YanniD

bilditup1 said:

May just have to get a BD burner for this, though logistically this may be hard (no more SATA ports, and don't wanna get rid of my HD-DVD/BD combo drive).

It's a shame LG dropped HD-DVD read capability from their recent BD writers as my unit was only $85 and it otherwise would have been a good replacement for your combo drive.  Wouldn't have been difficult to include it as a bonus or cost them money.

I still have my original LG BD writer that has HD-DVD read capability, but that was like $400.

You could get an enclosure for a 5" drive and connect it via usb externally, if you don't have external eSATA ports available (or even a usb->SATA converter and SATA PSU for connecting a bare drive externally when necessary).

sunday256 said:

Thanks for that screenshot! I'm fairly certain there's some difference in color from the IB print to my 2nd screenshot (from Harmy's MKV) below from my home monitor.

IB Print

 

Be aware that this is a photo taken by a camera of a projection of an IB Technicolor print and may have limitations in how well it represents the actual print:  there will be influences from the camera white balance, etc as well as the projector.

I see these photos as being most useful in determining the overall colour balance across the movie, before Lucas started tweaking various scenes, and less useful for absolute brightness and contrast.

It is a huge shame that a technicolor print is not permitted to be released to the public to be scanned, duplicated and distributed.

SithTrooper said:

I've got both the DVD5 and MKV versions, but have only burned the DVD5 copy (which looks great btw). My question is ... with only having a DVD burner, can I do anything with the MKV to shrink it down to a DVD9? I've got programs like Freemake that will accept MKVs and burn them to a DVD, but I'm afraid that the compression might be too much. Need some help from the experts.

I believe you can use mkvmerge to split an mkv into multiple discs based on time or duration.  A split will generally occur at the nearest keyframe, regardless of where you specify the split.

What I am not sure about is whether the bitrate of the mkv will be too much to play back from a DVD without glitching.  Perhaps that is why the AVCHD will be half the size of the mkv.

If you don't mind wasting a few DVDs and changing discs during playback, I suggest you test it out, otherwise wait for the AVCHD.

Bluray burners are becoming much cheaper and are worth the investment if you are going HD as it preserves the maximum quality and saves a lot of stuffing about with time consuming extra compression:  the LG is about $85.

You can also use ClownBD to convert an mkv to Bluray structure:  it's a GUI front-end to eac3to (for audio and demuxing), BDsup2sub (for subtitles) and TsMuxer (for muxing) used in the process.

For anyone interested, there are a couple of programs called easySUP/goSUP that can convert srt subtitles into Bluray compatible PGS form.  I also recall there being another utility that can force subtitles in Bluray structure, although I can't remember what it is called.

Pheran said:

 

The AVCHD format is mainly intended for folks (like myself) who don't yet own Blu-ray burners. The movie is still encoded in HD format, but it will be no larger than 8.5G so that it will fit onto a dual-layer DVD. You can then burn it to a DVD that you can play in a regular Blu-ray player.

If you do have a Blu-ray burner, then you can probably just burn some variant of the existing MKV.

 

Thanks for that explanation:  I was wondering why anyone would want to compress the video further by 50% because the final quality has to be compromised in some way (unless the original video has not been compressed by much).

For those with Bluray players that can handle mkv on a usb drive, then the mkv will be the highest quality one to use.

Maybe we can convince Harmy to release the eventual Bluray as a series of mkv too, for those without Bluray burners but who have mkv capability.

Jan said:

Yes, the upload is still in progress, but the rar archive should be finished in about an hour with the par2 set taking about 5 hours more. You can download all complete files now and the rest of them later, that's really unproblematic.

Don't worry about takedown notices on usenet. They happen, yes, but are extremely rare. Chances are at least 99.9% the files will be available until the retention of your provider is met.

The rar files on usenet and filesharing sites are 100% the same, except that I renamed them. The par2 set however is different on usenet.

Okay, I see that they are slowly updating, thanks.

Didn't need the par2 files as the rar files were all intact and have now got them all.

Have just skimmed a few parts of the mkv and it looks absolutely gorgeous:  takes me right back to when I first saw it at the cinema all those years ago (unlike the Lucas version).

Thanks so much to everyone involved for making this happen (and the middle finger to George Lucas for doing his damnedest to prevent it).

stretch009 said:

b0bafett said:

To whoever is posting this to Usenet, why did you stop posting in a.b.starwars at file 117, then continue the post in a.b.hdtv?

Also as a FYI - file #106 didn't post.  (I plan on just downloading a par file & rebuilding it, but others might not know what or how to do that.)

 

What are you talking about??  If the link below is any indication everything you stated above is wrong.

https://www.binsearch.info/?b=Fixed_DeEdv2.0&g=alt.binaries.starwars&p=Harmy%27s+Friend+%3Charmys-friend%40starwars.com%3E&max=250

The link you have published shows complete files up to part133.rar, part134.rar is incomplete (and only uploaded 21 minutes ago) and there are no par2 repair files.

I guess it is possible the remaining files are still uploading, but right now via binsearch.info and newzbin indexers, there are not enough complete files to download the mkv via usenet.

Would it be safe to start downloading these usenet files in anticipation of fully complete files being available in due course?  With all the rapid takedown notices being issued by the MPAA, I'm a little concerned the files could disappear and I be left with an incomplete orphan.  In these circumstances, it makes sense to publish exactly the same files on usenet and filesharing sites which are interchangeable, so that a complete set can still be obtained if one site loses some or all of them.

I'm really looking forward to watching the mkv:  thanks Harmy and happy birthday.

Considering how easy it is to mux soundtracks into an mkv using mkvmerge, assuming they are synchronised, would it be better to include just a few core soundtracks in the mkv and provide the remainder for download individually, so the "customer" can decide which they want?

This would also permit improved or additional soundtracks to be made available when they are ready and not hold up the basic mkv.

From my perspective, there are probably soundtracks envisioned for the mkv that I wouldn't be interested in listening to and they will take up more download space than necessary in the mkv.

Anyway, just a thought.

Although it is not explicitly summarised in the thread, my interpretation of the release sequence is as follows:

1. mkv - 16GB 720p mkv, movie only

2. AVCHD - 8.5GB 720p basic Bluray structure, movie only

3. Bluray - 25GB 720p advanced Bluray structure, movie with extras

Corrections to this view welcomed.

Since the AVCHD will be about half the size of the mkv, then the mkv will be higher quality?

ClownBD can convert mkv-->M2TS-->Bluray without transcoding loss.

M2TS has an additional timestamp field designed for random access in PVRs, players etc, so theoretically has more stable navigation than TS or even mkv.  It is curious that some members mention mkv as being better, but perhaps it comes down to the (limited) implementation of M2TS in the players.

I'm not particularly well versed in encoding, but does 2 pass really offer substantial benefit versus throwing more bits at it in a single pass?

Is the objective to get the best compression (least size) or can we allow the size to increase to reduce the encoding time whilst still maintaining quality?  We do have 25GB to play with for a BD-R and the mkv won't fit on a DVD-9 anyway.

Just saying perhaps the mkv could be larger to get it out there quicker and the BD using better quality compression.

jabbo5150 said:

Harmy said:

Yes, 15GB video stream is the plan.

I have an Oppo BDP-93. Would this be something I could dump onto a flash drive and play that way? Would it be fast enough to handle it or will I need to use a hard drive?

The Oppo only supports proper mkv playback with DD, DTS, mp3 and LPCM non-HD audio codecs.

It will however support M2TS files and BDMV (and AVCHD\BDMV) structures (plus ISO if you still have pre-Jan 2012 firmware) from an attached drive with full HD video and audio codec support, along with subtitles.

ClownBD can convert an mkv file into M2TS or Bluray structure (folders or ISO), retaining chapter points and converting subtitles where necessary.  Bluray structure contains BDMV folders, which can be copied to AVCHD folders if necessary.

I recommend Bluray structure as it supports chapter navigation, plus you can then burn to BD-R as a mini-Bluray.

A BDMV folder, AVCHD\BDMV folder or ISO version of Harmy's mkv should play back fine from a flash drive on the Oppo.

Any chance someone could send me a link to this amazing treasure?

Would love to hear it, but seem to have come a bit late to the party.

UPDATE: now have the links, many thanks to You_Too.

Wookiegroomer,

Did you encode "Return Of The Jedi" differently to "A New Hope" and "Empire Strikes Back"?

Whilst Return plays fine at normal speed with a Pioneer 51fd, if I attempt to do a chapter advance, it takes more than 30 seconds before the new video is displayed.  If I attempt a Fast Forward, it is very choppy with the infrequent video frames being a torn combination of 2 or 3 frames.

I don't have this issue with Hope or Empire.

Would this be an encode problem or a disc problem?  The disc verified just fine after the burn.

Oberron said:

I have a question regarding A New Hope-Fresh Tested Edition?

It appears that there is an issue with the encode, at about the 2:00:02 mark, during the end credits.  The image breaks-up for about a second (Media Players cannot seek past this point) then returns to normal.

I have noticed this issue on playback via a Pioneer 51fd.

The video breaks up with a few corrupt macroblock clumps at this point, although the audio seems to play fine continuously through this point.  However the corruption only lasts a few seconds and then video is fine.

I haven't tried seeking beyond this point as it is just the end credits and it is still possible to view through the corruption, so it isn't really an issue for me.  Sure a perfect encode would have been preferable, but I'm happy enough with what we have.

Wideload said:

 IMHO it's well worth downloading the proper releases of these.

When 140GB costs around $130, one has to think twice about "worth".

Firstly, I would like to say that Wookiegroomer is a legend for making the fan edits available in such great quality.

I obtained the first version of V and was entranced by how great it looked.  I noticed a sync issue but ignored it.  Subsequently I obtained IV and VI and also noticed issues.

It was quite costly in bandwidth and time obtaining IV, V and VI and I am very reluctant to toss them away and obtain the final re-issues unless it is the only way to obtain "perfect" copies.

Alternatively, would it be possible to obtain the correct audio delay and demux and remux the files that I have, to correct the sync issue?  Or, is the sync issue not one of a constant offset, but variable and therefore not amenable to simply applying a delay to the offending audio tracks?