The Aluminum Falcon

Thanks for the info. I'm looking forward to seeing it in HD.

Looking at that thread... I mean wow. People were already giving him loads of positive attention yet he needed more, so he caused quite a lot of drama there only 4 pages in no less.
Furthermore, I was surprised at how readily the people who posted in that thread started taking opposite sides of an argument and all those accusations... Jeez; I suppose it's better to leave the dead buried so to speak.

Whoops you're right... my bad. Still this article does seem ludicrous... You'd think that this guy invented all things about good Prequel edits. Was his edit even good technically or narratively?

Bingowings said:

Out of idle curiosity (as in I'm curious but too bone idle to do the research) when was the very first all PT edit?

This could definitely make a good extra for a Blu-Ray set if thorr approves: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Thorrs-35-mm-Star-Wars-Trilogy-SE-Trailer-Ultra-HD-Restoration/topic/13086/

WOW! Sounds fascinating, thorr. I'll be interested to see the end result. Just to clarify, is this the Special Edition trailer, mainly pushing ANH that is on the '04 DVD set, or is it the one pushing ESB and ROTJ? In any case, you may want to contact dark_jedi since this could be a great special feature for his '97 Blu-Ray set...

Sorry for the double post but I wanted to keep this separate from my earlier comment. Well, I know it took me longer to see this than the other two, but here are my thoughts about Return of the Jedi. As before, I definitely love the menus: simple and neat. Also, like the others, the music is soothing and not bothersome to leave playing on and on.
To preface this, I must dutifully admit that ROTJ is without a doubt my least favorite of the OT. Isn't it everyone's? Anyway, because of this, I don't watch it often. My NTSC GOUT has probably only been played once, and if I want to see it, I usually go to Spence's final edit or Harmy's reconstruction. I am of the opinion that ROTJ was the OT film truly ruined by the 2004 DVDs. The color timing was unwatchable, creating lightsaber errors and making things look too cool: robbing them of any majesty. Furthermore, the crushed blacks were worse of in this movie; finally, the CGI additions in this movie were the most godawful additions from Hayden to that fake beak...
Anyway, back to the release, this is THE BEST THAT ROTJ HAS EVER LOOKED AND SOUNDED. As amazing as the Project Blu versions of the other two movies looked, this was better. For some reason, I did not notice any DVNR smearing while watching this, and it constantly maintained a filmic look with the occasional, innocuous film artifact. I daresay that this could hold up as a high-end commercial Blu-Ray of today. Dark Jedi, did you use the PAL GOUT as the base for this because it is absolutely amazing!? Perhaps it is a little softer than today's absolute high end Blu-Rays but I didn't mind. The stellar picture let me, for the first time in years, get into ROTJ. It's actually not as bad a movie as I remember since I didn't need to also put up with poorer video quality.
This was the first time that I realized how different a movie ROTJ is from Star Wars, in terms of cinematography. In contrast to Star Wars's vivid, saturated palette, ROTJ is more neutral and subdued, somewhat like ESB. This is the first release that seems to truly show this. Despite, its darkness, this shows ROTJ's detail much more than the 2004 Lowry restoration. Without crushed blacks and a sickish blue tint, this release surpasses Lowry's restoration in every way. Needless to say, contrast and brightness were spot on; though, note that ROTJ does have some dark scenes. The effects hold up better than ESB, which suffered from some color errors because of the dark blue tint that was placed for theatrical release. Anyway, all of the lightsabers are spot on, in terms of color. Vader's lightsaber is completely red and Luke's looks green as always. While not seeming as hand-animated as in ANH, they still managed to seem rougher than ones digitally composited, which in my book, is a very good thing...
Audio surprisingly sounded fantastic. The LPCM of the theatrical stereo was crisp and clear, as well as in sync. Quickly listening to all the audio, I could point out no flaw, undoubtedly the best that ROTJ has ever sounded.
It is strange and somewhat unfortunate that out of all the Project Blu releases, ROTJ looks and sounds the best but I suppose that's the irony of life... Though I must say, I am still astounded by it. It's certainly far better than anything sourced from that bad '04 restoration. So, as this is my last Project Blu review, I will say that Dark Jedi, you've done an extraordinary job on all of them... Turns out you can really polish that disgusting piece of fecal matter Lucas gave us...

Mielr, about the ESB crawl, I do see a slight white outline, but I think that's a limitation of the GOUT's resolution combined with slight edge enhancement; however, as previously said, you may have your sharpness on a bit too high, as it's not that noticeable on my TV. About the end scene, yes I see what you mean, I assumed that this was an effect of the low resolution, ESB's natural dark blue tint (which was shown to be present even in theaters by the theatrical bootleg) and some DVNR smearing (which is quite noticeable in some of the final sequences of ESB). The DVNR smearing does cause some residual outlining at times when strong; this is inherent to GOUT sourced projects. However, I never downloaded the V3, so I'm at a loss to explain why it wouldn't be present there. Note that while testing these scene, I did turn my sharpness up and down, but they were still somewhat visible. I'll check my GOUT DVD later to see if I can observe any of these.

TV's Frink said:

No Trek 2?

dark_jedi said:

Hell, there might not even be any fans here of these movies LOL, I already got a PM at another site to do this same thing with The Terminator, I guess a lot of people really like that mono mix also.

The workprint just seems so unique... all the various music just makes it seem more fulfilling and somewhat of a statement that this is DEFINITIVE sci-fi: all the best ideas brought together. I also like Roy's introduction. However, the best part is that alternative rooftop voiceover, which always should have been in the movie...
Alternatively, I also like the Domestic Theatrical Cut... feels a tad bit more styilized and noir-ish with that awesome narration.

Yes!!! Go Army of Darkness... one of the earliest movies I watched... My old Bruce Campbell avatar is smiling. :-)
My favorite movies are:
1. The Evil Dead
2. Star Wars
3. Empire Strikes Back
4. Apocalypse Now
5. Pulp Fiction
6. Blade Runner (the workprint)
7. Psycho
8. Back to the Future
9. The Terminator
10. The Shining

Oh wow, "our friend, Kenny K." D'oh... "Thanks Kenny!" Still I do hope the lightsabers will look better.

Yes, Moth3r, that's what I was talking about. On the other hand, the 5 Star Set isn't worth looking into. I've read that the DTS was an awful 2.0 stereo upmix to 5.1 that was just encoded DTS; in fact, even the 5.1 from that set wasn't real if I remember correctly. Of course, I'd be more than happy to be wrong...

EDIT: Was there ever a camcorder bootleg of the '97 SE movies when they were in theaters? If so, the audio could be inserted, just to take up space as a bonus feature. It could be "THE CROWD EXPERIENCE."

Well, if you're trying to fill up a BD-25, those are pretty good audio options, pretty complete. I seem to vaguely remember someone on this forum claiming either that they or someone they knew had a DTS audio sound disc (or something like that) that was used during the 1997SE Theatrical Reissue and were trying to transfer it to DVD. It was before I became a member and was just browsing; even then, I think it was an ancient thread. Did anything ever come out of this? If so, it could be a good audio track.
As for special features, maybe you would consider putting both the laserdisc and VHS Special Edition documentaries. Each movie could have its VHS documentary and the laserdisc one can possibly be on either the ANH disc or the ROTJ one. The VHS would be a good inclusion since many people had the VHS, so are used to that documentary; additionally, the VHS version is split into the three movies, so all three discs can have a little SE feature. Of course, you may also want to preserve the LD version since it's better quality and different. Another special feature would be the trailers, as previously suggested.

Thanks for the advice, captainsolo. I actually do like the coloring on the SWE too, seems more vibrant than the Definitive Collection/GOUT master, but the blown out whites (which are present on my laserdisc pressing) make it a little hard to watch.
Thank you too for confirming that this has no relation to the V8000. You are right in saying that it is designed for karaoke too; however, mine's also got autoflip and I do find it a nice feature. :-)

Uhh... I just saw the avatar.... Just DJ's avatar.... I've got safe-search on...
So what about those stinking Star Wars Blu-Rays? They're going to suck... right?
*panickedly runs away*

:P on Ageism Frink.

If you want to look at Riley can't you just see dark_jedi's avatar? ;-)

Thanks, Ziggy! :-)

Ziggy Stardust said:

Posting my age.

D'oh! I suppose that one could go for me too.

Got it. Sorry about that. I guess you're talking about the Captain Supermarket then; however, according to lddb, it's open matte. Lacerated, you said that it was somewhat like the International Cut; is this the Australian and Japanese Special Edition described on imdb? It seems to fit your description.

Didn't know that the Jei Wei was unofficial/a bootleg laserdisc; in any case you can find more info on it here.

There was a German VHS that had both endings, with the US ending just being just a dream before Ash woke up into that post-apocalyptic time. It also had the deleted scenes... Thinking about it, is that German bootleg DVD you mentioned a transfer of this or is it a separate quick and dirty edit, as I speculated earlier?

Also, if anyone still is curious, here are all the differences between the main Army of Darkness cuts.

By the way, since thread is becoming mostly about Army of Darkness, which is fine by me, I'm changing its title yet again.

The clip looks very nice. Vibrant colors and not over-contrasted. I was able to download using Google Chrome and extract with WinRAR. This is the laserdisc right? I suppose it's better than the broadcasts since there's no annoying smearing; after all, the laserdiscs were top notch and didn't you already IVTC them?

Star Wars- 8

The Empire Strikes Back- 8

Return of the Jedi- 5

The Phantom Menace- 3

Attack of the Clones- 0 (It doesn't deserve a 1)

Revenge of the Sith- 4

The high trees actually might help. Something to alter it from being typical Earth generally is interesting. As Bingowings pointed out, the desert in ANH had two suns and more than one moon unlike Earth.

Thinking about it, I probably am very biased since I live about an hour away from some of the forests used in ROTJ... That's probably why they seem so un-exotic. :)