TK421138

Hello again!

After a while off I have returned with yet another project underneath me for the winter time. This project concerns the Star Wars Trilogy 7" 33 1/3 24 page book and record sets. These were all I had growing up to satisfy my jones for Star Wars until VHS tapes were available. There were 8 of them produced by Buena Vista Records from 1978 until 1984, I recently downloaded a set of them from Readalongadventures.com. I must say the scans are in rough shape but the audio it was sourced from is pretty good.

Considering myself somewhat of an audiophile I used a program called Spin It Again to clean up the audio source material somewhat and it is a fairly pleasing result. I manually cleaned up each picture using GIMP (like Photoshop). My niece is just learning how to read and I have turned her into a Star Wars nut with the set of docs and DVDs I have of the original unaltered trilogy.

I am putting each book into Powerpoint and syncing the audio to each page so that it turns like a real book. The outcome is, in my eyes at least very enjoyable. What I am wondering here is two things. Does anyone out there have a decent set of quality scans of the books and clean audio copy. These book and record sets deserve a high quality preservation.

Secondly can anyone recommend a better program to use aside from Powerpoint which takes a lot of time to sync audio and offers fairly wimpy page transitions. The other anoying thing is that you have to be really close to the screen to read the pages. This is not a huge deal because you do have the audio to listen to and she has a laptop she can watch it on.

I am curious if someone here has already tackled this project. I also plan on doing the same thing for about 15 other read along books. The audio and graphics seem to be in much better shape for those except The Last Starfighter which has very poor scans of the pages. Anywho, let me know what you all think…

Ok, I need a little help here, I have the 1st, 2nd and 4th disc of Editdroid's spectacular supplements. However when I tried to download the 3rd disc, there were two parts that could not be found. Can you help me get this disc please. It would complete my set. Many thanks!

Is there a compilation of screen tests out there somewhere? I know there is one for Star Wars, but how about ESB or ROTJ? I plan on adding the screen tests to my supplemental discs (editdroid's 4 disc set). Not sure who would be on the auditions save for Billy Dee Williams. Certainly not Yoda or the Tauntaun, or Bobba Fett. *chuckles*

Just point me in the right direction on alt.binaries if you would please...

yes, I read about the rowman supp discs. So is the Editroid set better or is the Rowman set better in terms of depth and such?

Is the Editdroid's bounus 4 DVD set worth picking up? any thoughts?

LOL Thanks mate! Fill it up mate!

After chatting with my good friend Russ15, he pointed me in the direction of Editdroid's massive 4 disc set that contains all the extras this man can stand.

Thanks so much Russ, "that's two I owe you jr".

So my collection now includes the following:

Star Wars GOUT trilogy

Star Wars Begins, Building Empire, Returning To Jedi fan docs

DJ V3 trilogy

Kenner Star Wars Commercials

and Editdroid's 4 disc Trilogy extras

On a side note, having access to the Story Of albums is genius!

I can't wait!

addendum: The links on Myspleen for these making ofs only have two seeders and it would take a week to get each one. LOL

thanks Cobra Kai. Give me a heads up when Harmy's stuff comes out. So if I can't wait until he gets the whole thing done, is version 1 acceptable? Or should I really hold out for V 2.0?

Also since I am into making companion discs for each trilogy set, I was trying to find the original "Making of Star Wars" from 77, "SP/FX: The Empire Strikes Back" from 80, and "Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi"
and "From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga" from 83. Any clue where to find these gems?

What I envision for this set is something like;

Star Wars: Original Theatrical Edition

Disc 1: DJ V3 Star Wars

Disc 2: "Making of Star Wars", Kenner Star Wars Commercials: SW toys

Disc 3: DJ V3 Empire Strikes Back

Disc 4: SP/FX: The Empire Strikes Back, "Kenner Star Wars Commercials: ESB Toys

Disc 5: DJ V3 Retun Of The Jedi

Disc 6: "Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi" and "From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga", Kenner Star Wars Commercials: ROTJ toys

it's either that or I go and break apart the Empire Of Dreams Doc for the 2006 DVD and put each part on a sep disc with the Kenner tv ads

Ok, reviews are in for DJ V3 of the Star Wars Trilogy. AWESOME! not only is the picture quality on par with GOUT, but the multiple sound options for each film are killer. Having only become aware of the mono mix for SW about 5 months ago, it was like seeing the film for the first time again. To these ears it sounds like there were different vocal takes used for numerous scenes. I heard sound effects that heretofor must have been buried in the mix. Nothing short of awe inspiring.

Which brings me to a burning question, once one has the GOUT, and DJ's set, what else would one possible need? Is Harmy's despecialized trilogy a must own? Let me hear what you think?

As mentioned before I already own the Star Wars Begins, Building Empire, and Returning To Jedi docs which in my mind are the definitive making of docs. I made them the companion discs for the GOUT trilogy.

What else is there that I am missing?

Yeah this is a great discussion indeed. I am learning so many new things here. I'm interested in learning the nuts and bolts too. What the heck is this "mux" talk? Mavimao, could you perhaps recant that story in a language I can understand. I'm not familiar with Apple save for the Ipod and Itunes which are part of my everyday world.

Wow, you guys sure know how to answer my questions around here! That is so cool to learn what all the acroynmns stand for. So my next question is what is the difference in quality between an AVI and DJ's V3 which is in a Video_TS folder? I would assume it would be similar to the difference between an MP3 and a FLAC Lossless file in terms of quality. Compresssion plays a part I bet.

In the  Star Wars Begins documentaries they go over the mono differences which always had a strange appeal to me. My preference for music lends itself to mono mixes since they represent the artist's true intention hence what they heard in the studio. While mono may lack a certain "punch" to it, it reveals things that heretofor were unheard or sometimes a different mix all together.

It would be great to have a mono mix of ESB and ROTJ though I know they never made them. What would a stereo fold down to mono mix sound like I wonder? Anyone thought to try it perhaps?

thanks mate for answering that nagging question of what format to burn it as. Fascinating reading about the differences in audio from each release. Subtle as they may be, they are there. So now comes the part where you all offer your own opinions to me about the mixes you prefer to listen to. I know the ultimate opinion belongs to the listener, but I'm curious what mix is your favorite and why? I don't have my surround sound system hooked up yet, but that shouldn't stop me from enjoying each dedicated mix. BTW, is there a sub menu for audio options or do you simply click the audio button to switch the mixes?

Russ, take it however you will my friend. *chuckles* Yes I am now one of us which is pretty exciting because I've never been an "us" before. Back on the subject though, in Nero Burning ROM, should I burn a regular DVD or an AVCHD? what is the difference between the two? I would like it to play on standard DVD players (i.e. the old school ones my parent's still have) as well as the newer ones like I own (Blu-Ray etc).

Also, I was wondering what the quality of the DJ Trilogy is, 720? I know it upscales on Blu-Ray players but what is the actual quality? I can't begin to tell just by looking at the bitrate like you guys.

Ohhh I was too busy watching you guys compare the size of your lightsabers. *chuckles* Yes Russ, I think I am on the right track as far as the DVD goes, just have to sit back and let it do its work and wait. You guys are amusing, I am so glad I fit in here with my nerdery. *chuckles again*

Another post to say I have viewed some of the video files and they look fantastic. Grain is very apparent, especially at the start of the film but it does give it a real film quality that I love. I am stoaked about all the audio options, I mean you can watch each film 4 or 5 times and have a different experience each time as far as sound mixes go. The covers are fantastic too! In short this fits my bill to a T. After burning and reviewing these films it will be Harmy's Despecialized Trilogy.

So I came home from work tonight to find Star Wars DJ V3 waiting for me all downloaded! I am so excited! One question from a newbie to all the Jedi's out there. I use Nero 11 Ultra as my one stop burning/ripping program. I have the Video_TS folder with all the video information but am a little confused about how to put it all together to burn a DVD. I will be using a Verbatim DVD+R DL  disc to burn it to. So am I to assume using Nero Burning ROM that I drag the contents of the Video_TS folder into that folder and then click burn it? I don't see a folder for Audio_TS so I'm gonna say everything is included in the one folder.

Again, pardon my picking of your collective brains but that is what this forum is here for. I can't wait to view this and then offer my two cents on it.

Hairy,

I was not aware about that fact, but I do know that Dolby and specifically THX were pioneered by LucasArts. I am curious about that 70MM reconstruction. perhaps it is posted elsewhere in this forum but how was it approximated if no original survives?

anyone know where I can get the artwork for DJ V3? It looks great!

ignor my last post, I am a doofus. Thanks Russ for helping an aging man find his marbles LOL

Ok, so annoying technical question, if someone were procuring a set of DJ V3 trilogy from a Usenet source, when it is done downloading how would one play it? Will be decoded properly?

Also having trouble finding any real info on everything DJ V3 includes on the disc. Full disc details is what i am looking for. The topic on it here is pretty great but I would like full specs on this one. Maybe being redundent and not seeing it in front of me.

I've no doubt that the quality of it will blow me away compared to the GOUT. Does DJ V3 have full menus, subs, etc?

Yeah I'm pretty stoaked for it. I think in the long run as a companion to the 2006 GOUT it will do just nicely.

Yeah, so the Laser Disc rips are just too low quality to use for anything here. Guess my best option is to start over looking for a clean source. On the plus side I am getting Dark Jedi's version of the trilogy so I can watch and compare to my set I have.

Here's a few screencaps to get you started

https://picasaweb.google.com/109695558536788880331/DropBox#5772601053162436674

https://picasaweb.google.com/109695558536788880331/DropBox#5772601354580643954

https://picasaweb.google.com/109695558536788880331/DropBox#5772600676898658946