kk650

stretch009 said:

I really like the editions you've made but there's a couple of things I'd like you to consider.   The changes you made to ROTJ I like but I can't stand the Special Edition Sarlacc; I'm sure many here would agree.

Most importantly,  I think your color correction might be off on all three.   You_Too, Adywan, and Harmy (members of this forum) are exceptional at color correction of the movies and maybe they could help you out.  Granted I would rather have basic correction on them than have it like the Green shifted Star Wars DE 2.5.

Edit:  I'll watch them again and see if I can find anything else you can improve upon.

Thank you for your thoughts. I did very much consider bringing back the original Sarlacc, the only problem I had was that I would have to take the footage from the GOUT and because the Sarlacc footage is not continuous like say Lapti Nek, I thought the change between uprezed DVD footage and HD footage from shot to shot would be too jarring and draw attention to the lower image quality of the uprezed dvd footage. I can certainly give it a try though, see if I can make it work. If only there was HD footage somewhere of that scene with the original Sarlacc...

In terms of colour correction, what would you say is off? Do you feel that a certain colour is too strong? I don't have all the colour reference sources that Harmy has but I did look at many promotional stills taken from the shooting of the films to try to get a feel for the colour of the films.

Chewtobacca said:

kk650 said:  Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus's 1993 PCM audio mix

Is your PCM a combination of Belbucus' PCM and a downmix of the DTS-HD MA from the BD?

No, the program I was using for the audio editing was not able to register dts audio so I had to settle for the Special Edition dolby digital 5.1 audio from the DVD. So the PCM from these releases are a combination of Belbucus's PCM and a downmix of the SE dolby digital 5.1 audio from the DVDs.

The problem was able to handle the PCM audio no problem though and the dolby digital 5.1 as well and then output to PCM audio as well, so technically no audio quality loss should have occured along the way from either of the two sources to the final output mix, apart from the downmixing of the dolby digital 5.1 audio of course. I should mention that 99% of the audio mix comes from Belbucus's great 1993 PCM audio. I would always use the PCM audio, which I find much superior to the Special Edition audio because it sounds much richer and the John Williams score is so much more prominent. I only used the Special Edition audio when I had absolutely no other choice (usually for new SE special effects shots), the final mixes of each film are pretty much 99% Belbucus's PCM mixed with 1% of SE dolby 5.1 audio.

Hi guys, i’ve been lurking on this site for a few years now but after seeing what fantastic feedback you guys provide Harmy and others with their projects, helping them to constantly improve their releases, I hoped that you could be a great help for me too.

I have created Semi-Specialised Editions of the original trilogy which are available and can be found on tehparadox. They are essentially the original trilogy with all the good special edition changes kept in and all the bad changes removed. They have received a fair amount of positive feedback but the majority of the feedback has been thanks which is fantastic but in terms of creating new improved versions of these releases is not much help. These have been out for around half a year now and seeing Harmy releasing his new version of Star Wars Despecialized 2.5 got me thinking that I shouldn’t be resting on my laurels, I should also try to be improving on what i’ve already done because I’m sure that there is much that could be improved upon.

I humbly ask that you guys check out my releases and give me feedback on how you think they could be improved. I hope that with your help i’ll be able to release new and improved versions of these releases in the near future. Below are details about each of the three Semi-Specialised releases taken from tehparadox:
 

kk650 presents: The Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition
 

Technical Specs:

Name: Star Wars Semi-Specialised Edition

Size: 15.4 GB

Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976

Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus’s 1993 PCM audio mix

Subtitle Track 1: Alien Subtitles in English

Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles

Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles

Like many, I was unhappy with a lot the changes that were made for the Special Editions and most recently the blu-rays.

Harmy’s Despecialised Editions are great for those that want to see the films exactly as they were when they were originally released theatrically, but some of the changes (especially the updating of special effects) actually make the films better IMHO, so I decided to make ‘Semi-Specialised’ editions of these films to remove what I considered the bad changes while keeping all the good changes/additions.

After working on and off on these three films for almost two years, the Star Wars Semi-Specialised original trilogy is finally finished.

I hope that you enjoy these releases as much as I enjoyed making them. Do please let me know whether you like this release and if not, feel free to say why. If you run into any problems, also let me know and i’ll see what I can do.

Below is a brief summary of the changes made to this film:

Star Wars:

Audio changes:

Original Krayt Dragon call restored

New lossless pcm audio track created to fit this semi-specialised edition, based off Belbucus’s excellent 1993 Star Wars PCM audio mix

Video Changes:

Regraded to remove blue tint running throughout the whole film that was introduced for the first time in the special edition DVD and was carried over to the blu-ray

R2D2 no longer hiding behind a CG rock when Obi One Kenobi appears

Silly CG droid and jawa antics when they enter Mos Eisley have been removed

Jabba scene removed

Han shoots Greedo first with no awful CG head dodging action

Lightsabers made more consistant so they are not constantly changing colour, Vader’s lightsaber is now red all the time rather than turning pink.
 

kk650 presents: The Empire Strikes Back Semi-Specialised Edition
 

Technical Specs:

Name: The Empire Strikes Back Semi-Specialised Edition

Size: 15.4 GB

Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976

Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus’s 1993 PCM audio mix

Subtitle Track 1: English Subtitles

Subtitle Track 2: Spanish Subtitles

Like many, I was unhappy with a lot the changes that were made for the Special Editions and most recently the blu-rays.

Harmy’s Despecialised Editions are great for those that want to see the films exactly as they were when they were originally released theatrically, but some of the changes (especially the updating of special effects) actually make the films better IMHO, so I decided to make ‘Semi-Specialised’ editions of these films to remove what I considered the bad changes while keeping all the good changes/additions.

After working on and off on these three films for almost two years, the Star Wars Semi-Specialised original trilogy is finally finished.

I hope that you enjoy these releases as much as I enjoyed making them. Do please let me know whether you like this release and if not, feel free to say why. If you run into any problems, also let me know and i’ll see what I can do.

Below is a brief summary of the changes made to this film:

The Empire Strikes Back:

Audio changes:

The emperor’s original dialogue from the theatrical release has been restored

The original voice of Boba Fett from the theatrical release has been restored

Luke’s line ‘you’re lucky you don’t taste so good’ after R2D2 gets spat out has been restored

Darth Vader’s line ‘Bring me my shuttle’ has been restored

New lossless pcm audio track created to fit this semi-specialised edition, based off Belbucus’s excellent 1993 Empire Strikes Back PCM audio mix

Video Changes:

Regraded to remove blue tint running throughout the whole film that was introduced for the first time in the special edition DVD and was carried over to the blu-ray

The original emperor from the theatrical release has been returned (my thanks goes to Adywan for the original emperor footage taken from his Empire Strikes Back colour corrected ‘purist’ edition)

The digitally added sparks for the blu-ray in the scene where chewie is trying to get c3po from the dwarves have been removed

All extra shots of Darth Vader going back to the Executor and the arrival on the star destroyer that were not in the theatrical release have been removed so they do not interupt the escape of the millenium falcon

Lightsabers made more consistant so they are not constantly changing colour, Vader’s lightsaber is now red all the time rather than turning pink.
 

kk650 presents: Return of the Jedi Semi-Specialised Edition
 

Technical Specs:

Name: Return of the Jedi Semi-Specialised Edition

Size: 16.1 GB

Video: 1920x824 H264 23.976

Audio Track: Uncompressed PCM track based of Belbucus’s 1993 PCM audio mix

Subtitle Track 1: Alien Subtitles in English

Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles

Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles

Like many, I was unhappy with a lot the changes that were made for the Special Editions and most recently the blu-rays.

Harmy’s Despecialised Editions are great for those that want to see the films exactly as they were when they were originally released theatrically, but some of the changes (especially the updating of special effects) actually make the films better IMHO, so I decided to make ‘Semi-Specialised’ editions of these films to remove what I considered the bad changes while keeping all the good changes/additions.

After working on and off on these three films for almost two years, the Star Wars Semi-Specialised original trilogy is finally finished.

I hope that you enjoy these releases as much as I enjoyed making them. Do please let me know whether you like this release and if not, feel free to say why. If you run into any problems, also let me know and i’ll see what I can do.

Below is a brief summary of the changes made to this film:

Return of the Jedi:

Audio changes:

Han Solo’s ‘it’s alright, I can see a lot better’ line from the special edition when he’s aiming his gun to free Lando from the Sarlacc’s clutches has been replaced with the original line ‘it’s alright, trust me’

Darth Vader’s ‘Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!’ at the climax of the film has been removed and his silence restored.

New lossless pcm audio track created to fit this semi-specialised edition, based off Belbucus’s excellent 1993 Return of the Jedi PCM audio mix

Video Changes:

Regraded to remove blue tint running throughout the whole film that was introduced for the first time in the special edition DVD and was carried over to the blu-ray

The huge CG door leading into jabba’s palace that was added for the blu-ray release has been replaced with the original door from the theatrical release

The awful CG fest ‘Jedi Rocks’ has been removed and replaced with the original song from the theatrical release, Lapti Nek

The over the top carbon defreezing effects added to the blu-ray have been removed and replaced with the original defreezing effects from the theatrical release

The CG Dug added to the blu-ray release that walks down the steps of jabba palace just before Luke arrives has been removed and replaced with the original shot without the CG Dug

The creepy CG blinking ewok eyes added to the blu-ray have been removed and replaced with how they were in the theatrical release

When R2D2 gets shot, all the CGI appendages added for the blu-ray release have been removed

All the CG celebration scenes on the other planets have been removed with the exception of the first, cloud city. Jar Jar Binks and his ‘Weesa Free!’ is gone, thankfully.

Hayden Christensen and his creepy glare has been removed from the final scene with the jedi spirits and replaced with the original actor from the theatrical release, Sebastian Shaw

Lightsabers made more consistant so they are not constantly changing colour, Vader’s lightsaber is now red all the time rather than turning pink.