Thanks for the vote of confidence. Sorry if I got you started down a rabbit hole, but it’s pure fun and surprising what you wind up learning…after being surrounded by tons of LDs…
I made an in depth video runthrough of main editions but the easiest cost effective recommendation are the USA Fox special widescreen editions for the trilogy-and especially look for the Technidisc pressing of ANH.
How does one take something that looked perfectly fine as a DVD extra and make it worse?
This happens all the time and is a reason why I sometimes hang onto to otherwise outclassed DVDs. Usually they don’t take the time to convert, re-encode and worry about legacy extras and just shove them on without thought. Thus on a lot of BDs what once looked fine are filled with aliasing, noise, compression artifacts or in the worst case scenario look like low quality youtube uploads which is what happened on some Kino Blu-rays. 9 times out of 10 extras look better on DVD. It’s only the specialty labels that care to rebuild things in 1080p or present them in 1080i upconverts and preserve quality of the original standard def materials-companies like Arrow, Criterion, Indicator, Eureka.
This is so confusing. I hadn’t realized Disney did a 2018 reissue with new mixes after Sony did the big LP boxset which was from the album versions. I never got the Sony release and now regret it I suppose.
The video indicates that there’s a new remaster and restoration of the complete film scores…but the 2018 disney cds with the same art have the same old track listings as the LPs and no bonuses. And this video is from this year…
This has just made me grin like an idiot and say to myself: Wow, maybe this will get back to Organa Major. Many wonderful images of things I’ve either never seen or from entirely different angles or takes. Scrolling through makes one realize again just how important the human factor was, how the nuts and bolts glued together rough hewn qualities are what made SW so special.
If interested tonight’s stream will be on Sergio Leone:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CjDymSvqJEA&feature=youtu.be
LFL wanted to test the waters of DVD just like Disney did at first. Many labels weren’t as willing to just jump in at the forefront and release a number of crappy early discs that were little more than LD ports. They also wanted to maximize profits and figure out the DVD market. Thus you had to wait until 2001 to get the DVD SE of TPM and could only get a VHS copy in the US for almost three years. I’m surprised they didn’t let it come out on LD but the format was pretty much cut off here before TPM would have debuted. Looking at lddb specs the last US Fox LD was Entrapment in late November 1999. The Japanese TPM from Fox came out in January 2000 so it just barely missed a USA LD release.
The first major DVDs readily available to consumers from studios at entry price points weren’t really hitting until 1997 particularly the first waves of Warner snapper case titles.
They were wanting to do more work on the OT and that eventually became making the new masters, handing them to Lowry crap digital and then over-processing the life out of them and making the new changes in mixes. This likely took some time after beating around the bush for so long and is why they finally came out in Sept. 2004. The peak of the DVD booms was really around 2005 so they timed it perfectly. And of course not telling anyone it was another version suckered us all into buying it and getting home to start the hours of horror…
I’m sure Fox would have been more than happy to have gotten the 97 SE out on DVD perhaps with a slightly spiffed up master of the LD versions from the later Japanese releases say around 2002. That would have given us a much better source to work from and a higher quality official 97SE release but nooooooo…it can’t ever be easy.
TPM and AOTC are up on capsaholic:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=5419
https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=5420
They did not change the teal infusion on AOTC. Darn. The caps show everything as just a whole lot darker. That could be the capturing software though.
It does seem like they did indeed finally ditch the Lowry POS master as a source. Anything and I mean ANYTHING that company ever touched is atrocious in all sorts of ways.
While everything so far seems to indicate that this is the Reliance 4K stuff we’ve been discussing back and forth it also appears to perhaps be the final LFL led SE master where they inserted even Maclunkey before handing over the reins. So I’m a bit torn now. I was avoiding these like the plague and have no use for the 19SE or the frozen grain and other tomfoolery that shows they have no desire to properly care about proper film presentation-and yet this is so much better than anything we’ve officially gotten visually since…well since the 97SE LD release actually.
Darn it i’m not going to let them dangle the bloody carrot at me…the fact that the BD.com review is harsh says something-they’re almost NEVER harsh when they should be and the audio “reviews” are more of a joke since there only generalities for the most part.
But the Prequels are all kinds of ugly. ROTS seems ok and they will never be all that nice to look at. I’ve heard AOTC supposedly gets rid of the teal color shift of the BD which would be great.
But TPM is APPALLING. Sure the main source is a roughly 2K filmout of everything done long ago but to take that and rescan for the 3D release and hit 100% with overzealous DNR and processing then bring it to 1080p and then upped to 2K and then uprez that to 4K…it’s hideous. And all they had to do was present the source untouched and it would at least look ok for what it was. they seem to go nuts with over-processing the image in each format. The LD is bad, the DVD is bad, the BD is bad and now the 4K polishes every aspect of a visual turd.
Those who have picked these up, what do you think of the sound mixes? The prequels have always had great audio but TPM has never sounded as good as the LD audio to my ears and I still think they started tinkering on AOTS/ROTS audio on the 2011 discs.
I would hope the OT at least now sounds better than the 2011 mixes but reports seem to indicate it is still the base 2011 mix with those changes still intact.
Haha…it’s the Bonds for me.
VHS for all 20 original series films, some extra tapes in rare letterboxed VHS form, collector’s boxset sealed, TND VHS boxset, some in the 1992 collector’s edition line, some in the original VHS line.
Letterboxed USA LDs for 1-18, corrected LALD pressing, 1.33 discs for DN/FRWL/GF/TMWTGG, some of the original time compressed pan n scan LDs, Connery collection boxsets 1 and 2, Goldfigner and Thunderball CAV boxsets, THX final release LDs for Dr. No/FRWL/GF/TB/TSWLM/Moonraker, Criterion CAVs for DN/FRWL/GF. DTS LDs for Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies.
Japanese letterboxed LDs for 1-18. Evergreen and Pan n scan early Japanese discs for some as well.
On DVD I have the whole SE run in the three boxes, the UE line in the initial four volume boxes, and for the original THX DVD line I have TSWLM.
Blu-ray: I have the Bond 50 set.
Most overall is probably GF and TB
Goldfinger:
VHS x2
Laserdisc x6: 1.33 disc, Criterion CAV, Connery collection, THX CAV boxset, THX final LD, Japanese LD
SE DVD, UE DVD
Blu-ray
Thunderball:
VHS x3
LD: pan n scan US, Japanese evergreen, Connery collection, THX CAV set, THX clv ac3, Japanese widescreen
SE DVD, UE DVD
Blu-ray
Or it may be Dr. No or FRWL since I have many other assorted tapes of the early films plus extra LD copies. I’ll have to tally them up.
I’d also include:
Casino Royale '67: pan n scan LD, letterbox LD, original DVD, Blu-ray
Never Say Never Again: letterboxed LD, first DVD, CE DVD, Blu-ray
The gold/silver boxes carried over the scheme from the 97SE VHS boxsets.
At least the blue P/S dvds are easy to tell apart from the widescreen gold copies.
I have to admit I’m having a lot of fun goofing around with an original Wii I picked up to play with. Since they’re dirt cheap and so easily moddable I figured I’d finally give it a go to at least have component out for GCN games.
I got an original model with component cable for under $20. This thing does remarkable NES/SNES emulation with little to no effort. Apparently there’s solid emulation on it for most every console save n64. Plus I finally got to try the abominable motion controlling Staff of Kings…yay…
Retro prices are skyrocketing. I saw a Smash Bros 64 cart in a local shop before the outbreak started and I kid you not the price was 73.99! No box, cart only! Admittedly that store is always a bit higher on game prices but it’s not much more than other game stores. Even common mass sellers are shooting up. Goldeneye and Super Mario 64 for over $50!
At the very least it would have been more like an Indy film because George could produce Steven but not try and over the shoulder direct/second guess in the manner that is continually suggested he did/tried to do with Richard Marquand.
Ironically Spielberg had just finished Poltergeist where it is strongly felt he did this with Tobe Hooper and ghost directed much of the film himself.
I’m sure Spielberg would have insisted on rewrites and the film would have been stronger because George would have felt he had to listen to him. But it also would have had a Spielberg flavor which is alien to the Star wars universe too.
Weirdest of all is that this could have been directed by David Lynch.
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Omnibus:_A_Long_Time_Ago…_Volume_1
It’s this later edition in the omnibus series. I’m now trying to get the whole run of Dark Horse omnibuses as I never realized they had republished so darn much in nice complete books like this. Of course now they’re going up in price so it’s yet something else OOP I now collect…
That’s bizarre seeing a new N64 cart in a reproduction 1990’s Kenner Hasbro action figure blister pack.
Though the prices are nuts considering you can get an original cart for a fraction of that price…That said N64 prices are going sky high because of nostalgia. Racer and Shadows can go for well over $20 for carts only. Mario party, Mario 64, Goldeneye, Star Fox and Smash bros are cray cray prices.
I tried Racer revenge back in the day as a rental but remember it as being like super bombad racing: it felt like a generic racer with a SW skin on it.
I remember Clone Wars being pretty good on a friends xbox. The one I never got to was bounty Hunter and I need to fix that.
The good reviews for the Atari SW/ESB/ROTJ Arcade1Up are very nice to see. I’m amazed they were able to replicate the Atari controller. I’d love to try one out to see how it compares. Admittedly I’m spoiled in that my local arcade as a really good condition SW83 machine. Another farther out has a SW and ROTJ machine. I really hate the ROTJ game as it’s impossible and at that awful angle of play. I’d love to finally play ESB in person again-I haven’t played it since childhood in an arcade.
It started as just a discussion of the Blu-ray release. One of the forum members is a video engineer who worked on the 2004 master and has talked about how Fox/LFL were trying to meet rush deadlines and made mastering decisions even he didn’t agree with. So he had to defer to George as the final arbiter.
I linked to the Visual comparison site over there so that people who were already confused by the post 97 releases could go down the rabbit hole…
The 77 differences between sources from the original release are fascinating. Why do I get the feeling as usual we do more comparative research than any officials?? 😉
As for ANH and alternate subtitles, I think the Radio Drama does it best with each episode having a custom title.
congrats on getting published. I started spreading this around to anyone I could think of. Hopefully this helps to reach the general public at large because it’s extremely well worded and understandable.
Rogue Squadron will drill into you how much the Y-wings are laser blast magnets.
“Remember they move like a sleeping Hutt!”
The Incom t-65 X-wing is the best overall snub fighter in the SW universe. Fast, agile, good shields, good fire capability and far more versatile than the original model the Z-95 Headhunter.
The A Wing is fastest but lacks in shields and firepower.
The Y-wing is a bomber with heavy shields but moves extremely slow and has little agility.
The B-wing is surprisingly good overall despite the design and is somewhere in the middle.
I really want to finally play the original X-wing series but I can never get all the controls down.
This sounds like a mess and yet another overstuffed box of nothing with a new version that’s two steps forward 10 backward. The prequel digital origins of AOTC and ROTS means it’s an upscale of an upscale. They haven’t even done new work on those and everyone involved seems happy to always utilize older flawed materials even if there has been 4K work done as happened on the OT. TPM is stuck in a film/early digital no man’s land and has been treated appallingly. This should look as good as a 90’s film with early CG sequences for the majority of the feature run time and then a properly managed hybrid for the digital heavy scenes.
Ultimately these new discs will only highlight the flaws even further.
I hope the audio is better in terms of mix for everything but I’m sure it’s even worse than the 2011 6.1 tracks as each and every release is plain bad post 97SE.
The best is yet to come since we now have the disc versions of what we’ve been pouring over on D+. If these are indeed from new fully 4K materials then the ability is there to reconstruct the OOT-but no one has put the money down and bitten the bullet to do so.
However if it were me in charge I’d say forget all of that and start COMPLETELY from scratch to ensure every single step is done right. There’s no telling what could have been glossed over in the process and there needs to be professional outside restoration professionals in charge of accuracy.
Wow! I found the article first from the discussion on the Hoffman thread and was like wow, someone who speaks our language and eloquently at that! Then I had to stop and scroll back up on my phone to see the author…
Congratulations sir! This is exactly what the doctor ordered and hopefully being on such a well traveled site will get the case to more of the general populace. The smoking gun in terms of what people will take away from it is Abrams himself having to resort to watching OT efforts while making the new films.
Captainsolo, You forgot you have the 97SE on Laserdisc, and the 2011 set in the background of your videos is actually the 2015.
Doh! You’re right can’t believe I forgot the SE LD box. That was actually the first major LD purchase I ever made back in about 2009 or so along with You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me.
The 2015 BD release is much better than the 2011 because of the slim box and an actual case. I need to track down a ROTS BD copy to complete it.
It should have been there in the first place but everyone fought George on the idea that it would be too confusing. It was an idea to directly link to the cliffhanger serials of the past-and make it as if you wandered into an ongoing story much as kids used to if they hadn’t seen the previously screened chapters. So in '81 George was able to put it on there much like the '78 THX reissue he got to tweak the edit a tad.
I used to say ANH as a quick reference but the original film should be referred to as Star Wars for historical accuracy and as the original theatrical version. So for quite a number of years now I switched to just abbreviating as SW. Saying ANH should refer to anything 1981 and after.
I did finally pick up the first Marvel Dark horse omnibus volume and plan to jump in straightaway. I almost read the new recolored versions from the library but couldn’t stand the look of them.
Some of my favorite Leia moments were her struggles in the foundering New Republic early days where she had to keep composure amidst extremely trying situations and petty squabbling. Thus one could understand why she loved to just grab a blaster and run…