SKot

delos said:

I've been scouring the internet looking for a copy of My Brother's Keeper that actually has sound. Haven't had any luck. Anyone got an idea where I could find a copy for my preservation collection? Post on here or send me a message if you could. Many thanks in advance! I really want to see this ep. It's the only one I haven't seen now.

Check your PMs.

I'd really love it if MGM would release Beyond Westworld as an MOD title, too. Hope somewhere that some decent quality versions exist to do that. 

Beyond Westworld as an MOD title would be great.  I hope they do manage to do that at some point; I'll be among the first in line to purchase a copy!

Have they been doing any TV show MODs?  Seems like all the ones I've seen through Warner, MGM, etc. have been older movies and not TV shows.

--SKot

straightedge said:

Hi,

A rip of the french version is available on a french torrent site if anybody is still interested.

The quality is not that bad, and I'm wondering if it's not just a US broadcast with the french audio added.

That's quite possible...even the StarWave version had a small piece of a US broadcast tacked on at the beginning since they probably (like on most broadcast recording copies) cut the very beginning off trying to get their VCR to start up.

* EDIT: PMs sent to straightedge and MattMahdi.

--SKot

MattMahdi said:

Amazing that it would air so much later in some countries, especially the repeat airings in Australia. I would have thought Lucas would have more control / clout than to allow that to happen.

Indeed!  Well, the later airings in other countries weren't so unsurprising back then...that happened often with movies and shows that came out first in the US.  But Australia is an oddity.  No idea how they managed to repeat it so many times.

Notice that the airings did seem to cease after 1987.  Lucasfilm acquired all rights to the Holiday Special retroactively in 1989, and all airings ceased.  Maybe that's no coincidence.

I just found the French version on YouTube -- it's a weird transfer, because it looks like it's a video recording of a television broadcast, filmed at an angle. Weirder still, it's the WMAR broadcast. About 3:45 into the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f61JazO98DA

Do I have that correct? Did that version actually broadcast in France, or is this something else?

I'm stumped about that one.  It's definitely the WMAR video, but the audio is French.  Maybe someone substituted the French audio track for the better video quality of the WMAR?  Because what I've seen of the French broadcast looked terrible.

And does anyone know of a clearer source for the French broadcast?

It was sold on videotape for a while back in the 90s by some group called StarWave Video, with a semi-professional looking cover and even some photo cards with some copies.  It pops up on eBay from time to time still.  It is in SECAM, of course, which almost nobody but the French (and the Quebecois, perhaps?) can play back.

Also, is the following an actual broadcast that was dubbed in Spanish?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQX6Xu3gKbE

Yes, I believe that's the real deal.  The Mexican broadcast.  I think that guy has the whole video, not just the cartoon.  And the quality appears to be pretty good, which is amazing.  I suspect maybe there was a later Mexican broadcast from when VCRs would be a bit more common.

Lastly, for now, I'm assuming that these subtitles are after the fact. Am I correct?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6oGpCHDyH8

The subtitles seem to be much clearer than the video, which makes me doubt them to be the broadcast you've listed. But I'd be happy to be wrong.

Thanks!

That's absolutely right; they were added later...and as none said, it's Rikter's copy they used.

--SKot

MattMahdi said:

On YouTube it's pretty easy to find a Spanish broadcast of the Holiday Special. There's also what seems to be the KCMO broadcast with Spanish subtitles overlaid; the subtitles look pretty sharp and have to be added after the fact.

Are there other languages floating around out there? I've searched but without luck. I'm especially interested in different broadcasts of the cartoon.

This is what I know so far:

USA - November 17, 1978 (CBS, various local stations)

Canada - November 17, 1978 (CTV)

Mexico - December 1978 (Televisa XHGC Channel 5 (Spanish subtitles))

Argentina - December 1978 (?)

New Zealand - 1979 (?)

Belgium - 1979 (? (Dutch subtitles))
[also 1980?] (? (Dutch subtitles))

Sweden - May 31, 1979 (SVT TV 2 (Swedish subtitles))

Norway - [1979?] (? (Norwegian subtitles?))

France - January 1, 1980(?) (TF1(?) (dubbed in French))

Malaysia - late January/early February 1981/1982 (? (in English, no subtitles))

Australia - August 24, 1979 (Seven)
July 13, 1980 (?)
August 25, 1984 (ATV-10/TEN)
[also 80/81?, 82/83?, 87?] (?)

The French version is the coolest one, because not only is it totally dubbed into French by the same French actors who did the trilogy...but it also is the shortest edit, cutting out many of the worst comedy and variety bits.  Who would have guessed the French could recognize bad comedy?

--SKot

P.S. - I'd love to see what none could do with this list as far as digging up more info...his internets archaeology kung fu skillz are far beyond mine!

pufnstuf said:

Anyone see The Colbert Report last night?  Colbert went on a fan-boy tirade about a report of Chewbacca attending an Alice in Wonderland party at the White House that even included references to the Holiday Special!

http://www.lewiscarroll.org/2012/01/11/stephen-colbert-on-alicegate-chewbacca-in-wonderland/

 That was awesome.  Colbert is not only a funny man, but he knows his Star Wars well.  And the Holiday Special, as it turns out.

--SKot

MattMahdi said:

Mahjong123 said:

Definitely enjoyed watching Glee last night with their heavy SWHS basis... with all the people they target, could be some added pressure to GL to release it... you never know! Must have been based on a KCCI copy... easy to tell when you've seen it as often as I!

The first time through I just skimmed the episode.

Then, figuring I *must* have missed something, I watched it start to finish: nope, nothing.

The only thing I didn't see was closing credits, my tivo didn't capture them. Just ended with a crane shot moving away from the foursome bell-ringing.

So no direct references to the SWHS?  That's disappointing.

Maybe they figured, "it's Christmas, we have Chewbacca, Star Wars Holiday Special!"

I still haven't seen it, so I dunno...

--SKot

MattMahdi said:

I need two volunteers, maybe three. If you're interested then reply via PM.

What I have is a disc of Holiday Special miscellanea. I've been gathering material for years, archiving various videos, and now I'm trying to organize it. And I think I have a reasonable beta version.

The disc itself will be released later. Right now I need quality control and an outside viewpoint.

If you'd be willing to give it a serious critique, to analyze and then nitpick anything that seems out of place, then send me a PM. 

Thanks,

Matt, I may be already on your Christmas list, but I'd be interested in reviewing what you've gathered.  Let me know if you need my info.

--SKot

ginjaninja said:

Hey  Skot,

I was wondering which version of the holiday special was the best. Sadly, I'm not old enough to have seen this on TV, but I grew up with Star Wars and really enjoy watching weird spin-offs and such. So, if there is some way you could tell me which version is the best and where I can get it, (I'll gladly pay via paypal) I would be very grateful

Thanks,

Henry

 No one here is going to ask for money for a copy of the Holiday Special (nor should they accept money for it!).  Your best bet is to look for the KCCI version, since it is the most common.  If you can find the Zion version, go for that one.  Getting it via torrent is the best way.  I'm going to take a guess that if you weren't old enough to see the special, you're probably young enough to be pretty tech and torrent-savvy.

--SKot

Mahjong123 said:

Definitely enjoyed watching Glee last night with their heavy SWHS basis... with all the people they target, could be some added pressure to GL to release it... you never know! Must have been based on a KCCI copy... easy to tell when you've seen it as often as I!

 Here's hoping the pressure builds up enough over time that George finally relents and releases the thing...

Zion's hybrid looks to be very interesting, but I have no clue what MySpleen is. Anyone care to enlighten me a bit?? I think it'd be good to see how good quality-wise that release is. From the screencap, it looks miles better (and clearer!) than all the others.

 Check your PMs.

--SKot

pittrek said:

grisan said:

Monroville said:

Anyone know where to find the ZION version?

 

Now also available on myspleen.

 

In the case you don't know it, I must tell you YOU'RE GREAT ;-)

 Indeed, sir; you are a gentleman and a scholar!

woodsyallen said:

If only I knew what this myspleen everyone speaks of is...

...actually I have a pretty good idea of what it is. if only I had a way to access it. haha

Check your PMs.

--SKot

Having viewed the 5 Beyond Westworld episodes from the torrent now, I made a few observations:

S01E01 "Westworld Destroyed" - Taken from a videotaped broadcast source, as evidenced by the announcer's voiceover on the credits.

S01E02 "My Brother's Keeper" - Also from a videotaped broadcast, but for some reason this particular copy had no sound. An alternate version I watched from a different videotape source had sound but was missing the opening teaser segment.

S01E03 "Sound of Terror" - This is the last episode that was actually shown on TV, but this version was not from a videotape: it was taken from a low-budget telecine of an actual film copy of the episode.  You can tell by the "hairy frame" around the edge of the picture, which looks exactly like the 8mm and 16mm films I've had transferred in the past (only a bit worse).  The focus is very soft, and there are actually "INSERT COMMERCIAL HERE" bumpers at the breaks.

S01E04 "The Lion" - Not broadcast.  Same kind of telecine transfer from an original film copy.

S01E05 "The Takeover" - Not broadcast.  Same kind of telecine transfer from film.  This final unaired episode unfortunately cuts off before the credits...but features George Takei as a robot doctor!  Also, this episode and the one preceding it feature Russell Johnson of Gilligan's Island fame in what was probably going to be a recurring role, had the series continued.

So someone out there somewhere had the actual film reels for episodes 3, 4, and 5 and had them transferred.  How many generations the torrent copies are from the original, it's hard to say...but I'm guessing the first generation looked a little sharper.  As far as the videotaped first two episodes go, they were broadcast copies recorded off the air.

On the whole, these were not as bad as I kind of expected they might be.  In fact, I rather enjoyed them.  The acting was a bit hammy, as to be expected, and the whole "hiding a nuke-carrying robot in a rock band" concept was a bit of an eye-roller, but this wasn't a half bad show for 1980.  Much better than Galactica 1980, for sure!

--SKot

dark_jedi said:

I used to think the KCCI version was the best, but Zions version is definitely better, actually way better to me, I just looked it over yesterday, Zion did a great job on this release, and I agree with him that this is probably the best this will ever be.

 I don't think Zion's version has ever made it to the 'Spleen...maybe it's about time it did.

--SKot

Asaki said:

Hmm. Judging by those screenshots, the unavailability of the Zion Hybrid, and the complete lack of answers to my question, I guess I'll just go with the Google Videos version (which appears to be the WMAR?).

 The short answer is the KCCI version is still the best, based on availability.

--SKot

Video Collector said:

Could someone on here maybe shed some light on the different versions I have? None, I'm looking at you :-)

This might help a little...

What's the story behind the Zion Hybrid and the WMAR "Ruthless" edit?

I don't know anything about the "Ruthless" edit (a trim-down, perhaps?) but I do know that Zion's Hybrid took different sources and combined them to get the best elements of each for an overall better picture.  The results are obvious, as seen in that screen shot above.  However, I'm not sure why the aspect ratio is goofed up there...

The VCD capture is a little unfair, as it clears up after the first minute and looks okay after that. That VCD version was my first (1999, I believe), and it cost me an arm and a leg. Like SKot, I'd heard about this special for years, since 1983, actually. It was only with the advent of the internet and eBay I was able to first see it.

I do find it odd that I don't know anyone who had a copy of the Holiday Special prior to 1994*...which was right about the time when the world wide web started happening.  Of course, after that point copies began to spread all over the world, and eventually the better versions (like the KCCI) started to supersede the really dreadful ones, particularly when people were able to make digital copies and generational quality loss mostly ceased.

--SKot

* Obviously the original tapers had their copies before this, but they either weren't sharing or hadn't shared very widely yet.  If anyone can verify having a copy of the HS before 1994, I'd love to hear the details.

MattMahdi said:

Video Collector said:

"VCD version" from eBay about ten years ago. No station identifier that I could find.

That's a beauty. Makes me wish I still had my old VHS copy... got it from someone on the Internet back around 1996.

I've actually still got my original VHS copy I bought from an underground music store back in 1994 or 95.  It was the first copy I had ever run across, or even heard about...ever.  Considering I'd been trying to find it since the original airing back in 1978, I was ecstatic when I saw it!

It had a xeroxed wraparound cover on orange paper taped over the standard store-bought videotape sleeve, and the quality was absolutely horrible.  But just to see it and to be able to show people that it really exists was worth the price of admission...

--SKot

I've heard that Taiyo Yuden makes the highest quality blank laserdisc media.

I usually buy LASER+R (rather than the older LASER-R format) discs with printable surface so I can print my own laserdisc art. It was a real pain finding an inkjet printer with an 11.81" media printing tray, though...

--SKot

Alexrd said:

SKot said:

I know that AOTC has some slight color timing changes and possibly a small audio addition, but I'm only counting actual frame editing changes here...so for the sake of this listing I'm considering it the basically the same version.

AotC does have edited frames. Some shots are on a different order after Dooku's duel with Yoda.

See here.

Thanks for the tip...it seems there have been some relevant changes to AOTC after all, so I will change the list accordingly.

--SKot

woodsyallen said:

 

I see. I guess I Just figured from the quote 

The KCCI version is too dark and over-smoothed IMO - although it was the best quality available at one point.

that there was another version out there that was better quality and considered to be the new version "to get".

 

I think overall the KCCI is your best bet.  It's also probably the most common nowadays.  Of course if you can get hold of the Zion hybrid, that's worth a shot too.

Ideally, what we really need (besides a droid who understands the binary language of moisture vaporators) is a new and improved transfer of the KCCI version from the master broadcast recording, WITH commercials and bumpers intact.  This was being worked on some time back, but unfortunately progress stalled at the source.  Hopefully that gets back on track again soonish.

--SKot

HAPPY LIFE DAY!

33 years of SWHS today.

--SKot

satanika said:

Look for c-westwrld-rp for the transport stream.

EDIT: Looks like there could be a German BD of Futureworld soon? http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=7501

EDIT2: Australian BD of Futureworld out today it seems.

Then it looks like the films themselves are both available (or will be) in HD on BD, so we're set there.  All we need to do now is dig up the TV cut of Westworld and the Beyond Westworld series in decent quality.

--SKot

I blame Star Wars.

--SKot

agr1170 said:

SKot said:

I picked up these discs from the source way back when they first came out.  At the time they were the best versions of the trilogy/Special Edition, but they also were the first discs I ever had go bad.  I was never able to copy them due to CRC errors, but I still have them, covers and all.  I doubt they play anymore.

--SKot

I acquired these way back to when they came out and mine still play great, heck of job however they were made, look like actual pressed DVDs, gold discs, labels look like a real DVD as do the covers, Dual layer, Im not a fan of the SEs but I would say these are the best versions of the original SEs out there.

I have a feeling mine were flawed when I got them.  I remember trying to copy them right away, and not being able to due to errors.  I also had trouble playing at least one of the discs right off the bat...sometimes it would play, sometimes WinDVD would just sit there.  The problems just seemed to get worse over time.

These were the best versions of the SE I had up to now, but I finally got hold of the G'Kar, TB, and Flunk versions which showed up on the 'Spleen recently.  TB looks to be the best overall for Episodes V & VI SEs and the theatrical Episode I, and the Flunk is the best Episode IV SE I've seen.

--SKot

I picked up these discs from the source way back when they first came out.  At the time they were the best versions of the trilogy/Special Edition, but they also were the first discs I ever had go bad.  I was never able to copy them due to CRC errors, but I still have them, covers and all.  I doubt they play anymore.

--SKot

satanika said:

There's a Westworld HDTV rip floating around.

Now THAT would be worth preservation...at least until a BD of Westworld comes out (whenever that might be).

--SKot

SilverWook said:

Didn't know there was a making of DVD. Is this the same as the Westworld featurette that airs on Turner Classic Movies once in a while?

I'm not sure.  The one I've seen I streamed from Netflix here.

Amazing that there hasn't been a bloated remake of Westworld yet.

Funny you should mention that...

I think there's a good chance we'll see the series as a MOD release sometime. I never thought we'd see a release of "The Man From Atlantis" show, so anything is possible now.

I love the MOD release concept.  It's given us hundreds of movie titles on DVD that otherwise would be deemed "unmarketable" or "unprofitable".

--SKot