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tbird97

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Join date
29-Oct-2008
Last activity
13-Mar-2024
Posts
72

Post History

Post
#1229506
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

pittrek said:

If I understood the TOS situation correctly, or in other words if the people in the comment sections under those videos were correct, the Blu-rays are not source from the ORIGINAL negatives, as the promotional material suggests, but from new internegs created in early 80’s for syndication. That’s why they include unified opening credits (originally each of the first 13 episodes had slightly different opening credits) and fixed some of the effects scenes, like the planet shots in The Naked Time.

This is funny. I’ve seen many Star Trek posts get hijacked and go into a discussion of Star Wars, but rarely the other way around!

I was curious about the Star Trek original series as well. I did some digging and found that there are some audio on the blu-ray set which is not entirely. I was kind of surprised some enterprising (no pun intended) fan had not taken the audio from the laserdiscs and set it to the blu-ray picture or something.
I don’t know exact episodes, but I know some of the opening credits there is dispute about which music played. There is a found effect of a phaser rifle being thrown in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and one of Spock’s lines in “The Trouble with Tribbles.” There may be others as well, maybe some musical cues were messed with and they added some ship engine noise for the DVD release. Anywhere, I have the set and enjoy it, but there are purists who would love to have the original “night of broadcast” audio and that doesn’t truly seem what was provided. I will end my Trek discussion on this Star Wars thread so as not to run afoul of the moderators. Feel free to PM me to continue the discussion if you feel the urge.

Post
#1209398
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

I haven’t yet seen the 4K77 project, but I read the thread where Hairy Hen upgraded his 70mm soundtrack recreation.
Just curious, any plans for a possible version 2.8 to include the new soundtrack, or will that be saved for a later change?

Personally, I was blown away by the previous version and that’s why Harmy’s is my current go to version to watch. I can’t imagine an improvement, but I have faith in Hairy Hen.

Post
#1191311
Topic
Restoring the wondrously disastrous <strong>Star Wars Holiday Special</strong> (Released)
Time

Sounds like you may already have it.
The Editdroid version is the broadcast master.
I am fairly certain the Zion Hybrid version (mentioned above) was taken from that source and a little editing was done to improve it, and the commercials were added back in.
Both those versions have threads on this forum which go into greater detail.

Post
#1188325
Topic
Preserving the...<em>cringe</em>...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Time

Oldfan said:

Is there a studio master version of this that exists out there? I’m confused. I have the Zion Hybrid v2, the Gormaanda Hybrid v2, and the Editdrid, all on the organ. Is there one I missed?

No. The Editdroid is sourced from a station master tape. I believe the Zion Hybrid v2 is taken from that same source, but someone spliced the commercials back into it and also did some editing work (I forget what and don’t want to mislead you, but I recall it was aimed at making the picture slightly better). I’m not familiar with the Gormaanda Hybrid. But, no, I don’t think there is one you are missing.

Post
#1161802
Topic
Info Wanted: Which trailers accompanied the actual Star Wars movies?
Time

I thought this might be fun. It maybe, sort of, fits into historical preservation.

Starting when I saw The Force Awakens, I’ve noted which trailers accompanied the Star Wars movies in the theaters. Maybe some day, if someone was really feeling nostalgic, you could watch those trailers, followed by your favorite theatrical version of Star Wars. It adds a little bit of historical context.

I have the trailers which accompanied The Force Awakens, Rogue One and The Last Jedi.
Online, I found a list which accompanied The Phantom Menace.
Does anyone know, or can it be determined, which trailers accompanied Star Wars (original theatrical run), The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi (the original THX intro), Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith? The Clone Wars animated movie?

For fun:

The Phantom Menace (I found this online and vaguely from memory, not from my own notes):
Fight Club
Titan A.E.
Anna and the King
The Beach

The Force Awakens trailers (3D IMAX screening):
Kung Fu Panda 3
Warcraft
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
The 5th Wave
Independence Day: Resurgence
X-Men: Apocalypse
The Jungle Book (live action)
Kubo and the Two Strings
The Finest Hours
Star Trek Beyond (this trailer drew funny a comment and laughs from our crowd during the motorcycle stunt scene, though the movie itself wasn’t bad)
Captain America: Civil War

Rogue One trailers (3D IMAX showing):
Dunkirk
Transformers: The Last Knight
Logan
Fast & Furious 8
IMAX (put on your 3D glasses now)
Spider-man: Homecoming
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2
IMAX (get ready to watch a movie)
DLP

Rogue One (2D viewing):
War for the Planet of the Apes
Kong: Skull Island
Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2

The Last Jedi (IMAX opening night fan event):
Jurassic World 2
Angel
Alita: Battle Angel
Ready Player One
Incredibles 2
Avengers: Infinity War
Coca Cola commercial
The Last Jedi Opening Night

  • interview with Rian Johnson
  • John Williams conducting the score
    IMAX countdown

The Last Jedi (2D showing):
Rampage
Avengers: Infinity War

Post
#1159639
Topic
Star Wars Despecialized Editions - Custom Bluray Set (Released)
Time

MusicallyInspired said:

Just got my blank BDRs today in the mail (from Japan, HTL, BD50, ink-jet printable) so I started burning my ISOs with ImgBurn as directed. It went through Star Wars just fine and I tested it and it works great. I started burning ESB and I get an error half way through saying:

“Failed to Write Sectors 10171008 - 10171039 - Reason: Invalid Field in CDB”

Doing a bit of research I discovered this means the burner and the ISO basically have a difference of opinion on the ISO size or something. Is this just a bum burn/disc? Will this happen again? I only ordered 5 discs and I need at least 4 for the 4 BD50 ISOs provided in this 6 ISO collection. If I try again with another disc will the same error occur? I guess my real question is, is it something wrong with the ISO or the disc I was using?

I had some issues with IMG Burn the first time I tried to do it as well. I contacted tech support and they suggested the following:

Your log shows the drive running into issues when burning the discs and reporting lots of ‘Write Errors’.

I can’t really comment on why the ones that burnt without an error weren’t then able to be verified. Each time it’s just saying the drive is empty. Is the disc actually still in there when you abort the operation? If so, the drive must be unable to reinitialise the disc after the tray has been ejected and reinserted - That isn’t a good sign.

There’s pretty much just one option you could enable that may or may not help matters. Try enabling the ‘Perform OPC Before Write’ option in the settings. If your discs aren’t quite what the drive’s firmware is expecting for that MID (MEI-T02-001), that may help it fine tune the laser power for the ones you’re using.

You also have the option of updating to a newer firmware release and seeing if that improves things.

I was able to update my drive’s firmware and used the settings suggested, I don’t think I had a bad disc write since.

May the Force be with you.

Post
#1141808
Topic
The Ewok movies; 'The Ewok Adventure' and 'The Battle for Endor' - TV Preservation (Released)
Time

Making preservations of on-air recordings from the original air date available. Scroll down to see my description and link for each movie. Please note, these are DVD-9. They were a bit larger than standard single layer DVD and due to the nature of trying to preserve them, I avoided compressing them to fit the smaller disc. I am happy to contribute and give back to this amazing community. Please accept this humble contribution as a token of my love for Star Wars. If someone wants to upload or repost these for easier sharing among fans, feel free to do so. Yub nub. May the Force Be With You.

tbird97
 

==================================================================================
 

The Ewok Adventure (version 1.0)

https://mega.nz/#F!QHQSwSQa!_eEc7SjeYepPODSfCL2-7Q

Here is The Ewok Adventure as it originally aired on my local tv station, WPTA TV (Fort Wayne, Indiana) on November 25, 1984.
This made for tv movie HAS been officially released, on VHS, laserdisc and on DVD. The DVD release is under the name “The Ewok Adventures” and contains both this movie (which was renamed as “Caravan of Courage”) and the sequel, Ewoks The Battle for Endor.

This movie is NOT for sale. This is a fan preservation from a life-long Star Wars fan. If you want the best picture and sound, track down that official DVD release. If you are interested to see the movie with its original title and with some of the commercials still intact as it aired in 1984, then I hope you will enjoy this.

THE CAPTURE PROCESS:
This movie was recorded to VHS tape in extended (6 hours per tape) format rather than 2 hour standard play which would produce a better picture. My dad cut out some (not all) of the commercials as he recorded it live in 1984.
My Panasonic AG-1980 S-video deck is not working properly and I used a much lesser deck which offered only standard composite video for this capture. From the VCR, I used a Hauppauge USB Live-2 capture card to my computer. I captured using a program called AmarecTV and the Huffyuv codec to create an .avi file. I applied deinterlacing, otherwise no filters or changes have been made to the capture.
Once I had that file, I used ArcSoft Showbiz to create the DVD. I inserted chapter stops at the exact places they appear on the commercially released DVD for consistency.

KNOWN ISSUE:
The audio skips out briefly at the 5:32 minute mark. The narrator (Burl Ives) says “Wicket, the youngest is…” and does not finish the sentence. This appears to be an issue from my vhs tape.

REQUEST:
If you have a vhs tape of the two Ewok movies as they originally aired in 1984 and 1985 (I can’t be the only one), I’d be interested to borrow them. A possible version 2.0 is in the works using an S-VHS deck for better picture.

For a possible future version, I’d like to re-insert the missing commercials and the end credits. I’d like to complete them as they originally aired and I’d also like to create menus which let you jump to a specific chapter. I am a novice and this was my first attempt at video capture.

I hope you enjoy watching the movie as it originally aired. May the Force be with you.
Great, now I’ll be known as “The Ewok guy….”

Tbird97

 

SPECIFICATIONS:
TV Standard: NTSC
Video Encoder: MPEG-2
Frame Size: 720 x 480
Frame Rate: 29.97
Video Bitrate: 5200kb/s
Audio Encoder: PCM – Uncompressed audio
Storage: 5.38 GB (Dual-layer DVD9)
 

========================================================================================

 

Ewoks The Battle for Endor (version 1.0)

https://mega.nz/#F!QbBgDLSY!9ozGp1xyk9onWzQNpZ8o8A

Here is Ewoks The Battle for Endor as it originally aired on my local tv station, WPTA TV (Fort Wayne, Indiana) on November 24, 1985.
This made for tv movie HAS been officially released, on VHS, laserdisc and on DVD. The DVD release is under the name “The Ewok Adventures” and contains both this movie and the first movie, The Ewok Adventure. This tv release MAY contain a minor dialogue change from official releases. If it does, I am not aware what that change is. I suppose under that guise, this fits into the category of a preservation as well.

This movie is NOT for sale. This is a fan preservation from a life-long Star Wars fan. If you want the best picture and sound, track down that official DVD release. If you are interested to see the movie with its original title and with some of the commercials still intact as it aired in 1985, then I hope you will enjoy this.

THE CAPTURE PROCESS:
This movie was recorded to VHS tape in extended (6 hours per tape) format rather than 2 hour standard play which would produce a better picture. My dad cut out some (not all) of the commercials as he recorded it live in 1985.

My Panasonic AG-1980 S-video deck is not working properly and I used a much lesser deck which offered only standard composite video for this capture. From the VCR, I used a Hauppauge USB Live-2 capture card to my computer. I captured using a program called AmarecTV and the Huffyuv codec to create an .avi file. I applied deinterlacing, otherwise no filters or changes have been made to the capture.
Once I had that file, I used ArcSoft Showbiz to create the DVD. I inserted chapter stops at the exact places they appear on the commercially released DVD for consistency.

KNOWN ISSUE:
None at this time, only that the end credits are not present.

REQUEST:
If you have a vhs tape of the two Ewok movies as they originally aired in 1984 and 1985 (I can’t be the only one), I’d be interested to borrow them. A possible version 2.0 is in the works using an S-VHS deck for better picture.

For a possible future version, I’d like to re-insert the missing commercials and the end credits. I’d like to complete them as they originally aired and I’d also like to create menus which let you jump to a specific chapter. I am a novice and this was my first attempt at video capture.

I hope you enjoy watching the movie as it originally aired. May the Force be with you.
Great, now I’ll be known as “The Ewok guy….”

Tbird97

 

SPECIFICATIONS:
TV Standard: NTSC
Video Encoder: MPEG-2
Frame Size: 720 x 480
Frame Rate: 29.97
Video Bitrate: 5200kb/s
Audio Encoder: PCM – Uncompressed audio
Storage: 5.38 GB (Dual-layer DVD9)

Post
#1140700
Topic
Help: looking for... the 2 Ewok Movies and the Holiday Special in HD or Blu-Ray
Time

SilverWook said:

What constitutes the original version gets kind of murky as both Ewok films played theatrically in Europe not long after they aired in the U.S. Or did they change them again for the DVD?

I’m not going to claim to be expert by any means. In the U.S., the first movie was originally titled “The Ewok Adventure.” I believe it retained that title for it’s vhs and laserdisc releases. In other parts of the world, it is my understanding that it was originally called “Caravan of Courage.” The U.S. DVD release carries this alternate title. I saw somewhere online, I forget where, that the background of the end credits was changed after the initial airing of each movie (I read they re-aired in the 90s on some other channel). My tapes are both missing the end credits (it was the 1980s and you maximized the space on your VHS tapes!). If there were any other edits or changes, I’m unaware of them and I believe they would have been minimal, IF ANY. I’ve never done a side-by-side comparison and watched them far enough apart that I don’t retain specific enough memory from one watching to the next.

I have a version of both movies I’ll call my “1.0” edits. They are first generation recordings my dad made from my local station via cable in 1984 and 1985 respectively, missing a few commercials and end credits. I got a capture card and recorded them from a standard play VHS deck. I intended to use the same method they used for the WHIO Holiday Special preservation. My S-VHS deck was under the weather and not up to the task. I’m a novice, not good with titles or menus or inserting chapters. I’d like to make my 1.0 versions available via the usual location if someone can walk me through the process to upload them, send me a PM. Or, I’ll be happy to make arrangements to supply a copy to someone who can upload them.

Another forum member was in the process of recording my tapes using an S-VHS deck. If we get a nicer recording, by all means, that recording would likely be a version “2.0” supplanting my original preservation copy. If anyone ever comes through with original recordings with the end credits or the few missing commercials intact, I’d love to splice them back in to complete them. I’m happy to share with forum members to give back and contribute to this community. I just don’t want to become known as “the Ewok guy!”

I should note, the official releases have much better picture and sound and if the best version is what you’re after, I have to refer you to those. If you are interested in seeing the original airing out of curiosity for preservation sake, then hopefully my preservation can fill that niche. It’s kind of cool to see them with commercials and my local tv station identifier to take a trip back to childhood.

May the Force be with you.

Post
#1140668
Topic
Help: looking for... the 2 Ewok Movies and the Holiday Special in HD or Blu-Ray
Time

I’ve been looking all over, and I’ve yet to find edits of the Holiday Special or the Ewok flicks that are in Blu-Ray quality. I’m fairly willing to accept that they simply don’t exist, but I’d love to be wrong.
Has anyone done any work with them? Alternatively, in the event that Blu-Ray quality and / or HD versions don’t exist, what’s the best DVD quality versions y’all know of?

Agreed with the response about the Holiday Special. The station master tape is of amazing quality though. I never thought we’d get to that level.

Regarding the Ewoks telemovies, there was an official DVD double-feature released, I think in 2004 or 2006. It was of course, DVD quality and resolution.
I have a capture of the two movies on vhs tape (missing the end credits, but with many of the commercials intact) as they originally aired in 1984 and 1985. The first movie has the original title, “The Ewok Adventure” rather than “Caravan of Courage.” With help, working on getting those tapes preserved. They will never approach the image or sound quality of the officially released DVD.

Post
#1137967
Topic
Star Wars Despecialized Editions - Custom Bluray Set (Released)
Time

Here you mate (my very quick ms paint fix):-

or https://imgur.com/x5Ntu7D

I’ve no idea on how how to contact Stardork if he is not answering his PM’s - hopefully he’ll be around soon - it’s a quality set he came up with.

All the best of luck in finding a local printers for your discart too - an independent printer company or store may have the facility to do it 😃

Thanks very much. I tried to fix it in MS Paint too. I was able to download his little preview and work with it, but the file contained in the .pdf appears to be higher resolution. Note especially the detail on the Lucasfilm Ltd logos. I’m not able to extract the higher resolution one from the .pdf to work with that one as I don’t have the correct software.

Local printers shied away from printing cover art as it contained the words “copyright.” As for the disc art, I found a place that can print to a label to affix to the disc, but not directly to the disc itself.

Post
#1137906
Topic
Star Wars Despecialized Editions - Custom Bluray Set (Released)
Time

stardork said:

OK, I got my graphics issues with phildesfr’s templates worked out, and finished my set for all 3 movies. These, like phildesfr’s, are for standard Blu-ray cases. I also made a tweak in the inserts I linked earlier, both the cases and the updated inserts are available at this link:

https://mega.nz/#F!ac42iZDK!J8GqOJcy8iWvltcnu0Yg8Q

Thanks to phildesfr, he did most of the work, I just tweaked them for this set. If anyone sees any errors, let me know and I’ll try to correct them.

Case Previews:
Star Wars Cover: http://i.imgur.com/gu07QWI.jpg
ESB Cover: http://i.imgur.com/udUifon.jpg
RotJ Cover: http://i.imgur.com/o2eNbd0.jpg

Insert Previews:
Star Wars: http://i.imgur.com/JeCa8yR.png
ESB: http://i.imgur.com/57qkcFE.png
RotJ: http://i.imgur.com/TZRiJY1.jpg

I know I’m late to the party as I only recently got to check these out.
I noticed a small error on Stardork’s cover art. I tried to contact him, but haven’t heard a response.
On the Star Wars case art, it says “1997 70mm Six Track Mix” should be 1977.

Anyone have a way to contact Stardork or have a way to correct this in high res?
Trying now to find a place to print disc art, no luck so far in my area.

Post
#1124736
Topic
The Force Awakens: 1.78:1 scenes in 2D? - with recreation of IMAX scene (Released)
Time

This sounds like a very interesting project. I’d like to check it out as well.

FYI, if you see Star Trek Into Darkness on the “Compendium” blu-ray release (it also includes the 2009 Star Trek), the IMAX sequences are expanded to fill the whole screen, just as the Dark Knight did it. Not so on the regular blu-ray release, just the Compendium. But, this is another example where that was done.

Post
#1124284
Topic
Star Wars Despecialized Editions - Custom Bluray Set (Released)
Time

one69chev said:

Ok…gotcha. The preview video looked like the version I downloaded initially; so thanks for the confirmation, I really appreciate it.

When I found it the other day, I didn’t find it by searching njvc. At the top, there’s a little drop down menu that defaults to “name.” I clicked it and search for “both” (name and description) and then searched for the term njvc, and that’s when it turned up in the results.
You’ll see his name on the right, under Uploader.

Post
#1123633
Topic
Star Wars Despecialized Editions - Custom Bluray Set (Released)
Time

Yes, those are the original versions of the blurays, before I had all the amazing feedback from the crew at ot.com and gave them a total overhaul. Search Myspleen again, under my user name, and you’ll find all the recent versions.

Thanks for the reply. I do appear to have the older version. Just checked the spleen and what I see appears to be the same as what I have? Am I missing something? If I find the newer versions, I’ll happily snag them.

Congrats on the projector. That will be my next big purchase. Hopefully the same model.

Post
#1123326
Topic
Star Wars Despecialized Editions - Custom Bluray Set (Released)
Time

I downloaded these some time ago (pretty sure from Myspleen). They sat on my hard drive as I didn’t have access to a Blu-ray writer. I just burned them to Blu-ray this weekend. It looks & sounds great. I noticed, on seeing the first page of this thread, my menus and options look different than the ones pictured on the first page. Did NJVC update his menus sometime? I just want to make sure I got the right version.

The one on page 1 shows for the main menu, Vader holding up the rebel soldier by the neck.
Mine shows the same options, but plays the video of the original trailer.

For features, page 1 shows the cantina alien. Mine has the artwork of the landspeeder being stopped by Stormtroopers in Mos Eisley.

For audio, page 1 shows a frame of the rebel soldiers at the beginning of the movie, mine has some artwork.
Sound options on page 1 appear to be:
5.1 Surround [DTS-HD-MA] (1977 70mm six track mix)
2.0 Stereo [DTS-HD-MA] (1977 35mm Stereo mix)
3 1.0 Mono [DTS-HD-MA]) (1977 35mm mono mix)
As well as other non-English options.

Mine lists only:5.1 surround, 2.0 stereo, 1.0 mono

Anyone have any insight on this?
I am still giddy over finally getting these on blu-ray and thanks again to those who made it possible.

Post
#1122970
Topic
Star Wars Despecialized Editions - Custom Bluray Set (Released)
Time

Patience pays off. I finally got a BD burner and just burned NJVC’s version of the Despecialized trilogy. Rather than aid these ebay pirates, I did it myself and am the happier for it. Effusive thanks to Harmy, to NJVC for this version, to Hairy Hen (I love reading his posts and I’ve learned so much about the sound mix of my favorite movies).
Can’t wait to get my hands on a BD-50 to check out the Silver Screen edition next. Thanks to all who contributed. May The Force be with you all.

Post
#1105730
Topic
Dealing with People Selling Fan Projects
Time

NeverarGreat said:

While we need to do a better job at directing new members towards important information
Any solution not involving money would be quite a hassle, and the best thing I can think of is a system wherein the party requesting the blu-ray would be required to purchase their own blank blu-ray discs and send them in a package containing their copy of the relevant 2011 Blu-ray discs (as proof of purchase) and enough postage for sending it all back.

I fall into that category. Been a member here for years. I have the files. I do not yet have access to a Blu-ray writer. So, I would be very happy to purchase blank discs with that intention. Having read all the hard work and dedication that went into making these things, I won’t purchase online so some Greedo makes a profit off the work done by members of these forums. Being patient till I get the opportunity to make my own or at least not so as someone else profits from it. Great discussion in this thread.

Post
#1073500
Topic
Harmy's RETURN OF THE JEDI - Grindhouse 35mm LPP (Released)
Time

Has anyone released an .iso file for this? Particularly in the same place we might look for other releases? I saw an .mkv file, but I’ve never converted one before. Before I attempt it, I wondered if anyone had already converted it as I’d like to have one burned to a disk. Thanks. Looking forward to checking this out sometime soon.

Post
#994999
Topic
Noob question – vhs transfer to DVD for Ewok telemovies
Time

Just what you’ve all been waiting for, the Ewoks telemovies!
Ha ha.
I have copied my vhs recordings of the original airings in 1984 and 1985. I have a DVD of each. I’d like to upload them to Myspleen, but I’ve never done one before and having some difficulty. I’d appreciate any assistance.

Also, I have the raw files. I’m copying them to a flash drive. If someone is more skilled than I, I would be willing to provide the raw files in order for someone to insert nicer menus and chapter selections than my meager abilities allowed. I can be contacted here, and I believe my PMs are turned on.
Thanks for any assistance.
May the Force be with you.

Post
#984313
Topic
Harmy's RETURN OF THE JEDI Despecialized Edition HD - V3.1
Time

Maybe this has been asked before, and I apologize if it has (it’s hard to track everything in a 128 page thread), is there a version of these Harmy despecialized versions which has a menu? I’m kind of digging the pictures at the top of each of the threads here on originaltrilogy.com. I have the AVCHD versions and was able to play them on my machine. Thanks, Harmy.

One additional comment, I recently saw the original THX trailer from 1983 which ran in front of Return of the Jedi. As a suggestion, I think it would be cool to add that THX trailer to a future edition of ROTJ and recreate the theatrical experience as much as possible.
Thanks all, may the Force be with you.