The Aluminum Falcon

Ziggy Stardust.

1984: The Movie with John Hurt or 1984: The Apple Commercial (see nice version in link in my signature)?

moon.

Deckard as a replicant or as a human?

Nice picture. It looks even better than the last one which was amazing in itself. Legacy will turn out very amazing.

Hello everyone! Good news, I was able to upload the entire Star Wars TB DVD Set to MultiUpload, all four DVD-5s. I have sent some PMs out already, but, if you want them, feel absolutely free to PM me for the links now. If any of the archives don't unpack properly, please tell me so I can resolve the situation.

Of course, much thanks to russs15 for sending me these DVDs. It's really much appreciated, and I couldn't have uploaded with out them.

After watching all of the 1997 Digital Broadcasts, I really think that this is how it is for each movie from best to worst. 

A New Hope

1. Flunk- It does have some errors in the digital tape, but it is the only dual-layer one, and overall has the best picture quality. Also, it has English subtitles for alien dialogue and an English Crawl.
2. Reivax- This has pretty good picture throughout. It does have a French crawl but the picture looks nice on the whole, minus the smearing of course.
3. TB- The TB look all right. I would say it's a bit softer than the Reivax, but it does have an English crawl so some people may like this better.
4. G'KAR- Sorry, but to me the G'KAR looks awful. It seems overfiltered and way too compressed. The German 5.1 and the fake (!) English 5.1 take up way too much space on a DVD-5 that is not even full capacity. This is the only digital broadcast not available on MultiUpload.

Empire Strikes Back

1. TB- The TB of this looks pretty nice. The picture is relatively sharp throughout but it shows no signs of overfiltering. Also, the crawl is in English! The video is much less compressed.
2. G'KAR- Again, this suffers from heavy compression and unnecessary audio tracks. The crawl is also in German. All in all, the menus are the best part of this release. You can even see some pixelization in a few scenes.

Return of the Jedi

1. TB- This one was honestly a little harder. The picture is pretty soft throughout and it wasn't really pleasing to the eye. The English crawl is nice though.
2. G'KAR- This is the best G'KAR release as it is the least compressed. Still, it still has some compression pixelization and is far too overfiltered. In an attempt to remedy the softness of picture, there has been a lot of sharpening placed upon this. I suppose some people might prefer this to softness though.

So, those are my opinions on all the releases. Does anyone agree with them?

By the way, I will be uploading Lee Thorogood's set as soon as I have time. I know I have greatly delayed on this, but I need to take my computer somewhere and can't leave it on automatic upload for the time being.

Apes.

Which movie primates from 1968 are cooler: the ones in 2001 or the ones in Planet of the Apes (original version)?

SilverWook said:

IIRC, it's more like Lucasfilm hasn't even acknowledged the offer. Been a while since I've read the thread over at the HTF that mentioned it though.

Oh really? I don't remember fully and that might indeed be the case. That would be at least a bit of uplifting news if it had not been rejected outright.

Wow. I do actually see some resemblance between mverta's picture and your tweaked version. With the aid of a few more reference photos, will you try your hand at some color correction for the Technidisc V2, msycamore. The basic color information seems to be there, much more so than the GOUT.

Darth Mallwalker said:

Yeah, I wanted to be that guy. But now reading some recent posting, it seems my offer was (silently) rejected, after having been accepted intially. I'm gonna go sulk for a while

 

Silently rejected? Like the others, I am curious for you to expand on this. I had no idea you released such a script for the JSC.

As for the X9, I think that Arnie d. is open to those being finished. If you could you would definitely be an awesome guy in my book, as the JSC series, especially ESB and ROTJ, lack high quality, IVTC-ed preservations. If you've already made these scripts, would it be that hard to adapt them for X9 masters? Such a release would surely be appreciated by most of the community, Darth Mallwalker.

Probably not the best idea as LFL may just confiscate it. Also, didn't Lucas flat out refuse Robert Harris when he wanted to restore an original version for absolutely free?

Could be. However, if you look at it, especially on an upconverted project, it looks really nice and film-like with fine grain. I don't think telecines back in the VHS/LD era could be so good. To my eyes, it looks like it was done earliest 2000.

Personally, I agree with what mverta's doing. I do understand that a lot of people will disagree, but I honestly just want to see Star Wars preserved in a resolution that will be suitable for the future. With the news of Congress not having prints of the original and Lucas's mandate to destroy them if found, I just want to have the knowledge that somewhere there's a pristine version.

If one day, Lucas miraculously has a change of heart but can't find a source to release, Legacy will be there. I do think that there are plenty of prints out there, but I doubt there are many high quality scans of them. They will probably only grow in worse condition in the future.

To me, it is understandable that in order to use the top quality materials, mverta needed to not release this. If he appears cocky (something I personally don't see), then he somewhat has right to be, as this is indeed the best preservation project possible.

Just my two cents, feel free to disagree.

All right then. That's good news. :-)

Sorry for the double post but just remembered a question: What is Legacy's audio going to be? There's been a lot of talk about video and not much audio wise.

mverta said:

mostly, the best stuff simply isn't in the data anymore to pull out.  You can improve it on its own, but you can't use it as a proper source.

I think Harmy's Despecialized is a nice offering which could've gone to much greater lengths to improve upon the sources it draws from. 

Gotcha. Thank you for the answer, mverta.

mverta said:

About the '97:  I have, over the years, seen several '97 prints in varying stages of quality; however, they all exhibited the same base color characteristics.  In every print I've seen, everything from the washed-out color palette to the green lightsaber was present. 

Interesting. Your post really shows how it must be a mind-boggling process to reach a perfect transfer and what was really intended. I really don't know much about the history of Star Wars on actual film. I had no idea that the green lightsaber was present as it isn't visible on the digital broadcasts... odd.

In any case, as far as color accuracy goes, what do you think of the attempts made to color correct the 2004 master on here? For example, how does Adywan's AVCHD and Harmy's Despecialized stand up to the intended color of Star Wars on a scale of 1-10?

Sorry if I am asking many questions; I honestly do find your posts enlightening as you seem to throughly understand Star Wars's history on film.

mverta said:

the other two films, "The Soap Opera" and "The Muppet Show."  :) 

LOL.

what ISN'T in there is the color fidelity.  That limited color palette was not a choice; it's in 1997 prints.  Or should I say, the range is already limited in 1997 prints. 

Wait. Are you saying that the 1997 Color Restoration to the Negative wasn't done properly despite them attempting to use Lucas's IB Print as reference? I'm not doubting you. I just always thought the 1997 Restoration was actually a success and the problems were with the 1997 Telecine to Home Video and then the 2004 Telecine.

If what you say is true, then it would be very hard to restore the original from the negative, and Legacy may indeed be the best Star Wars will ever look.

I believe it's a widescreen copy, and "flat" is full scren. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Thanks for the comparison. Legacy's colors look absolutely gorgeous in comparison to both of them

Thanks for the links, pittrek. I hadn't heard of some of those small changes in Episodes I and II before that. I suppose we tend to focus on the original trilogy changes more. Episode I's changes don't really seem harmful, nor do Episode II's.

As for audio changes in Episode III, I vaguely remember someone claiming they heard them during the Greivous sequence but not sure whether it was established or not.

Yeah, Kodak DVD-DLs, even if you managed a successful burn, don't last a long time. I remember the time I bought SLs of those and lost the data within the span of four months. Just saying...

If a DL burn doesn't work, Darth Ender, you could always split the movie to two DVD-5s with DVD Shrink. It can maintain complete quality, just on two DVDs.

The best break point would probably be right after Tarkin says "Set Your Course For Alderaan." That's what I used when I made a double DVD-5 back-up copy.

Making Questions.

Which Bowie piece is better: the movie The Man Who Fell to Earth or the album Ziggy Stardust?

(I really hope you're the one to answer this, Ziggy).

Ewoks are better.

Casablanca or the Maltese Falcon?

Depression.

Superman II or Superman II: Donner Cut?

mverta said:

I have the entire shooting schedule around someplace...  but I would think that's all online somewhere.

Really? I've never been able to find the entire one online. If you're able to share it/find either it or one for ESB, please tell me. The schedules could be interesting as it could give one an idea of what the early cuts were like and which scenes were missing from them.

Gotcha. Sounds like a good plan.