the original to digital, are discounting that the process of transfering film to digital simply does NOT result in a viewing experience that is the same as seeing the original film projection. A really proper "restoration" to digital also requires a certain amount of additional work to make the playback of the digital look as close to competitive as possible with how good the original projection looked. There are always some tweaks.

Of course, the SEs go WAY beyond teaks.  But the types of tweaks described in the first post are pretty common and as far as I'm concerned would be totally acceptable in terms of making a digital version of the original trilogy that is faithful to the original viewing experience... if they included faithful reproductions of the original sound mixes that aren't over-compressed.

Has the grand chosen one (or anyone else) put the trainwreck ending on YouTube?  I'm sufficiently curious to click a link to see it, but not sufficiently curious to download a great big file or burn a disk.

I love the last feedback comment... so, they're blackmailing us to watch TPM so that we'll get to see the OT in 3d.  Hehe.

Your description is normal behavior, and I'd be thrilled.  As long as the "tweaks" are just to fix things like matte lines and other errors... not content changes or brand new effects.

There are a few really funny 5* reviews on the Amazon site that are clearly meant to be satirical.  In fact, the current "most helpful" 5* review is obviously a joke.  Here's one that's been around a while that I think is hilarious:

***** Older films need more CG, but otherwise a great set

by The Patriarch

I've been a major Star Wars Fan ever since the Fantom Menance appeared in theaters back in 20001, so you can imagine how excited I was to find out that these TV shows were coming out on Blue Ray!I'm someone that needs to have everything on the latest technology, so I've already thrown out my old DVDs, those are so 2010 anyway!, in anticipation for this release.

I'm really glad that they decided to put Anakin Skywalker(Hans Christain Anderson), one of the most beloved of all Star Wars characters, for the cover of this release, instead of say, old characters from the 70s version of the show, like Luke Skywalker(Some old guy).

If you read the title of my review, then you already know my next point. The older films have too little CGI special effects in them. Some of the scenes in these older episodes aren't even shot in front of a blue screen. There are some CGI special effects in the older ones that look really good, such as Yoda and when Gweedo(Thomas Haden Church) shot Han Solo(Indiana Jones). It is so awesome how Han deftly dodges that laser blast by moving his head to the side like a sassy black woman. Even so, the special effects are few and far between, even in this updated edition.

Also, for some reason the episodes in this set are placed out of order, so the newer, better episodes are numbers 1 through 3, and the earlier, stupider, episodes are 4 - 6. I give them a break on this, because I think they wanted to put their best foot forward by putting the better episodes first, knowing that most people wouldn't' get around to watching the later ones anyway because by the time they make it to them there would already have been another Blue Ray DVD set out with better graphics.

In case you are reading this review because you've never seen the Star Wars show and are interested in learning more about it, I can devote the rest of this review into catching you up. First, there's the cast of characters.

Anakin Skywalker - Cool guy that starts out as a kid but turns into a Jedi Knight. (Think an actual knight only 100000x cooler). Falls in love with a hot chick and then turns into Dark Vader after killing her.

Jar Jar Binks - Amazing space alien that does magic tricks. Saves the world by falling into a cannon in the first episode, but then becomes a senator and we don't see him as much.

Princess Amaldala - hot chick.

Luke Skywalker - guy from the earlier episodes. I don't know too much about him because the older episodes are a bit too boring to watch.

Hostmaster said:

The Star Wars Saga will never have a perfect edition.

If Lucas does it, for him will be like killing the chicken of the golden eggs.

What's he gonna sell in the future if he gives to us now a reference edition with our beloved OT?

There would always be the next better format, or the next better transfer technology.  Do you really believe that blu ray is the final format?  The future will also bring features that don't exist now, such as the ability to mark sections or build your own version out of alternate takes.  Or install it on a network or integrate it with your smart phone.  If he gives us something great, we'll be in it for the next version too.  We bought the VHS, then the LD, then the DVD, then the blu ray.  It won't stop there.  Plus, *I* would buy his next special edition if he also released the OUT.  Now, I'm not buying anything.

I actually don't mind the artwork.  It's got a certain naivety to it that says B sci-fi/cartoon.  Doesn't bother me at all.  I'm more concerned about the contents of the discs... if theatrical versions were included, I'd probably find the artwork to be good cheesy fun.

Hmm, it just occurred to me that if these are really 4-track, that could be interesting.  My Teac could probably grab all four tracks, which might make for an interesting resource for someone wanting to make their own surround mix.  Unless by 4-track they just mean stereo in each direction.

SpenceEdit said:

I've never purchased a blu-ray disc and I have a blu-ray player. They just don't seem worth it.

Have you seen the blu-ray of "2001" ?  It's the reason I bought a blu-ray player.

MJPollard said:

Granted, but you brought it forth to the forum, therefore you must take responsibility for subsequent spit-takes and other consequences of hilarity. :)

Wouldn't be the first time my actions have induced vomiting...

Leonardo said:

I'm doing something similar, I'm trying to recreate the italian crawl in HD, episode-less, and then I'd need the Greedo scene without hard-subs, to make my own.

If you succeed in making a version with an Italian crawl, I'd be very interested in seeing it!

MJPollard said:

"Lucas is to his movies like Michael Jackson was to his face."

What's your address, Puggo? I'm going to send you the bill for the new keyboard I'll have to buy, to replace the one ruined by my spit-take after reading this.

I can't take credit for the line... it's someone named James Costello.  Find Cody Clarke's review on the first page of saga reviews, and look at the first response to his review.  Genius!

Great line in one of the responses to an Amazon review:

"Lucas is to his movies like Michael Jackson was to his face."

He used to make fantastic movies.

Lucas’s response? An eyeroll and a huffy, “Grow up. These are my movies, not yours.”

How rude.

Amazon's blu ray reviews - now there are more than three times as many 1* reviews as there are 5* reviews.  In fact, of the 810 reviews, 68% of them are now 1*.  I don't know if LFL can coerce enough employees to write favorable reviews to counter popular opinion. It is so heartwarming to see that we're not alone, and we're not crazy.

While I agree that Amazon should revamp their review process (heck, they've lumped the OT BD reviews together with the DVD reviews!), I think this is a special case.  Lucas treats his films differently than every other person on the planet, and extraordinary situations require extraordinary response. This is the one case I can think of where pre-emptive action is called for if there is to be any chance of turning this titanic around.

And, on a more narcissistic note, of the 810 reviews, mine has crawled it's way up to #3.

Thumbs up!

I don't care if someone starts a project and doesn't finish it. Nobody here is hurt if someone gets too busy or changes their mind... anything that actually materializes from OT.com is a bonus.  The only thing that made the X0 project different in that respect was that they collected money on the website.  I think we all learned from that and such a methodology is unlikely be used in the future.

X01138, I hope your project works out and I look forward to seeing what comes of it.  And if nothing, it's an interesting discussion.  Speaking of which, I think there is more than one video process out there called "black magic."  I had the impression that the one that laserman was using was pretty obscure, maybe even his own.

There are two kinds of "compression"... there is compression to make the file(s) smaller, and there is compression to make it sound louder.  From what I have heard, the latter type of compression has been heavily applied (as on the previous DVDs), and even providing an "uncompressed" (file) version it will still sound squashed compared to original versions.

Yeah, but who's gonna SCAN it kid, you?

Seriously, that's the rub.  No decent 35mm scanning outfit would touch it with a 10 foot pole. Although at least buying it would keep it from falling into enemy hands.

You mean like a Teac 2340 or 3340?  I still have one and it works great.

lordsidi said:

 I'm a sucker and prob will get the new blu ray set to enjoy the crisp HD picture

No, there is another...

metaender said:

 It really is problem i don’t see why you cant just download it. This MF has been fucking with us for far too long and legitimacy is not an issue here.  Everyone on this boards have spent more than enough money supporting SW thru out the years (and being treated like shit in the process) and I feel we have every right to take whatever we feel like. I know most people can find these discs on the torrent sites but if someone is not able to I will personally make it my mission to provide links to anyone who PMs me when these are out. Its not about supporting piracy its about taking whats rightfully ours and giving George long overdue middle finger.

This is a good way of getting this site shut down.  I understand that you're frustrated, but please review the rules of the forum before posting.

Here's one post:

  I've watched the uneditted versions of the originals, and frankly i didn't like them at all, but maybe that's cuz my generation don't like movies that were made in the 70s. 

 

 

I simply don't believe this.  While it may be true that many kids don't like older movies, that's just natural.  As people get older their tastes tend to expand. But I've met a lot of young people that love older movies.  I've also known some older people that don't like older movies.  Frankly, when anyone - regardless of age - makes blanket statements about older - or newer - movies, I just don't take it very seriously because it's a sign that the person isn't very open-minded.

Drunken Jedi Master said:

xhonzi said:

You're in for a treat if you and your friends have never seen Revisited.  Some of the changes I would remove if I had the talent, but the movie has never looked or sounded so good.  It really made me feel like I was watching it for the first time again.

One of my friends brought copies of the GOUT he downloaded and burned for all of us, so we all watched the prequels followed the GOUT versions. Man, it had been years since I saw it, and to be perfectly honest, I was expecting them to look WAY worse than they did (I never bought them when they were released in '06 because of how bad everyone said they looked).

You might want to consider seeing Harmy's version.  It's amazing to see the original trilogy, without all the new crap, in HD and looking sharp like the day it first appeared on the big screen.  I nearly cried, it was like being in the theater in 1977 all over again.