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Star Wars Laserdiscs? (1 Viewer)

Matt Stone

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Kewl...thanks. To bad you live so far away...it'd almost be easier if we were talking on the phone...hehe. I see you're a night-owl like me...:)
I just bid on one. 100 + shipping, and it ends in 6 days. A little longer than I'd hope...but hey, I can wait. Now I just gotta get the LD player!
 

Terrell

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Star Wars:
Disc 1: Side 1:
Audio Commentary
Ken Ralston:
- The origins of Star Wars and motion control camera work
- Original ship designs
Ralph McQuarrie:
- Artistic concepts for Tatooine
- Design Concepts for C3PO
- Design concepts for R2D2
Ken Ralston
- Creating the Leia holograph
Disc 1: Side 2:
Ken Ralston
- Shoting the landspeeder and Tusken Raider scenes
George Lucas
- Creating the sound of Darth Vader
- The choice of James Earl Jones
Ralph McQuarrie
- Chewbacca designs
Ken Ralston
- The illusion of hyperspace
I don't have work tomorrow.:D
Disc 2: Side 3:
Ralph McQuarrie
- Death Star designs
Dennis Muren
1. Plexiglass and matte shots for the Death Star
Disc 2: Side 4:
George Lucas
- Mythology in Star Wars
Dennis Muren
- Lucas' direction for space dogfights
Ken Ralston
- Matte shots and the Death Star
Disc 3: Side 5:
Dennis Muren
- the Armada Sequence in the Rebel attack
Ken Ralston
- depicting spacecraft speed in effects shot
- the trench run
- Lucas' concepts for the Death Star aerial battle
- Death Star explosion
- original crew reactions to Star Wars
Disc 3: Side 5:
All Bonus Materials. The film ends on side 5:
- War Stories. Lucas Interview
- Star Wars concepts
- Writing Star Wars
- Aerial Dogfights
- C3PO and Darth Vader
- Harrison Ford
- Carrie Fisher
- Ralph McQuarrie gallery
- Droids
- Tatooine Desert
- Mos Eisley Spaceport
- Chewbacca
- The Death Star
- The Millenium Falcon
- Inside the Cantina
- Award Ceremony
- Spacecraft
- The Death Star
- The chess game
- Behind the music of Star Wars with John Williams
- A tour of the Lucasfilm archives
 

Matt Stone

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Wow...so it's pretty loaded then. Hell...I'd be happy just to have a nice set sans Greedo shooting first...but with all you get, this is a no-brainer.
 

Terrell

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Ok Matt, that's just the extras for Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi have very similar extras on each disc. Remember, each film is on 3 CAV discs, with the last side of disc 3 in each film being CLV.
 

Terrell

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Now, lets hope Lucas is smart enough to include all of this on the DVD. But just in case, I'm keeping my box set. But even if the DVD did, I'd still keep it because it's that good.
 

Matt Stone

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Yah!

Just wnated to thank you again for all the help. Hopefully I will quickly be on my way to Star Wars heaven, hehe.
 

Scooter

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Don't you people sleep?!?!?!?! Man...all these replies since this early AM...I am impressed.

BTW..I have SOOO many versions of Star Wars on LD....I can't begin to figure them all out.
 

Nathan*W

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Here is the thread that discussed the Star Wars Home Video timeline. However, the link to the actual timeline has been changed to this.
The info on the timeline site is very interesting.
 

Philip Hamm

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Just beware that early pressings of the Definite CAV Collection may have missed several seconds in ESB.
Don't worry aboutt hose 5 seconds of Leia Welding. Believe me it doesn't adversely affect the story. The extras on the Definitive Collection are pretty good. Lots of Laserphiles were upset that there wasn't more commentary, but I am very happy with it.
However, I would highly recommend that you get the CLV THX discs as well as the Definitive Collection. The CLVs look as good as the CAVs and are much more watchable thanks to only two platter breaks. The CAVs are like couch calesthenics changing discs.:angry: :thumbsdown: The CLVs also have neato pre-Episode I Lucas interviews that are not in the Definitive Collection that are historically interesting now.
 

Aaron Reynolds

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I have the SE box and the CLV THX discs. I would not have bought the SE box, but I got it thrown in with an LD player (which also had Raiders of the Lost Ark widescreen and TWO copies of The Lion King with it).

I've borrowed the CAV set, and it is nice, but...well...

How can I put this nicely?

The supplements are padded like mad. Where in a well-produced documentary, we'd cut away from a person's talking head to show illustrative bits of film or storyboards or whatever as a way to edit out pauses, um and ahs, repetition and so on, in the supplements on the CAV set the talking heads drone on and on and on.

The information is good, and interesting, but don't get too excited about the apparent volume of it. I would not pay $200 for the CAV set.

I got fed up searching eBay when I wanted to upgrade my LD player, so I posted in the HTF marketplace exactly what I wanted and what I was willing to spend. Well, within 10 minutes I had e-mail, and within five days the player was at my door.

HTF rocks.
 

Matt Stone

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God...Indecision rears it's ugly head again.

First, let me say...there's no way I have the money to buy both versions right now. I'm flat broke, and will be taking a dip in the debt pool to get the LDs.

So...then, which should I get. Aaron...let me say that no on is spending 200 bucks on the set, it's more like 100. Aside from 1 extra disc swap...is there a quality issue between the Definitive and the THX versions...I mean, they are the same transfer, right?

I also think I want to go Definitive as a collector's piece...I already have so much stuff, to wimp out now seems out there. Also, if the disc swaps really do bother me, I can just buy the reg THX set sometime in the future.
 

Aaron Reynolds

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Sorry, I'm forever thinking in Canadian dollars. ;)
It's more than one extra swap, it's double the number of side changes, so that's a flip every twenty-five minutes or so. Not that I am opposed to CAV disc, though: if the side changes are done well (and from what I remember of the Definitive set, they are) I quite like the freeze frame capabilities of CAV, especially for a film as visually striking and effects-laden as Star Wars.
The CLV THXs and the Definitive set are the same, picture and sound-wise. If you are buying it as a collector, the box is way cool (as is the box for the Special Edition discs) and if you can afford it, it is the way to go.
At the time, when the LDs were brand new, I paid $65 CDN each for the THX CLVs on the day of release (the CAV set was going for $325 CDN). Actually, I think it was before the release date -- I waited in the store for the delivery truck to come three days in a row, because the owners had given me a heads-up that it was coming in shortly. The first two days, nada, but the third day, PAYDIRT. Then they gave me a brand new, unopened Darth Vader head stand-up promo (the one that says "Last chance to see the original Star Wars!"), which lived in my room for a very long time and now belongs to my cousin.
That is my favourite store in the entire universe.
 
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Matt, here is my take on your indecision. i was in the same boat a little over a year ago. wanted the Trilogy in best format possible. i huntrd around on ebay for a few weeks until i found a LD player deal i thought was equitable for me. i then tried to decide what i wanted. the Definitive collection or the CLV THX version. i was able to find the CLVs for a pretty decent price (around $40) and bid on them and won. but, i kept searching for that Def collection. and about a month later struck gold. i was sifting through the new auction section of Ebay (in the Laserdisc category of course) and clicked on a Def set with a buy it now feature. i was expecting it to have the typical $125-150 asking price on Buy it now, but instead saw it for $35. couldn't believe my eyes. of course it hit the Buy it now and sangged it for less than i paid for the CLVs. my suggestion is if you want them now, grab the THX CLVs. then, keep hunting for that Def box set, waiting to see if you can find one cheap. it happened to me and it could happen to you.

also, on my Pioneer CLD-D606, i don't notice any difference between the picture quality of the THX Def box set and the THX CLVs. if you own an Elite CLD-99 or 97, then maybe a difference can be seen, but on a moderate LD player there hardly is any difference at all (in sound or video).
 

Matt Stone

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Yah...I did find a player. It should be on the way soon, it's a Pioneer D505.

As for the discs...right know I have high bids on 2 def box sets...at 90 bucks and 100 respectively. Not bad prices, but if they go higher, I think I'll pass. Funny that you bring up seeing a cheap "buy it now" price...because today I saw one go up with a 75 buck by it now price...and as I was clicking, I noticed that the guy is from Europe and charges 50 shipping to America...yuk.

Thanks for the advice...it has given me something to think about.
 

Philip Hamm

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Wasn't the Def. Edition prone to Rot?
Some pressings were, and there is a theory that some of the chemicals in the included hardbound book cause rot. I took the book out of the box many years ago and I don't have any rot on my DefCollection. Some noise, but no rot.

The extra side breaks do make the CLVs more enjoyable for sitting and watching the movies, but the extras on the CAV discs are neato if you really love the movie. Also, the CAV effects are extremely cool for the effects shots.
 

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