SilverWook

Yeah, but on the plus side, Leia in the metal bikini, and Oola's little wardrobe malfunction. ;P

When was the last time you saw a movie in 3D? The new tech is nothing like what was inflicted on moviegoers in the 80's. I suffer from migraines, and not one digital 3D film I've seen this decade has caused me any problems. The stuff I saw in the 80's did though.

I do agree that processing something shot flat into 3D is a something of a ripoff. I wish the studios would dust off some of the 50's 3D films, and show people how it was done old school.

If TCM was to show the DC anytime soon, that would be an easy way to get it degraded slightly to match the LD. I've seen a Betamax tape on Ebay released back before the classic shield logo was revived, but what logo is on there is anyone's guess.

I've also had a thought to ask the fellow who posted the Italian dub of the Warner cut to youtube about getting a copy of the whole thing. It's likely not NTSC though.

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

doubleofive said:

Loved the premiere, didn't even realize the first episode was a prequel to Rookies! I really seem to like the episodes where none of the main characters have much to do with it. While Anakin was in the second episode, he didn't do much, but I was surprised in what he did do. Instead of trying to arrest Ventriss, he was going to have the clones execute her. Finally, a hint of dark side!

Last week's episode wasn't terrible. Sure, it was Jar Jar, but he did what he does best, and they freaking went to Toydaria! I love Toydarians! The Jedi responsible for the Twi'leks was also great, brought a tear to my eye by the end.

That's what Clone Wars is able to do: make me emotional for characters. Even identical characters, or characters that are only around for that one episode.

On a side note, I like that all of the ship commanders look like they're the guys from Tarkin's Conference Room. A lovely tie in. Which reminds me, that's who this series needs: Tarkin. Not Greedo.

IIRC, Anakin Force-choked someone for information last season. Not what a Jedi is supposed to do.

One of the ship commanders is one of the guys in the conference room!

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wullf_Yularen

I think we might see Tarkin eventually, as we're getting closer to the events of Episode III. Hopefully they could get someone that sounds like a younger Peter Cushing.

As a fellow 704 owner, a bit of advice. Do not use the auto reverse if you can possibly help it. (You can disable it by programming auto repeat of side A.) The unit is like a Rube Goldberg invention on the inside, and the turn mechanism relies on a cheap little spring to get the laser pickup aligned when it turns upward to read side B. My player self destructed because of that cheap little spring wearing out!

You will also have to contend with slippage of the disc clamping mechanism as the rubber degrades over time, (the player might not be able to slow the disc spinning down when "stop" is pressed) but it's not as traumatic as hearing the awful sound of the laser pickup flying off it's little rails.

Did you solve your demodulator problem?

Initial impressions. It's the same print but might be a new transfer. The white fleck is still there. (Burned into the print source?) Color seems a bit more vivid in places. Will try a transfer and some A/B comparisons when the heatwave lets up.

In spite of what the LDDB has to say, there is no trailer on the disc.

msycamore, have you tinkered with with the old Warner/Kinney logo yet?

Not sure about a voltage meter. You could try running into a tv audio input and turning up the volume just enough to see if you hear anything.

Does the "RF LOCK" indicator ever light up? Does moving the switch from "opt" to "coax" do anything?

Unusual that the unit does not have an optical output, only coax. The ones I've seen usually have both.

Plug a DVD or CD player into the optical or coax inputs and see if it passes the signal to a receiver.

I know this will sound a bit crazy, but connect the AC3 output to the audio input of a VCR or tape deck with VU meters if you've got one. (Keep your amp shut off or tv speakers turned all the way down to be on the safe side.) If anything is coming out at all, the meter ought to do something.

I've heard the AC3 signal by accident a couple times with my old analog only player before switching to the mono track. Sounds a lot like a fax machine or dial up modem!

What model demodulator did you finally end up getting?

Did they drop that "Chapter ** In the Complete Adventures of Indiana Jones" stuff at least?

The disc arrived early today. I was pretty groggy this morning, and barely knew what I was signing for, until the postman said "Wow! Someone still owns a Laserdisc player?" ;)

Will try and at least spot check the transfer tonight. We're having an early fall heatwave around here, and I'd rather run my antique video gear when it's a lot cooler indoors.

ChainsawAsh said:

Not to reopen this can of worms, but ...

Crystal Skull is lightyears better than any of the prequels.  It's not that much worse than Temple or Crusade (which is only good because of Sean Connery and the last 30-40 minutes).  Raiders is the only legitimately good Indy film (which is why I'm glad it doesn't have "Indiana Jones" in the title - it makes it easy to keep it separate from the inferior sequel trilogy).

Try telling George that. He amended the official title starting with the late 90's THX VHS release.

Thankfully, the opening credits have been left alone!

My second oldest S-VHS editing started to go crazy on me towards the end of a long project to black out the commercial breaks on a big stack of tapes a few years back. It would go berserk if you engaged the shuttle/jog modes or simply shut down when hitting fast forward. It also tried to eat a few tapes before I finally pulled the plug. I honestly thought my AG-1970 would go belly up first, yet it lives!

I never could find a reputable or authorized repair center near enough to me. I was also dealing with illness in the family at the same time, and it was ultimately a lot easier just to replace it when I lucked out in finding a brand new unit on Ebay. Would my old deck be of any use to anyone here? I thought I would ask before sending it off to the big recycling center in the sky. I have too much obsolete or dead gear underfoot already!

JediTray said:

I can definitely relate.  I've been there since 1977, and wow what a time it was.  No home video, no Internet, just going to see the film whenever we could, blasting the soundtrack on the hi-fi, waiting on the action figures to arrive in the mail....

It was a simpler time.

I guess now would be a bad time to mention one of my neighbors had a Betamax back then, and claimed he had a SW bootleg.

I actually was more impressed by another format I'd read about in a magazine the same year. ;)

There was a fledgling home video market even then, but it wasn't exactly family fare if you know what I mean. :P

These are really cool, especially if you've ever seen the real world ones that inspired these.

http://www.pbh2.com/2010/04/incredible-star-wars-propoganda-posters.html

dark_jedi, would you be willing to help out with THX if I can get the old Laserdisc of ROTLD and capture it for you?

As the original audio is mono, a Beta Hi-fi copy might also do in a pinch.

When Star Wars and MTV collide!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdXryyFw7No

The problem is Lucas and company are acting like nothing has been changed, hence "The Director's Cut" blue smoke and mirrors act. He restored his cut right after Star Wars gave him the clout to do so.

The company that actually did the new shots has that info buried pretty deep on their website too. They are uncredited in the DC.

It's dishonest and a bit insulting to pretend those shots were done in 1970 as the documentary implies.

And was this scene on the Blu Ray really necessary?

;)

Is that last one a Marvel comic translation? I recognized the evil Baron Tagge right away.

There might be a large enough image of the Swedish poster in "The Art of Star Wars" book. I'm not sure where my copy is right now, or else I'd look it up...

I can dig out my copies and take some screencaps if you want. Besides the first three films, they only got as far as releasing TSWLM and Moonraker before starting over with the SE's. Some people were asking crazy prices for a while.

Moonraker is the only bona fide DVD rotter I've encountered. The disc began to look discolored several years ago, and simply won't play at all!

"Buy more! Buy more now!"

Okay, put in my order. LDDB works a little different from Ebay, as the seller has to get back to me before I can paypal it seems.

IIRC, they have widescreen anamorphic and full frame (open matte?) versions on a dual layer disc. There were few extras other than a trailer or two and some text based stuff.

FanFiltration said:

SilverWook said:

Hey FanFiltration, Sony had a line of external Dolby Digital surround processors in the early days of DVD that had an unadvertised extra feature, an AC3 RF demodulator built in. Might these be in your price range?

http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-SDP-EP9ES-ES-SURROUND-PROCESSOR-PREAMP-NICE-/350393597777?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519515ff51

http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-SDP-E800-Dig-Surround-Processor-EXC-Fr-Shipping-/130428969359?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e5e2c218f

 

 

Thanks so much for this info. I was lucky to be able to get my hands on an RF Demodulator this weekend.  It will be put to good use on this and a few other projects I want to do in the next few months.

UPDATE: All of my future James Bond Laserdisc preservations will now feature lossless DTS Digital Surround (if film had an available surround ac3 track on the laser), and / or a PCM audio track.

FF

 

You're welcome!

If it's not a silly question, would the first DVD's of the first three Bond's be of any use to you? They were all THX and came in the snapper cases. They went out of print pretty early on, and I don't think Lowry had anything to do with these transfers...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dr-No-THX-Edition-DVD-1962-1997-Sean-Connery-OOP-/110544607313?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item19bcf8d851

http://cgi.ebay.com/Russia-Love-DVD-1997-/300460494319?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item45f4d74def

http://cgi.ebay.com/Goldfinger-DVD-James-Bond-Pussy-Galore-Spy-007-VG-NM-/290457907607?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item43a0a3f197

Well, he did mention using a Sony broadcast monitor, 1995 vinatge. The Sony's I used in college had a button to shrink the image just enough to see what is usually lost to overscan.

Pretty close to taking the plunge on getting a copy. The Japanese disc includes the trailer, which would be a nice extra to have. I don't think the DVD has the original one?

Here is what the seller had to say:

"The white fleck is not present on the Japanese pressing. It has issues of its own though, with some speckling especially during the opening titles."

So. worth pursuing to combine the best of both discs? I'm satisfied it's a different transfer at this point, same print or not.