solkap

tristypooz said:

Hey guys first time poster.

I’ve used the ultimate introductory guide all the way up to section 7 and hit a bit of a snag and wondered why we had to use tehparadox.com. Is there something specific I need to do on there or if there’s a way around it as my ISP has blocked tehpaeadox and all the proxy’s are not working for me either. Any suggestions for me to get the trilogy. Thanks, Tris.

HanDuet maintains a list of links for the express purpose of helping people bypass having to use tehparadox.com, since this happens sometimes. I believe that’s what Bluto was refering to in the comment below yours.

But it’s a little tricky to find in the TUIG.

So here’s the link with the rar lists I believe you’re looking for:

https://goo.gl/5Sif60

That’s pretty much it. RoTJ had a barely distributed temporary v2.0, but it was pretty much just for previewing and then became 2.5 by the time it was actually released.

I don’t know about the exact release dates (and it would be just as much work for me to dig through the threads as you 😉 ).

Ah, I see.

Yeah, no, I wouldn’t expect anyone to look through the threads for me! I was wondering if anyone had the information readily at hand. Sounds like probably not.

That’s OK, I was just curious! Thanks!

towne32 said:

There is not a version 2.7 for either V or VI. It is unlikely that there will be.

Speaking of versions, that reminds me of a few questions I’ve been meaning to ask about the DEED Project as a whole.

I remember that ROTJ 2.5 dropped on 2/7/16. But I was still pretty new to this site at the time, and hadn’t been around for the initial release of 1.0, or any of the versions of the other films for that matter.

Were the all iterations of the DEEDs prior to that point as follows?:

SW 1.0
SW 2.0
SW 2.5

ESB 1.0
ESB 2.0

ROTJ 1.0

And if so, out of curiosity about the past DEED project timeline, what were the dates Harmy initially posted each of those?

ahughes03 said:

Did you notice the post directly above yours??? In case you’re still not tracking, make sure to click the expand buttons…

Sometimes I’m not sure if people remember to read before posting…

In case you needed clarification, nzbs are usenet files. Much like a torrent file, they can be loaded into a usenet reader/downloader program, and the program will download the file and (usually) unpack it. Usenet has the advantage of saturating your download bandwidth, unlike torrents which only download at the speed of the connected peers’ allowed upload bandwidth.

Oh sorry. I missed that because it was at the top of the next page of the thread. I didn’t notice that it was up to 610 and responded directly from the OP.

As for the nzbs, thanks for the info. I was thinking that since gamexl said they were a “newbie”, they might be thinking torrents were the only way to get the DE and/or be having trouble with that method of acquisition. But I apparently misunderstood.

roguejedha said:

I’m hoping some of you guys might be able to help me out. I’m trying to download Harmy’s Despecialized Editions but it appears as if tehParadox has been shut down! Does anybody have any idea how to get around this, or another possible site to download from?? Also, i’m not completely sure what version the Despecialized Editions are up to now, so any of you guys who know more about it than me (which is probably all of you!!) a bit of info on that would also be greatly appreciated!

• Regards, RogueJedha

Hey roguejedha!

Tehparadox seems to be working fine for me.

But just so you know there’s another way to get to the links. HanDuet posts on a supplemental google doc to TUIG that will give you access to all the urls you need without having to use Tehparadox. He makes no guarantee that they will always be current, but they are all up to date as of the time of this post.

Here’s the link to that page: https://goo.gl/5Sif60

As for versions, they are up to the following:

Star Wars: 2.5 (or 2.7 if you go with Towne32’s edit)
Empire Strikes Back: 2.0
Return of the Jedi: 2.5

Hope that helps!

gamexl said:

Hi there! I just learnt about the new versions but I am a newbie on how to get the propper files to enjoy the new trilogy versions at home. Can anyone help me? I need the correct nzb file for the DVD9 versions. (As I work on a Mac I can’t run any .exe files neither) Thank you and may the force be with us!

Hi gamexl!

Did you ever get any help from anyone?

I’m not sure why you would need an nzb file, even using a Mac.

Once you have the links to all the rar files, it’s just a matter of downloading them with a download manager (for speed’s sake) and extracting them.

Can you give some more details on what step it is in the process of downloading and extracting that giving you problems?

Tichiro11 said:

Really glad I found this. I successfully downloaded Episode 4. Having trouble with the audio on Episode 5. Did the multi-part download of the RAR files through Free Rapid Downloader. Video comes in perfect, just trouble with the audio. Does anyone have any suggestions?

When I first acquired the Despecialized Editions, I noticed the same thing when my computer tried to play the MKV version with Windows Media Player by default.

But there is a much more versatile open source media player out there. I originally sought it out as an alternative to clunky DVD player programs, but now I use it for just about any video I want to play, whether from a disc or a file.

It’s called VLC. You can get it here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

I think the chances are high using that will fix your audio issue. And if it doesn’t, there are plenty of people around here with a lot more technical expertise than I have that will be happy to help you troubleshoot further. Good luck!

saleri6251 said:

.

Whenever I see a " " or “.” only message, I imagine it sounds like a frustrated R2D2 beep-boop.

Then I imagine C3PO piping up and saying “Well, really R2, if you weren’t always in such a hurry, you wouldn’t have to edit so many embarrassing markdown syntax posts!”

😄

Hi slark,

Have you had any trouble with the official links of the ESB 2.0 MKV or AVCHD as posted on tehparadox?

Yep. They dropped it as a little bonus on May 4.

Have a look see:
https://goo.gl/5Sif60

😃

Hi guys,

These comments are kind of followups to the ones I posted back on page 592 of this thread and are directed towards those working on the Despecialized project.

Since those posts back in March, I’ve set up three mega.nz accounts, one for each of the OOT films. In each one I’ve stored complete sets of the MKV, AVCHD, and DVD5 rars of each of the films respectively.

Currently I have the three versions for SW 2.5, ESB 2.0, and ROTJ 2.5. Once ESB 2.5 comes out, I plan to purge the 2.0 rars from my ESB mega.nz account and reload it with the new ones. I’ll then have a nice complete set of 2.5’s. I don’t plan on deleting any of them.

If I decide to continue upgrading versions, I’ll set up new mega.nz accounts.

I’m posting this because I was wondering if Harmy and the rest of the crew would have any use for my links. Once the 2.5s start becoming obsolete somewhere down the road, there may be those (like me) that would like to obtain matching numbered sets between when the first 2.5 is removed and when work is done on 3.0s of all the films. And people could be directed to the files I’ve stored as kind of a 2.5 archive

I’d be willing to PM someone working on the project to send the links if they would be useful. These are (for SW 2.5 & ROTJ 2.5) and will be (for ESB 2.5) links to copies of the rars that are absolutely untampered with, acquired from the tehparadox links and uploaded to my accounts without changing even the file names.

Now, I’m aware this might not really be useful to any of the contributing editors. Or perhaps, it would just be inappropriate, since I’m not one of those editors and haven’t been involved with any aspect of the production of the Despecialized Editions.

But I wanted to let folks know the offer was on the table.

And thank you once again for all your efforts to restore and preserve these pieces of history! 😃

joefavs said:

Any chance we’ll see this in the next month or so? My friend’s girlfriend who’s only ever seen half of Star Wars is interested in doing a marathon soonish and I’m wondering if it’s worth it to hold off.

Hey joefavs,

You mentioned a marathon back in late April.

I did something similar with a close friend of mine. She wanted to see a screening of TFA at her church, but she’d never seen any of the Star Wars films. I used SW 2.5, ESB 2.0, and ROTJ 2.5 to help her get initiated. She later told me she now considers herself a fan. 😃

I’d assume that you went ahead with yours like I did. And I’m curious to see how it went.

thehawk said:

Hello all,

I’m just now getting into making custom sets for these despecialized editions (and hopefully the respecialized of the 97 edition). I’m pretty late to the game on all this, but a simple question hopefully - do the bluray files already come with a custom menu when actually played?

Hi thehawk,

I’m surprised nobody ever addressed this question.

The unfortunate short answer is no. The discs have chapter stops, but no menus. When you first put them into your player, it just goes straight to playing the movies from the beginning.

That said, there are ways to create your own menus, but that has proven beyond my proficiency.

HOWEVER…if you’re willing and able to do the work to create your own menu, ask for help in the “How-To’s and Technical Discussions” section:

http://originaltrilogy.com/discussion/How-Tos-and-Technical-Discussions/id/12

You might be able to pick up some pointers from the help I got for my eventually abandoned attempt at menus. That thread is here if it helps:

http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Authoring-Help-with-DVDStyler-and-IMGBurn/id/48978

Here, also, are three posts with Despecialized chapter titles and stop positions, in case that’s useful:

Star Wars chapters- www.originaltrilogy.com/post/id/906589
The Empire Strikes Back chapters- www.originaltrilogy.com/post/id/906587
Return Of The Jedi chapters- www.originaltrilogy.com/post/id/906586

In any case, you will find people around here are very willing to help.

And having downloaded all three versions, but only burned DVDs straight from the DVD5 versions using IMGBurn, they are still vastly superior to anything you can buy…hence the reason for their creation!

(Sigh)

Always are we looking away…to the future, to the horizon.

Hear we nothing Harmy says?

Not far.

2.5 not far. Patience.

Soon it will be with us. But only when we are calm…at peace…passive.

On this, all depends. We must clear our minds of questions.

solkap said:

Anybody have any thoughts on upload managers for mega.co.nz? It’s a painfully slow upload, sometimes dropping to under 50 kb/min.

Seems to be working OK now. Back up to 5-6 Mbps. Not sure what the deal was.

Thanks! I may make another attempt in the future if I ever decide to get some paid DVD authoring software, but for now, I’m gonna call the straight Despecialized discs good enough.

Anybody have any thoughts on upload managers for mega.co.nz? It’s a painfully slow upload, sometimes dropping to under 50 kb/min. My wifi is usually close to 100 times that fast. How on earth does Harmy ever get his files saved there?

Oh! Just remembered one last thing I wanted to ask!

I created some mega.co.nz accounts of my own to back-up the rars of all three films.

But it is going to take a very long time to babysit one-by-one uploads, even with fairly good wi-fi.

Are there any programs anyone could recommend that would basically do the reverse of what JDownloader or FreeRapid Downloader would do, letting the computer upload multiple files at once to save time?

Hi again all.

Ugg. This whole attempt has just become one big headache. I’m done messing with it. I’ve got the films and can even play them on a DVD player. I’m gonna call that good enough and hope that one day the powers that will have the common sense to release the Original Original Trilogy in proper quality, and make about a billion dollars overnight in the process.

Thank you to all who have worked on restoring these films and special thanks to the members here who helped me in the process of obtaining them!

Darth Raider said:

Thx again for the reply and GL on your set.

You’re welcome! Same to you! I wish I could be more help. I will say that if all else fails, burning Harmy’s files straight to the disc with ImgBurn still gives you pretty amazing results! That’s what I did first.

You can find some pretty straight forward instructions in Section 7 of this guide: https://goo.gl/1WGHBA

Only downside was that the disc plays the movie without any menus, even though you can still skip back and forth between chapters. Just so you know!

First, to Darth Raider:

AVCHD isn’t my chosen format. I tried straight burning that to DVD-R+DL, but found out that won’t play on a DVD player, which is all I have right now. I bought the Blu-ray Trilogy just so I could have a clear conscience about getting the Despecialized films. As far as converting, I’m new at this too, but in my limited experience MKVs seem to look better and be easier to work with. But the main MKV version was too huge to burn on a non-HD disc. So I used MakeMKV to extract a smaller MKV from the VIDEO_TS folder in the DVD5 version of Harmy’s project. That’s about as much help as I can be. Anything else is past my know how.

 ~~~~~

OK, back to my project:

Spaced Ranger (or anyone else), I finally got the time to finish and upload it. In the zipped archive I’ve included the basic DVDStyler project file I want to use as the basic frame work for all three DVDs, just adjusting where needed for each of them.

Along with that, there are 3 folders, one for each movie. The only media that each contains is 4 JPEGs each that I’d planned to use for the Home, Chapter, Subtitle, and Trailers menus of each. They also each have the SRT files I’m trying to use for DVD subtitles, a TXT file with three YouTube links to original trailers I’d like to include, and a TXT file with a YouTube link to music I’d like to play in a loop on the main menu (though I haven’t figured out how to do that yet). I’ll use the whole music clip for SW and ESB and about the first 2:00 of the ROTJ music

Here’s the link:
https://we.tl/1d8BW7Kv8x

The first time I tried to burn, the buttons didn’t look right and they all just played the main title. Then I adjusted a few things, tried again, and got a DVD that didn’t work at all.

Any and all help or feedback is welcome.

And also, once I have the settings fixed, would there be any advantage to saving as an ISO and burning with ImgBurn instead of burning straight from DVDStyler?

Let me know when you might have time to take a look, but there is absolutely no rush.

Thanks a MILLION!

It may be a few more days, but I should be ready soon. A few quick things first though. That “we transfer” service looks like we’d need to exchange emails. I’m not against that per se, but wouldn’t it be easier to just post it to Dropbox or Google Drive or something and make the link public?

Sure, I’m fine with all of that. My only hesitations have been from two things. I didn’t want to ask for anything that might get anyone in trouble and it felt like a pretty massive favor to request. I want to be sure I’m not pushing the boundaries of decorum here. As far as your time goes, I’m in no rush. 😃

Once I post the skeleton project, if there is any other info I can provide that will clarify anything, I’ll do my best to oblige. And I’d welcome any suggestions from anyone on how to tweak it, be they technical or content related.

Thanks!

That would be AWESOME!

I’ve only been working on the SW one so far. But I’d basically been thinking of doing pretty much the same setup for all three movies, so I think just helping me brush up the SW one would be enough for me to do what I wanted with the other two.

It may be as late as Tuesday or Wednesday before I’ll have time. But when I do, should I post the link on this thread, or send you a PM?

Yeah everything is legit, but I’m still not having much luck. Updating the program didn’t really improve anything. But I now have a hunch that it’s probably not the program. Rather it is a combination of my inexperience and lack of knowledge when putting these types of things together.

There are just so many little variables that those more experienced in DVD authoring / video editing would instinctively know how to tweak. But I am kinda stuck guessing and checking over and over. Even after referencing sites like this one and VideoHelp.com, the end product never seems to look or work very well. At least not good enough for the Original Original Trilogy.

At this point, I’m thinking it may be best for me to just be happy that the Despecialized Editions exist and that I’ve managed to obtain them.

But before I do that, I’ll put out one more idea.

Has anyone here managed to put together DVDStyler projects for SW, ESB, and ROTJ? And if so would you be willing to send me a copy of, or perhaps post somewhere for download, each of those project templates, along with a list of any other image/audio/video files I’ll need and then I could put the actual films in and reassemble the same project myself, based on any additional instructions?

I guess I’m basically asking for a “paint by numbers” kit to recreate someone else’s Star Wars Trilogy DVDStyler projects.

However, I’m aware this might be an unreasonably big request, especially considering how much Harmy and the rest of the DE crew have already done. Plus, it might touch on some hairy legal issues, copyright, distribution, or otherwise.

So if either of those is the case, let me know, and I’ll withdraw my request and just be very happy with what I have.

But if anyone would be willing to post or send me something, I’d be thrilled.

Thank you!

What version you ask? Hmmm.

That may be part of the problem. Just checked and what I have installed is only at 1.8.1. I’d assumed I had the most up to date version, so I didn’t bother to look before when you mentioned version 2.8. Perhaps a more recent release will be superior in some way?

I’ll see if upgrading to 2.9.1 will help.

I’ll also just resign myself to using this time calculator to get seconds to make the frame calculations a little easier if I need to adjust them:

https://www.tools4noobs.com/online_tools/hh_mm_ss_to_seconds/

Lastly the “Menu video bitrate” was already at 6000, but I’ll poke around a bit more and see what I can find.

If I have any more questions, I’ll be around.

Thanks!