towne32

I think it looks great. I think the main flaw is the somewhat obvious sound cuts that we've discussed a bit already, so no need to dwell on that more. It would be lovely to see that fix in the 16gb version, though.

As far as other editing decisions go, as you've said, everyone would probably create a slightly different version for themselves. I personally would love a copy with *no* CGI 'dinosaurs' at all (or flying droids) in addition to the rest of your changes. But, different strokes for different folks.

And I did notice the grey line in that shot. Is it only a single frame with this?

SilverWook said:

It's really not much to go on.

Looks like Baron Samedi to me. ;)

Or this guy:

Lightsabers do look nicer, even if that means looking similar to the bluray in this instance. The artifacts you're talking about are the sort of 'bubbles' around the lightsabers in 1.0?

I like the background blues, and the orange "glow" is a better compromise between the bright 1.0 and muted bluray. I don't know how things are "supposed" to look, and I guess that is a complicated question. But do you think Luke's face is a bit too red in some of the closeups? (~16-30 seconds in)

CO said:

imperialscum said:

I like the absence of Emperor in ANH. I love how his character progression in OT. In the first film he is only mentioned in a way that it sparks your interest and get your imagination working. Then in the second film he makes short but interesting call to Vader, which further fuels expectations. And then he finally appears in last film and he is well acted and written.

 I agree, and I wish Lucas took out Jabba in the ANH/SE cut.   The buildup of Jabba leading in ROTJ was the coolest thing as a kid.  You hear about him for 2 movies from Han Solo, and we finally get to see him in his lair in ROTJ.  The CGI addition in ANH/SE ruins all of that, plus its a totally redundent scene as Han and Greedo had the same conversation at the Cantina Bar! 

Boggles my mind at the things Lucas has done to these movies!

It was fun when it first came out in theaters. Seeing the 'new' footage, and believing Lucas when he said that it was the intention from the start.

But even at the time, I was thinking that this was a version that I might not see again. A sort of quirky director's cut to celebrate the 20th anniversary and draw extra people to the theaters. Obviously, I had no idea that it was intended to erase the history of the real movie.

TV's Frink said:

Aw man, now I'm down to 21 :-(

No reason to assume it's permanent! 

I'm not sure if my answer technically counts, because I had you on the ignore list (inspired by both this thread and a handful of your posts), and then I chose to view one of your comments. "I see they blue themselves" is why you were removed from my ignore list.

I can't imagine it would be with branching. 

If they wanted to release an ultimate collection, some day, with 1997, 2004, and 2011 on bluray, branching would make sense. There is probably virtually no market for such a thing, though.

Harmy said:

What the fuck now seriously! NOBO0DY IS DEFECATING ON ADY'S WORK, FOR FUCK'S SAKE! I think Ady's work is amazing in many respects, but I also think (as Ady himself and many others do) that it shouldn't replace the original and that it isn't necessarily better than the original.

And you say with one breath, that you're all for releasing the original version and that releasing the original version isn't really taht important, because "we" already have a better version. NO, you perhaps have a better version, for your own enjoyment but I don't - simple as that.

Agreed. This is entering George Lucas logic territory. Just because *someone* (or even many people) thinks a version that is heavily modified is superior does not make it definitive has absolutely zero effect on whether we should want, expect, or "shit our pants over" a proper release of the original trilogy.

I'm starting to think this is just a joke/troll. Haseo came into this thread, about original blurays, and said that it's basically nothing to worry about because there are superior versions already available. And then hurls accusations around about badmouthing adywan when people don't agree?

I would totally understand if people are going into Adywan's thread and saying, "LOL, stop bothering, there are real versions coming out." But Haseo is doing the exact inverse. Perhaps it's time to stop feeding the troll.

Beber said:

A looks better. In B, the guy seems to suffer from liver failure.

Agreed.

skyjedi2005 said:

The released blu ray set sales records so no i don't think the oot means anything to the average joe who thinks they already bought the movies that were made in the seventies and eighties.

Disney and Fox have to work out the video and distribution rights.

So no i don't think this has any chance of happening.

Anyway even if new sets were releases it would simply be the same 2011 blu ray with the Disney  logo on it.

And getting people to "double dip" as opposed to just pick up any previous slack in sales is exactly what they will want to do. There is a large fanbase who is very much aware of the special edition changes and know that they can't currently get it. There are more casual fans who might not be losing sleep over it, but will understand exactly what is meant by "unaltered trilogy" to add to their collection. And there are currently less informed people who may still buy it if it's pitched clearly and correctly for what it is.

I think the "not if, but when" attitude is the correct one. If there is anything stopping Disney from proceeding, it is probably contractual issues with Fox, or actual technical difficulties with some of the negatives (I don't know, can they definitely account for 100% of the theatrical footage in great condition?). I don't think marketing, lack of interest, or sales potential factor in as reasons not to go ahead. They'll have not just the nice sales spike leading up to Episode VII, but the title permanently in the archive. I would imagine the OOT coming out first, alone. Followed by some sort of platinum set right before the next film launches, including the OOT, SE, and PT. If they can pull it off.

His work is incredible, but it doesn't change the fact that there aren't HD transfers from the negatives available for some shots.

But let's face it, even if they release an OOT bluray, something will still be imperfect and fixed by the fans.

Projects must not be all too far from completion then. ;)

Good luck dealing with the company that sold you the mobo. Hopefully they value their reputation and deal well with returns.

imperialscum said:

towne32 said:

PS: Off topic, but does anyone know *why* blurays end up with funky color grading? It's not a result of the transfer, is it? Is it just an attempt to make things look more "modern"?

The blue/green colour shift was done in 2004 DVD already.

Complaining about colour tone is kinda pointless. If you saw the original version in theatre the projector distorted the colours. When they did VHS transfer, the lighting they used in the process again defined the colours. If they used different conditions they would get different colours. And now finally, the colours burned on the film stock themselves might not reflect the colours that were actually perceived and set on the stage by director and DP (human eye).

On final note, most of the video software allows you to change colour properties quite easily. So if you like the faded colours experienced by the screen projection you can just lower the saturation.

 Following various people's preservation/restoration projects, I do see your point. What exactly should be used as the standard is not an easy question. And color is not one of my major complaints with the SE.

My point was just that, if they do attempt this and produce something "imperfect", I'll still buy it to support the fact that it was even attempted after all these years. Color seemed like a realistic 'imperfection' that some might expect.

Hopefully, if they do this (eventually they will), the color grading will be decent and not blue or green as seems to magically happen with blurays.

Even if I end up preferring Harmy's version due to some foulup in a Disney release, I'll be buying it to support something that should have been done long ago. 

PS: Off topic, but does anyone know *why* blurays end up with funky color grading? It's not a result of the transfer, is it? Is it just an attempt to make things look more "modern"?

m_s0 said:

Finally, a Garfield/Star Wars crossover.

I, for one, can't wait until they open the stamp-covered package with a talking CGI Nermal inside.

Also from that reddit post,

probably one of these ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i909Rm4NQN8

(Are we counting Jar Jar talk as "lines??)

Surely not definitive, but a good start:  http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases

You_Too said:

How trustworthy is that site? I know Disney loves money just as any other film company so they obviously do know that they would make a ton of money if releasing the true originals, but on the other hand I really doubt it.

I mean, if they did want to release them, what would the source be? The old faded interpositives used for the GOUT? The altered negatives? (Which would probably need another restoration process anyway) The Laserdisc masters - JSC or 93 or whatever - are out of the question since they're probably on Betacam tapes (DVD resolution) or something.

Well, first of all, it is a rumor site.

Having said that, they've been remarkably accurate, for a rumor site, in the past. But I think it depends on the writer of any given article. Rich Johnston has had some ridiculous foresight in the Doctor Who world. I think he correctly identified 2 of the last 3 "Doctor" actors before anyone else, and was the first to leak a major announcement about episodes from the 1960's being found, last summer.

So, in that way, they've sort of earned a position to me as the only gossip site for which I'll pause for a moment and really consider what they're saying. But, I'm sure they'll be the first to admit that rumors are just rumors. And none of the other writers, including this one, on there have been quite so convincing. 

kk650 said:

TV's Frink said:

kk650 said:

I don't find it at all jarring, which is the most important thing.

 Maybe to you, but you released it to the public.  The public often cares about different things.

I've done the very best I can there, I am very satisfied with that audio cut and i'm a difficult man to please.

Ultimately I'm making these Semi-Specialised Editions for myself, I'm very happy that others are enjoying them as well but my aim was never to try to please all the public, as that would be impossible.

Everybody has a different opinion on things to keep/change/remove from the Special Editions, so if I was trying to make everybody happy with these releases they'd never see the light of day.

I'm happy with them, as they're almost all changes I was thinking of trying to implement myself.

As I said, I don't find them too jarring, especially the first one. But I do think cross-fading could help. I'm not sure what the function in TMPG does, but cross-fading overlaps audio from the two adjacent cuts and adjusts their levels simultaneously to smoothen things out without leaving a moment of silence behind (as depicted here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/w/images/8/85/Equal_power_cross-fade.png ). If nothing else, maybe you'll find it useful in your future work in situations where you can't find a good cutting point.

Chewtobacca said:

42:54

43:06

43:58?

I'm fairly sure I can hear all of your audio edits.  Are you crossfading at edit points?

 I wouldn't have caught the first one without listening for it, because of the major shot change (the speeder quiets down as it travels away, and then picks up again in town). But yes, the other two are a bit noticeable. 

Harmy said:

 

EDIT: I just looked it up and it seems this is a problem typical for this mobo:

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,13267.0.html

The thread is from almost a year ago, so I'm kinda hoping that they have since released an update taking care of it.

 The more recent posts are from last month, and it seems like people are getting it to work with a lot of work involved.

That is one thread of frustrated people, though.

AntcuFaalb said:

Zer0Squared said:

AntcuFaalb said:

towne32 said:

I don't see why it should be surprising that the very same people on a forum to discuss fanedits want to watch said fanedits. I do find it surprising that such a private site is a main distribution mechanism. But I suppose there are a lot of hit-and-runners when it comes to things like this, and any private site would be abused by large swarms of "an-edit fans, while public sites obviously leave uploaders as more accessible targets.

It's not about hit-and-runners and p2p politics.

It's about keeping OT.com alive and reducing the likelihood of receiving a C&D letter. Believe it or not, a few of our members have received such a letter in the past.

Well, it's already been stated above that they can be found on piratebay as well as someone offering usenet access to get them so - I don't see where the problem lies.

I wasn't trying to argue for or against any particular side with my post. I was just trying to remove concern about hit-and-runners from the discussion while reminding everyone why many members here choose to use a private BitTorrent tracker as their primary distribution mechanism.

 Yes, indeed. I was just speculating as to possible reasons.

If it comes down to distribution, which makes sense, I certainly see why the initial release should be somewhere private (though there are other sites that require membership that is not quite so impossible to get into). And the disassociation of OT with any site of distribution is what I would expect. It's even more stringent at fanedit.org and other places.

But given that not everyone who wants an invite can get one, it is nice when things are re-hosted elsewhere. I would, in theory, probably do that on other private trackers that allow fanedits. But there are obvious risks with the major public ones if you're in certain countries and not using a VPN, etc.

I don't know much about spleen. So I was mainly questioning it as the primary private tracker of interest. What I meant about "hit and runners", is that any private site with wide-scale inviting or even a temporarily open membership could seem like a good option. But the invites dry up and the memberships close when you have a mass influx of people who grab one thing and let their accounts expire. And then you still end up in a situation where people are asking/begging out in the open.

All that said, I found all of Harmy's non-workprint releases using google and a few hours of bandwidth.

edit: and thanks for the conversation and not just coming down on me for questioning things. :)

TV's Frink said:

dwightmccarthy said:

FrankT said:

Try the 'spleen, if you've been invited.

If an invite the Spleen is around, I would be extremely grateful.

 Ha-ha, this was such a predictable post.

 I don't mean to offend someone who actually does work here, but this one was absolutely predictable and unhelpful as well.

I don't see why it should be surprising that the very same people on a forum to discuss fanedits want to watch said fanedits. I do find it surprising that such a private site is a main distribution mechanism. But I suppose there are a lot of hit-and-runners when it comes to things like this, and any private site would be abused by large swarms of "an-edit fans, while public sites obviously leave uploaders as more accessible targets.

FrankT said:

Try the 'spleen, if you've been invited.

And if not, I got them quite easily off the pirate bay. There are two copies of each up there.

Thanks, Harmy.