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lazysean

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Join date
29-Apr-2004
Last activity
17-Oct-2011
Posts
18

Post History

Post
#86333
Topic
.: The X0 Project Discussion Thread :. (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/86333/action/topic#86333
Time
Ditto what Darth Balls and others have said!

I read here only sporadically, because I have no advice to offer, so I did not even know you were looking for financial help. I do know that your contributions to this forum and the various preservation projects has been ginormous. I think that all the hard work you've done, as well as the guidance you've given to some of the other folks making their own projects, has been very, very much appreciated by everyone here (minus one I guess).

The unfiltered, un-retouched screenshots I've seen from the X0 blow away even the best of the other tweaked captures. For a movie I've purchased more times than I care to remember, I was insanely anxious to see this project followed through on. For your own sake, I say make whatever choice is right for you. For the rest of us, I sure hope you find a way to rediscover the fun in finishing this project.
Post
#81601
Topic
Info: December 9th - Holiday Special broadcast in Canada, on Zed
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/81601/action/topic#81601
Time
Originally posted by: TR47
There's already a great quality DVD of the special itself taken fron a broadcast tape floating around.. I have a version of it and I think Rikter does also.


I got one that I think was called the AngrySun remaster, or something like that, but I would never call it "great quality". It's quite blurry and faded, and hardly looks better than my nth generation vhs from oh-so-many years ago. Is there a different version out?


Post
#53874
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/53874/action/topic#53874
Time
I can't check the file size (I'm at work), but that is normal behavior for a torrent download. Unlike other methods of downloading (ftp, even kazaa etc) torrents do not download the data sequentially. They just grab whatever bits and pieces are available and put them in order later. Some torrent clients will allocate the disk space ahead of time though, so the file looks complete (1 GB) right from the start, but is filled with empty data. More often than not a file is totally unusable until the download is 100% complete.

So in this case the other vobs may have already downloaded the data at the beginning of the file that gives your dvd software information on how to play the file, but that one hasn't gotten the beginning data yet.


Post
#53882
Topic
Help Wanted: Phantom Edit - file type...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/53882/action/topic#53882
Time
vobs are basically .mpg files, just with non-standard headers and audio mixed in. Any version of tmpgenc should be able to separate the streams for you. Just cancel the wizard it usually tries to throw you into, and choose "MPEG tools" from I think the file menu. Then you can demux the vob and you will end up with separate files for video and audio. It doesn't even do any "converting", really, so you get the exact same mpeg2 stream for the video and whatever format the audio was in.

You would get the best quality by editing the mpeg2 directly, so that it doesn't have to be re-compressed when you're done.
It's hard to find good mpeg2 editors, though. Womble mpeg2-vcr is okay sometimes, but sometimes it's a pain in the ass and can generate non-standard mpegs that no longer play properly in other programs or dvd players. Haven't tried to many others. So you may have to convert the video again to something like a dv avi file, (tmpgenc can do that for you, too), and then you could edit it in pretty much anything you want to. Premiere's kind of a piece of junk, Virtualdub is nice if you're looking for free software.

Post
#52918
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/52918/action/topic#52918
Time
Originally posted by: Hal 9000
Originally posted by: lazysean
An even simpler concept would be how spreading a movie over two discs also gives you double the space, yet you seem to have missed that.

Why not just watch the laserdiscs if you have to change discs anyway???

Fair enough, but that wasn't the point. It's still the same quality as a dvd9, if not the convenience.

Personally, though, I don't have the rackspace anymore to keep around a laserdisc player that I would hardly use. If two-disk dvd versions were all that was available, I would get it. Luckily, it's not that way, and there are people hard at work making even better versions for us all to enjoy

even though u have all that space on the dual layer disc... dont forget that your only ever going to have Laserdisc quality....


True, but what's wrong with laserdisc quality? 400 lines of resolution? PCM audio? Beats the crap out of vhs and is the original trilogy instead of whatever crank he's selling now? I'll take it!

I'd suggest there would still be quite a bit of difference between the original LaserDiscs and such a DVD, as from what I have read here, all these LaserDisc renditions have to be done by capturing the video footage


Certainly there's a difference, one is analog and one is compressed digital. But most studio dvd's come from digitizing an analog source (film) and come out looking pretty good. With the amount of technology available even to most consumers (not to mention those who work in broadcast, nudge nudge) why do you think we can't do it too?
Post
#51482
Topic
Stupidest Prequal complaints
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/51482/action/topic#51482
Time
Quote
Originally posted by: jimbo"Anakin was too imature in The Phantom Menace"

He was a fucking nine year old kid. How mature are nine year old kids.


Fine -- but it makes for a lousy movie. My complaint is not that the kid didn't act his age, just that every aspect of the story would have made more sense (and been more tolerable to watch) if Lucas had written him a little older. Start the story when he's even just 11 or 12, and it would have been miles better. It's far easier to find good actors in that age range, far easier to believe both his interest and skill with building and repairing droids and racers, far easier to believe his later infatuation with whatserface if it wasn't based on their short time together when he was NINE, and on and on and on...

Seriously, the whole thing would have been so much better.
Post
#51431
Topic
[i]Laserdisc[/i] Stop Light?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/51431/action/topic#51431
Time
The thing with these markers is, when a cd player has trouble reading the data stream on a cd, there's no time to go back and re-read what it missed like EAC does. This is real-time, the song has to keep going, so most cd players just do the best they can. If they miss some info, so what. Interpret what you've got and move on. So the markers are supposed to I guess make the discs more reflective, or somehow make it easier for the cd player to read what's on the disc. That way more of what you hear is what was actually recorded on the disc, instead of the cd player's best guess at what was on the cd.

I've never really tried them. I have no idea whether they make any real difference at all. If the above explanation is correct, I would imagine that if they do work at all it would be with lower quality cd players that seem to have a real problem reading lots of discs.

Also no idea what they would do to a laserdisc. Again I would imagine a more across-the-board benefit would be seen by buying a better laserdisc player instead of a magic marker.
Post
#51232
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/51232/action/topic#51232
Time
MeBeJedi, what hardware did you use for your comparison? Considering most people swear they are the exact same transfer (and others claim the Faces set, which was released later on, had been cleaned up further) I'm very surprised to read your results. One possibility: the differences you mention could very well be a quality difference in the output of your laserdisc players, rather than a difference on the discs themselves. Have you tried swapping them and doing the test again?



Post
#49325
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/49325/action/topic#49325
Time
Originally posted by: petrob
Originally posted by: lazysean
my television, while not a widescreen set, can do anamorphic squeeze.


lasysean,

A little off topic here, but what brand of television set do you have? Sony or JVC? I'm looking at a 27" set with the "widescreen" compression option and only Sony or JVC have that. From the reviews available on the Internet, JVC is cheaper and better quality since Sony builds its TV's in Mexico. If you get a chance, let me know!

petrob


Mine's a Sony. I have to say, though, I'm torn on what to recommend. I'm very happy with my current Sony (36" flatscreen Wega), but the 27" I had before had all kinds of problems. Now, this set was from about 1997 or so, and I have no idea if they've changed their ways at all, but back then Sony had a reputation for lousy quality control on their lower end stuff. The bigger screens, the XBRs, the flatscreens etc were all fine, but the 27s and smaller all had the same arc-shaped picture distortion along the left side of the screen, poor solder joints that would cause anything from random flickering to dead input jacks to just plain not turning on, and who knows what other problems. And their service pretty much blows, but that's not really specific to Sony.

If your research says that kind of junk is still going on, I would definitely go with the JVC. IMHO the Trinitron picture is the best and most accurate picture around, but the tradeoff in reliability just isn't worth it.
Post
#49322
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/49322/action/topic#49322
Time
I think you're wrong. That line existed on the first versions of LD and VHS (as in the original movie). It was the only way for Ben (Obi-Wan) to know how to shut down the force field. The line was put back in the SE versions and, I believe, in the Faces LD and VHS (1997).


No, actually Patrick was right...Though it was in the script, and probably recorded along with the rest of the movie, for whatever reason it got left out of the original theatrical prints. It was not in any released version of the film until (I think) the '81 re-release. It was also left out of the first couple vhs releases, and not included until (I think) the '84 tapes. Then it was overlooked again for the Definitive Collection Laserdiscs, and I think the next vhs set in that time period used the same transfer and skipped it again. But it's been included ever since.

So, I'm with Patrick. It certainly does add something to the logic of the movie, but it's been missing from so many different releases over the years that I'm fine with it missing from these sets as well. Maybe someday the ultimate bootleg version will take the trouble to seamlessly loop that in from some other source.

Post
#49430
Topic
Plot holes in the SW saga
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/49430/action/topic#49430
Time
Quote
Originally posted by: motti_soL
the Kessel Run statement made sense... let me explain.

its like saying he made the New York Miami run in only 1,200 miles - by car that is for this example - instead of the usual 1,400 miles. do you understand that?


This still doesn't make any sense. How can a different car make the distance to Miami any shorter? It is what it is.
Is this particular car able to drive a straighter line to Miami than others?

I guess this finally explains Han's line from the original script, "She may not look like much, but she's got great alignment, kid."

Post
#48835
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/48835/action/topic#48835
Time
At this point it seems like the quality of the movies themselves are pretty similar. I went for the anamorphic set because (a) it was a free download, (b) it's got the extra "commentary" tracks, and (c) my television, while not a widescreen set, can do anamorphic squeeze.

If you're not interested in the faux commentary tracks, I would basically go for whichever set matches your tv. The anamorphic discs on a non-anamorphic tv will look softer than the TR47 would, and most widescreen tvs won't blow up the non-anamorphic TR47 discs as clearly as the others.

That said, myself and many others I'm sure will just want to upgrade again if and when TR47 redoes the set on dual layer dvdrs. Higher quality LaserDisc Player, anamorphic picture, pcm sound, commentary, higher bitrates. [Insert Homer-esque drooling noise here].



Post
#48213
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/48213/action/topic#48213
Time

Something that got me thinking was the description of how some of the dual-deck VCRs (like the go-video decks) are able to make such higher-quality copies. The machine directly copies the FM signal on the tape, rather than converting to RF, or composite, or whatever and then converting back again. The results really are significantly better than anything else I've seen. Maybe something like that could be done with laserdiscs, too. If there were some way to digitize the signal as soon as possible in the path from laser to screen, maybe you could capture the maximum, definitive quality stored on the disc.

It would take someone smarter than me to do this, however.
Post
#46625
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/46625/action/topic#46625
Time
Does anyone know where to get a hold of the bootleg of the original Original 1977 version of ANH?

I saw the trilogy shown on the big screen of a local campus about 12 or 13 years ago. Empire and Jedi were basically identical to the versions we were familiar with on video, but A New Hope had lots of little differences. I wish I had paid more attention at the time, or made notes of what was different, but unfortunately now all I have to go on is my limited memory. I've searched books/internet in the past trying to determine what version I saw, but never could tell for sure.

Here's what I can remember:

    * The film was shown cropped to Academy ratio or something close to it. I don't know enough about film to know what that indicates about the format of the film (16mm?) or whether it gives anything away to someone familiar with the history of Star Wars releases. ie where would a print in that format have come from, were they rare enough for that to help track it down or not?

    * I do *not* recall one way or the other whether "A New Hope" appeared in the opening crawl or not. Though I vaguely recall when discussing it with friends afterwards, someone mentioning that the crawl itself was re-aligned differently. As far as I know, this would fit in with it having been the original 77 version.

    * Multiple different takes or line readings used, especially Aunt Beru & C3PO. I have heard that Beru's dialogue was completely re-looped by a different actress after the initial release. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I thought this was a different voice, but it definitely wasn't exactly the same. Examples that stick in my memory are when she says to Owen "He can't stay here forever, most of his friends have gone." In the video versions and re-releases, this line is said pretty flat and straightforward. In this version though, she put some weird emphasis on the words "friends" and "gone", drawing them out longer and making the whole sentence sound creepy. Also in "Teh Uncoh if he gets a translator..." I think she properly pronounced her L's.

    * I think there was something different about the "Look sir, droids" bit, but I may be mis-remembering.

    * I have no memory of whether or not C3PO said his line about the 7 locations of the power coupling whatnot.

I know that's not much to go on, but does anyone have any clue what I'm babbling about? Anyone that's seen the '77 version able to comment on the possibility that this is somehow what I saw? And to keep us on topic, I'll ask again if anyone knows where I can get a copy of that dvd-r to compare for myself?


thanks!