riddler95

http://www.geekexchange.com/news/star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope-4k-restoration-coming-in-2017/

Could someone please post some screen caps from the Original Widescreen LaserDisc Edition of Return of the Jedi from 1990?

I’d like to see how Shifted-Up Letterboxed Image looks.

Wazzles said:

riddler95 said:

As of right now I don’t plan on tracking down the Definitive Collection or the THX (Faces) Editions because it seems redundant. I already own the 2-Disc DVD Editions of The Star Wars Trilogy from September of 2006 and the Letterboxed DVDs of the Original Versions included in those sets were sourced from the same Video Masters used for those specific LaserDisc Editions.

There is merit in having both the DC or Faces and the GOUT. The GOUT has much better video quality, but the LDs have much better audio quality.

I’ve seen comparisons and yes the 2006 Letterboxed DVDs do look noticeably super to the Definitive Collection and the THX (Faces) Editions. But yes the audio on the LaserDiscs is superior because they use PCM Stereo which is lossless whereas the DVDs uses Dolby 2.0 Surround which is lossy.

Maybe in the near future I’ll change my mind and track down either the Definitive Collection or the THX (Faces) Editions but as of right now I’m okay without them.

How bad is the Crosstalk on the Technidisc Pressing of Star Wars?

The seller also told me that he has a copy of the Widescreen Edition of Return of the Jedi, he sent me some photos of it and the condition is also like new. Maybe I should grab both?

If I do grab both titles I’ll keep looking for the Technidisc Pressing of Star Wars.

As of right now I don’t plan on tracking down the Definitive Collection or the THX (Faces) Editions because it seems redundant. I already own the 2-Disc DVD Editions of The Star Wars Trilogy from September of 2006 and the Letterboxed DVDs of the Original Versions included in those sets were sourced from the same Video Masters used for those specific LaserDisc Editions.

I also own the LaserDisc Set of the 1997 Special Edition Versions.

Thanks for the info.

The seller sent me some pictures of the actual discs themselves and the mint marks confirm that it is the Mitsubishi Pressing from 1992. I am aware that the Technidisc Pressing from 1993 suffers from Crosstalk whereas the Mitsubishi Pressing doesn’t.

Is it still worth grabbing the Mitsubishi Pressing from 1992? The condition of the copy I may buy is like new!

I might be buying a mint condition copy of the Widescreen Edition of Star Wars on LaserDisc from a gentleman who lives near me, he is slowly selling his LaserDisc Collection, and I am not sure on which version he is selling. He sent me a photo and it is the edition from 1992 with the 20th Century Fox Logo on the bottom of the cover. But I don’t know if the actual LaserDiscs themselves are the Technidisc Pressings from 1993.

N/A

I’m gonna see The Force Awakens in 2D. I don’t support 3D if it the movie was shot in 2D and then converted to 3D in Post-Production.

Molly said:

On purpose, no.

But looking at the way they handle their own films suggests that they'll probably just make a fake OTV out of a SE, the way they did with Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King.

  I do prefer the original theatrical versions of both Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. My guess is it was easier to for Disney make fake OTVs from the newly created SE Versions because both those films were sourced from the original CAPS Files. Even the Platinum Edition DVD of Aladdin from 2004 featured a slightly altered version of the film. Disney touched up some of the animation and backgrounds to make them work better for DVD.

Now for The Star Wars Trilogy the film elements of the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions STILL EXIST. If all the existing film elements can be located then yes the three films could be scanned in 4K and fully restored.

Flexicon9 said:

You can pretty much count on them screwing it up... the only saving grace is that it will give Harmy some extra resources to make the definitive restoration.  The color correction, attention to detail, overall care and of course, the magnificent custom made soundtracks on Despecialized will always best anything else out there.  Disney won't put the much needed time and effort into it that Harmy did.

 If Disney is willing to put the right amount of time, effort, money, and if they get a top notch preservationist then we will get phenomenal HD Presentations of the Theatrical Cuts and they'll most likely look better than the 2011 Special Editions.

I have lots of respect for Harmy and I appreciate all the time and effort he put into the Despecialized Editions. hairy_hen also did great job with the audio.

Harmy said:

I just said this in the ROTJ thread:

Until there's an actual official announcement, I'm not stopping this project (though it has been on pause for a while now, because I'm super busy in real life, plus I'm waiting for some behind the scenes stuff) and then if there is an announcement, we'd still have to wait and see what the quality is like before abandoning these fan projects - remember the GOUT?

 Thank you for the info.

cmckendry said:

riddler95 said:

Harmy, if Disney does properly restore the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy and release them on Blu-Ray how would the Despecialized Editions compare to them?

No way to know until they're actually available for scrutiny, but if I were a betting man I'd say that the official editions will have a much higher bitrate and be free of the (mostly very minor) compositing artifacts that remain in the Despecialized versions, but will have pretty sloppy color correction, in keeping with past releases.

 If Disney does perform a restoration I really hope they get Robert Harris to do the job because he would aim for the quality of film and he'd nail the colour correction. When he restored Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo he went as far as locating original costumes so he could be able to get the colour correction just right.

Harmy, if Disney does properly restore the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy and release them on Blu-Ray how would the Despecialized Editions compare to them?

RU.08 said:

team_negative1 said:

Blu-ray has failed, because it has not replaced DVD's, or become the primary format for most releases. Digital releases have, and will overtake it.

Team Negative1

Bluray was never going to replace DVD. Had the HD-DVD format won the war then perhaps it may have, but Bluray couldn't for the simple fact that it requires publishers to use AACS encryption. I have a number of DVDs from small publishers that are not encrypted. This makes it less financially viable for a small publisher to release an obscure title on the format. This was a clear oversight, but one brought about because of the clear influence from the Hollywood stakeholders who only care about their interests and not the interests of the smaller publishers.

Digital releases are not the same quality as Bluray. It's like Laserdisc vs VHS - most consumers were happy with VHS, and those who really wanted the best quality invested in Laserdiscs. Same thing with Bluray vs Digital. Just because most consumers may prefer Digital doesn't mean that Bluray has "failed", it simply means it fits a different purpose. Whether it is fit for that purpose, however, is debatable because it will be faced with lower sales and the mandatory AACS encryption is a barrier to smaller releases.

 I think that Blu-Ray is a niche format and the market is small. Most people who own Blu-Ray players are Movie Buffs who want the superior picture & sound quality. This reminds me of LaserDisc because most LaserDisc owners were Movie Buffs.

When Blu-Ray won the format war in 2008 I assumed that DVD would stick around for another ten years but now I don't see it going anywhere. 

DVD is still the standard, everything is released on DVD whereas not everything is released on Blu-Ray. A friend of mine sells Audio & Video equipment and he told me that the DVD sales are still higher than Blu-Ray. Most people chose to stick with DVD because they think that it is good enough for them. 

Harmy said:

OK, is it just me who can see it or did the video get unblocked?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXifjbxZDAM

 Harmy, will you be making one of these Making-Of-Documentaries for the Despecialized Editions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi?

DuracellEnergizer said:

^A VCR not even a full three years old dies just like that? Damn, SilverWook must be right about how cheap last-generation VCRs were made. All the VCRs I ever owned (minus the three VCR/DVD combos I have/had) were bought second hand, and the one I held onto the longest lasted from 2002 all the way to 2007/2008. 

  It was a unit from the low-end company Sylvania. Even though it died I managed to score two high-end units from the late 1990's for free, one is from Hitachi and the other is from Quasar and both are excellent units. I use them for capturing VHS Tapes onto my computer so I can burn them to DVD.

SilverWook said:

Walmart had bins of cheap VHS movies too, as did other stores back in the day. And VHS decks hovered around $50 in their final years, although late models often were pretty cheapo on the inside and more plastic than metal.

Video companies such as Goodtimes even specialized in bargain bin releases, often recorded at inferior slower speeds. I was pretty surprised they made the transition into the DVD era, although they are defunct now.

 I paid $29.99 for a brand new  4-Head Hi-Fi VCR, that was the last VCR I ever bought. That was in December of 2005. I bought my HDTV in September of 2008 and the VCR died around that same time.

I think that Disney & Fox will negotiate a good deal and release the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions of the Original Star Wars Trilogy either before The Force Awakens is released to theaters or when it comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Disney has unlimited money and the amount it would cost to restore all three films in 4K would probably be peanuts for them.

I'd love it if they would bring in Robert Harris to perform the restoration because he would do everything he can to make them look and sound as good as they possibly can.

Nick66 said:

Just give me the pre 97 films (I'm OK with the 81 crawl) with a full restoration (hello Robert Harris) without excessive DVNR and colours that match the previous home video releases (at a minimum)*, and original audio in HD and I'll be happy....once they do that as far as I'm concerned they can add as many audio tracks as they'd like and release the old SE's and create new ones to their hearts content....I even promise to buy them.

*EDIT: I'd prefer a colour timing that matches the original theatrical releases, of course but I don't even know if anyone at Lucasfilm or Disney even knows what the films looked like back then anymore.

 Robert Harris would do anything he could to perfectly color correct the Original Theatrical Versions to match exactly how they looked when they were originally released in 1977, 1980, and 1983. 

I remember reading that when Robert Harris restored Vertigo in the late 1990's, he went as far as locating original costumes to get the color correction just perfect. Ford Motor Company even provided him with a green paint sample of the color of the car the Kim Novak character drove in the film.

The first time I ever watched The Star Wars Trilogy was in August of 1995. They were the Widescreen Versions on VHS. 

thedaner said:

I'm gonna throw this out there and say that my fingers are crossed that Disney has consulted Robert A. Harris on this restoration.  Remember that he offered to do a restoration on the original trilogy for free. On top of that, I believe he's pretty good about keeping mum on projects.

I'm perfectly happy to be proven wrong, given that Reliance Media might be involved.  Either way, I think Disney will give us the best presentation possible and not just do a 4K DNR hack job.

  It would be great if Disney really did hire Robert Harris do restore the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy.

You really can't go wrong with a Film Restoration done by Robert Harris. He always does a brilliant job and I've always been extremely impressed with his work.

gizzy2000 said:

I always assumed the reason the really bad laserdisc ports were released was because everyone at LFL and Fox wanted them released and George finally said, "alright, as long as it doesn't cost one penny" so they did it the cheapest way humanly possible.

 Because a restoration could not be performed, those 1993 Video Masters provided the best source to create DVD Transfers for the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions.

With Disney apparently restoring the Theatrical Cuts in 4K and releasing them in 1080p on Blu-Ray next year, they'd probably look significantly better than the 2011 Blu-Rays of the Special Edition.

gizzy2000 said:

I hope they don't let Lucas "approve" anything. I think they'll just say that the current blu ray is the Lucas approved version. riddler, you said that Lucas was letting the negatives deteriorate intentionally, do you think that's why the blu rays weren't a real restoration? That had never occurred to me before.

 darklordoftech said:

This is great news but I am not going to get excited about this until there is an official announcement. Obviously a big project like this would take alot of time because the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions haven't undergone a restoration since the creation of the 1997 Special Edition Versions.

When I read the article on comicbook.com I was not surprised at all at this part.

"Our sources indicate that the project has been under way for quite some time, but it’s been challenging because of some damage to the original negatives they are utilizing"

George Lucas never wanted to restore the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions and re-release them on Home Video, instead he was purposely letting the Original Negatives deteriorate to the point where they would become unrestorable.

I wonder if Disney will ask George Lucas to come in and approve the HD Presentations when this major restoration is completed.

It would also be great is Disney could locate all of the Original Audio Elements and create brand new 5.1 Mixes for the Original Theatrical Unaltered Versions. The Original Theatrical Stereo Mixes should also be restored and included. 

Beatleboy99 said:

Well we've already had a Star Wars release with the Disney ownership. The blu ray/dvd combo pack released this past October.

 It wasn't a Fox/Disney release, it was just a Fox release. I received the Blu-Ray + DVD Combo Pack as a gift and there is no mention of Disney on it at all.