lordjedi

If you don't need a lot of usenet access, I would suggest AstraWeb.  They have pay as you go plans and unlimited access plans.  The unlimited access plans are unfortunately limited to only 1.5 MB of bandwidth though.  So if you need unlimited, GigaNews might be the way to go.

I doubt you'll find the Dr. Gonzo edits on Usenet at this point.  I'm sure someone could upload them though.  You might want to take a look at Adywan's Revisited edits instead though.

FYI, the cut off of alt.binaries.* groups has nothing to do with any law.  It's a pre-emptive measure ISPs are taking to protect themselves.  It doesn't even effect 99% of their customer base anyway.  Anyone that wants Usenet access typically goes through a usenet provider as it is.  Most ISPs, in the last few years, really only had a 3 day or so retention, which is complete garbage anyway.

negative1 said:

i have an idea, ( a really crazy one)..

 

but let's just take the whole thing off the internet .......... all the files,

all the discussions, everything ...period.........

and then what? you say...

First, you can't.  It's really to late to take it off the Internet and expect people to forget about it.  Google archives everything and the Internet Wayback Machine will probably have a copy too.  You could stop talking about it, but it would be awefully funny if a pristine HD copy of the OOT showed up a year from now and it wasn't released by LFL.  Gee, I wonder where they'd look first.  If this thread suddenly went silent, they could easily get the IPs and find out where you are real quick.

Second, isn't it illegal to actually own a 35mm print of a copyrighted movie?  I thought there was discussion around here a while ago about that.  Didn't somebody get fined or arrested for having 35mm prints of copyrighted movies?

This looks comparable to WG's releases with the obvious advantage that they'll play straight away from a Blu-ray player.

I plan to download it from alt.binaries.starwars as well so I can help seed too.

Really?  I always viewed the black outfit as that of a Knight, despite what Obi-Wan wore in ANH.  It wasn't until years later that I looked at it more as a symbol of his struggle with the dark side (which is what Lucas originally intended, don't know if he's changed that now or not).

Well, he even said to take it for what it's worth (very little).  I told him that a deal like that wouldn't surprise me at all and that it's an interesting story, but nothing more.  Even if it's only a story, it's still worth talking about even from a "What if?" perspective.

Knowing how loose the computer security is at LFL (I know for a fact that they share passwords from time to time, especially when they're to lazy to get accounts for their contractors), it wouldn't surprise me at all if someone got into someone elses email using a "shared" password and found out the info.

Janskeet said:

I never really thought the whole Jabba the Hut sequence through, but I thought it was meant to be ambigious. The movie didn't spell out the whole strategy because it wanted the audience to interpret it themselves. I don't think Luke had respect for Jabba's right, he was going to do whatever necessary to get everything he wanted from him even if he had to kill everybody. That's one thing that I like about the perception they gave the jedi in the OT. They were tough protectors fighting for peace and wouldn't take no bullshit even if they ended up being a little uncivilized. In the PT they were a bunch of niave whimps.

If I'm not mistaken, in the novelization, Luke gets some flack from Yoda after the rescue for his actions in Jabba's palace, especially for the force choke.

I'm sure Luke didn't really expect Jabba to give them up easily.  Hence why he was really focusing when he tried the mind trick the second time.  And you see Jabba's reaction.  It's quite obvious at that point that Luke didn't know how resilient Hutt's were to mind tricks (to the point that it doesn't work).  Of course, if he had been able to do that, it would have been a walk in the park.

I doubt that Luke would have killed everybody willy nilly.  That would have truly been something of the dark side.  No, Luke was only going to kill the people that were attacking them.  If you notice on the sail barge, I believe Luke lets a few of them run away because they aren't attacking anymore.  If he were hell bent on killing everyone, why let those few run away?

I don't have time for a lengthy reply right now, but I always viewed the plan as Luke getting everyone inside Jabba's palace so a rescue effort would be easier.  By getting everyone inside, he forced Jabba to leave the palace and go to the Sarlacc pit.  Without getting Han out of the carbonite and killing the rancor, thereby REALLY pissing Jabba off, there was no way to get Jabba to leave the palace.  Once he was outside, the rescue effort was going to be relatively painless and they'd be able to destroy Jabba's sailbarge at the same time.

It's far easier to take someone out when they're outside, relatively unprotected, than when they're inside their own palace, surrounded by their own people.

I was talking to a friend at work the other day about Blu-ray players and their expense.  He brought up something interesting to me.  Take all this with a grain of salt since I really have no proof other than his word to back it up.

Apparently he knows someone that works at LucasFilm.  According to the employee, back in November of 2007, Sony approached LFL to completely remaster all 6 films for Blu-ray.  They suggested selling all 6 films as a set and even including a Blu-ray player in the set (so it would be a little expensive, but it would be worth it).  The way the story goes is that Sony offered Lucas 5% of worldwide profits.  Apparently Lucas turned them down, being more interested in HD-DVD at the time (publicly I know they were waiting for the format war to end at that time, but we don't know anything about what they were doing privately).  This was going to be done for a Christmas 2008 release.

Fast forward to earlier this year when Blu-ray won the war.  Sony went back to LucasFilm with the same proposal, except that it wouldn't be for Christmas, but possibly for Summer 2009.  Lucas said he wanted 7%.  Sony said no way.  This is probably due to the dwindling public perception of Star Wars and the poor sales of the DVDs up to this point.  In other words, Star Wars isn't considered a successful brand anymore.  This especially shows by the fact that it was hard for Lucas to find a home for the Clone Wars series.

Anyway, like I said, take this with a grain of salt.  It wouldn't surprise me one bit if something like this did take place.  It's an interesting story, but I really have no proof to back it up.

Johnboy3434 said:

lordjedi said:

No thanks. But I'll sign a thank you letter when he releases the OOT completely remastered in anamorphic widescreen on either a DVD or Blu-ray disc. Until then, Lucas will get no thanks from me.

I don't care how good the Clone Wars TV series turns out. Until we get the OOT properly released, he deserves no thanks.

So, if someone doesn't give you exactly what you want, you don't see any reason to thank them if they give something else that's good? That's incredibly selfish. I'm not saying the series is going to be good, but if it is, then I see no problem with thanking the person responsible for it.

 

You see what Sluggo posted above you?  That's my thanks.  You should see my house.  I have a lifesize ESB Yoda.  I have a Luke Skywalker Force FX lightsaber.  I have tons of toys.  I gave plenty of thanks to Lucas from 1993-2005 with all the books, comics, toys, and collectibles I've bought.  How has he thanked me?  By slapping me in the face and changing the originals to match his "vision", a vision that has been constantly changing since at least 1997 (see Greedo shooting first).  By releasing the OOT (not the SE) on DVD from a freaking laserdisc master.  He has treated the movie that gave him great success, gave many kids and adults years of entertainment, and pushed plenty of people to go into the movie business, like dirt.

He has treated the OT fans like garbage and I see no reason to thank him until he starts giving us the respect we deserve.  We put him on the map.  We gave him great success (we all payed plenty to see Star Wars back in the day).  He has given us nothing but heartache since 1997 (a little bit at a time so it wasn't to noticeable).  He doesn't deserve a thank you for making the Clone Wars good because everything else that got us to that point has been pissed on.

If someone pissed on your face, shit on your head, and then told you that everything you loved may as well be gone (Lucas has said the OOT is dead to him), would you then thank them if they offered you a new car?  I know I certainly wouldn't.

Holy smokes!  Imagine my surprise, after talking about what Ghostbusters 3 was suppose to be in another thread, when I see a headline this morning that they're making a Ghostbusters 3.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20223681,00.html

The way that's worded, I wonder if the episodes will air first on Cartoon Network and then they'll repeat on TNT at some point.

GoldStone9 said:

I wish someone would re-encode Wookiegroomer 4/5/6 into H.264 MKV from the orignial WMV they are simply massive when they shouldnt have to be.

Huh?  They're 1080p and the bitrate is right in line with what an HD video should be.  Reencoding them into H.264 MKV files wouldn't make the file sizes that much smaller and it would require an even more powerful CPU to view them then the current WMV files do (h.264 is more CPU intensive than VC-1).  I can watch the WG releases, and any other VC-1 encoded HD video, flawlessly on a dual core CPU.  H.264 files generally use up significantly more processing power and sometimes don't even properly play without extreme lag (depending on whether there are subtitles and if they're hardcoded or not).

If you want them reencoded, feel free to download them off usenet and do a reencode.

Akwat Kbrana said:

or the fireplace scene in AOTC.

That was actually the first time I ever thought to myself "Yeah, that's how you turn a guy off.  You put on that dress and then you tell him you can't be together.  Whoever wrote this was absolutely retarded!"  That scene was so in your face laughable that it's amazing it ever got filmed.

Janskeet said:

So Adywan, are the OT versions just the '04 SEs or are they your revisited versions. Either way it looks like you still did the color modifications that fit the OOT better. How can these be HD without blu-ray? I thoght SD format is not capable of HD, you gotta get blu-ray to do that, or HD DVD, but that is obsolete now.

They can be HD in the same way Wookiegroomer's releases were HD.  HD (hi-def) is a resolution, not a format.  It starts at 720p and goes up to 1080p (considering only consumer level here guys, don't tear me apart :)).

SD (standard def) isn't capable of HD beyond doing "upconversion".  What ady's doing is color correcting the HD broadcasts in AVC format.  If you just want an HD version of Star Wars, Wookiegroomer's version looks excellent.  It's WMV files with the VC-1 codec, so they play perfectly on an Xbox or even on a Windows XP/Vista PC.

DarkFather said:

Who is interested?

No thanks.  But I'll sign a thank you letter when he releases the OOT completely remastered in anamorphic widescreen on either a DVD or Blu-ray disc.  Until then, Lucas will get no thanks from me.

I don't care how good the Clone Wars TV series turns out.  Until we get the OOT properly released, he deserves no thanks.

rcb said:

problem is, it makes star wars seem like a kid film. its more mature then that! i'm not saying i won't watch it, i'm siked about it! but why cartoon network? it should be on fox!

Not according to some of the people here that saw the Clone Wars movie.  "It's for kids, it can be stupid!"  If it's so much more mature than that, then maybe the movie should've been more mature too.

Besides, in this day and age of TiVo and other DVRs, it doesn't matter one bit what channel it's on.  People will set their DVRs to record it and then watch it whenever it shows up on their recorded programs list.  Same goes for just about any other TV show.  If you asked me what time Heroes was on, I wouldn't have a clue.  I simply watch it when it shows up in my list.

This is what you want and it was written by one of our very own members:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/index.html

Janskeet said:

In the OT they had model and physical gag artists working on the movie. These people were seasoned artists who had a mature eduacation on what looks good on film. They were pasionate about the films.

Uh, no they weren't.  They were a bunch of college students who had never worked on a movie before.  Everything they did was by the seat of their pants.  There is absolutely no evidence to support that they knew what they were doing from the get go.  As a matter of fact, according to the old interviews with Lucas, he had to fire his original FX crew because they had no shots completed when he got back from Europe.  He then had to oversee everything that was done from that point.

These guys were all a bunch of green kids that really had no idea what they were getting into.  All they did know is that they were working on a Sci-Fi movie.

I agree with everything else you had to say though.

Nanner Split said:

Okay, come on, a remake of The Phantom Menace with Guillermo del Toro in the director's chair! How awesome would that be?!

 

Of course, we might as well also put a clause in said petition requiring Bruce Campbell to be on the Jedi Council.

Groovy.  Bruce "My name's not Ash" Campbell.

Oh I see.  So myself and my 10 friends will be the only OOT fans left in 40 years?  I doubt that.

Yeah, everything looked pretty good to me except that and the "That was impressive" bit.  But this actually does look pretty good compared to the movie.

generalfrevious said:

Forty years from now whatever fans will be left of the OOT (which could be as few as ten or fifteen people) will still be yearning for a decent release of the OOT.

I don't know about you, but between myself and my friends, we'll always be fans of the OOT and we simply won't care if Lucas never releases it in a "proper" way.  As time goes on, we dislike the PT (which most of us don't even acknowledge) more and more.

sean wookie said:

I'm seeing this for the 3rd time since I first saw it the theater. I really really like it. Shit, as a kid I even loved Forever and Batman and Robin anyone else like it as a kid too? And the Joker is just so cool.

I liked Batman Forever because I like Jim Carey, even if I don't think he played the Riddler that well.

I don't even need to see Batman and Robin to know how bad it is.  A friend of mine once said "If you're watching TV and it comes on, turn it off, it's that bad."

Funcha said:

I only have a 52-inch 720p DLP, though. Of course, some would consider that crap because "you can't get good quality unless you have at least 100 inches."

Actually, they'd probably consider it crap because it's not 1080p, it's only 720p.  It's a big enough screen, but 1080p would be so much better.

A 100" screen is probably not as uncommon as you might think.  Considering all the costs involved, some have found it cheaper to get a projector and just put the image on a wall or pull down screen.

Oh, look at that.  Third week of release and it's number 11 this weekend.  It didn't even break $30 mil yet.

Pathetic.