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Zottig

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Join date
17-Mar-2003
Last activity
12-Mar-2024
Posts
44

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Post
#692768
Topic
Making of Return of the Jedi (the book) Thread
Time

I don't know if anyone was ever able to liberate the larger iBooks version (presumably the highest quality based only on size) but I stumbled across this link to the B&N version that is larger than the Google Books version I bought and a lot larger than the Amazon version that seems to be the most compressed of all the editions.

**LINK REMOVED**

Ben

Post
#675319
Topic
Making of Return of the Jedi (the book) Thread
Time

skyjedi2005 said:

If Rinzler went through the trouble and did the research and already wrote the book on Episode I why would Disney just pull the plug.  That is nonsensical.

It makes perfect sense if you take Disney strictly at their word.  They killed the 3D releases of Episode II and III and Clone Wars cartoon because they said they wanted to focus on the OT timeframe in the lead up to Episode VII.  It's a marketing decision.  The thought, as I understand it, is that anything else (especially prequel) is an unwanted distraction from their OT message.

I assume the Old Republic was already a done deal with contracts at least a decade out, otherwise it too likely would have been delayed.

 

Ben

Post
#673954
Topic
Making of Return of the Jedi (the book) Thread
Time

Has anyone had any luck with the iBooks version?  The one I purchased on Google Books seems to only include text and photos in the offline version... none of the "Enhanced" content.

The only one I found uses the Amazon source, which is of course the worst fidelity of all the possible editions from the sounds of it.

 

 

Ben

Post
#670475
Topic
Making of Return of the Jedi (the book) Thread
Time

True, but if Random House sent out the same thing to all vendors it's likely Amazon squashing it so it's as cheap as possible to deliver from the cloud, same with Google.

Apple probably prefers it to be as big as possible because they pretty much deliver it once and then you manage your files with iTunes but more importantly... they make more money on devices with larger storage.

 

 

Ben

Post
#670465
Topic
Making of Return of the Jedi (the book) Thread
Time

It's disturbing that Random House sent out the same content to the various vendors and that the quality of the final product varies so much... and how is the customer to know?  I am pretty sure Random House doesn't care whether the consumer gets to make an informed decision and that that speaks volumes itself.  I bought the physical books and bought the eBooks but I am not happy with what I've gone through to TRY to make an informed decision and I feel I ended up having to settle because of artificial or platform-specific restrictions.

I initially got mine on Amazon and had to promptly return them when I discovered I could only see the enhanced parts on a Kindle device... no support for the media on a PC or Kindle Apps other than the iPad.

I considered B&N as their site indicated the download size and it was quite a bit larger than the Amazon or Google one but they had a no returns policy on digital media.  Since I don't own an iDevice I never considered or even looked into iBooks and it's annoying Apple seems to have the largest file (which we assume means it's compressed the least.)

As I run Android I ended up sticking with the Google Books version even though I was unhappy to discover (as others have mentioned) that while you could export an epub, it didn't include the enhanced bits... ie the media.  But at least you can read it on the web app on a PC.

There is a version of the eBooks out there but it must be one of the more compressed ones as its about 900mb for all three books and from the sound of it, the Apple versions are about 1Gb each.  I would love to see the best possible version liberated and worry the one out there will be good enough for most people... it's a shame we can't get an unfettered product legitimately.

 

Ben

 

Post
#595369
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

My thought has always been screw all other concerns and go for quality, this is about an optimal version of Star Wars, right?  

As it is it's inconceivable Lucas went cheap and only scanned such an important film at only 2k just because two of his precious prequels were limited to 1080p.  The original negative elements should have been scanned at 4k just for the sake of posterity as it's the functional resolution of film grain.

It's simply foolish.  ALWAYS go for the highest quality and you can transcode to lower if you need to.  You can never put back resolution.  Oh what I wouldn't give for the HuffyUV and AVSynth files for this project!  LOL

VHS, Microsoft Windows, MP3, there are far too many instances of the masses willing to sacrifice on quality in exchange for trivial and fleeting factors like cost, ease of adoption, convenience, etc... all of which quickly end up being meaningless and then you are just left with the compromises.

The reason audio has effectively topped out at CD quality is because the unwashed masses preferred convenience of MP3 to quality of DVD audio or SACD which could have brought things closer to the limits of human hearing but no "the market has spoken" and mp3 was deemed "good enough."

 

 

Ben

 

Post
#574356
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

On the topic of subtitles... I guess you'd have to burn  them in to make them look 100% as they did, but I'd be fine either way I guess.  While not an issue for ANH... will the misspellings be recreated or corrected in ROTJ?  As I recall Wookiee was misspelled and I want to say there was something else too, but not 100% sure.

 

 

Ben

Post
#572417
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

I haven't seen any work prints, no... honestly I found out about all this yesterday and watched SW v1.0 last night.

Only since then have I read up on the whole project.  I've not seen any of the work prints, but other than the couple of things I mentioned I really don't know how it could get that much better.  But if it does... then YAY!

I'm still not sure what Harmy meant by matte lines... I'm just glad the garbage mattes around the ships aren't something people want back.

I know it's probably sacrilegious, but things like fixing the lightsabers, removing garbage mattes, colorizing R2 so the panels are blue in space never bothered me really.  It's only the changes that altered scenes, story or added or removed characters that bothered me.

 

Ben

Post
#572399
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

 

Wow, I guess I've been out of it for a while... been too busy building my own R2-D2 to have paid enough attention to the state of the OT preservation art.  But I got what I assume was 1.0 of the Harmy's DE and watched it last night.  

I watched Star Wars last night!  Not A New Hope: Special Edition, not even A New Hope... I saw Star Wars.  And it was amazing!  I was BLOWN away by this despecialized edition Harmy!!  This was as close to Star Wars on a high def screen I've ever seen!  I can't WAIT to watch ESB tonight and then JEDI!

Knowing nothing about the project before watching it, I came in skeptical... expecting to see HD video with SD band-aids and BOY was I wrong.

At each moment where every fan tenses... that moment before a jarring SE change... nothing.  Things just continued along exactly as the inner five year old expected them to.

I can't imagine the work that had to go into it.  But Bravo!!

I watched with a critical eye too and really only saw a couple of things (other than the occasional encoding artifacting) that bothered me at all... but ONLY because I was looking for them.

The shot with Luke and 3PO looking for R2 where you restored the darker horizon looked a little muddy.  Other than that there seems to be an odd stutter in the scene with at the stormtrooper roadblock where there was an image jitter or dropped frame or doubled up frame... something was a little jarring in the scene where the droid flew behind the trooper's helmet... I can't put my finger on it exactly.

But the amazing part is that's the extent of things I really noticed and that in and of itself is high praise because I usually can tell the flaws in something from 50 paces.

Anyway, bravo... look forward to seeing 2.0.  Not sure I'm on-board with things like scratches and garbage mattes being added back in per-se, but we'll see.  I'm blown away with what's been done so far and can't wait to see more.


Ben

Grand Rapids, MI

 

Post
#246892
Topic
Info Wanted: Anyone Planning on making Anamorphic versions using 2006 OUT DVDs?
Time
Originally posted by: Doctor M
I don't know if the free version has all the options.
The one you're looking for is on the Options Tab. Follow the tree down: AVS Options/AVS Expert Options:Convert from LB 4:3 to 16:9.
You can also adjust for ITU aspect ratio and use any additional AviSynth filter you'd like (in case you want to tweak the picture while it's at it.)

I'd consider DVD Rebuilder a near on perfect tool if it would allow PAL -> NTSC (and back) conversion.

Check out these guide:
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_rebuilder_tutorial.cfm
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_rebuilder_tutorial_advanced.cfm
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvdrb.htm

They're not all up to date (settings have been moved around), but it'll get you started.



Not to go aff topic, but you mention PAL-> NTSC... is there anything that does it right? Resizes, keeps menus, adjusts for the PAL speed-up?

DVD Rebuilder Pro is really cool for anamorphic work and I love it! Now I wonder if there's something easy to do proper PAL conversion. Too many of the existing tutorials and tools leave the audio sped up and strip frames. I want the 25fps slowed to 23.976 or whathave you. Menus intact and audio all correct too. Anyone have experience with said? Right now the only option acceptable is WinDVD with the TruSpeed. But I want to watch on my HDTV not the computer.


Ben


Ben
Post
#246863
Topic
Preserving the "German" Original Trilogy (Released)
Time
I'm very surprised and thrilled to have stumbled across this thread.

I am of German descent (grandparents came from there) and have always wanted to learn German. I took several years in college and when my wife and I went to Germany for our Honeymoon in 1997 we saw ROTJ in the theater in german... it was very fun to see a film you are familiar with in a language you are learning...

I bought the 2004 DVDs from Amazon.de but would LOVE to get an adaptation of the OUT in German. I will be keeping an eye on this thread with great interest.

Thanks!!



Ben
Post
#246852
Topic
Preserving the...<em>cringe</em>...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Time
It's still on YouTube... search for "yankovic"

Al posted it to promote the CD coming out next week.


On the topic of the Holiday Special... this thread originated quite a while ago...

Have there been any new transfers? Every one I've seen seems to over filter or smooth the video. What's considered the best transfer these days? I have like 5 and they all have different short comings.


Ben
Post
#244985
Topic
Info Wanted: Anyone Planning on making Anamorphic versions using 2006 OUT DVDs?
Time
Sadly though had they LEFT it interlaced it would have allowed us to DEinterlace it properly. As I said... look at the stromtrooper who says "look sir, Droids" as he appears on screen. He has three sets of eyes as he rises into frame.

There are little hidden treats like this throughout the GOUT. VERY frustrating!!


Now the X0 is the only hope for a properly handled DVD.


Ben
Post
#244630
Topic
Info Wanted: Anyone Planning on making Anamorphic versions using 2006 OUT DVDs?
Time
Originally posted by: Karyudo
Originally posted by: Laserschwert
Unfortunately it's not subtle...


Ouch. You're not kidding. Thanks for doing an excellent job of documenting your findings!



Yeah, I think these were deinterlaced by throwing out the odd fields (or even) and then line doubling to restore a progressive image. Yucky results all over the place.

You knew these editions would be hobbled somehow. Damn... I thought we'd have at least something we could work with!


Post
#244629
Topic
Info Wanted: Anyone Planning on making Anamorphic versions using 2006 OUT DVDs?
Time
Originally posted by: Laserschwert

Sad thing is, that the Ben & Luke scene contains some SERIOUS deinterlacing-artifacts, and I assume it's not the only scene suffering from something like that.


The Stormtrooper who says... Look sir Droids... watch him as he appears on screen. Horrible deinterlacing artifacts.

I took a capture from the laserdiscs and was able to do manual deinterlacing (the cadence only changed three or four times) and was able to do it perfectely for all three movies. If I can (a bozo with a PC and avsynth) what's LFL's excuse?

These do look better than any laserdisc transfer I've seen, but then again they DO have a lot of deinterlacing errors. And frankly it wouldn't have killed Lucas to have someone resize these things for anamorphic DVD up front!

I'd almost preferred that they have left it alone (interlaced) and we could have recovered 24fps ourselves.

The FBI warning (focusing on non-monetary infringement) was a cute addition. Hugs and Kisses to George!