kk650

Chewtobacca said:

42:54

43:06

43:58?

I'm fairly sure I can hear all of your audio edits.  Are you crossfading at edit points?

I just checked what I used in my project file. I used the audio fade filter in TMPG Video Mastering Works 5 to link the different audio clips together. Is that what you mean by crossfading? I just checked those cuts you mentioned and I'm personally satisfied with the audio cuts there, I feel they're pretty seamless.

I couldn't cut earlier with 42:54 because there were annoying droid sounds, 43:06 was always going to be problematic because there is music playing there where I cut but I felt I got lucky and the cut worked pretty well musicwise, I personally did not find it jarring. With 43:58 i'm changing back to belbucus's PCM audio from the special edition audio so the change will always be noticable if you're looking for the cuts but again within acceptable limits and not at all jarring IMHO.

I did actually spent a pretty long time getting them and all the other audio cuts in the film as seamless as possible, I'm a pretty difficult guy to please, but of course I'm an amateur audio editor and TMPG Video Mastering Works 5 is not a dedicated audio editing program. Overall I am satisfied that the audio cuts are seamless enough not to take me out of the film, which is the most important thing for me.

Is there a audio cut in particular that you are refering to? Are you talking about where I cut the jawa swinging antics?

Chewtobacca said:

I too would leave the settings.  They look fine to me.  Good job!

I heard the edits to the Mos Eisley approach though and think that making them smoother would be an improvement.

 Thanks Chewtobacca, i'm glad you liked what you saw.

Do you mean making it smoother visually or in terms of the audio?

Cheers for the input guys but I'm not planning to retire this release, only to take into account more modern sensibilities of what is appealing and give people a release that is more pleasing to the eyes of a casual viewer. This requires a little adjustment of fleshtones and a slight adjustment of saturation. I've checked the sandcrawler clip with my retro (perhaps better to call it 'print'?) settings and classic settings on my TV and the classic clip is undoubtedly more pleasing to the eye, even if the other clip feels more 'right' in terms of the print.

I want to get all three versions sorted out while its fresh in my mind so I can put Star Wars behind me and move onto Empire Strikes Back.

frank678, i've been thinking out about what you said in your review.

I like how this latest release looks but checking it out on my tv, i can see what you mean that it lacks a little 'pop' as you put it. That's fine for this release because that's what I was trying to achieve, a matte look like the prints but for the average viewer that just wants to enjoy a good looking film without caring what the prints look like, its lacking that 'pop' you're talking about.

With that in mind, I've decided to cover those that want that 'pop' without having to watch the technicolor release with its punchier colours.

This latest release with a look similar to the prints will now become the retro release, I will create a Star Wars release with normal colours and 'pop' called the classic release and the release with 'pop' and punchier colours will be called the technicolor release. That should cover all the bases. I've pretty much finalised the settings for all three.

I still need to decide whether i'm going to bother creating retro releases for ESB and ROTJ as well but i'll cross that bridge when I get to those.

EDIT: Looks like the technicolor settings need a little adjusting.

frank678 said:

I might not get to watch this for a little while but I wanted to post my initial impression of this release from skipping through it. I think this is the correction to go for if (like me) you don't like the more lobster-like end of skintones. To me this is overall a more brownish palletted star wars and is quite reserved in its saturation levels on the whole, so that everything sits nicely together. Some (myself included) might have wanted to see a bit more 'pop' in places but I think that might have actually spoilt the overall feel/intention of this classic/retro look. I'm glad to see another unique release.

And of course preferable to the original Blu-Ray (imo)

Thanks for the review frank678.

Yeah, I was going for the classic/retro feel that I was getting from the film print frames I had as references. Poita said that the Star Wars prints were never as saturated as some home releases have led us to believe and the frames I have certainly confirm that.

Remember though that a technicolor release for this is also coming out so that'll probably be more to your taste. I'm looking forward to seeing how that version looks compared to this one, with punchier colours and that technicolor kick. :)

One thing that i've noticed just recently is that at the start of the 2nd preview clip, purple dots appear on the jawas, then disappear. I checked on the blu-ray and its there as well. Are these on other people's Star Wars blu-ray transfers as well?

I find them distracting now that I know they're there so i've gone ahead and manually removed them using photoshop. I also noticed a similar thing when leia hugs chewie after they escape from the death star and blow up the tie fighters, blue dots appear out of nowhere then disappear, also from the blu-ray. I've gone ahead and removed them.

If anybody comes across any more, please let me know the timecode so I can check them out. I'm personally going to go through the whole film keeping an eye out for more to remove, so when I release this semi-specialised edition with a higher bitrate and Cinema DTS audio, they've hopefully all been taken care of.

Okay, i've just posted the Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition V2 Classic up on myspleen for those that are interested in checking it out.

Cheers for the feedback guys! Has anybody got round to checking out the whole release yet? I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the colours look throughout the whole film.

As for the colours looking like the laserdiscs that is fascinating because I wasn't intending that at all, I was just going by gut for what felt 'right' to me and using fleshtones and light sources as a guide, with frames taken from the theatrical prints as my only real reference points.

frank678 said:

kk650 said:

I should also mention as well that for those interested in this release but wanting better audio, there is also a DTS-HD 5.1 audio track for this release that can be found in the kk650 release list on tehparadox.

I'm off to regrade a new 16gb Alien Theatrical Cut now. I always felt my previous release was a little unsatisfactory and I need a much deserved break from Star Wars.

 Wait I havn't finished downloading it yet. You got to stick around for my critique so you feel shamed into starting from scratch and making a version 3!!!!

I'm an optimist so i'm hoping that you like what you see so it doesn't come to that haha

I should also mention as well that for those interested in this release but wanting better audio, there is also a DTS-HD 5.1 audio track for this release that can be found in the kk650 release list on tehparadox.

I'm off to regrade a new 16gb Alien Theatrical Cut now. I always felt my previous release was a little unsatisfactory and I need a much deserved break from Star Wars.

Netload links are now up as well.

-

Here's a second preview clip:

https://mega.co.nz/#!G95VwSpZ!SP1KSLv1m6G0lmWSdP42bfThgVXmMXaPSmQfozP1Y_E

-

And the same clip from the official blu-ray:

https://mega.co.nz/#!qpQXHKJb!NLGCZSHsU_d6hQI6srJnbtJ1-z_qc7BM36f5Glwbmz8

-

And finally here's a comparison between the official blu-ray and the Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition V2 Classic:

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/73361

Okay, the Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition V2 Classic is now up on tehparadox. May the 4th be with you! :)

dark_jedi said:

kk650 said:

I see that you live up to your reputation dark_jedi.

As do you, you have made yourself a very nice one, and thank you.

 Yes, someone that stands up against brainwashing. Goodnight.

frank678 said:

Cool I think this is right. The saturation levels seem to be such a rollercoaster on star wars that trying to put just one straight line through the middle would throw out so much stuff.

Definately.

I did try to use just one setting when I first started these Semi-Specialised projects but quickly came to a realisation that I was having to sacrifice too much in certain scenes, so I had no choice but to selectively colour grade those scenes to fit the colour scheme of the rest of the film.

These Semi-Specialised releases are by far the most complex releases i've done so far, both in terms of editing and colour grading. If I had known beforehand how much of my free time they would eat up, I probably wouldn't have started doing them in the first place haha

dark_jedi said:

kk650 said:

Seconded. 25GB is a lot to download without having an idea of what a release looks like.

Please just go back to your own "popular" release, I have read your very annoying posts in both Ady's and harmy's threads, you just love to argue and to feed your own very large ego and I really do not want to read your crap here, I am pretty sure NO ONE does, plus our release is 720p so please just move along.

Thank you

I see that you live up to your reputation dark_jedi. Always so friendly.

frank678 said:

Looking forward to seeing this release. The sample clip you posted above plays really nice on my monitor and has a lovely clarity to it. I'm sceptical a one stop colour correction can satisfy me altogether, but I'm willing to be proved wrong on this.

haha who said Star Wars has just one colour correction setting for the whole film? I wish it was that easy.

No, there must be at least 20-30 different colour correction settings for different parts of the film, excluding all the lightsaber shots that had to be selectively colour corrected. This film is simply too inconsistant colourwise to do anything else. Luckily Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are a lot more consistant colourwise so far fewer different settings were needed for those.

I've maintained the overall colour scheme but there are colour tweaks all over the place just to reign in the more inconsistant parts of the film. Most of the scenes with Grand Moff Tarkin had to be selectively regraded for example, they were too saturated a lot of the time.

frank678 said:

JawsTDS said:

Screen shots anyone? :-P

 +1 :-)

Seconded. 25GB is a lot to download without having an idea of what a release looks like.

If you like the colour grading on this Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition, I think you'll really like how Empire Strikes Back looks. I'll try to have a preview up for you within the week.

For all those waiting, I should have my Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition V2 up in 5 hours. May the 4th be with you all! :)

n00b said:

kk650 said:

No, I wasn't planning to.

 Just an advanced troll or something...

Being told the truth when you don't want to hear it is painful, I understand. Doesn't make me a troll though. Believe me, you'd KNOW if I was trolling you.

That 1080p is inherently better than 720p is a concept that many here are having a difficult time understanding. It's like trying to make children understand that 2+2=4, not 3 like some here would have you believe for their own interests.

I'm beginning to see why so few bother posting constructive feedback on Harmy and Adywan's threads, everybody that says anything apart from blind praise is attacked by rabid fanboys like CatBus and n00b. I will not be wasting any more time posting in either Harmy or Adywan threads in future, rest assured. I have my own popular Star Wars releases to focus on.

Harmy said:

Well, I can actually see little to no difference myself, as apparently can Adywan, who also used the same picture to prove the same point. So maybe it's you :-)

 If you say so Harmy... ;)

CatBus said:

kk650 said:

I do actually see a very noticable difference in image quality and detail between that 1080p and 720p shot CatBus, perhaps its my large monitor that makes the difference easier to see.

Uh-huh.

That said, I can see the difference between the 720p and 1080p images very clearly on my laptop as well so its probably just you. With all the releases and grading i've done, i'm guessing that my eyes are a little more fine tuned to such things than yours, no offense.

Of course, you'll believe whatever you want to believe, so who am I to stand in the way? Proceed.

CatBus said:

Found it:

The difference in detail is barely perceptible (aside from the color shift from the imperfect attempt to match color grading).  But yes, encoding at 1080p would allow those barely-perceptible differences to be included.

I do actually see a very noticable difference in image quality and detail between that 1080p and 720p shot CatBus, perhaps its my large monitor that makes the difference easier to see.

Thanks for that explanation Harmy, I can see why you wouldn't want to redo everything from scratch in 1080p. I wouldn't be in a rush to redo my Semi-Specialised Editions either if I lost all my project files and sources.

n00b said:

kk650 said:

No, I wasn't planning to. Do I need your permission to post my thoughts in threads now n00b?

Of course not, but as already said: Harmy's done the evaluation already. This is his project, no democracy and none of us has any claims against him. Do it yourself if you can do better. I doubt you can.

Whether I can do his own project better than him is irrelevant. Everybody has a right to express their opinion on whatever they want, irrespective of their level of expertise.

I'm not making claims or forcing Harmy to do anything, simply saying that his projects would be better in 1080p. Of that I am 100% certain. Are there obstacles? Certainly, as there are with any projects, making the GOUT and blu-ray footage more seamless would certainly be the trickiest.

With Harmy's new setup and abilities though I think he should at least give it a shot, he might be surprised at what he can make work now what he wasn't able to before. If I was him I would at least try, not leave the Despecialised Editions in 720p.