jzilli

Looks great - definitely looking forward to this

Skyfocker said:

jzilli said:

Harmy I’m just curious, what video do you send people who ask “What’s wrong with the DVDs/BluRays?”
I know there are plenty of videos out there, but I’m looking for the perfect video that deconstructs the abomination that is the SW special editions and figured you’d be a great person to ask first. Thanks

I’ve used this one to give people the gist of it… doesn’t go into all the details of every special edition added scene, but gives a good idea of how George has withheld the theatrical version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXifjbxZDAM

EDIT: Hellogreedo’s channel on youtube has several videos that go more in-depth into some of the changes. Here’s a playlist of a bunch of them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xezn-0xottw&list=PLaqGKHBFQiztN7uoijEG9ZUw3PYrQ7Y0i

Thanks, didn’t know Harmy made a video like this. The HelloGreedo videos are nice too

Harmy I’m just curious, what video do you send people who ask “What’s wrong with the DVDs/BluRays?”
I know there are plenty of videos out there, but I’m looking for the perfect video that deconstructs the abomination that is the SW special editions and figured you’d be a great person to ask first. Thanks

MrPib said:

towne32 said:

Yes, it’s really great that they are two types of projects that are in no real way competing with one another. And obviously the benefits from collaboration are enormous.

Very well put. Back in the day, I had the Cowclops LD rips, and checked in on the X0 Project daily. I never dreamed I’d have two awesome HD versions to choose from!

CatBus said:

Often it’s not a matter of hardware. Most software just decodes the lossy core of the DTSMA track, but if you have something special that may be trying to decode the lossless file, it could be making a mess of it. Which is why I asked you to see if an AC3 track synced OK. The 93 English AC3 track is within a few milliseconds of in sync with the 5.1 DTS-MA track. If the decoder isn’t the problem, they should have the exact same sync issues.

Just tested on a laptop with headphones in VLC. Both the 5.1 and 1993 2.0 track seem equally out of sync (audio lagging behind video). The scenes I’m looking at are the beginning of the crawl, when Leia unfreezes Han, and when Vader talks with Luke in the Endor hallway after he turns himself in.

For sanity, I verified the MKV checksum. Is anyone seeing this sync issue?

Also, I don’t have any issues with the MKV’s of SW and ESB, which also use DTS-HD for the 5.1 tracks.

With Plex, I tried Plex Home Theater and Plex Media Player. This was on a Core i7 system.

First of all, Harmy, v2.5 looks spectacular. Well done! Thank you so much

Is it just me, or is the audio out of sync? I think the audio is behind the video a bit. I notice this whenever a human is talking, but also at the beginning of the opening crawl (“STAR WARS” is noticeably displayed before the audio comes in). I’ve only tested the MKV with the 5.1 audio - I can test the other audio tracks and the AVCHD when I get home tonight. I’ve tested on two different PC’s, using Plex and Kodi.

Bobocop said:

Wario64I said:

uloz.to too slow

If you had started at uloz right away, you’d have it by now 😉

Yes, I grabbed both the MKV and AVCHD overnight - very impressed by FreeRapid. Speeds vary depending on time and your location, though

Darth Lucas said:

Was there some kind of popular article or something about Harmy recently or something?  What is with the sudden onslaught of people coming on the forum asking where they can get it?  I mean there's always a couple that pop up from time to time but recently it's been ridiculous!

 I posted this on the FB group; it probably contributed to the recent traffic:

Harmy, you and your projects were mentioned on last week's episode of This Week in Tech. Good to see more and more people recognize your work.
Here's the clip:

http://www.filedropper.com/twit0505-harmystarwarsclip

EDIT: ugh, link's dead.  I believe its about 1 hour into episode 505

Tobar said:

So I was browsing around various Star Wars news sources when I discovered that Harmy did a podcast that was just released!

Haven't listened to it yet. I'll probably update this post once I have.

Good interview.  Cool to hear Harmy detail his opinions.  Interested in the LOTR color correction...

hairy_hen said:

The proper way to do this is to use an SPL meter to individually measure the output of each speaker at the listening position, and adjust the levels of each in the receiver until they all measure exactly the same.

Thanks for the info, hh.  That's a great post for manually calibrating a surround sound setup.  As ScruffyNerfHerder recommended, I used Audyssey to auto-calibrate my Onkyo receiver a year ago when I moved into my current apartment.

Aside from my personal preference, the issue I have had with this audio track is that in one whole year, this is the only movie that I've watched in the living room that has woken up my girlfriend in the room across the hall.  This is why I'd like a 5.1 track that has bass levels on par with most movies.

I'm just curious if you have this track without the bass enhancement.  If not, no big deal :)

hairy_hen said:

I should also point out—and please treat this information seriously—that the 5.1 mix was designed for high performance sound systems and may not give ideal results on equipment that cannot cope with wide dynamic range material and high levels of bass.  It will also not sound its best if downmixed to stereo.  Obviously I have no control over how people listen to it, so it was necessary to do a bit of tweaking to the surround channels in order to make stereo playback at least sound acceptable (it would have been quite horrible if I hadn't done this, due to excessive comb filtering from out of phase signals).  But since the 35mm stereo mix is itself very good, I must recommend that anyone watching the movie with a 2-channel sound system choose that version instead, rather than downmixing the 5.1 mix.  Content-wise they are identical, and the greater midrange emphasis of its EQ makes it more suitable for the kinds of sound systems people are likely to have.

hairy_hen, any chance you have the 1980 5.1 DTS-HD-MA track without the high levels of bass?  I have a fairly serious home theater setup, and this audio is just too intense for me.  It would be great to have this audio track, but with bass levels that are similar to other films.  Thanks!

Harmy, are these the correct checksums for the (latest) 2.0 MKV?

CRC32: C4BF0283

MD5: 1E34878403B05924F71354E961016FCE

SHA-1: 66FD71200749FE96123888228868789ACDBF34C5

Harmy said:

Yeah, it's supposed to be the TB 97SE.

Also, here's a completed comparison gallery:

https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/109609428403596349302/albums/6044645069501365185

The time, patience, attention to detail, quality of work, and thoroughness..... BRAVO

Harmy said:

The AVHCD is 6500 Kbps, the MKV will be 15000 Kbps.

 Whew, definitely waiting for the MKV.  Really looking forward to watching the whole movie, not just the workprint.

MrPib said:

We've sure come a *long* way since Cowclops v2!

 Cowclops....  Now that is a name I've not heard in a long time

Your setup looks great Harmy.  I hope your projects have gained a lot of momentum since upgrading to the new hardware.

Friendly piece of IT advice: try to get your tower at least a foot off the ground in order to avoid having it fill up with dust and hair (if you have a pet).  Getting it off the ground makes a huge difference!

deepanddark20 said:

I know, I know, the original theatrical presentation in 1977 didn't have those words. But surely almost everybody grew up watching copies that did, right? Those words were not a "Special Edition" alteration, but you almost wouldn't know that anymore from examining the current non-special edition fan preservations that are around.

This is what's known as a "slippery slope".  If Team Blu and Harmy are restoring the original versions of the film and they decide to change anything, then that opens the door for other changes or fixes.

waspattck said:

How about McQuarrie-themed menus??

That looks terrific

At this point, I'm more excited for Harmy to move on to ESB than I am for the 2.5 BD.

That being said....... I can't wait to see more of the video features.  Everything Harmy produces is simply excellent.  He really has the Midas touch

Kingherb said:

I and many others were very pleased with 2.0 :) 2.1 only came about because Harmy is a perfectionist, people should be glad he is sharing his work.

Yes, and Harmy, I hope you feel free to continue tweaking and releasing new versions, as you see new things to change and new source materials appear.

P.S. happy holidays

Arkitekt said:

Is there .mkv's of the ESB and ROTJ DeEd's too? or just AVCHD?

Can only find the AVCHD's on binsearch 

I do not believe there was an MKV release, just AVCHD.  But with mkvmerge, you can very easily save them as MKV's

Arkitekt said:

AntcuFaalb said:

Arkitekt said:

Moth3r said:

v2.0 was released as a ~14GB MKV.

 

Where can it bet found? Been following the thread off an on for a long while now, but was not aware that v2.0 was finished.

Usenet (a.b.starwars) and MySpleen.

Thanks :) I will check usenet as I don't have MySpleen

Edit: Can't seem to find it on using my usenet providers search. Checked binsearch, is it Fixed_DeEdv2.0?

Yes, I believe that's the latest, fixed, release.

The sooner Harmy can start working on ESB 2.0, the better.  Can't wait to get 2.1, but i'm sure it'll be nice for you to work on some fresh (relatively) material.

Thanks for the all hard work and the bizzaro birthday gift!