iamsometal

BB-8 said:

So you're saying dump it on a hard drive, plug the hard drive into a USB port on my blu-ray player? I"ll see if that works. But yes, blu-ray burners really aren't that much. Amazon has them for under $60

 Follow these steps with the MKV to remux it into an AVCHD file that can be read from a thumbdrive by a Sony blu-ray player or PS3 (without further compressing into the 9gb file size for burning onto DVD-DL):  

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/How-to-play-Despecialized-Edition-V25-on-a-PS3-if-you-dont-have-a-BD-burner/topic/15996/

This 18gb AVCHD file has played in every Sony blu-ray player I've tried (old and new) with USB playback, with the exception of the PS4.

I think it looks much better than the DVD-DL and of course you get the incredible DTS-HD MA soundtracks, which blow the lossy tracks on the DVD-DL out of the water.  Use the same process for Empire Strikes Back 2.0.

Mavimao said:

Just to piggyback on the Playstation talk, what's the best way to watch Harmy's projects with a PS3? It's my bluray player and I think it only supports FAT hard drive.. Or perhaps I'm wrong. 

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/How-to-play-Despecialized-Edition-V25-on-a-PS3-if-you-dont-have-a-BD-burner/topic/15996/

Right, my thumb drive is formatted as FAT32, but getting an MKV file of that size on said thumb drive without splicing the file is a can of worms I just don't want to open.  Plus, as far as I know, I don't believe the PS4 will play an MKV file's audio if it's DTS HD-MA.

So I'll go the blu-ray burning route.  Thanks!

I will be purchasing a blu-ray burner shortly.  I have already remuxed and repacked the SW 2.5 and ESB 2.0 MKV's into the PS3 friendly AVCHD's (using only the DTS HD-MA 5.1 and mono tracks) that I've been viewing from a thumb drive.  Sadly the thumb drive option doesn't work on PS4, so I was wondering if my existing AVCHD's can be burned directly to a blu-ray disc and be playable.  Has anyone else done this and been successful?  Thanks in advance.

beyourowndensity said:

Okay! I've finally managed to get the trilogy thanks to some very kind individual offering to burn the DVDs for me then sending them to me. But now I've run into another problem. They work PERFECTLY on my laptop... but they don't work on our DVD player. For the first two movies this weird menu pops up that I can't get rid of with this file reading "VIDEO_TS". The only one that actually plays is Return of the Jedi (maybe because this is the only disc that is DVD-R, while the other two are DVD-RW), but for some bizarre reason the quality is absolutely appalling; the picture is slightly pixelated. The quality is fine on my laptop! But I don't know whether this is to do with our DVD player being kind of old (it's the type that also has a VCR player built in). Anybody know why this is?

 What kind of output options are on your laptop?  If you have an HDMI out, I would just plug that directly into your TV if I were you (assuming the TV has an HDMI input as well). 

Or you could always purchase a cheap VGA to HDMI converter (they also make them to convert VGA to RCA if you don't have an HD tv).  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Patuoxun-Adapter-Convertor-Converter-support/dp/B00K808RVQ/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1440789123&sr=8-8&keywords=vga+to+hdmi

Pretty great: https://youtu.be/JFA-Oip1wF8

And I'll gladly take these warts over the SE's any day of the week.

It is, without a doubt, inherent to the original film.  I've noticed inconsistent skin tones in every version too.  It's just exacerbated by the orange/cyan push of the 2.5 color correction to a pretty distracting degree.  I'm assuming the Technicolor reference print had a lot to do with it.

DrDre said:

Actually the color prediction for the second frame is surprisingly close to a similar frame of Star Wars Legacy Edtion, that Mike Verta posted on his website.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/138669

I must admit, I really like these more saturated colors. They look really film like.

 The color correction in 2.5 is honestly my only minor issue with this version.  And it's only in certain scenes.  Luke and Han's skin tones tend to look very orange, particularly when they're on the Death Star.  It's kind of distracting, to the point where my wife mentioned it (and she notices very little in terms of picture quality and color timing).

I'm not complaining, still could not be more grateful to Harmy and all involved in this project.  I did think it was worth mentioning, though, and wondered if others were distracted by the overt orange skin tones at times.

beyourowndensity said:

towne32 said:

iamsometal said:

After purchasing the retail versions of the films:

Download the .iso files from wherever you can find them.  You'll need to burn them to Verbatim DVD+R DL discs.  There's a helpful video on youtube that will walk you through the process.  Just search "How to get Original Unaltered Star Wars Trilogy on Blu-ray."  Ignore the blu-ray in the title, this video will explain how to burn to DVD+R DL discs.

 I'm not super familiar with the DVDs, so density can ignore me if I'm wrong, but isn't the DVD-DL an AVCHD? And wouldn't that be of no use to him without a blu-ray player?

I thought the only native DVD versions were DVD5s, but I could certainly be wrong. Anyway, the main point of this is good. Density, you can google to find torrents of the DVD versions of despecialized. And google how to use torrents if you're not familiar. Once downloaded, use imgburn to burn it to a blank DVD (the above discussion was whether or not you need a single or double layer DVD - I'm not sure). You might find a ".iso" file as described above, or it might be a folder full of files. I've only seen the latter for the DVD5 Harmy releases. Either way, imgburn can do it and google has anything that we might be leaving out of these posts. 

 Wait, what is meant by "after purchasing the retail versions of the films"? I already have the Special Editions, are the retail movies required for me to download the Despecialised versions? And are there certain types of discs I can use to make the DVDs higher quality without making them unusable on a DVD player? (to add further confusion to the "which disc" argument)

I'm a girl, by the way. Just putting that out there. XD

 Yeah, the purchasing retail versions first is just our honor system.  The only available retail versions are the special editions, so if you own those, you're all set.

And you will need a blu-ray disc player that is AVCHD compatible to play the discs.  A PS3 will play AVCHD on both on disc or from a thumbdrive, for example.

The specific disc you'll need is Verbatim's DVD+DL, since it is the highest capacity blank burnable DVD media available, the Despecialized Trilogy discs are formatted to fit on those discs.  

If you own a Playstation 3, you can watch a higher quality version by downloading the MKV 17gb files and following the formatting instructions on page 1 of this thread, convert that file to an AVCHD and just transfer it to a thumbdrive.  The PS3 will then stream it directly from the thumbdrive.  It's a near-blu-ray experience, with fantastic 720p video and DTS-HD MA lossless audio track.

After purchasing the retail versions of the films:

Download the .iso files from wherever you can find them.  You'll need to burn them to Verbatim DVD+R DL discs.  There's a helpful video on youtube that will walk you through the process.  Just search "How to get Original Unaltered Star Wars Trilogy on Blu-ray."  Ignore the blu-ray in the title, this video will explain how to burn to DVD+R DL discs.

Wazzles said:

generalfrevious said:

imperialscum said:

generalfrevious said:

We have lost. We are on the fringes now. We lost not because we were unwilling, but because Lucasfilm/Disney had better weapons.

Nothing matters anymore.

 Please Stop. This doesn't alter the fact that the originals are still unavailable.

 I think his point is that you're being unnecessarily dreary and pessimistic about the future of Star Wars. Even if an official version of the OOT is never released, the fan preservations will cover us in that area. We've never seen a history of C&D letters in this community and I see no reason why they would start now. Disney has been in charge for 3 years and nothing has really changed, and isn't likely to. Will we get an official OOT release? Maybe. Maybe not. There is no evidence one way or the other. At the very least, if they are released, you won't be let down since your expectations are low as they are.

 We do know that Disney likes to delay home video releases of catalog titles for as long as humanly possible.  Aladdin is just now hitting blu-ray in 2015 in the US.  They're going to play this "now releasing from the vault for a limited time" bullshit for eternity.  I doubt Star Wars will be the exception to their rule.   Who knows what kind of deal they'll have to cut with Fox to share home video releasing rights, just to add one more hurdle to the unending will we get it/won't we get it relay of madness.  That's why I'm so grateful for this community and the incredible work that's done in it.

Comments were blocked at work so I wasn't even tempted.  That bad, huh?

digitalfreaknyc said:

And every time there's a new release...there's a new article about Harmy...

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/star-wars-original-trilogy-blu-ray-coming-its-your-duty-pirate-them-instead-464423

 These kinds of articles really piss me off.  Crap like this that encourages piracy outright is really damaging to the public image of people like Harmy who make no money from their incredible efforts and stress their policy of all downloaders buying the officially licensed material before downloading fan-edits and preservations. 

CatBus said:

Mitch said:

I love the Harmy editions. It's the best we have until Lucasfilm gets around to releasing official theatrical versions

Given Lucasfilm's track record of quality through the years, I'd say it's quite likely Harmy's will remain better than any hypothetical future official release from Lucasfilm.

 Sadly, this is true.  Not that Harmy's Despecialized Trilogy isn't a miracle.  In fact it is.  The PQ and AQ will most likely best any version Lucasfilm releases in the future.  It's sad because of the resources at Lucasfilm's disposal.  You know they have to have preserved 35mm negatives.  We know Lucas claiming they were destroyed in the creation of the special editions was a lie.  They exist.  There could always be a very high-quality 4k or higher resolution scan but I doubt we'll ever see it.  I'll gladly live with Harmy's work though.  Once ROTJ 2.0 is done, I'll be elated.  I'll be able to rest.  Yes... rest. Forever sleep.   

Stinky-Dinkins said:

Well you know what they say about opinions: They're exactly like assholes. That's why, after I've been drinking, I sometimes put my thumb in my dog's opinion when he's asleep and he rarely wakes up but when he does he is NOT happy.

 Damn Stinky, you seriously had me in belly-laughs and tears.  By chance are you related to Mr. Plinkett?  Seems like a learned behavior.

Btw, nice to see another BR.com poster over here.  It's been a while since I've visited.  Forgot what I was missing.

Hi Harmy,

 Since you are re-working ANH, is there any chance of you making any adjustments to ROTJ?

I'm not one to gripe and nitpick, as i'm just super grateful to have these preservations at all.  The only thing in the entire despecialized trilogy that threw me a bit off was the color timing of ROTJ, specifically when they're inside the Death Star assaulting the reactor.  On the way to the reactor, the Death Star's grey insides look very green, and when in the reactor chamber, it takes on a slightly cool blue look.  Was this intentional, or just a result of changing the color timing of the movie overall?

Again, I can't thank you enough for what you do.  I'm still watching these on a weekly basis since burning them.  I've been sharing them with friends and they all are blown away by these preservations.

I gotta hand it to you Harmy, i rented the OT blu-ray discs from Blockbuster (not buying them due to the usual bullshit additions/changes), just to compare the PQ to your discs.  All i have to say is i will never feel the need to buy these shit releases now that i have the despecialized versions in 720p.  Fine, fine work sir!

At first it bummed me out, the blu-ray set being the very first set of star wars on home video that i'm actually NOT purchasing.  I bought nearly every official release of the OT, the CED's, VHS's (3 times), Laser Disc (twice), and the DVD's (twice) (not to mention literally countless collectibles, t-shirts, action figures, posters, video games,  books, comics, board games, etc. i've made my contribution to Lucas's $3billion+ net worth).  As amazing as your set looks compared to the blu-ray discs, i won't be losing any sleep over it now.  Thanks again!

Of course, the sucker that i am, IF the UOT ever does get released on blu-ray or any future HD/Ultra-HD format, i'll surely buy them.  I just doubt it'll ever happen in my lifetime, as Lucas is handing his empire to his indoctrinated daughter.

Seriously, to see my favorite film of all time in this quality, in it's original, un-raped form, it was freaking surreal.  Harmy, again, i seriously can't thank you enough. 

I'll be having a viewing party to celebrate next Friday, for sure.  And by celebrate, i mean mourn.