378 Terabytes Of Star Wars on 600 G5s

Mrbill points to this USA Today story on the digital makeover given to the original Star Wars trilogy, noting that the digitized films have also been converted to HD for later release as high-definition DVDs.

Comments

Misleading

[jeffkjo1]

Note: The article summary is misleading. While the 'original' (Han shoots first) prints may have been restored by this company, this is not the print that will be on the DVD. Lucas is not releasing the original trilogy, only the special edition

High Def of Low Def

[airider]

So the question I've been dying to find out from all the high def zealots out there is... does making a high definition recording of something originally recorded in some other definition (in this case celluloid) going to look "better"? It's been my experience dealing with image processing of "analog" imagery that the higher up in resolution you go, the more "anomolies" can be detected...i.e. there is only so much you can do with the original baseline, and going up in resolution requires huge amounts of post processing to clean up those anomolies. AAANNND the final product is still limited by the originals. So even if we get more lines of resolution from the celluloid, the celluloid is still the limit on how good you can go. So will high def DVD STAR WARS look better than standard DVD STAR WARS. Probably, but not any better than the original and not THAT much better than standard DVD. I think the movie industry (and music too) have lost the fact that we aren't clamoring for higer resolutions of our recorded media, we just want ones that don't wear out. That's why I think SACD and DVD-A haven't taken off.

Re:High Def of Low Def

[Anonymous Coward]

analog film is inherently 'higher' def than normal video signals, or even HD video signals, becuase it has no 'pixel' resolution, beyond the atomic structure of the film media itself (which you can beleive is pretty damn high def)

If they were taking a VHS tape and trying to convert it to 'high def', your comment might make sense.

Re:High Def of Low Def

[Anonymous Coward]

But most film operates at 4K : 4096 x 3128 or thereabouts. Much much higher than 1080i

Re:High Def of Low Def

[smallpaul]

It's been my experience dealing with image processing of "analog" imagery that the higher up in resolution you go, the more "anomolies" can be detected...i.e. there is only so much you can do with the original baseline, and going up in resolution requires huge amounts of post processing to clean up those anomolies.

The article is about the company that does the post-processing to clean up the anomolies.

AAANNND the final product is still limited by the originals.

To some extent but perhaps not as much as you think. I've spoken with the CTO of the company and he told me that sometimes films they "restore" look better than the originals because they can use extrapolation techniques.

Re:High Def of Low Def

[Chris Carollo]

does making a high definition recording of something originally recorded in some other definition (in this case celluloid) going to look "better"?

At the risk of my bandwidth limit, here is your answer with full-resolution captures from Fellowship of the Ring.

Re:Special Edition Questions...

[bottlerocket]

1. Yes. Lucas wasn't on his digital projection kick yet.
2. Well, the articles claim that they are the original prints. They describe how they've been sitting in storage for more than twenty years. But if they are the originals, that does raise the question of whether all the new special effects had to be reinserted.
3. Original cut, no. Those are dead and gone and will never be released again. But HD-DVDs of the Special Editions? Oh, you betcha.

Re:Restore again?

[falcon5768]

if you compair the images there are numerous touch ups...

Jabba looks MUCH better in the first one

the image is cleaned up even more

the rotoscoping effects on the lightsabers are cleaned up and made to look like the current sabers

now Han and Geedo shoot at the same time

biggest change, now its Hayden as Anikan at the end ghost scene

Re:Forget the DVD's...

[gad_zuki!]

Here you go, these are laserdisc rips encoded for DVD burning. The torrents worked just a couple of weeks ago.

- Sound is English Dolby 2.0 Surround
- Audio Commentary
- English Subtitles (the kind burned into the image for alien speak)
- Chapters Selection (the 79 original LD markers)
- Production Notes

Re:Special Edition Questions...

[Thedalek]

Original cut, no. Those are dead and gone and will never be released again. But HD-DVDs of the Special Editions? Oh, you betcha.

That's a little misleading. The original cut may not exist in assembled form (although I suspect it actually does, despite Lucas' claims otherwise), but the original stock that comprises it almost certainly does. That, or the SE stock sans CG effects (that is, cleanup only) still exists. I seriously doubt that Lucas took original archival material which would provide for a better source in the event of additional changes and thrown it in a fire or something.

After all, he may eventually want to run with the idea of Jabba being a humanoid.

Anyway, if such material still exists, it will almost certainly be released immediately following GL's death. But please, don't kill him. I wouldn't want the legal backlash of giving you the idea.

Re:Forget the DVD's...

[neil.pearce]

They even have an easter egg. On the main menu of Episode IV, push left and select the darth vader helment and you're treated to the "New Hope" video by Blink 182.

Re:Great!

[kfg]

No, but he might see the money. That's the power of the dark side.

KFG

Re:Finally

[bonkedproducer]

I saw Episode 2 on Film, and the next day on DP, both at very high end theaters in Phoenix, AZ. I could tell a distict difference in the DP and Film versions - the DP looked much better and more vibrant. I paid to see the film in digital specifically to look for problems in DP since so many people mention the things you brought up - and saw none, but the film did look much better than any film I had ever seen in the theater and it was nice to not see the streaking and "cigarette burns" that always seem to draw my attention from the film.

Re:It's the search for more money.

[OwnedByTwoCats]

I remember some changes from the original 1977 release and the "A New Hope" release that came out with "The Empire Strikes Back". Most vivid in my memory is the bridge scene inside the death star: I recall Luke throwing his rope once, and it missed. The door opens a little bit, and Leia shoots stormtroopers on the other side, Luke throws the rope again, it catches, Leia kills the last storm troopers on the other side, climbs on Luke, and kisses him. He is startled, and asks "What was that for", and she answers "for luck", and they swing across.

Can anyone else confirm or deny?

Re:Can this be true High-Def though?

[saddino]

Uh, no.

The original print is analog film, which can be a resolved to about 5000dpi -- many more pixels per frame than required for High Def.

The problem is that the scan is filled with huge artifacts (scratches dirt and dust), and this guy has cleaned up the digital scan to deal with that.

Re:It's the search for more money.

[toastgoddess]

I don't see this listed as a change in the exhaustive list of Special Edition changes.

Personally I'm most intrigued by the small decisions - the removal of a flame effect from the shooting of an Imperial Officer, or the translation of the tractor beam label from English to Lucasian. (That was changed in the 2004 edition, not the SE.)

Re:It's the search for more money.

[|/|/|||]

That line is definitely in my VHS copy. I'm not sure about the special edition, though. I'd be surprised if they took it out.

Re:It's the search for more money.

[tnak]

That's the way I recall it. You mean it doesn't play that way now??? That sucks. I'm all for releasing "director's cut" editions, but the original release should stay just that.

Good thing I enjoyed reading more than movies when I was growing up.