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RowMan

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Join date
2-Apr-2004
Last activity
5-Feb-2023
Posts
315

Post History

Post
#181087
Topic
Inexpensive solution for those wanting to view PAL DVDs in NTSC-land
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/181087/action/topic#181087
Time
I've seen a few posts from people wanting NTSC conversions of some of the PAL produced projects so they don't have to watch the DVDs on their computers. Here's a relatively inexpensive solution that has worked for me these past few years.

I recommend the Cyberhome CH-DVD 300 for playing PAL formatted discs in NTSC-land. It's readily available at Best Buy or Walmart either instore or online usually for $40 or less. I've had one for a few years and, although it's not my main player, it certainly does the job well for the price. It can be easily hacked to play any DVD regardless of it's region code and also properly sizes the aspect ratio of anamorphic widescreen PAL DVDs. I have even use it to convert PAL content to NTSC for my own DVD releases.

Just thought I'd share.
Post
#181083
Topic
***//BUILDING EMPIRE\\: PAL & NTSC DVD - NEW EDITION NOW ONLINE! ***
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/181083/action/topic#181083
Time
For all those in NTSC land like myself, I recommend the Cyberhome CH-DVD 300 for playing the PAL formatted discs being produced here by people on this site. It's readily available at Best Buy and Walmart either instore or online usually for $40 or less. I've had one for a few years and, although it's not my main player, it certainly does the job well for the price. It can be easily hacked to play any DVD regardless of it's region code and also properly sizes the aspect ratio of anamorphic widescreen PAL DVDs. I have even use it to convert PAL content to NTSC for my own DVD releases.
Post
#179450
Topic
***The Official RowMan*** Release Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/179450/action/topic#179450
Time
I think the R2 Search footage is from Empire of Dreams. The "scene" is on Deleted Magic and is somewhat recreated using the EOD footage and audio, audio from the SW radio drama, some quick shots from SW, and what looks like a newly created shot of the speeder's viewscreen graphics topped off with a moving still of 3PO and Luke in the speeder.

The THX demos came from a Best Buy demo disc. They were originally transferred from an old VHS recording of the THX WOW! laserdisc for my very first release of the bonus disc.

I'm not sure if it makes a huge difference capturing regular VHS from an S-VHS VCR, but I do utilize the S-Video output. It's the best VHS machine I've got so I mind as well use it, ya know?
Post
#179060
Topic
***The Official RowMan*** Release Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/179060/action/topic#179060
Time
Yep, OCP, the Jabba scene is from Return of the Ewok. Biggie thanks!!!

I had considered putting in Bast and Search for R2, but Bast did eventually end up being used in a Star Wars program and the R2 scene was a little more "ragged" that I would have liked. What I mean by that is that it contains a clapperboard shot, unfinished moving backgrounds, and the sound is too obviously out of sync as it is from the radio drama. It was much more geared toward being shown in Deleted Magic because it seems more "behind-the-scenesy" than being a full scene or fully reconstructed scene. Just personal preference. I will, however, seriously consider the Bespin Kiss scene if I ever decide to create an updated version on the TESB bonus disc.

Knightmessenger, The Faces interview transfers came directly from the original VHS tapes to a DVD recorder with no modification of the video signal at all. I guess that's just the way it turned out. Check out my meager setup a few posts up.

Ell the Ewok, I'm not sure if the bonus disc covers are downloadable anywhere. I believe Rikter created them, though. They look great! Personally, I keep my bonus discs in the same case as the EditDroid Star Wars movies. I created the bonus discs for the "two-disc-set" effect.

Post
#177974
Topic
***The Official RowMan*** Release Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/177974/action/topic#177974
Time
Faces interviews were from VHS. Even though I used an S-VHS machine to capture, the source is still plain old VHS. Making of Star Wars was from Rikter's laserdisc capture. On my original SW disc (pre-EditDroid menus), the Making of was from VHS.

Actually, the "Underoos guy" was quite eager to loan me his tape since we are both SW fans. He said that although the commercial was cheesy, he had a blast doing it when he was just eight years old. He loaned me the tape a few years before I ever thought I'd produce a fan-made VCD or DVD.
Post
#177306
Topic
***The Official RowMan*** Release Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/177306/action/topic#177306
Time
As with the prior version, the videos play one after the other within their individual catagories (Trailers, Auditions, Del Scenes) and then go back to the menu. For example: If you chose TRAILERS from the main menu and then chose the first trailer from the sub menu, all the trailers would play and return to the main menu. This is really just inherent in my particular DVD authoring program.

Since the DVD is basically for the original version of Star Wars, I chose not to include any SE material at all. I have seen that comparision THX promo before, but was unable to locate it. As far as trailers, I thought the inclusion of them was a must because I wanted to create an "as-close-to-an-official-release-as-possible" disc while following in the design of the EditDroid release. Incidentally, there is at least one trailer per movie (two for Jedi if I remember correctly) that is NOT on the 2004 release.

I didn't include the "Chief Bast" scene because it was actually used in the Holiday Special. I thought other deleted footage in TESB and ROTJ were better represented as stills because the video available was so brief. Also, I believe parts of "Another Bespin Kiss" were shown in Empire of Dreams. Since it was sort of segmented and not the full scene, I opted to change that to stills as well to stay within the "gallery" format of the TESB bonus disc.

Ultimately, the sources for all of this stuff mainly came from the group here. I started with my own VHS and downloaded MPEG1 sources in my very first release over two years ago, but it turned out others had way better quality than I had. (Except for the Underoos promo which came from an old workmate who was actually IN the commercial!) So I guess I can now really only be credited with bringing all the material together to match the EditDroid released movies.

For capture and authoring I use:

JVC S-VHS HR-S4800U for tape playback
Cyberhome CH-300 for DVD playback PAL to NTSC conversion when necessary
LiteOn LVW-5001 DVD+R recorder for capturing and encoding at multiple, fixed bitrates to MPEG2
PowerDVD for screencaps JPGs to use as background images
The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) to create menu images and title cards
TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5.34.89
Post
#177016
Topic
***The Official RowMan*** Release Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/177016/action/topic#177016
Time
There has been an update to my Star Wars bonus disc. I have cleaned up a few minor minor issues I could have lived with, but the main thing is the addition of the original Jabba scene. When I first authored the disc, the quality of this footage was not good enough or complete enough to use. But now, the scene is available in its almost complete form so I thought it should be included for completeness sake. The only other noticable changes are that the navigational pointer graphics are a little different and title cards now appear before each deleted scene.

Thanks to those who worked so hard to make that footage as good as it could possibly be. My SW Bonus disc is now complete... really!

PM me or email me (address is in profile), and I'll start sending out PIF discs to anyone who wants them.
Post
#148475
Topic
"FACES" (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/148475/action/topic#148475
Time
Originally posted by: WESHALLPRESERVE
I got the original THX 1995 pan and scan tapes, and DVD transfers of the same set in widescreen that were copied from the VHS that I got at a fair.
You can tell on e-bay, if its a good picture and you can read the back, under the credits it would say:

THIS FILM HAS BEEN MODIFIED FROM ITS ORIGINAL VERSION. IT HAS BEEN FORMATTED TO FIR YOUR SCREEN

Thats how you could tell.
On the face of widescreen THX tapes there is a very thin strip at the top that actually says "WIDESCREEN." Also, the widescreen tapes were only sold as a set in a larger rectagular black box with Vader's face and the text "WIDESCREEN EDITION" on the front.
Originally posted by: WESHALLPRESERVE
I have a question DJ, is the "One last time" trailer on any of the DVD's? I love that trailer!

The "One Last Time" promo (as well as other vintage SW home video promos) can be found on my bonus discs as well as the three part Lucas interview.

Excellent, job, DJ! Now we have accurate DVD representations of both the Definitive Collection set (Dr. Gonzo) and the Faces set! Thanks!!!
Post
#146615
Topic
Idea: Preserving Episodes 1-3?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/146615/action/topic#146615
Time
TPM has been released in its original theatrical cut on laserdisc in Japan and letterboxed VHS in the US. Though the film's not the greatest, I would be interested in a theatrical version preservation on DVD. I have both the laserdisc and tape, but lack the equipment and software to really make good DVD out of them.

Now where can we find the theatrical cut of AOTC?
Post
#141127
Topic
Info Wanted: Star Tours footage?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/141127/action/topic#141127
Time
Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
...Rowman, what are these clips like you're talking about?

In late 1986, Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) and Ernie Reyes Jr. (the kid from Surf Ninjas and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II), hosted 'A Vacation In Space', promoting the Star Tours ride at Disneyland. C-3PO and R2-D2 also made appearances. The show takes a peek at how Star Tours was made and also at the history of space travel and space-flicks. At the end, Ernie actually goes on the Starspeeder, giving away some teasers of the ride itself. However, most notably, at the beginning of the special, R2-D2 and C-3PO do a rap song which ends up being the highlight of this 17 minute 'commercial'.

http://www.lucasfan.com/swtv/st4.jpghttp://www.lucasfan.com/swtv/st5.jpg
http://www.lucasfan.com/swtv/st6.jpghttp://www.lucasfan.com/swtv/st2.jpg
Post
#139780
Topic
Info Wanted: 'IMAX: Special Effects' / Star Wars
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/139780/action/topic#139780
Time
The IMAX film was just called, "Special Effects." Could this be it?

Behind The Scenes with King Kong in Special Effects


EDIT: I just looked at some Amazon.com reviews and it look like this video is a behind-the-scenes look at how King Kong was created for the Special Effects film. Neither reviewer mentions any Star Wars sequence on this video.

More investigation shows that the runtime of this video is 33 minutes, while the actual IMAX movie is 40 minutes. Could this video be a stripped down version without the Star Wars sequences?
Post
#139435
Topic
Info Wanted: The Pink Five Collection
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/139435/action/topic#139435
Time
Thanks for clearing that up, Trey. I kind of figured that something like that was going on. I was a bit wary of including Pink Five on the bonus disc I made thinking it may soon get a DVD release, but it truly is a classic and one of the best SW fan films ever, so I split it down the middle and kept it hidden on the menu. I have no intention of releasing Strikes Back or Return. I really only wanted to see a decent copy.

If the inclusion of Pink Five is a super problem, I will either never mention its availability as an easter egg again or completely remove it from my bonus disc at your request.

Fantastic work! Kudos to you all and a special "Hi" to dear Amy.
Post
#138425
Topic
***The Official RowMan*** Release Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/138425/action/topic#138425
Time
Originally posted by: RowMan
Originally posted by: russs15
I had a funny feeling that another version existed.

I recall seeing screenshots on one of Rikters pages of the 3 film menu's and the 4 disc extras set and the 3 bonus discs were different to the ones I now have.

As this set is in general public release, I would like to if possible add this other version to the DVD version pages to assist future readers.

Do you or anyone else have those screenshots. Rikters page seems to be long gone otherwise I would have got them there.

A few words from the creator about the official titles of each version would be appreciated too.


The versions with the generic, film-type menus screens shown earlier in this thread are Version 1. These discs were later updated with SW style menu screens, but the content remained the same. This version could be called Version 1.1 . My latest EditDroid-style editions were revamped with updated menus, better transfers, content additions, and content deletions. I would say that these discs would be Version 2. I'll dig out the old discs and give complete info with menu shots on the older versions soon.


Sorry. I've been away for a bit. If anyone still cares, I was able to dig up the main menus for my V1.1 bonus discs.


http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a94/RowMan/V1%201%20Bonus%20Disc%20Main%20Menus/SW_Bonus_V1-1.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a94/RowMan/V1%201%20Bonus%20Disc%20Main%20Menus/TESB_Bonus_V1-1.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a94/RowMan/V1%201%20Bonus%20Disc%20Main%20Menus/ROTJ_Bonus_V1-1.jpg