Slashdot Mirror

And here's Harmy's version (which I have): http://originaltrilogy.com/top...

Here's Harmy's version (which I have): http://originaltrilogy.com/top...

I thought they claimed the original theatrical release version was destroyed and would never be released in high quality, and that was one of the main reasons people collaborated to produce the Star Wars HD despecialized edition.

http://originaltrilogy.com/top...

"IVTC errors - the master video will have had 3:2 pulldown applied to produce the NTSC framerate of 29.97fps. For the DVD, the video was inverse telecined (IVTCed) to convert to 23.976fps. Unfortunately there were some cadence errors in the master, resulting in some flickering artefacts on R2D2 in the scene with Ben and Luke after the Sandpeople attack. These artefacts are visible when viewing on a computer or a progressive display. "

ORIGINAL THEATRICAL VERSIONS

Now then, what the fuck were you saying?

The currently best reproduction of the original Star Wars trilogy is a fan edit compiled by Harmy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
http://originaltrilogy.com/top...
https://docs.google.com/docume...

This is a reconstruction of the 1977 theatrical version of STAR WARS. The original shots were painstakingly restored using various sources (listed below) and the film received an extensive shot by shot colour correction based on a fade free 1977 I.B. Technicolor Print.

This fan edit is compiled from many sources, including an earlier scan by Team Negative1, the group this article is also about.

VIDEO SOURCES:
        STAR WARS Episode IV A New Hope Official Blu-Ray 2011 (Preliminary colour correction by You_Too)
        STAR WARS 2006 Bonus DVD (sourced from the 1993 Definitive Edition Laser Disc Master - upscales by Dark Jedi, You_Too and Harmy)
        Star.Wars.Episode.IV.A.New.Hope.1977.720p.HDTV.x264-DON (2004 DVD Version)
        STAR WARS 1997 Special Edition (Reivax DTV capture)
        Custom mattes, 35mm and 70mm film cell scans etc.
        Team Negative1 35mm LPP print scan of the Mos Eisley sequence
        Puggo Grande (1977 16mm print transfer)

Harmy has since released restored edits of Episode V and VI as 720p MKV.
The MKVs also include many subtitles and alternative audio tracks.
It is currently the definite edition of the original trilogy.

If this bothers you, check out http://originaltrilogy.com/top... - this is the version my kid will be watching :)

Min

You're welcome.

There used to be laserdisc rips of the original trilogy on bittorrent. That is about as close as you'll get.

Not true! There are much better ones available! As an Anonymous poster noted below (and deserves to be modded up!) you should look for Harmy's "Despecialized" versions. Much of the source was actually taken from film and it looks really good at 720p. Look for version 2.5 of episode 4 and version 2.0 of episode. His current version of Jedi isn't quite as good yet, but hopefully a better version will be out soon.

Some info here.

It takes a bit of effort and a lot of downloading, but it is possible to get HD-quality fan reconstructions of the original theatrical cuts of the Star Wars trilogy. This obviously doesn't help the mass market, but if you want to show your friends and family the original movies, it's as close as one can currently get.

Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition
Harmy's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Despecialized Edition
Harmy's RETURN OF THE JEDI Despecialized Edition

It takes a bit of effort and a lot of downloading, but it is possible to get HD-quality fan reconstructions of the original theatrical cuts of the Star Wars trilogy. This obviously doesn't help the mass market, but if you want to show your friends and family the original movies, it's as close as one can currently get.

Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition
Harmy's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Despecialized Edition
Harmy's RETURN OF THE JEDI Despecialized Edition

It takes a bit of effort and a lot of downloading, but it is possible to get HD-quality fan reconstructions of the original theatrical cuts of the Star Wars trilogy. This obviously doesn't help the mass market, but if you want to show your friends and family the original movies, it's as close as one can currently get.

Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition
Harmy's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Despecialized Edition
Harmy's RETURN OF THE JEDI Despecialized Edition

Harmys despecialized editions can be found here http://originaltrilogy.com/for... This site invites you to create an account to get access to the torrent link, but the torrents for all three movies should be quite easy to find on the usual torrent trackers. They are all great quality hd versions with the original soundtracks. Happy hunting, with no need for Disney to intervene.

For anyone still interested in Star Wars, Adywan's ESB:Revisited is due out in a couple of months. A preview with comparison to the crappy Blu Ray is here (switch on HD).

One rather impressive changelog so far.

These aren't original preservation attempts, rather new Special Editions or, more accurately, what the Special Editions should have been.

It's not just parodies. The definitive version of Episode IV, A New Hope, for example, is Adywan's Fan Edit. *much* better than any official version, no contest.

Episode V is in the works and looks to be released early next year.
See here for the changes made so far.

These are the sorts of things that I am more worried about. Lucas for all his faults has had a very good relationship with fan editors (in a sense of leaving them alone unless they encourage blatant copyright infringement) .

Maybe Disney will release HD Blu-ray versions of the non-special edition episodes 4-6. It would save us the trouble of downloading Harmy's editions, at least.

I'm going to hold out foolish hope for a movie adaptation of the Thrawn trilogy.

I'll second this. Adywans version of ANH, and soon-to-be-completed ESB, are (will be) the definitive versions. The attention to detail is utterly astonishing.

ANH changelog
ESB changelog so far

I'll second this. Adywans version of ANH, and soon-to-be-completed ESB, are (will be) the definitive versions. The attention to detail is utterly astonishing.

ANH changelog
ESB changelog so far

Some people are saying this is not, in fact, Ben Kenobi's cloak. It's just an expensive dressing gown. This site is one of the better sites for real-life Star Wars history, and one of the commentators in the linked thread is a prop collector. He's unimpressed, and so am I. (Although perhaps for different reasons.)

Consensus at originaltrilogy.com is that the new release is noticeably better than any of the rips, although still a fair way from any other modern DVD release.

And this is how you would expect, after all they are skipping the analog modulation and demodulation in LaserDisc.

Impressions:
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?c atid=2&threadid=6537

Also apparently the original versions are basically non-anamorphic transfers from the laser discs. So basically, they look terrible.

Come take a look at http://originaltrilogy.com/ - these are real fans who've taken the original Laserdiscs(!) and created DVDs with ALL the original content in them.

Top stuff for any fan.

I'd like to think the fans had something to do with it http://www.originaltrilogy.com/. Of course, the many fan-produced DVD transfers of the laser disc version floating around the net could also have something to do with it as well.

Everyone knows what the real classic star wars is ;-)

On a slightly more serious note, I think these guys can give up now...

And on a completely different note, please do not buy this download a high quality torrent instead. Seriously, I remember seeing TV ads for episodes 4-6 before the remastered edition came out saying "Last Chance to buy the trilogy." This was a lie then (as we got the remastered trilogy) and a bigger lie now. Tsk. Lucas has made enough money here allready.

Oh, also checkout original cantina footage (not only does hans shoot first, but greedo has an english accent)

If you want more info, check out the Original Trilogy site. Especially the forums. People are doing some hard work to get the best possible version of the original film. It's also an eye-opener on how relatively slack Lucas was with the official Star Wars DVDs.

I'm sure this is already in this topic somewhere, but there is a petition at http://www.originaltrilogy.com/ to rerelease the original non-special edition on dvd. there are only 66,000 signatures last time I looked. I wonder how many they need? How many Ewoks are there? How many centimeters of circuits in a C-3PO? How many pennies will Lucas make off the "special" DVD set?

Nah, transfer to DVD from the laserdiscs. Not the greatest quality, but easily found at the usual places. Here's an excellent thread with info on a lot of the different fan-made releases (not only for the original trilogy, but also re-edits of the prequels).

Several people have made DVD-Rs and VIDEO_TS torrents of the original trilogy.

I might point out the petition to get the original Star Wars released in its original edition. Sign, sign, sign! XDDDDD

Moll.

Okay, I ordinarily don't openly encourage piracy, but in this case Lucas is clearly profiteering on his own fans, which is Not Good. Besides, most of us already own VHS versions of the OT which are long since suffering from age. So still illegal, but a moral victory.

Anyway, alt.binaries.starwars, people. DVD rips of the non-special edition laserdiscs. There are, of course, other places to acquire these rips, some of which cost money.

If you do go for the bootleg LD rips, the two best versions are the TR47 version, and the Dr. Gonzo version. The TR47 version has slightly superior video quality, but has no menus or bonuses, while the Dr. G version has menus and commentary tracks (which are pieced together from various interviews), but loses a barely noticable amount of quality.

Note that the commentary track is not screen-specific (i.e., it's not Lucas & crew sitting around watching the movie). I believe this hails from back when Laserdisc commentaries were rare and so few people did that. What it is is a bunch of audio clips from interviews, documentaries, etc. It's done such that the thing you're hearing has to do with what you're seeing but it's not like the people were sitting there and commenting in real time. The upcoming DVD's, I believe, will have a commentary like this.

Also note that there's an obsessive 67-page thread on the OT.com forums on it dissecting all the various versions (many will sell you DVD's with the OT on them) and people discussing making their own DVD's from laserdisc. Apparently there's some short scenes that go missing now and again from all the various reissues. And now that dual-layer DVD burners are coming into vogue there's people discussing making higher quality anamorphic discs.

There is a petition on the internet requesting that George Lucas releases the originals untouched. Please sign it.

But it's not "HIS" fucking work, it's a slap in the face to the original directors, ILM's brilliance, and the cast and crew every time he says "Well, you know that movie that made me a billionaire and bought me this nice ranch, and made me famous, well that movie sucked, so here's my retreaded version that ruins things you found enjoyable in the original"

He's pulling a fucking jedi mind trick on us - "We want to see the originals!" "Those aren't the movies you want to see."

Well, I for one am not going to tell him to move along - do however many mutilations you want George, but for the love of all that is holy, help future generations see the originals in a longer lasting format than VHS - let future F/X designers, cameramen, and actors see how much ground was broken by this film - you might be amazed at how much money you will make. It wouldn't hurt to sell both you know.

http://originaltrilogy.com sign the petition.

If they were offering the original movies on DVD, I'd jump at it.

Me too! So sign the petition

Lucas only understands $$$.

But there is a longtime petition site to get the original movies put on Dvd. http://www.originaltrilogy.com/ Check it out...

I know it doesn't matter, but the hanshootsfirst petition is late to the game and only has 250+ signatures. The real petition is here: Original Trilogy.com which has 50,000+ signatures.

I went to sign the petition to save films from their directors, but they told me they were all out of free hats...

Sure, I agree with all of you, Han should be shooting first, it's more "in character" with him, and makes him coming in to save the day at the end that much more important (If he's always a good guy, why is it such a shock - sometimes there are shades of grey George!)

OTOH, we should be pointing out what a tremendous slap in the face to all those that worked so hard on the original movies (that made George into what he is today) it is to refuse to release the original versions on DVD. By refusing to release the original, unedited editons on a format that preserves them for generations instead of decades because they (paraphrased quote)"aren't the movies the way I wanted to make them, but wasn't able to because the technology didn't exist," George is saying that the incredible achievements of ILM on those orginal versions is worthless. He forgets the fact that those movies changed the way all movies were made from that point on. He dismisses the hard work of his cast, crew, and effects workers on the original cuts as weak, and unfinished products - nevermind the fact that those unfinished, weak versions made him a millionaire many times over, defined a genre, created groudbreaking visuals, and broke box office records that stood for years to come. Think about it, when "A New Hope" came out it cost roughly $2.00 a ticket, and it wasn't until Tim Burton's "Batman" came out at an average ticket price of more than twice that for the box office returns record "A New Hope" held was broken.

George's attitude shows through in more than his words, his actions speak louder than he ever could, he hates the fan base. He ignores our request to be able to relive a cherished moment in our upbringing in order to feed his own ego. Why do we put up with him anymore. Listen to your fans George, they put you in that ranch, and while we won't be taking you out of it, I miss being able to look up to you. Stop ignoring our requests, and quit stoking your own ego. Stop spitting on those that made you who you are.

Save the Original Trilogy - Sign the petition

http://www.originaltrilogy.com/index.cfm it's worth a shot...

It may not be too late to visit the Original Trilogy website and sign the petition to get the original un-updated version put on DVD. 50,000 have signed up already!

Well it may be too late, but the fans must be heard!

You say someone should set up a petition. Guess what? Here it is! I've signed it already. I hope this can get signed by the millions of Slashdot readers and maybe GL will take notice. The page today says the petition has 45,145 signatures.

There is a petition online to try and gain mass support to get the oringinal trilogy published on DVD. They have almost 45,000 digital signatures. Let's slashdot that number up to 100k.

I agree! And it's not too late to let him know either - everybody, take a look at this petition.

He has stated that in his eyes the special editions of episodes IV to VI are the official versions. This is totally insane! Let's have the Original Trilogy as well, after all it's more $$$ for you, Mr. Lucas!

An ever-increasing number of archival projects from other studios are also readying the THX team for a time when Lucas will be available to focus on releasing the classic trilogy on DVD. "We have an advantage that some very great work was done by Rick McCallum and his group back in '97. So we have restored films and we have a lot of work that was put in that first step with the restoration job back then," says Dean.

"I've certainly heard that there's a lot of material that has been in the archives that never has come out. I imagine it will be a very, very long, tedious process to make it work," he speculates. "Frankly, that's why DVD is just not something that you jump into. There is a lot of planning behind that."

When will the classic trilogy come out on DVD?
The films of the classic trilogy will eventually come out on DVD, but it won't be this year.

An ever-increasing number of archival projects from other studios are also readying the THX team for a time when Lucas will be available to focus on releasing the classic trilogy on DVD. "We have an advantage that some very great work was done by Rick McCallum and his group back in '97. So we have restored films and we have a lot of work that was put in that first step with the restoration job back then," says Dean.

"I've certainly heard that there's a lot of material that has been in the archives that never has come out. I imagine it will be a very, very long, tedious process to make it work," he speculates. "Frankly, that's why DVD is just not something that you jump into. There is a lot of planning behind that."

When will the classic trilogy come out on DVD?
The films of the classic trilogy will eventually come out on DVD, but it won't be this year.