grisan

TServo2049 said:

I understand completely why he's not releasing it, and I support him all the way. Kevin Brownlow continued to restore Abel Gance's Napoleon for decades, even while Francis Ford Coppola and the other rights holders prevented him from making it available to the public. Now, all parties have worked things out and it's finally going to be screened in Oakland, CA this coming spring. I think Mike has the same general mindset - he says it's not being made to sit on a hard drive, it's going to be "available to the future" when circumstances change. He calls it an investment, and I totally agree.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaDlP-kmzWk

This is a detail from the Mos Eisley shot he just posted. I think it's clear now that he's working from a high-quality (possibly IB Technicolor) print scanned in 4K.

I tell you, this detail-recovery thing looks amazing, and I get how it basically works. In a stationary shot like this every frame of a print has a different part of the negative detail in it, and he's taking all that detail and combining it back together.

Pardon me if I sound like a sycophant, I'm not, I'm just amazed by what he's doing and I support it

Judging from his website, youtube channel etc. and his posts here this guy is just an egomaniac and narcissist of epic proportions. All he writes and does only serves one purpose: getting attention.

He has no intention in sharing his resources or final result just because it gives himself a feeling of superiority, to be able to deny others what they want.

It really is a pity that such an douchebag is doing this project and not a decent person.

I am not impressed unless you post about 175000 full screenshots in sequence and with at least 4K resolution.

On a personal level it is sad and tragic if someone dies pretty young because of cancer. My mother died because of esophagael cancer last year, so I know how hard and painful this is for family and friends.

As an IT professional, that has a very strong dislike for Apple, its overpriced products, blatant ripoffs of other products, ruthless business strategies, explotation of workers, pollution, non-conformity to open standards, lawsuits against other innovative, competing companies, etc. I can only say: Thank God his tyranny is finally over. Let's hope Apple will eventually get on the right path.

althor1138 said:

Derann 8mm in Italy for sale.  Anybody thinking about getting it?  Stupid ebay has this buy now pay later thing which might get me in trouble some day lol.

Holy sh*t, that's expensive.

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

grisan said:

I just found an auction on german ebay for the Star Wars 8mm anamorphic Reel 2 from Ken Films.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/STAR-WARS-Super-8-Scope-Breitwand-Widescreen-Sammlerstuck-Rare-Collectible-/120784937853?pt=DE_DVDs&hash=item1c1f57e37d

I just failed to win a similar auction for the same scope reel (it went for $110).  I'll keep an eye on this one.

Slightly offtopic because it is 8mm, but I didn't want to start a new thread or dig up the old 8mm thread.

I just found an auction on german ebay for the Star Wars 8mm anamorphic Reel 2 from Ken Films.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/STAR-WARS-Super-8-Scope-Breitwand-Widescreen-Sammlerstuck-Rare-Collectible-/120784937853?pt=DE_DVDs&hash=item1c1f57e37d

The seller also included an english description. I don't know much about celluloid versions of Star Wars. Maybe this is this worth getting and preserving?

mverta said:

... The assets needed to restore the film are deteriorating every day; they won't last forever.  If you have a chance to restore the film now, you take it, no matter what, because the chance won't come again.

 

_Mike

I admit this is a valid point, and it could be a mistake to pass on this now and regret it in the future.

However I still don't get what you are trying to accomplish with teasing this community with something you don't intend to distribute.

You claim this project is not about the bragging rights, yet the post about your CGI R2-D2 project seems ver much like bragging to me.

You are also posting this on a forum where some of the most dedicated, respected and knowledgeable Star Wars fans in existence exchange their ideas, opinions and in most cases also share their hard work. So I guess getting respect and recognition has nothing to do with it either? I have no doubts that preserving the legacy of star wars is one of your reasons to do this, but it is very clear you are also doing this for your ego. 

You seem like a very competent person and I hope you succeed, but if you don't intend to distribute the result the entire project is futile.

mverta said:

...

 

If someone came to you with the materials to do a Star Wars restoration beyond anyone's wildest dreams, on the condition that you may never share it publicly, what would you do?

 

...

 

_Mike

 

Most members of this forum wouldn't do it, because it is just a waste of time if nobody will be able to get it.

A restoration only makes sense if people actually care about the object and if it will be available to them and the future generations. The entire point of a preservation is to actually see or experience the object as it it was meant to be seen. Not just photos or descriptions, but the real thing. Thats why paintings, sculptures, buildings etc. are restored. If a movie is restored to its original form but nobody can watch it this defeats the entire purpose of the restoration.

Would you restore a painting to its former glory if it will just be hidden in a storage closet and never be shown in a museum?

Laserschwert said:

They can shove those transfers where it's dark and dense...

Like the back of a Volkswagen?

captainsolo said:

If this is now the 97SE version thread then be sure and check this old project thread for all kinds of info:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Max-Rebos-97-SE-superset-preservation/topic/9031/

I'm psyched to finally see the G'kar and Flunk releases.

It is funny how information on this board travels in circles. A lot of the stuff we are discussing now regarding the SE 1997 digital broadcasts has been posted in various threads from 2004 to 2010.

Max_Rebos superset preservation seemed promising and there is a lot of great info in this thread.

I sent him a PM about this project and asked if he can upload the TB release for us.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

So, to clarify about the Digital Broadcasts. There are a few 1997SE Broadcast DVDs:

1. Flunk- ANH- (available on myspleen, soon to be available on multiupload)
2. Reivax- ANH- (available on myspleen and multiupload)
3. G'kar- ANH, ESB, and ROTJ (trilogy on myspleen, ESB and ROTJ on multiupload)
4. TB- ANH, ESB, and ROTJ (?)

 

Is anything missing from that list? In my experience, the Flunk slightly edges out the Reivax in terms of less smearing but also is subject to some garbage frames... The G'kar is substantially more compressed and lower quality than the others. I'm not sure if there's a Flunk for ESB and ROTJ...

As you can see, the only ones that I'm not completely sure about are the TB releases. Can anyone share these ones on myspleen? I'd be happy to repost to multiupload. They're probably superior to the G'Kar.

dark_jedi has copies of the TB release. He posted some comparison pics in this thread a year ago (see post #182). Maybe he can upload this set to the newsgroup or multiupload.

Amazing work Laserschwert! This really looks great. Can you shed some light on how you did it? Would the process work with the ANH crawl from laserdisc or VHS source?

Do you now have all 3 german crawls in 1080 resolution that match the theatrical one?

It would be good to know these are preserved in good quality, although the inconsintensies between the movies bother me.

If I ever create a blu-ray for my personal archive I would have to include 3 or 4 different german openings to fix the "long time ago" title cards, episode titles, font and logo inconsistensies etc.

BTW ANH on blur-ray still has the 2004 crawl with the english logo.

A nice thing about the Blu-rays is that they are 24p so after 30 years we finally have german audio that hasn't been sped up (sound a bit weird though if you have heard the sped up version hundreds of times).

Laserschwert said:

Could anyone who has this upload the German ROTJ-SE-crawl for me? Ideally as a not-recompressed MPEG2 snippet...

Done.

http://www.multiupload.com/OX3EI54C75

Video stream only.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

satanika said:

Flunk ANH is in a.b.sw, 429 days old.

Unfortunately, I don't do newsgroups. Would anyone mind upping it where it is more accessible (eg. myspleen and file-sharing sites)?

Now available on myspleen.

I have seen parts of the 2010 broadcasts on Pro7 and one earlier this year. I am pretty sure these were the 2004 SE.

I know of a german star wars forum with a lot of big star wars collectors. Mostly action figures, comics, toys, books and other official material, but there might be someone that has good recordings of the 2008 broadcast.

However you should know that Pro7 is a station that has several commercial breaks per movie and they usually display a logo within the movie frame.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

All right. I finished uploading the G'KAR DVDs of ESB and ROTJ to multiupload. I've already sent out a few PMs to rockin, toho-scope, and joshdv. If you want the links to these, now is the time to start PM'ing me... I will be monitoring my PMs for the next 3 hours. After that, it may take me longer to get the links to you, but I'll do so within 12 hours of any PM that comes my way.

I did not upload ANH because I really believe the Reivax is much better quality. The G'KAR is heavily compressed video-wise because of so many audio tracks and you will see pixelization on bigger screens. However, if there is high demand for a file-sharing upload of ANH, I will do so...

By the way, if anyone has the Flunk or the TB releases, please do share them either by file-sharing site or myspleen... It would be much appreciated since I don't know how they compare to the G'KAR releases.

AFAIK the video streams have not been re-compressed and are actually untouched mpeg2 streams that were broadcasted this way.

You should definately upload ANH too. While it is true that the Reivax and Flunk version are slightly better, the big advantage of the G'Kar set is that it contains all 3 movies in a consistent quality and format.

I can upload the Flunk version to myspleen as soon as the G'kar set is well seeded. I don't have the TB releases, but I would really like to get them too.

I just uploaded the GKar Edition DVD Isos of the 1997 Special Edition on myspleen. Some people showed an interest in these in another thread.

I will seed for some time, but my pc wont be on 24/7. If anyone has these discs and want to join in please do. The discs were ripped with ImgBurn and appear to have no crc errors.

www.myspleen.org

SW_ANH_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO    Size: 3.986.489.344 byte
SW_ESB_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO    Size: 3.956.375.552 byte
SW_ROTJ_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO    Size: 4.614.815.744 byte

Checksums:
; Generated by WIN-SFV32 v1.0
; (Compatible: Total Commander 7.55a)
SW_ANH_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO B2F9F831
SW_ESB_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO 0D4866CB
SW_ROTJ_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO 616C7099

I have ripped the Gkar DVDs to ISO with ImgBurn and I get these checksums (sfv format with CRC32):

; Generated by WIN-SFV32 v1.0
; (Compatible: Total Commander 7.55a)
SW_ANH_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO B2F9F831
SW_ESB_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO 0D4866CB
SW_ROTJ_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO 616C7099

File sizes are:

SW_ANH_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO    Size: 3.986.489.344 byte
SW_ESB_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO    Size: 3.956.375.552 byte
SW_ROTJ_SE97_DE_EN_GKar.ISO    Size: 4.614.815.744 byte

If anyone can confirm these I will upload a torrent to myspleen. I skimmed through the DVDs and I didn't see any errors. ImgBurn also reported no CRC or reading errors.

I also have all 3 DVDs of the Gkar Edition and AFAIK they are readable. Not sure if there are any other errors, because I haven't watched them in years.

I think myspleen would be a better upload method, but I could also up them to the newsgroup later.

The reivax and Flunk ANH SE 97 are better quality than the Gkar version. But I still prefer the GKar, because all 3 OT movies are available.

Apparently there is another english 1997 SE from DVB source release that contains all 3 movies. It is called the "TB release".

Info here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/russdawson/gtf/dvd/SE/tb.html

Unfortunatly I never found these anywhere online.

I also have the original Star Wars SE VCDs from Malaysia. Quality is not very good, but If someone is interested I can upload ISOs to the newsgroup.

Nice!

I actually own this LD set. Will you also make preservations of ESB and ROTJ?

TK-949 said:

BTW another odd thing: The dianoga scene always had music, as long as I can remember, until 1997 with the SE the music was gone. But the GOUT didn't have the music either. For my version I'll add the music again.

After I read I this decided to check this on my german 1993 and 1995 Laserdiscs (can't check the 198 LD2, because my LD player can't play PAL analog audio). In both versions the music is present. However no other (english) version of Star Wars I checked has this music.

I checked rips of the following:

1982 US LD

1986 Japanese LD

1993 US DC LD

1995 US Faces LD

1995 French THX LD

2002 SE German TV broadcasts (Gkar)

2004 SE Offical DVDs german

2006 GOUT DVDs German and US

2 telecine bootleg copies of the pre 1981 release

Audio reconstructions of the mono and 70MM mix

Not a single one has any music in the scene with the diagona in the trash compactor.

So I am wondering what mix was the german theatrical sound mix based on?

I always assumed it was the dolby stereo mix because the german theatrical release also was in dolby stereo. The german version also had translations of lines that were missing in the original stereo mix but were present in the mono mix (C3PO's line about the power beams coupled in 7 locations).

R2D2 said:

this is getting better everyday!!! :)

still awaiting the arrival of my ld-player.

can anyone recommend a soundcard with optical digital in?

as the pcm track is @44,1 khz on the laserdisc and this does not apply to dvd nor blu ray standard what do you recommend? resample it to 192 khz pcm?

A few years ago when I was trying to get decent LD conversion with my Sony MDP 850D Player I bought a sound card that specifically supported bitperfect recording via SPDIF.

Most sound cards, even today are not able to make bitperfect digital recordings!

Nearly all sound drivers adjust and manipulate the signal before you can record it.

The card I bought was a Zoltrix Nightingale 6 Pro with a cmedia 8738/8768 chipset. The chipset really is the key factor here. It is crappy for analog, but is one of the few cheap chipsets with true bitperfect digital support. There even is a custom windows driver for these cards:

http://code.google.com/p/cmediadrivers/

http://www.hi-fi-insight.com/the-search-for-bit-perfect-audio-part-two.html

So any cheap PCI sound card with this chipset and optical inputs should work fine.

However since you must resample the audio to 48khz anyway there probably is no point in buying this if you already have a decent sound card (e.g. a recent sound blaster). When I did this a few years ago I had trouble syncing the audio with the video and in the end I just used direct 48KHz recordings made with my Sound Blaster Audigy. It wasn't bitperfect but there was virtually no noise and it was synced perfectly and I didn't need to resample the audio.

TheHutt said:

Now that's the first time I ever noticed it... far out!

I have a question to some purists concerning German end credits on the original German ANH. I only have seen the 4:3 P&S VHS which kept the German credits - however, it lost the circular wipe from the award ceremony to the credits. I wonder if this has to do with the P&S processing (as the credits are squeezed as opposed to the last shot), or if it has to do with German localization (inability to reproduce the wipe from film to German credits)?

Has the Widescreen version also lost the circular wipe?

There is no circular wipe to the end credits in the 1993 LD version, which is in widescreen. There just is a cut to the credits starting with "Drehbuch and Regie - George Lucas" (translation of: Directed and Written by)

I don't think any german version had a circular wipe. I can't check this right now, but I suspect the cut is a few frames earlier as the circular wipe.