Shadow98

Hey Harmy,
first of all, congratulations on the wedding and all the best for both of you!

I just wanted to add that in addition to the May 70mm premiere print of The Empire Strikes Back, there is also a 70mm print from the June general release. I had the opportunity to watch this one — the quality is really good, with finer detail than 4K80, and detail and grain similar to 4K83.

Hence my question: Could the 70mm print possibly also serve as an additional source for shots that are not quite optimal in 4K80? Sure, 70mm is cropped compared to 35mm, but perhaps the cropped areas could be supplemented with 4K80 material where necessary? Just an idea.

Hey, just a small observation I hadn’t seen mentioned yet — in the first Tatooine scene, there’s a noticeable difference between versions.

The sky in Despecialized v2.7 (same as in all releases up to 2019) looks pretty natural, but in the UHD Blu-ray, it seems either brightened or replaced. There’s also a soft edge between the sand and sky that looks a bit off. Seems like this change was introduced in the UHD version.

Despecialized v2.7

UHD Blu-ray

13las said:

I want to thank you all for your continued support and excitement. I promise that I am still working on this project! Wish that I had something new to share to show my progress, but I don’t. Life always seems to find a way to get in the way, but I hope to have some free time in the next couple of months to get much closer to the finish line on this daunting project.

In case you’re wondering, the script that I’ve written for this project is currently sitting at a, frankly, insane total of 331 pages long. I think that would be something like 8 hours all told, give or take. And, yes, I do plan to release it all in a single marathon-length video.

The video will be roughly half voice-over narration, used over the changes themselves and to explain history and context.
The other half is going to be me on-camera, primarily to show off some physical items. I actually have a pretty sizable collection of SW home video releases and ephemera (from Super 8 to 4K and everything in between). And I think that will help to tell this story in a really definitive and visually interesting way.

Like I said, the prep and writing is essentially done — and that includes collecting B-roll and assembling all of the changes themselves in my Premiere timeline. It’s just a matter of recording/filming and then editing it altogether. Hopefully I’ll have something cool to show off relatively soon!

Thanks so much for the update! Totally understandable that it’s taking time — no stress at all. Really appreciate the work you’re putting into this, and I’m looking forward to it whenever it’s ready 😊

I was rewatching the 1997 mix of Empire and spotted a small detail I hadn’t seen mentioned yet: right after C-3PO says “Excuse us, please,” the “Headquarters personnel, report to command center” line plays again. Pretty sure that wasn’t in the earlier (pre-’97) mixes — at least I don’t remember hearing it. Not sure if it’s still in the later versions either.

It’s a really minor thing, but thought I’d flag it in case it’s helpful for documentation.

Here’s a clip for reference:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DexxxkrKIl0oqXHYYGti3L02R_yTnJ-n

Edit: Just noticed something else kind of interesting — Boba Fett’s line “He’s no good to me dead” has a distinct distorted filter in all of the original mixes (35mm stereo, 70mm 6-track, Mono), but in the 1993 mix there’s no effect on it at all. In the 1997 mix, there is an effect again, but it’s much more subtle compared to the original versions. The 1980 70mm recreation doesn’t have the effect either, but the actual 70mm track as heard in 4K80 does include it.

There’s actually another scene in the 1997 mix where his voice was processed differently — this video shows a comparison of that change really well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYANLwLB-bQ

Ah okay, good to know! 😊

Hey, this project sounds super cool! Not sure if it’s still being worked on, but I came across a copy of the Ultimate Toy Box DVD on the Internet Archive. It includes several original audio tracks from Toy Story 1 and 2 – like the English Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, the French dub, sound effects only, and an audio commentary by the filmmakers.

If you’re interested, I’d be happy to share them in case they’re useful for the project!
Also, any chance you could share a link to the current version? I’d love to check it out. 😃

I remember watching your older comparison videos — they were already pretty good, but these WIP videos are clearly even more detailed and well-researched. It’s great to see how thoroughly you’re breaking everything down.

While looking into some of the original audio mixes myself, I came across a few more differences between the stereo and mono versions of A New Hope that might be worth noting.

Here are a few videos that highlight these and other mix differences — could be helpful as references:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W-Ij64FaE0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf7a-Pdznf8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IheRbiaoBn8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QeugdaNbt8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXpcYcZNDw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2I2NSECyK0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfC3DGKEbiA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTvSrAb28aQ

Also, regarding the missing snowspeeder crash sound in the 1993 audio mix of The Empire Strikes Back — I think I found it. Here’s a clip where it can be heard:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sGFi3gcT7Dc7R7dGsEhI6XrwxUIIVT3e

One more thing — there’s a comparison list between the 70mm and 1993 Laserdisc mixes over on the forums. It might include a few changes you haven’t listed yet:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/70mm-mix-to-93-mix-comparison-Released/id/6501

Thanks for the quick reply. Looking forward to it!

Hello Harmy, will ESB v3.0 have the same color reference as v2.0 as this has a very great color correction which is much better than the UHD Blu ray. I think 4K97-V from the TSWT.com forums could also serve as inspiration for color correction, as it also has very good colors and should probably be very close to the theatrical version.

I saw on the forums.thestarwarstrilogy.com that a change to the 2019 BD has been discovered that is not documented anywhere yet. I wanted to share this information here so that this change can be reversed for DEED v3.0 or other projects if necessary for maximum accuracy.

I’m not sure if this change has been mentioned anywhere or if anyone else has noticed it, but I spotted something in the first scene on Tatooine.

When comparing Despecialized v2.7 and the UHD Blu-ray, I noticed that the sky appears to have been either brightened or replaced. I also saw that there’s a visible soft edge between the sand and the sky, which doesn’t look quite right. It looks like this change was introduced with the UHD Blu-ray.

Here are some comparison images:

• Despecialized v2.7:
• UHD Blu-ray:

I haven’t seen any discussions about this yet, and in a sneak peek video from Harmy, this change seems to have been kept—though you can briefly see the original sky during a wipe.

Would it maybe be possible to revert this for v3.0?

For Return of the Jedi, Adywan might know which shots from the 2011 Blu-ray look better, since he already replaced some during the color grading of the 2020 BD. It could be worth asking him.

For Star Wars, as YAREL_RGP already mentioned, TGWNN would be the best person to ask, though I’m not sure if his 2020 BD remastering project is finished yet.

As for The Empire Strikes Back, I’m not aware of any similar project, but Adywan did mention at least one shot from the 2020 BD with bad framing. Maybe he knows of other problematic shots as well.

It would definitely be helpful if users could share their findings on specific shots with heavy DNR, frozen grain, or other issues. That way, projects like Despecialized (or any other restorations) could benefit from that information. A community-driven “worst offenders” list could make things much easier to tackle.

Hey Laserschwert,

Huge thanks for your amazing work on the 4K Krieg der Sterne trilogy! The detail you’ve put in is incredible.

But noticed a small difference in the credits when comparing your version to the German 1993 LaserDisc. The timing and positioning aren’t exactly the same. Not sure if the 1993 LD matches the theatrical cut exactly, but since the 1990 Sat.1 broadcast has the same credits (and was likely based on the theatrical version), I assume it’s more accurate. Here’s the recording: 93 LD Credits.

Also, the Greedo subtitles look very similar to the 1990 broadcast but are positioned a bit differently.

On another note, in addition to the German 1980 Empire Strikes Back 35mm print, there’s also a German 1997 Return of the Jedi 35mm print now. Since it uses the same initial crawl as the original theatrical release, the print could be used for future projects instead of re-creating the crawl. The print was scanned by The Aluminum Falcon, and more info is here: forums.thestarwarstrilogy.com.

Just a few minor things, but thought they might be helpful for future projects like a German 4K**-Trilogy or Despecialized v3.0 translations.

Thanks again for all the great work!

The guy with no name may be able to help find the bad shots. He worked on a remaster of the 2020 Blu-ray of Star Wars and fixed many of the known problems, including detail loss, static grain and displaced power windows.

Since his project was never officially released, but he is still active, you might ask him if he knows a list of problematic shots on the UHD Blu-ray or if he could even provide finished, fixed shots.
If you would like to find out more, here is the link to the project: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/STAR-WARS-EPISODE-IV-2020-4K-blu-ray-Remastered-WIP/id/99662/
Maybe that would make the work for v3.0 a little easier. 😃

Hi Harmy, will shots like these that were heavily bad affected by DNR in the UHD blu-ray be replaced for v.3.0 e.g. with 4K77 footage, or if perhaps with upscales of the 2011 blu-ray if it has more detail?

Example:

I took a few screenshots from the German 1997 35mm print to give an idea of how it looks.

Here are a few examples:

Hey Harmy,

I wanted to ask if other 35mm sources could be considered for ESB Despecialized v3.0. I came across a German 1997 35mm print in TheStarWarsTrilogy.com forum that looks really fantastic – great colors, not too much grain, and in many areas it looks better than the official UHD Blu-ray.

I’ve only seen a couple scenes from 4K80, but they seemed grainier than this 97 copy. Could this be a good source for undoing changes made in the 2004 and 2011 versions, like the Emperor scene or the zoomed Millenium Falcon cockpit shots? Or perhaps to replace some of the bad looking UHD Blu-ray scenes that suffered from heavy digital noise reduction to achieve the best possible restoration of Empire Strikes Back?

I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on this!