sennaheu

AntcuFaalb said:

Is there some way to get a sample?

I doubt that! But if you want to risk it, I can give you the webpage of the station with its prices and contact form on it. I won't publish it here publicly a) to avoid that everybody is asking them and they regard that suspicous because such a private copy is only for oneself and it is prohibited to hand it to third parties and b) to avoid that they can find this forum and see what is done with their recordings.

I did some research and I have to revise my former statement. Indeed, one TV station comes to my mind that could actually have an archived source of the OOT. Assuming they have it and they are willing to hand out such a recording, it would be very expensive. I just checked their homepage: A recording of a broadcast with a length of not more than 120 minutes on DVD-R costs 111.80€. For up to 180 minutes it costs 123.80 €.

This TV station could eventually also be a source for missing episodes of Droids and Ewoks. One just needs money... a lot of money :-(

@Pittrek: I'll contact you later this day via PM. Do you have Facetime?

@AntcuFaalb: I'm not sure if it is possible to get such a version for two reasons: First, if they had such versions they are with high probability full screen since this was common TV standard till the 2000's. Second, the STAR WARS movies (and the Droids and both Clone Wars series) were, according to my information, only broadcasted on private stations which don't offer such a recording service. From the STAR WARS franchise Ewoks was the only series broadcasted on state run stations.

But I will do some more reseach on that and tell you.

If you are a resident of my country and pay your TV licence fees you can commission the TV station (at least the state run stations) to provide you with a recording of a programme even if it is from the 1980's. Unfortunately this is quite expensive (about 50 to 60 US Dollars per episode!!!) and only possible if they archieved it. You are free to choose whether you want the recording on VHS or DVD. But the original source comes directly from the tape as the station got it from the studio. This means there are no logos impressed or any other ageing effects on it. This is like making a DVD from the original master tape. Someone did this for season one and invested a lot of money at his own expense. Unfortunately the very first episode was lost in the archives so he could only get episodes 2 to 13. He made a DVDRip out of it and that is what I have (Video: Xvid 640x480 25fps 1897kbps; Audio: MP3 48000Hz stereo 128kbps). I asked him if he plans to buy season two as well but he didn't answer and left the forum after a disput with other forum members so I guess he won't. If I had the money I could also buy the episodes of season two but I assume the TV station doesn't have the complete season since some episodes of season two were never broadcasted here. Well, of course this also means that the audio track is not English but I assume this is no problem because the episodes could easily be dubbed. The title at the beginning and some other information like "based on an idea of George Lucas" etc. is also translated but I also assume that this is not a big problem because it is neither  annoying nor couldn't it be fixed with cutting in the English titles...

I think an exchange shouldn't be a problem if Pittrek is interested...

Video Collector said:

There isn't really a better source for the Ewoks series than the PAL tapes, is there?

There is! At least for episode 2 to 13 from series one. Here is a screenshot of my version of episode 1x11 The Three Lessons. It comes directly from a TV station that broadcasted it (PAL) so it is no VHS transfer with its disadvantages:

I have found this forum a couple of days ago and I am fascinated by the preservation projects here. I am sorry for not having read the complete thread.

But I was wondering whether you know that there are episode of the first season (at least episodes 2 to 13) around coming directly from a tv station (PAL)? So no lousy VHS transfer with its disadvantages! The picture quality is crystal clear and comparable to DVD quality. I have attached a screenshot from my version of Episode 1x11 The Three Lessons: