canofhumdingers

twooffour said:

With regard to the swordfighting clips here, can I ask those with some knowledge a question: could it be that, basically, the fights in movies go on for longer without injury because... it's an idealized world and everyone there is simply MILES BETTER than most, or anyone, in real life?

They can actually deflect all the fast moves and tricks without getting injured... the guys in the first clip can't last a second because, ultimately, they couldn't foresee or react to at least one move.

That's really common. Plastic yellows with age as it deteriorates. It happens faster if improperly stored. A hot, stuffy attic isn't good, but sunlight is the absolute worst for discoloring plastic. It's very normal for vintage figures to be discolored, especially the white ones. And since the bodies are often made from a slightly different plastic than the limbs, the amount of discoloration will vary. As for the newer stuff, Hasbro has had some issues with plastic of some figures being less stable. There's a bad batch of clone troopers that can currently be found at retail that all have yellow helmets already, & they're brand new for sale still in the package. Hasbro did a second run that has better helmets (so far) but many of the yellowed ones can still be found at retail across the country.

regarding news of the color correction & Return of the Puggo...

whoops*

see you auntie said:

Canofhumdingers, see my signature, it's yours if you want it. I made it with that intention.

I suppose I'd be willing to share my fame.... But only with Harmy.

;-)

Wow, I'm so proud I've finally created so much controversy on this board! And, I for one, don't think it's a stupid name. ;)

I will say, that I first noticed it with my naked eye while watching Harmy's Star Wars despecialized at normal speed. I only went back frame by frame to see exactly what it was that made me go, "what the heck was that flash of color on the death star?!" I think the fact that the source used for Harmy's edit has one of the most obvious versions of the glitch (with all the colors) helped me spot it, but I don't know how anyone could NOT see it... It's really obvious. It only lasts for one frame, and certainly isn't going to keep me from enjoying the movie, but a bright rainbow streak flashing across a bleakly gray Death Star stands out pretty clearly...

But then again, I've always been really anal about picture quality and any flaws in a home video presentation jump out at me pretty quickly. (people around me still don't get it if I complain about all the compression artifacts when watching a normal dvd, and my wife didn't know what I meant when I mentioned seeing the real change markers as we left the movie theater recently. She said she's never noticed them in any movie).

The "Humdinger glitch"? :-D I've FINALLY actually contributed something (no matter how minor) to this community! I'm so proud.... *sheds tear*

I finally watched this in full last week (I've had the disc for weeks now, but had only sampled bits & pieces until recently). What can I say that hasn't already been said? Just like Star Wars, you've successfully saved ESB from the man who would destroy it. Thank you, Harmy, and all the wonderful people who collaborated with you or graciously allowed you to use bits from their own projects to make this happen! The tide finally feels like it's turning back in our favor! Hurray!

Jay said:

It's a problem with the advanced editor. If you switch to the plain text editor under your preferences, you should be able to post.

So what was in the SE that had to be removed in this "Flipped Chewy vs. Super Smoke" scene? I've never watched the 2004 versions & haven't seen the '97 SE in at least a decade.

Oh, & for the record, I'd rather have the smoky shot. There's already smoke in the original shot & you just added some more. To me that's preferable to having a new shot that's not in the original cut.

I'm curious, what are the changes that you didn't catch in version 1.0?  I sure didn't notice anything!  (I'm assuming these are SE changes that you didn't change back?)

I thought the IDEA of the fall of Darth Vader was pretty awesome.  I mean, the Lucas apologists have a bit of a point that the basic premise is pretty epic on a Greek tragedy type of scale.  It had SO much potential.  Unfortunately, the motivation for his turn (along with so many other of the MOST important things like dialogue, script, acting, and directing) was done SO poorly that it mitigates any and all awesomeness that could have been.

The only other thing I can think of at the moment was that I liked Ewan McGregor as young Obi-wan.  He did a pretty good job convincing me he was a young Alec Guinness, considering what he had to work with.  I think had the films lived up to their potential, he'd have been REALLY great!

That's really all I can think of.  But at this point, it's been so long since I've watched even a clip from a prequel that I really don't remember much at all.  And I prefer it that way...  Less baggage to carry into my viewing the OT.

I realized the prequels sucked when, I was watching AOTC on opening night and found myself bored during the speeder chase through Coruscant in the beginning of the movie.   I remember actually thinking "What's wrong?  Why am I not enjoying this?" as I was sitting in the theater.  Then is dawned on me, like a light being turned on in the dark, "this sucks!  The new Star Wars Sucks!!"

the seeds had been sewn with the Phantom Menace, but I allowed myself to be blinded by the fancy lightsaber fights & such.  But when AOTC wasn't any better, and was actually worse, that was it.  The veil had been lifted.

Crazy.  Lucasfilm's quality control people should be ashamed!  (well, they should've been ashamed long ago with all the horrid technical issues already, but geez!)

Wait, shouldn't you want us to be more gay?...  ;)

Did I nitpick?  Show me where I nitpicked.  I simply asked about a glitch I noticed & whether it was in the master file or just an error in my copy of the file (in which case I might've tried downloading it again).  I even specifically stated that it wasn't a big deal (it lasts for literally one frame!).  Go back a page or two & you'll find me praising this work to high Heaven, which it (& Harmy) rightfully deserves.

Get over it.

Has anyone else noticed a glitch during the Death Star battle?  It only lasts for one frame, so it's not really a big deal, but it's a band of data that looks kind of like color bars/test patterns towards the bottom of the frame.  It's not actually at the bottom of the tv screen, but the bottom of the actual film image.  Just curious if it's a problem with the project or just a corrupt bit of data in my copy of the files.  I've burned two copies & both have the exact same glitch.  Apologies for the crappy pics, I don't know how to make screenshots, so I just took pictures of my tv.  But it at least lets you see what I'm talking about.  (it's the shot of vader & co. zooming into the trench for the first time, chasing the y-wings)

Anchorhead said:

canofhumdingers said:

Anchorhead said:

I want the film I grew up with in a high quality presentation. 

 Have you seen the Despecialized Edition HD by Harmy?  I think you might love it (like pretty much everyone else who's seen it, myself included)!

I've never seen any fan-made transfers.  No reason in particular, just haven't.  The screen grabs I've seen of some of them look very nice though.

 Based on what I know from your posts here, I think you might throw out the 2006 "GOUT" disc & have Harmy's Despecialized version become your go-to version of Star Wars.  I'd strongly encourage you to check it out!  I don't want to derail this thread too much, so maybe pm's would be better, but I'd be happy to help you get a copy if you need assisstance (I know I needed help when I first started checking out fan preservations).

Anchorhead said:

I want the film I grew up with in a high quality presentation. 

 Have you seen the Despecialized Edition HD by Harmy?  I think you might love it (like pretty much everyone else who's seen it, myself included)!

Does the Puggo Grande count?  That & Harmy's Despecialized HD are probably the closest I've come to seeing the original cut of Star Wars.  The GOUT or Harmy's DE HD of Empire & the GOUT for Jedi...

I agree with those in favor of bluray.  When done correctly, it's the closest we've ever come in home video to having a 35mm print to screen in your home (it can even show film at it's native 24fps!!) I watched the bluray of  North by Northwest recently & it seriously felt like I was watching a newly struck print in my living room!  And I also agree that the bigger the tv, the more film-like stuff looks (assuming it's a good tv & is set up properly).  If you're watching this on a 32 inch Vizio LCD, then of course it looks "wrong"!  You get what you pay for...

I remember these same arguments when DVD started gaining popularity.  I specifically remember my sister saying they were just too "clear & sharp looking" that it was unnatural.  Then she said the same thing about bluray/HD the first time she saw it.  But the fact remains that when you go to the movies today, you're still seeing a higher resolution image than even 1080p (again, assuming it's a quality print...or digital presentation I guess... and that it's being projected properly - something that seems to be becoming rarer...) but you don't see complaints about properly done projections in movie theaters looking "wrong" or "too clear".  Again, I think this is partly because size does matter.  Really high resolution images tend to look odd when squeezed down onto tiny screens.

Regarding HD video, I agree it can look strange when the production values are low or the people doing it aren't very good at it.  But then, video has always had a tendancy to look "off" compared to real life and poorly done HD video just exacerbates these issues, imo.

OzoneSherrif said:

Instead of another technological terror super weapon maybe it should have been some devastating dark force attack the Emperor was cooking up. We could have finally seen a demonstration of how the power of the Force is actually stronger than the ability to destroy planet.

i dunno... how about something as simple as the Emperor waving his hand and several Rebel ships getting obliterated?

 I like the idea of having the Emperor do something that shows how powerful the force can be, but not so much this idea specifically.  I like the idea of the force being tightly knit with living things.  Sure it can move inanimate objects via telepathy, but that's not where the real power lies.  The real power lies in the ways it can be used to monipulate or overcome other people (like the mind trick).

But taking your basic idea in another direction...  I'd borrow the idea someone else had where the rebels are led into a trap, thinking they're going to wipe out the empire once & for all in a big battle on and over the capital planet.  But during the battle, the emperor uses the force to manipulate the rebels & maybe incapacitate them.  I'm invisioning something like what happens when Professor X targets all the humans via Cerebro in Xmen 2....  In the heat of battle, suddenly huge chunks (or maybe all) of the rebel forces are unable to fight due to mental interference, extreme pain, hallucinations, or something (or maybe all of the above?).  This could serve dual purposes too.  First to show the true power of the darkside, and secondly to act as the trigger the breaks Luke's resolve so that he gives into his anger and first strikes out against the emperor (which would then lead into the duel with Vader, just like in the film).

I finally got this last night (I was also having problems with part 2, but it eventually worked).  Like Star Wars, I haven't had a chance to sit down & watch the whole thing (I have guests in town & I probably won't get to watch either of these in full for another week...  :sadface:).

BUTTTT.............  I did throw it into the PS3 late last night after everyone went to bed & skipped around to spot check it.  Un-FREAKING-believable!  I still think Star Wars is your total masterpiece, but this is a fantastic companion.  I was really happy with Adywan's Theatrical restoration, but this takes it over the top.  I know Adywan had to hurry to meet the deadline of the 30th anniversary he had set & thus left a few SE things unrestored.  But most of them didn't bother me.  The one thing that did was the lightsabers on Cloud City.  I could barely contain my excitement when I saw you had fixed them!  Add to the fact that this is HD and there's just nothing to compare it to.  The wampa cave is spectacular & I honestly struggled to tell which parts were not HD, even under scrutiny.  I was also very impressed with how well the "zoomed back out" shots of the Falcon cockpit (where you added the edges back to the frame using the GOUT) came out.  Seriously, I wouldn't have known how you did it if not for your slideshow. 

I'm so impressed.  I was actually telling my brother about your work over the phone & I told him how I'm not even that upset about the lack of the OOT on the upcoming blurays anymore.  Your work is that good (& my brother was shocked to hear me say that, responding, "geez, these must really be fantastic if you're saying that...").  Don't get me wrong, I still want the OOT to really be properly restored & be released in all it's glory, but as others have said, what you've done has taken so much of the "sting" or "guilt" out of watching crappy, smeary, low res versions of the OOT that I don't long for official blurays like I did before.

&, while I understand if you prefer not to answer, but I just have to ask.  Are you a professional in the film or video industry in some capacity or is this all completely amatuer?  I know you've pulled resources from projects by other members here, but everything is just so well done (their work as well as yours) that I find it hard to believe that all of this is completely amatuer...

After seeing the incredible Star Wars Despecialized Edition, I HAVE to get this ESB Despecialized!!  Could someone help me find the HD version?  Something I could use Jdownloader for would be my preference... Thanks!