The Aluminum Falcon

Is this the Jei Wea laserdisc; if so, I believe that this is the director's cut not the International Cut. It is sourced from a print of Sam Raimi's original director's cut that he submitted to the studios, even having reel change markers still. Also, it is not pan-and-scan but rather open matte, making it have the most picture of any Director's Cut. It does have the original ending like the director's cut. The print used was bit pink faded if I remember correctly and had burnt in subtitles. It also has the Sheila ripping sequence which was censored in the US DVD.

The German bootleg sounds like a quick and dirty edit, inserting all the deleted scenes, much like the Primitive Screwhead that Lacerated mentioned.

I just clicked on both of those in an attempt to download them manually, but the links go to pages saying that "The file you are trying to access is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." Does it work for anyone else?

theprequelsrule said:

@twooffour: My point is that extensive use of special effects and "superjumping-awesome-ninja-jedi" -  which is what Aluminum Falcon seems to have wanted for ROTJ - make Star Wars worse, not better.

Wait? What? Unfortunately my friend it seems you misinterpret my ideas. Nowhere in my original post did I seek Matrix-esque lightsaber duels that the Prequel Trilogy  was plagued by. So, allow me to explain all my ideas.

First of all, I wanted a different environment than Endor. Yes, I do see how this could be interpreted as being PT-ish, but by exotic, I meant somewhere not common on Earth. A New Hope has great deserts featured in it and Empire Strikes Back has an icy wasteland and a swamp. Perhaps ROTJ could have not just stuck to what looked like a typical forest. Maybe another swampland was a good idea or possibly a volcanic planet (which would have been shot on some mountains with lava/volcanoes matted in, NOT on a green screen).

My second idea was to reverse the colors of the lightsaber. At the end of ESB, Luke has basically botched his training and been emotionally devastated. My idea was to accentuate how very close Luke was to falling to the Dark Side by having him have a red lightsaber. Also, Vader finding his old lightsaber could bring back old memories of when he was a Jedi and not a Sith. There could even be a contemplative scene of him igniting it and staring at it while alone. The old memories of a better him could help him make the right decision in the end. I actually don't see how this could be Prequel-ish since the lightsabers would not be overused too much...

The third idea I admit was bit far-fetched. It was for Ben to have finally mustered enough power to physically come back from the dead. Now he was actually more powerful than Vader could have possibly imagined, following up on ANH's iconic line. I guess it could be construed as similar to what happened to Gandalf in LOTR. Anyway, Ben could finally come back to even the battle. Someone could occupy the Emperor, so Vader and Luke could fight on a more even ground alone. Now, this is where I point out that I DID NOT MENTION ANY SUPERAWESOME-NINJA STUFF. Vader and Luke would fight as in the movie. However, the Emperor and Ben would have a mental battle. Lightsabers are beyond them both. In their minds, they would be using the force against each other, seeing who would weaken first. In their minds, the environment would shift, as they try to top one another's powers. Ben would have eventually lost because of some attack on the physical world. The EMperor would use his force lightning on both Ben and Luke, but then Vader would heroically throw him done the core shaft. As you can see, a mental battle is not superawesome Ninja fighting, it is the opposite. I did not want them physically fighting but rather mentally...

The last idea was a different director and I don't see how this is in line with the prequel thinking that George should direct everything...

ReverendBeastly said:

Just email me.

 Just sent you an email ;)

darth_ender said:

If I could fix up ROTJ a bit, I think I would put Kevin Bacon's head (wearing the Magneto helmet of course) on Anakin's force ghost body at the end of the film. 

 Ha! I was wondering how long it would be until someone made that joke...

My bad... I meant it more in jest.. but still... I do seem to be a bit request-y. Edited the comment out.

Still, Laserschwert's work does indeed look impressive. This ought to be a very different beast than the (already cool) Puggo Grande.

YES! Makes him more ambiguous and lets us finally see a white one.

Harmy said:

Wow! There's more potential to this project than I (and maybe even Puggo himself) thought. With a proper treatment, this may end up beating the hell out of GOUT.

Yes indeed... especially since ESB seems to be the worst GOUT with horrid noise reduction. Looking forward to the possibilities of restorations that could be made from this project...

Luckily, this weekend, I was able to watch Empire Strikes Black: THE PROJECT BLU EDITION! As I inserted the disk into my PS3, I eagerly watched, as it was identified as ESB and then launched. The menu immediately started with its nice, clean interface. Unlike before, I didn't start the movie right away, going to the kitchen to get some soda. Upon my return, I was surprised to find the background transitioning to an alternate poster. LOL. I didn't know the menu cycled, anyway, before watching, I excitedly saw all the various ESB posters. I did notice that the music was surprisingly mellow considering the exciting movie... a different choice over the cliched Imperial theme.

As the movie started, the crawl looked less sharp than Star Wars's, probably since it's GOUT material. As the movie started, it looked promising. In contrast to Adywan's AVCHD's snow-white Hoth, this edition had a Blue Hoth, which I can appreciate since that's how it appeared.  Interestingly, though, the tone of Blue looked slightly different, it was less cyan than Harmy's and the 2004's and a darker blue instead. Once again, I must say, it's impressive how clear this picture is compared to the murky GOUT. Grain reduction was not as prevalent in this section as I expected...

By the time they were in the asteroids, everything looked pretty nice. There were no bitrate issues, and you could make out every star and asteroid. No blurriness. When we got our glimpse of the Emperor, the hologram looked detailed, moreso than the GOUT. You could see scan lines. Dagobah looked pretty good. This scenes did have DVNR but not enough to distort the smoke into blurs, so that was fantastic. Furthermore, by the time it got to the cave scene, one will notice that the lightsabers look different than in your Star Wars: Project Blu. They looked more modern, so I assume that they were able to far improve the lightsaber roto-scoping techniques for the making of ESB. In any case, it was unexpected but interesting. The lightsaber colors seemed fine. This cave scene seemed to have a bit more DVNR than the rest of Dagobah.

Unfortunately, due to how infernally bad it is in the GOUT, Bespin seemed a bit worse though than the rest of the movie. It was "flatter" than the 2004 versions, with less contrast and seemingly darker. The lightsabers here looked as in the cave scene (improved over the animated looking ones in ANH), but Vader's lightsaber did look pinkish in some shots. After watching many versions of ESB, I'm guessing that the blue tint (not to be confused with the additional cyan from the 2004) added to ESB when in theaters did mess with the lightsaber colors a bit. However, during some later scenes, when they were on the ledge during the famous revalation, Vader's lightsaber seemed a bit more reddish. Another thing I noticed is that Vader's face seemed to be obscured a bit during these final scenes, with it seeming a bit dark. I understand that this could not be helped, as the detail is simply not there in the murky GOUT and punching up the contrast (as instinct would sugguest) would just lose detail in brighter areas.

All in all, picture was good. It wasn't as saturated as Star Wars, but it's not supposed to be. In other words, all is how it was in theaters, a contrast to Star Wars. Perhaps this is even why it received relatively bad reviews on release. To those who abhor the colors of the 2004, also take note that this release of ESB (as mentioned earlier) does have a dark blue cast, which was always suppposed to be present, as shown in the recently-uncovered 35mm Betamax bootleg. Detail is there and visible, especially during the asteroid and Star Destroyer scenes. There are no overblown whites. Grain reduction is definitely present. It gradually increases from Hoth to the Dagobah sequence. For some reason (and I honestly don't know why), the grain reduction does seem noticeably higher than the rest of the film during the Bespin scenes. The men who made the GOUT probably tried to wipe out the optical grain during lightsaber scenes completely, making it less noticable, while in ANH, they decided to leave it be more. It was during these last sequences that this seemed to lose its filmic look. If you are really bothered by the grain reduction in Bespin, then go for Harmy's despecialized edition, but be prepared for a more contrasted look...However, I do want to make it clear that this is the ABSOLUTE BEST upscale the ESB GOUT can achieve. Empire Strikes Back was, in my opinion, hit the HARDEST of all the films in terms of grain reduction and lack of detail, so DJ did the best he could in recovering his detail. You can only polish the turd Lucas crapped out for us in 2006 so much.

The audio... was EXCELLENT! All of the audio tracks were in sync. Once again, I occasionally switched with your pop-up menu. Though Hairy-Hen's remix is superb, I was not viewing with a surround system, so I watched the theatrical stereo. It had great dynamic range for an audio rip from an old LD. I liked it. The Linear PCM was also great. Though I'm not an audiophile, it seemed to be punchier than the Dolby Digital. Your LPCM version of the '93 remix sounded even better and I also liked it. Of course, the "Imperial Edition" isolated score was wonderful... certainly clearer than ANH's isolated track.

Finally, I listened to the Hotline recordings. These were a treat. Your intro screens were very informative and I didn't see any spelling errors, so that was good. The audio seemed to have slight tape hiss but was very clear and at a good volume. Corny, of course... Forgot to mention it earlier, but in both this menu and in ANH's, I did notice that lightsaber was always spelled "lightsabre." You want it this way right? I think both spellings are equally acceptable.

Well, congratulations are in order, while not quite as impressive as ANH, due to the more subdued visual style of the film, Empire Strikes Back looks as it seemed to in theaters... and I suppose that's what matters. The audio is the best I've heard though... ;)

I'll review ROTJ when I see it... It's been awhile since I've seen the theatrical version of that.

msycamore said:

have you tried to use S-Video instead of composite?

Unfortunately, my model doesn't seem to have an S-Video port...

An easy way to spot the blown out white levels I described in the other thread is the snowy mountains when the Falcon fly from Hoth with Luke in the foreground.

Oh, thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to check soon.

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/default.htm

 Thanks for the link but it only has photos of my model :(

FanFiltration said:

I will truly miss these disks. 

Parting is such sweet sorrow :-( That does stink. What are you going to do with all of them?

Hello everyone,

Recently, I made a quick and “dirty” transfer of a Mitsubishi Special Widescreen Edition Empire Strikes Back, and I posted a screen cap in the Smear-Free '93 Thread here. Msycamore noticed that the scanline pattern during the scene where Vader strangles the Admiral was different than both the JSC and his Pioneer-pressed SWE. Mine appeared to have more horizontal detail, meaning vertical scan lines, the same ones that would later appear in all future releases (GOUT to 1997SE LD).

At first, I decided to upload a compressed xvid file to display the scene to see if any more could be noticed when this scene was in motion. When msycamore pointed out that it appeared to have a bunch of artifacts, presumably because of the way I transferred it, I thought that some of the inferior quality probably was because it was my first transfer that I stupidly did it on SP (2 hour) mode and also because it converted it to Xvid. Because of that I retransferred it on XP Mode with the addition of the 1997SE laserdiscs to show the overall quality of my set-up (described here in this thread). You can see the resulting DVD here. Surprisingly, it was still pretty low quality and msycamore pointed out that his Pioneer-pressed copy looked superior, as mine seemed to have edge enhancement and blown out whites. It is worth saying that my laserdisc does look accurate to this, that is to say pretty godawful.

Now, I’ll come to the point. 😃 I’m still left wondering my laserdisc would look so bad. Does this mean that all the Mitsubishi Special Widescreen Editions look bad, or is mine actually a fake (I got it for $1 at a book fair, so this is plausible)? Why would the Pioneer pressing look so much better if they’re the same edition? And my final question, if mine is inferior, why does it so the scan lines better than the clearer JSC and Pioneer SWE?

Help me, ot.com, you’re my only hope in understanding this mystery…

By the way, you can read msycamore and my original comments in the Smear-Free '93 thread here.

Hello all, recently I acquired a Toshiba DVD Recorder, so I've started transferring Laserdiscs to DVDs like crazy, and am curious about certain aspects of doing this.

First of all, before I explain my process, I do want to recognize that, yes this is a very low tech way of transferring laserdiscs to DVDs. Unfortunately, I am a 14 year old on a low budget and can't really afford time to capture to my computer and author snazzy DVDs. I simply want to preserve my old laserdiscs for personal viewing on DVD; unfortunately, unlike others on this forum, I'd prefer not to have to exchange discs during the movie. So, to make it clear, I'm asking help on improving with the equipment I have; please try not to riddle this thread with comments like "get better equipment" or "you're lazy". I just want to have (aproximately) the same quality as my laserdisc onto DVD, no better, perhaps slightly worse if need be.

Now that I've gone through that. Here's what I do: I connect my Pioneer LD-V850 laserdisc player to my Toshiba DVD recorder via the composite cables I received with my OPPO DVD player. I capture each side on XP Mode (1 hour) with PCM audio to a DVD-R. After capturing everything, I rip all the DVDs' VIDEO_TS files to my computer and use DVDShrink's Re-Author Mode to merge them onto a single disc. While doing this, I use the editor in DVDShrink to cut off the blue screens at the end and beginning of each side; I also disable any compression modes. If it's too large, then I use DVDRebuilder to shrink it down to a single-layer DVD and burn it to a Verbatim DVD-R. Finito.

Having said that part, here are the questions I have:

1. How good is my laserdisc player? I don't really know anything about it since I inherited it from a deceased relative. It is the Pioneer LD-V850; is it related to the Pioneer LD-V800 that Arnie.d. used in his V8 transfer?
2. Are my cables high quality enough? Since I got these composite cables from OPPO, I assumed that they were relatively good quality.
3. Is it worth capturing my laserdiscs with PCM audio or is it a waste of space?
4. Would capturing in this way introduce edge enhancement, blown-out whites, or excess film-like dirt? I ask this because when msycamore saw a transfer of my ESB SWE Mitsubishi pressing, he commented that it had these. I personally thought they were like this on the laserdisc, but his SWE (a Pioneer pressing) isn't this dirty but his is also missing some scan lines.

Any help on these questions would indeed be much appreciated. By the way, here is a sample DVD showing my setup in action:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YJCSDH93

I originally made it to show msycamore the difference in scan line patterns with my copy. It has two titles. The first is the ESB SWE, which was what seems to have EE and blown out whites. The second is a transfer of the reference quality ESB 1997SE. I made this to show the overall quality of my set-up. It runs about 10 minutes total.

So, far, I've transferred three laserdiscs: my Empire Strikes Back Special Widescreen Edition Mitsubishi Pressing (which I'll soon start a thread about), my 1997SE ANH LD, my open matte Terminator 2 laserdisc, and my Star Wars 1982 Rental VHS with results that seem to look like the original laserdisc/VHS. These were meant to be personal transfers but if anyone's interested...

msycamore said:

but it seems like it has been over-sharpened, hence all the aggressive noise popping out at you, the edge-enhancement, blown out whites is definitely not a thing I can see on my LD. I don't know, maybe that pressing is worse after all as your SE LD did look quite alright.

Weird that two editions could be different. To be clear, yes, you can see edge enhancement on the laserdisc, I didn't add any on my capture. I picked up this laserdisc at a book fair for $1. I wonder if it's some sort of inferior fake or if Mitsubishi pressing does really suck.

You should perhaps take this to the how to section or making a separate thread.

Oh yes, of course, apologies to everyone, for hogging this thread. I'll be making a new thread soon about it.

Hmm... perhaps the most glaring thing of ROTJ to me about the movie is its lack of grandeur and its wholly inconsistent tone.

I probably would have made Endor a far more exotic planet, maybe filled with unearthly plants... It wouldn't look like Earth's forests.

An aesthetic change I'd make is having Luke have a red lightsaber and Darth Vader have a blue light saber, having retrieved his old lightsaber from the duel on Cloud City. It would be like the "Revenge" poster and also hint at a change in the two characters. Vader going back too good and Luke possibly falling to the Dark Side. It would enhance the reverse symbolism greatly in the end duel... speaking of duels,

Another thing I would have is a double-duel between Obi-Wan and the Emperor and Vader and Luke. As in the early drafts, Obi-Wan would have been resurrected back in the flesh with more power than Vader imagined... equal if not better to the Emperor. The Vader and Luke duel would be lightsabers, as in the movie. On the other hand, the other duel would be using the force... going as far as to shift the environment with the force. It would be somewhat like Scanners...

Speaking of Scanners, I think that ROTJ could have used a better director to fix the wholly inconsistent tone. It would have been nice to have either Croenberg or Spielberg. Croenberg could have provided a much more cerebral ending, while Spielberg could focus on the "family" aspect of the movie, since it's a recurring theme of his movies

Lacerated said:

If you look at the Primitive Screwhead thread here and here, Ridgeshark made a capture and sent it to Rikter.  Then mcfly89 made a WGN capture.  I seem to recall someone else that had it too.

That's true... I'll have to look into that. Reverend Beastly also had a copy but his website says he's not trading right now.

EDIT: I just sent a PM to both Ridgeshark and mcfly89. However, I'm not that hopeful since they haven't logged on since last April and last year, respectively.

By the way, Rikter has his disabled, so it's a no-go there, and, because Reverend Beastly isn't currently trading, I'm hesitant on that front too.

It could be long and tedious... but, actually a section by section, color correction could suffice. For example, all the Tantive IV scenes, all the Reel 1 Tattooine scenes, all the Reel 2 Tattooine scenes, etc... Though, it would only be a best estimate, the color corrector would have to use his own judgment, and the colors may end up not being accurate. Maybe the simplest thing to do is push the contrast up just a tad bit, making a slightly crisper image. Still perhaps it would probably be inconsiderate to give to Adywan...

Still, I find it odd how it seems to randomly the scan pattern pops up in some releases. For example, my Mitsubishi SWE looks pretty dirty but somehow it's got it visible while the clearer JSC does not...

*Waves hand to induce force mind trick*

You shall put that video in your Star Wars Despecialized Edition 1.3, the one that follows all peoples (mis)conceptions about Star Wars in theaters...

;-)

doubleofive said:

 

LforLiving said:

Count me in I'm only here for two days and I'm already ignored by him.

You're an official member now!

Sorry, TAF. :-(

 

Wait... I'm not official til he ignores me? :-(

If so, PLEASE IGNORE ME, JediTemple34!

thorr said:

http://i56.tinypic.com/jjlgzk.jpg

Looks pretty good to me!

Wait sorry, out of curiosity, who did that color correction?

All right, anyway, more thoughts about Project Blu...

I finished ANH and was left blown away by the whole experience. The edition looks very nice, as I said before. Despite the DVNR, it still retains a film-like appearance with the occasional (film) artifact; it certainly has a warmer, more natural feel to it than the sterile 2004 versions. Immediately, I was swept up by this.

On the whole, the color scheme is very nice. It's pleasantly saturated and a great colorful movie, much like Apocalypse Now... The picture now resembles all those wonderful film cels I've seen throughout the year. Certainly, this is the best, color timing-wise that Star Wars has ever looked. The very warm, bright, colorful picture feels right, and I'm not sure that anything color-corrected from that dull, bland 2004 master can look as majestic.

Overall, the brightness and contrast were good. All stars in space were visible and no crushed blacks! The contrast was natural and never overwhelming, feeling like the late saturated 70's film it should feel like. Truthfully, and yes, I know I said the exact same thing on Harmy's release, I did notice more details I had never seen before. I'm glad this has such a high bideo bitrate since there are absolutely no digital compression artifacts whatsoever and you can see everything possible. :-)

Of course, as earlier, I must mention the grain reduction. This is certainly no fault of Dark Jedi's, as it is inherent to anything from the GOUT. There was nothing he could have done... It's lesser in some scenes than others, for instance it seems relatively visible on the blockade runner and Tattooine, but far less so during the Death Star and Yavin 4 scenes. Still, no Star Wars release is perfect and if you didn't have the grain reduction, the picture would indeed be VERY grainy or if it was 2004 sourced, crushed blacks and still some grain reduction. The 1080p conversion does make it more visible than in the SD GOUT. After the first 10 minutes, you'll get used to it and enjoy the rest of the film. Strangely, optical grain is still visible in some shots...

All the audio tracks are in sync and wonderful. I'd often transition between them with that snazzy pop-up menu this thing has. I'm glad this has such a high bideo bitrate since there are absolutely no digital compression artifacts whatsoever and you can see every detail possible. :-)

However, by far, the absolute best part of this release is... the lightsabers (lightsabres?). They looked absolutely fantastic... better than any lightsabers I'd seen so far (yes I'm including Revisited). Personally, I favor the hand-rotoscoped, animated-like, original feel of lightsabers to digital ones. This Blu-Ray certainly showed it off... in all its glory. I loved the simple animated look of the lightsabers. It must have been such a pain back in '77 to make those; finally seeing it in it's original (arguably primitive) glory, I appreciated their grandeur and brilliance. They also were surprisingly colorful! Luke's and Obi-Wan's lightsabers were both true blue. Darth Vader's was even more impressive. It was certainly the reddest I'd ever seen it in any movie. No trace of pink whatsoever. In these lightsaber scenes, you can even see the old-fashioned optical grain, letting you know how much effort was put into making it. ;) If you want to really feel how natural and original this release is, take a look at any of ANH's lightsaber scenes.

And that's all for now folks! I can't wait until THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK! :-)

thorr said:

Maybe you could send those to Ady as well for color correction.

Umm, though an HD version may be cool...

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

Unfortunately the OP specified "home video" release.  So you have to pick which one of those will be transferred directly to blu ray :)

The Japanese Special Collection on Blu-Ray. Hmm... No more DVNR but a dirtier picture. I'd probably end up getting that. :D

Oh apologies. I meant I got my Project Blu package, and I've just started watching it!

Anyway, here are my initial thoughts:

I put the SW disc into my PS3, and, lo and behold, my PS3 recognized it as Star Wars! This is the first HD Star Wars I've seen do that, so this set things up nicely and professionally.

I then started the disc. The Menu looks magnificent! Kudos to whoever did it. The poster background is very classy and better than some official Blu-Rays. The menu was very organized and easy to navigate. Nothing seemed fan-made. Even the font looked classy.

Eagerly, I started the movie. The crawl... is superb! Never have I seen it look so crisp; not even in the 2004 transfer. Since the crawl was taken from a different source than the rest of the GOUT, it was immaculate. The letters looked crisp, immediately it reminded me of how nice mverta's Star Wars Legacy crawl looked.

As the movie continued onward, I wasn't disappointed. I never got the V3, so I'm completely blown  away by the depth and clarity of the picture. Hard to believe this is a 20 year old scan meant for laserdisc! Anyway, I watched in awe as the Star Destroyer battled the rebel ship.

Perhaps the only thing I noticed so far was that the DVNR is still noticeable. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about this. You can see it a bit more in Project Blu than the GOUT.

However, I must say that this is MY DEFINITIVE VERSION OF STAR WARS. Sorry, Harmy, your Despecialized editions were nice, but this...

Anyway, I've got to go. I want to watch more! :-)

EDIT: Sorry, but one last thought... this definitely goes far beyond the reaches of sheer upconversion. Even my OPPO DVD-983H can't upconvert to half this quality.