Star Wars OT On DVD

[striker9]

Looks like all the constant bitching at Lucas finally paid off: http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/release/video/news20060503.html

Great quote from: http://www.digitalbits.com/#mytwocents

Here's an official quote from Lucasfilm's Senior Vice President, Jim Ward:

"Over the years, a truly countless number of fans have told us that they would love to see and own the original version that they remember experiencing in theaters. We returned to the Lucasfilm Archives to search exhaustively for source material that could be presented on DVD. This is something that we're very excited to be able to give to fans in response to their continuing enthusiasm for Star Wars."

Well, all I can say is... it's about ___-damned TIME! So much for "those versions don't exist anymore." This is very good news indeed, and we're very happy to see it finally happen. Hats off to George Lucas, Jim Ward and everyone who decided to finally make this a reality on DVD.

[adam]

Only 2.0 audio though. I picture alot of people syncing the 5.1 track up with it.

[Mug Funky]

5.1 would be a different cut though... and there'd be different M&E in it (think of the scene in jabba's palace with the song and dance number in the new version).

i'd settle for 2ch though - i've only got 2ch playback at home anyway :)

[adam]

5.1 would be a different cut though... and there'd be different M&E in it (think of the scene in jabba's palace with the song and dance number in the new version).



Well that's what I mean when I say sync them. Naturally you'd cut out the audio portions from the added scenes. Most if not all of the additions are just stuck in between existing cuts and there aren't even that many anyway. Remove them entirely and just fine tune what's left. I don't think it would be difficult at all. I guarantee you people will do it...only for Star Wars.

Personally, I'm happy with the existing trilogy release.

[striker9]

Well that's what I mean when I say sync them. Naturally you'd cut out the audio portions from the added scenes. Most if not all of the additions are just stuck in between existing cuts and there aren't even that many anyway. Remove them entirely and just fine tune what's left. I guarantee you people will do it...only for Star Wars.

Umm, so for scenes like the Ewok celebration you'd just have complete silence? It would take far more than just a resynch.

[Mug Funky]

i suppose some use of the 2ch track could go there, and in the FX scenes (where the content may be the same but the sound is totally different). i guess it wouldn't be a big deal to upmix the 2ch part and splice it into the scenes that need it... one must be careful of comb filtering when combining different mixes though. even today, 5.1 and 2ch mixes are often slightly different - sound effects can be moved back and forth by a few ms, and not behave well when mixed together (i've had to patch 5.1 dropouts with 2ch audio before, and it doesn't usually mesh too well, but with enough playing it can be acceptible).

question: was the original star wars even made in multichannel? i don't know much about how old films were mixed.

[striker9]

question: was the original star wars even made in multichannel? i don't know much about how old films were mixed.

There was a 70mm print that had a 6 channel mix. I remember someone on some forum when the first DVD set was released talking about having seen it at some point during its theater run or something. I'll see if I can find the post.

[striker9]

Just found this: http://www.in70mm.com/news/2003/star_wars/star_wars_openings.htm

It's a list of known showings of the movie from a 70mm print.

Apparently the print being used for this release was one of the 35mm prints that had only a two channel mix.

[foxyshadis]

Don't worry, I'm sure that eventually you'll be allowed to contribute to Lucas' retirement fund once again in exchange for a 5.1 remaster of the original... It might only be in HD though.

[striker9]

Don't worry, I'm sure that eventually you'll be allowed to contribute to Lucas' retirement fund once again in exchange for a 5.1 remaster of the original... It might only be in HD though.

Probably. Oh just to add according to the USA Today title on this the video is apparently not going to be as good as the 2004 version as they are using a print from 1993.

"The original films' video quality will not match up to that of the restored versions. "It is state of the art, as of 1993, and that's not as good as state of the art 2006," Ward says."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2006-05-03-star-wars_x.htm

Hopefully that just means it won't have all the color problems, etc found on the 2004 release. Oh well, I'm happy nonetheless.

[Mug Funky]

i remember when the 1994 release was done.

IIRC there was some colour grading done, and the film was hand-cleaned and dust+scratch touched up. it'll be fine for a DVD release...

"state of the art" remastering in 2006 is pretty much what us avs geeks do - pwn the noise and most of the detail with strong spatio-temporal filtering, giving an over-smooth output with munged motion. though when done conservatively i think both techniques have their place (i do heaps of the latter but try not to hurt the source much. others are not so judicious in their filtering).

[striker9]

"state of the art" remastering in 2006 is pretty much what us avs geeks do - pwn the noise and most of the detail with strong spatio-temporal filtering, giving an over-smooth output with munged motion. though when done conservatively i think both techniques have their place (i do heaps of the latter but try not to hurt the source much. others are not so judicious in their filtering).

It also involves the fact that the colors go from having too much blue to too much red, the rebel shirts from the opening corridor battle go from grey to blue and back and the lightsabers in the darth vader/obi-wan duel shift colors almost every frame. Oh yeah and the wonderful technicolor Leia.

[mccamilyd]

This Is A Good Movie And I Think That Iyt Could Be Imporverd

[jon.schaffer]

What a brilliant marketing strategy :
for now on, they sold us and sold us again the same movie, claiming that the "improved" versions were better than the previous ones (else... who would buy them).
Now the new thing, which should surpass the previous ones, is no more than the original movie.
I wonder what is the next step...:rolleyes:
Anyway, Mr. Lucas is a genius (I mean it... I'm only half sarcastic...).

[adam]

Umm, so for scenes like the Ewok celebration you'd just have complete silence? It would take far more than just a resynch.
What are you talking about? The Ewok celebration scene was ADDED to the original trilogy. That scene wouldn't be there at all in this unaltered version. So you'd just cut that audio portion out of the 5.1 track and sync the rest.

I don't know of any scenes that were actually removed from the original trilogy. If any such exist, or if they are just too altered from their original form, than you'd just keep the 2.0 track in that section.

[Chainmax]

If this is indeed true then I'll buy it as soon as I can, but it will probably be stored while I watch the X0 release instead (if it ever gets finished), which I bet will look and sound better.

[striker9]

What are you talking about?

I'm talking about the original ewok song that was played in the original version of ROTJ that was cut out in the SE edition.

The Ewok celebration scene was ADDED to the original trilogy. That scene wouldn't be there at all in this unaltered version. So you'd just cut that audio portion out of the 5.1 track and sync the rest.

Umm, so I would magically get the original ewok song from the 5.1 track?

What are you talking about?I don't know of any scenes that were actually removed from the original trilogy.

The original ewok celebration scene was completely changed and the original song was replaced. Had you never seen the original version of ROTJ?

If any such exist, or if they are just too altered from their original form, than you'd just keep the 2.0 track in that section.

So as I said, it would take more than just a resynch of the 5.1 track...

[striker9]

What a brilliant marketing strategy :
for now on, they sold us and sold us again the same movie, claiming that the "improved" versions were better than the previous ones (else... who would buy them).
Now the new thing, which should surpass the previous ones, is no more than the original movie.
I wonder what is the next step...:rolleyes:
Anyway, Mr. Lucas is a genius (I mean it... I'm only half sarcastic...).

No, he still maintains that the SEs or Super SEs are the definitive version. From the USA Today article I linked:

Back in 2004, Lucas told the New York Post, "The special edition is the one I wanted out there."

This new set of DVDs does not constitute "George changing his mind," says Lucasfilm's Jim Ward. "What we've always said is George viewed the revised versions of the films as the definitive versions."

[jon.schaffer]

No, he still maintains that the SEs or Super SEs are the definitive version.
Oh, of course... I'm not saying the opposite. I just say that, from a commercial point of view, this is another great move : selling again the same movie as if it was a new product.
I do not know any other commercial product (though there might be some) that has such a history of re-re-(...)-release... and such a success each time.

[SirCanealot]

"state of the art" remastering in 2006 is pretty much what us avs geeks do - pwn the noise and most of the detail with strong spatio-temporal filtering, giving an over-smooth output with munged motion. though when done conservatively i think both techniques have their place (i do heaps of the latter but try not to hurt the source much. others are not so judicious in their filtering).

Take a google for "Lorey". What Lorey does is FAR beyond anything the AVS geeks do. We do things on single computers; he has 100s of linked macs to do his work! I really doubt Lorey's filtering removes too much details when the motion is analised by 100s of macs :P
And the remaining grain looks pretty natural to me, imo.

And, yes, this annoys me slightly... Another few bucks for Lucas :rolleyes:

[Revgen]

Take a google for "Lorey". What Lorey does is FAR beyond anything the AVS geeks do. We do things on single computers; he has 100s of linked macs to do his work! I really doubt Lorey's filtering removes too much details when the motion is analised by 100s of macs :P
And the remaining grain looks pretty natural to me, imo.

And, yes, this annoys me slightly... Another few bucks for Lucas :rolleyes:

It's "Lowery" not "Lorey". Lowery Digital is the name of the company who cleaned the film.

[adam]

stiker9 you're just too smart for me. Geesh talk about splitting hairs. Call it what you want, all the information you need to combine elements of the 5.1 track (almost all of it actually) with the newly released cut are there for those enthusiasts who want their uber edition. Maybe I'd change my mind once I got into the thick of it, but it still sounds like a trivial thing to do.

Personally I'm not only happy with the 2004 release, I prefer it.

[gameplaya15143]

This won't be the last release of these DVDs... after some time fans will start begging for original cut remastered versions :)

I wouldn't hesitate to buy them if they had:
-Original cut
-Original cut remastered (with 5.1)

I already have special edition on vhs, I don't need them again.
I think people would rather have the original cut remastered :( I know that's what I want.. I guess I'll just save my money for when/if they get around to it.

[reepa]

Finally! The next thing to wait for is the high definiton version of this on Blu-Ray encoded in MPEG4, with all the different pre-1997 sound mixes included as PCM audio :0~~