Star Wars discussion from The Bits... (1 Viewer)

[Jack Johnson]

Lucas' only mistake was actively courting the Star Wars purists with the heavy promotion of this release. Had the emphasis been placed on the single disc SE's, with the original theatricals "quietly" included in the same fashion as bonus features, people might actually think the chance to own these a boon.

At any rate, as a probable choice between these new transfers of the laser masters and nothing, I'll take the dvds with a measure of gratitude. Would you have had George sit on them well past the point where they had any technological relevancy at all, for anyone?

I guess many here would.


One of the casualties of today's higher-tech, high end systems--I think--is an inflexible sense that presentation is always the preeminent concern.

Last night, while watching the theatrical cut of Star Wars just totatlly set my system on fire--if in an almost quaint, "utilitarian" way--I was reminded that sometimes content can still trump it, especially when the presentation's still nothing to sneeze at.


Thanks, George. No, that wasn't sarcasm.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Oh, absolutely. Just look at any of the 47 "It would be better not to release a TV series at all than to replace one note of one song, or include an episode taken from a video master with 12 seconds missing from it Burn the heretic! Burn the heretic!" threads in the TV shows forum.


Regards,

Joe

 

[Mike_G]

Say what you will, but there's something terribly nostalgic about watching this set. The SEs couldn't capture the same feeling about seeing the originals again. I'm glad I picked this up.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I ended up buying it on Saturday -- I was on the fence through all this and tried to keep my mouth shut during the discussion, simply because I didn't know where I fell. Yes, I knew it should have been done better, I don't think anyone argues that. But I didn't want to say I was refusing to buy them and have to eat those words.

I took a trip out to Best Buy (in Cambridge, MA), where I saw they had a few tins left - a dozen or so on the main Star Wars display, and a few scattered in other key places throughout the store. In the end, though, it was $60 for the tin, and buying them individually came out to about $50, so I passed on the tin and saved the ten bucks -- I thought I was going to get the tin, but at the last minute, it just didn't seem worth spending an extra ten bucks for yet another case that doesn't fit right on my shelf. At least these editions have spines that match the prequels, so they can all be displayed uniformly on my shelf. (Mind you, that's not something that would determine my purchase, just a happy side effect.)

I've only watched Star Wars so far. Now let me start out with saying that ever since I graduated college and stopped living at home, I haven't had access to high end home theater stuff -- just my small, 20" TV (or the "apartment" 27" set in the living room) and a DVD player, no surround sound, no bells and whistles. Believe me, I'd love to upgrade, but that costs money unfortunately.. anyhow, this past week I was thinking, yes, the DVDs are repackagings of the LDs, not state of the art.. but I'm not watching them on a hi-def, animorphic display with 5.1 surround sound.. I'm watching them on a 4x3 TV with stereo sound. And while I could see a lot of problems people have mentioned (especially when checking out the disc on my computer screen), it was worth the purchase I think. This is not meant to sound as an endorsement, because I still can't wholeheartedly recommend this release without qualification -- but, I've never seen the original theatrical version with this level of presentation. I noticed details in the picture I don't remember, same with the audio... for two hours, I forgot I was sitting in my bedroom and totally felt transported. I watched my old widescreen VHS copies maybe six months or a year ago, so it's not like I've never seen the original version, and it's not even like I haven't seen it recently..but this was nice.

While the new, replacement special effects in special edition aren't bad per say, they don't match this film. I know Lucas wanted to redo special effects to make them more convincing, but I find that his digital alterations are so vastly different from the original special effects work that ironically, it's always the digital effects that take me out of the film, and not the original ones. So for the first time in a long time, I found myself more immersed in the movie than I had been because there were no serious distractions within the film. I found the end battle to destroy the Death Star more captivating than I have since I was a little kid -- there's something about that model work, even when it's not perfect, that's just right, at least in this film.

While I wish the release would have been better, in watching the original Star Wars, I'm very happy that I bought it.

 

[Steve Christou]

No worries. Much better than I expected. I posted a bunch of screenshots in the Official thread -

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...=1#post2969548

 

[David_B_K]

I'm curious if any who have now bought the new versions are owners of any the anamorphic "fan" versions of these movies? I've seen posts comparing screenshots, but how do they look compared to the actual DVD-Rs? Better? Worse? About the same?

 

[Greg K]

I did some more investigation into the sound mixes. Here's what I came up with.


The Star Wars (theatrical version) "bonus disc" features the 1993 Definitive Collection sound mix as the basis for the English audio track. The only difference between the DVD and the DC laserdisc is the original opening crawl being slapped onto the beginning of the movie (which also allows the musical "crash" to be properly in sync with the reveal of Tatooine, as it was originally, before the "ANH" subtitle was added in 1981).

The disc's optional Spanish and French language tracks (which were probably dug out of the Lucasfilm Archives for this Limited Edition release), however, are based on the rarely-heard MONO sound mix from 1977!!!!

How do I know?


*Threepio says the famous tractor beam lines (in French/Spanish), lines that do not appear in the Defintive Collection mix.

*Luke (albeit speaking in French/Spanish) says, "Blast it, Wedge, where are you?" (as he does in the mono mix), as opposed to, "Blast it, Biggs, where are you?" as he does in all other versions of the movie.

* The Falcon's chessboard creatures make some different sounds than all other versions of the movie.

* The additional Falcon cockpit sounds (and the whizzing asteroid sounds heard as the ship comes out of hyperspace) that were originally exclusive to the mono mix (and were added back in for the 1997 SE) can be heard on the Spanish and French tracks.


On the 2004 SE DVD, the Spanish audio track is completely new, and uses the 2004 SE mix as its basis.

However, the French audio track is the same one that appears on the "bonus disc" (This version is still based on the original mono mix, with the same French-speaking voice actors as can be heard on the "bonus disc". In this version, French-speaking Luke still says, "Blast it, Wedge, where are you?", while on the new Spanish track, he says, "Blast it, Biggs, where are you?", as in the 2004 SE.), but with the SE material spliced in at the appropriate spots!!!! It seems they even used different voice actors for the added scenes and dialogue (such as Han's voice in the restored Jabba scene)!

But, aside from the SE additions, the original sounds for the Vader/Kenobi duel can still be heard on the French track, as well as the alternate Falcon chessboard creature sounds from the mono mix!


For Empire, the English audio track on the bonus disc is the same as the Definitive Collection sound mix. However, the French and Spanish audio tracks feature a different sound mix than the 1993 Definitive Collection, a mix which appears to be based on the original 70 mm sound mix from the film's initial theatrical release!

This alternate mix features some additional sounds that were not heard on the 35mm and subsequent home video versions, but which were later reincorporated into the 1997 and 2004 mixes. Such sounds include additional R2-D2 beeps when Yoda rummages through Luke's supplies, and additional TIE fighter engine sounds in the establishing shot of Darth Vader's Star Destroyer (after Luke Skywalker beheads the illusory Vader on Dagobah).


On the 2004 Empire DVD, the Spanish audio track is completely new (as with ANh and ROTJ), and uses the 2004 SE mix as its basis.

However, the French audio track is the same one that appears on the "bonus disc" (based on the original 70 mm mix, with the same French-speaking voice actors), but with the SE material spliced in at the appropriate spots. For example, Luke does not say, "Thanks, Threepio." in the Hoth medical center in the French version (but he does in the new Spanish track).


Finally, for the Jedi 2004 SE, the Spanish audio track is completely new (As with ANH and ESB), and uses the 2004 SE mix as its basis. However, the French audio track is the same as the one on the "bonus disc", albeit with new SE material spliced in.

 

[MielR]

There's a thread at another site that compares the 'editdroid' bootleg (considered by many to be the best) vs the official DVDs.

The bottom image of the star destroyer is the editdroid, the top is the official DVD. The difference is quite dramatic (in favor of the official disc):
http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum...&threadid=6600

 

[Brent M]

I must admit the official release looks much better than the Editdroid version and it blows away old fan edits like Dr. Gonzo and TR47.

 

[MielR]

It would really be amazing if the official DVDs didn't look a lot better than the bootlegs.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

A lot of people would (and did) disagree with you. Go back a few pages and see all the posts that predicted exactly the opposite, that the official release wouldn't match the quality of the fan-made boots.

Regards,

Joe

 

[MielR]

Oh, I know. I've been hearing it for months now. I always expected that the DVDs made from the LD masters would be better than the fan edits made from the LDs. Fortunately, they were even better than I expected.

Still too bad they're not anamorphic-----but c'est la vie.

 

[Jay Pennington]

The star destroyer shot is not a fair comparison as that is actually part of the recreated original crawl that was dropped in for the official "bonus" disc. That is a Special Edition redone shot.

Also, there are two versions of the editdroid disc, one with a better picture than the other. Which version was used for these comparisons is not specified.

That said, I would be surprised if the official DVD isn't superior. Having come from a master rather than an LD derived from it.

 

[MielR]

Very interesting...thanks!

 

[Sam Favate]

Surely, the folks at Lucasfilm have seen the bootleg versions and knew their editions had to be better.

 

[Chris Atkins]

They captured the nostalgia for me. In fact, the additional parts (sans Han shooting first) were like being able to soak in the richness of the SW universe all over again.

But, of course, your mileage may vary. Glad you are enjoying the OOT releases.

 

[Brent M]

Wonder how they'll react when the XO Project finally comes out(if it ever does).

 

[Tim Glover]

I guess I should know this....but I don't.

....what actually is the XO project?

 

[TravisR]

Tim, the X0 Project is an upcoming fan made bootleg that claims it's going to look better than any SW OOT has ever looked.
http://www.x0project.com/welcome.php

I'm guessing the reaction will come from LFL's lawyers. Once it's on the internet, nothing will stop it but I'd guess that those guys are going to be made an example of and are going to end up wishing that they never even heard of Star Wars. I'm not saying that that's fair but I think that's what's going to happen.

 

[Richard Kim]

A group of people trying to make a high quality anamorpic transfer of the OUT based on the laserdiscs.

http://www.x0project.com/welcome.php