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Original Star Wars on DVD... Sorta
An anonymous reader writes "The Original Star Wars is available on DVD. Sure it's more moola in Lucas's pocketsess (Gollum accent). But he did finally release the original version for a limited time.
But which Original Star Wars, I bet Episode IV is in the opening titles. " Also apparently the original versions are basically non-anamorphic transfers from the laser discs. So basically, they look terrible.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself :-)
John
So its the same as the last DVD release but one of the bonus features is a crappy version of the very original?
:)
I have every VHS and DVD version of the movies and can usually point out most of the differences. But, I am getting better.... I no longer live in my parents basement
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You know what else grinds my gears? When I can't find the droids that I am looking for.
Honestly? Will the original Trilogy ever be released in a non-craptastic form? Perhaps we will have to wait for the Blue-Ray HD-DVD battle to be resolved. This particular release leaves me feeling underwhelmed, and my pocketbook will stay closed.
I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
Oh, an ultimate set? You don't have enough of my money?
Seriously, I wish Lucas would understand that we would rather see completely new material from him than to see him repackage and alter what we have and do love from him. I would rather see him release 9 mediocre or bad movies than to have him edit, 3D-ify and edit again episodes IV, V & VI.
Damnit Lucas, let the studio technicians re-master the movie (they went to school for it, they know what they're doing) and give us more original content! Look at all the famous directors you've studied. Did Akira Kirosawa edit and re-release Shichinin No Samurai or Rashômon over and over and over again? No, he continued to make more movies, some very very good and some mediocre.
My work here is dung.
I was looking at the comments section at Amazon, and that is the biggest grip, Im going to hold onto my 60.00 and wait for them to show up at the pawn shop if this is the case.
Is Lucas trying to make a point?
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
...as if millions of Star Wars nerds cried out in ecstacy, and then were silent, off to search for tissue paper or a damp rag.
Let's be real. The transfers aren't "from the laser discs" ... the transfers are from the same masters used for the laser discs.
"Yea I saw Phantom Menance and Attack of the Shit. It was like your uncle sticking his weiner in your mouth. Not like when you were a kid but grown up. You don't expect it either, your uncle's your favorite person, got you high, bought you your first beer, hate your mom hate your dad but your uncle is cool.
You're at your parents for christmas, everyone's in bed, you're watching Letterman and you look over and see your uncle trying to put his weiner in your mouth. That's what Phantom Menace was like.
I'm not even gonna see the third one (ROTS). It'll just be me walking into an empty theater and there will be Lucas ready to rape me some more. And I'll just do it to get it over with.
Then he'll put on a Greedo mask and call it the Special Edition."
Aw Frell this
He finally releases the originals after he said he never would, and /. still complains bitterly ... If it's all original but fixed a couple typos (such as the opening credits), is that such a horrible thing?
Is Lucas trying to make a point?
2 0060901/20060901_picview/pictureviewer.html?imgNum =1&world=episode-v
I hope so anyways. The originals look like crapola compared to the new releases:
http://www.starwars.com/episode-v/release/video/f
Don't let your childhood memories of these movie cloud your judgement... let's stop whining and be glad that he could afford to go back and fix them!
Carry on.
They'll try again in a year.
And again a year after that.
And again a year after that.
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
There are some series of movies and TV that I wouldn't mind having in my library, but with this gabble about anamorphic/non-anamorphic which I still don't understand, maybe it would be better to let someone else buy it and ask them if it's any good.
Grump.
In times of trouble, the smell of frying onions usually gives confidence and comfort.
These are not the DVDs I'm looking for...
Meta will eat itself
My wife just bought these yesterday. She put in the original version of Jedi for my daughter. A bit later my daughter came to my wife saying that something did not look right. Then my wife put in the new version, no complaints. I am hoping that it was something simple like the aspect ratio was not right on the TV, but if not it does not bode well if a 4 year old complains about the picture.
When I came home from work, I noticed that the new version was very dark. I turned-up the brightness for the kids. I wish I knew why that was.
How is the quality of the bootleg DVD rips of the original trilogy from LD? How does it compare to these? Wouldn't it be a shame if the bootlegs looked better. Anyway for me quality better than my old VHS versions will be acceptable, but why could it not have been at least an anamorphic rip of the original trilogy on these new discs?
You may be referring to the great print recall in the 1990s. According to this guy high-quality prints still exist and so do the "original" interpositives. Granted the guy is speculating about the interpositives but he seems pretty sure about high-quality prints. If stored carefully these are probably better than the analog laserdisks.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Have you seen any of the Star Wars movies? There are no opening credits to fix typos in.
I hated Episode One, I liked Episode Two and I loved Episode Three. Overall, they're a good addition to the Star Wars universe. Episode One was fluff and terrible fluff at that. But it'd be a lie to say I don't own them and I know that these are movies that will survive time and last in my movie collection.
The important thing is that I will show them to my kids, much like the IV, V & VI were shown to me. And hopefully, they'll spur imagination and entertainment for everyone that sees them. That is the point of sci-fi movies, by the way, not to satisfy everyone that views them. I think that any eight to fourteen year old kid would enjoy all the Star Wars movies thoroughly and that makes them good. I, II & III contain excellent social commentary even though some of the acting might be terrible and the plot clunky.
We expected platinum for Lucas and he gave us silver. That's not very fair. Still, I'd rather watch Episode One than 90% of the crap I see hit movie theatres these days.
My work here is dung.
Meh. I've read the complaints, but I'm tired of waiting. Getting 2-DVD sets for $20USD a pop is a good deal, and I put my VCR (original trilogy on VHS) away a long time ago. So I'm going to go ahead and pick them up. If a remastered version of the original ever comes out, I'll probably pick it up. But life is too short to wait around for perfection.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
I still have my original VHS tapes which were recorded off of regular TV way back when. I remember using our VCR that had a wired remote control! lol At this point they've been viewed so many times you can barely see ANYTHING in ESB because everything is so dark. I was extremely pumped that they were releasing the "originals" on DVD, only to be crushed by this mess with a bad transfer. Didn't they digitally remaster the originals before making all of those changes?! Can't they use that to make these new DVDs?! They took away the orignal Ewok song / celebration at the end of ROTJ. That part always gave me the shivers. Now we've got that awful multi-world celebration and that horrible music - what were they thinking! And that f'n' animated creature singing in Jabba's palace - hold on, I have to wipe the puke off my shoes.
Do or do not. There is no try. --Yoda
"Is Lucas trying to make a point?"
Much like DNF. It truely will be forever before he gives the fans what they want.
In the mean time Bad Mojo (a DOS game) has been redone, and will get the money Lucas didn't.
But which Original Star Wars, I bet Episode IV is in the opening titles.
This is the original theatrical release so "Episode IV" is not in the opening titles.
They're not really the originals and they look terrible, but otherwise they're fine?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I bit the bullet and bought the DVDs. Much as I'm loathe to give bullfrog-face Lucas any more of my money (having seen that he spends it on making rubbish like Jar Jar Binks), I decided that the Special Editions just irritated me too much, and I wanted to watch Star Wars without shouting at the TV. Quality-wise, I think they're actually pretty good. They're not the digitally remastered versions, but they still look very clean, and they're also in widescreen. These DVDs offer a much clearer picture than any old VHS tape will, although the compression is a little more obvious than on the Special Editions. The quality isn't anywhere near as bad as some whingers would have you believe anyway. At the end of the day, I'm glad I bought them. They might not be cleaned up, but if they'd never been digitally remastered before then you wouldn't be complaining about that anyway. I think of them as a piece of history i.e. the way the films looked originally, and should really look now. Now that I have the originals, I'm going to blissfully pretend that George Lucas died in 1984, and that the Special Editions and Episodes I, II and III never happened. This makes me happy.
Could someone please re-release the LD-Rips of the theatrical-release version on http://thepiratebay.org/ and post a link here?
We don't see the copyright holder stop f***ing the customers anytime soon, soo....
Part 1, no, 4 of a 12 erm, 9, 3, erm oh yeah - 6 part series where we follow Luke skywalker. No we follow Aniken skywalker who was killed by Darth Vader, but as it turned out became Darth Vader, and Han dies or possibly survives at the end, and it turns out that the first officer on a tatty smugglers ship was always intended to be a high ranking military officer, and han hsot first. Or maybe second. Or maybe they had a friendly arm wrestle to settle their argument over Jabba.
And it turns out that Leia is Luke's sister, alghough you wouldn't have thought that was what in mind given the kiss in the first film. Which comes fourth.
But at least we know that the super THX enhanced 1138 genetically engineered extra shiny doublemint editions are the version of the story that George Lucas wanted to tel us in the beginning.
I bet Episode IV is in the opening titles.
No, it's not.
There's a picture comparison of the two editions which can easily be found from the article that's been linked to. The third picture clearly shows that "Episode IV" isn't in the "original".
A friend of mine that's a rabid Star Wars fan was grousing about this yesterday, even as he talked about when he'd pick them up.
I told him the SW fans' motto should be "I may have to buy it, but I don't have to like it."I had the Episode IV, V & VI set on LaserDisc and I thought the quality was actually quite good. It was a magnitude better than VHS...
I just wanted to clarify something. They aren't transfers from LaserDisc, they are transfers from a 1993 LaserDisc master. Big difference there. And I think crappy is a bit harsh. Do they look as good as they could? No. Are they anamorphic? No. But are they better than the LaserDisc-ripped bootlegs? At the time, I think the answer is yes. Granted, once the X0 Project gets completed, there might be some competition there. But for now, I think this is the best you're gonna see the legitimate non-SE original trilogy. (In other words, that doesn't include some where people integrated the 2004 DVDs with LaserDisc rips, while that's better quality, it's still not the same as a legitimate release)
Why does George Lucas discriminate against certain holidays?
I suggest you read Slashdot
First: Here's a shot-by-shot comparison of the newly released footage to recent home releases.
Next, here's a simple explanation of what "anamorphic" is all about. It originally comes from the cinema. An anamorphic lens stretches or shrinks the image along one axis. In the movies, they use it to shrink the image horizontally when they film it, and stretch it back when they project it. This is what allows theaters to fit a widescreen image on square cells on the film. Anamorphic DVDs work similarly.
See, the aspect ratio (ratio of width to height) of the Star Wars theatrical release is somewhat larger than TV's traditional aspect ratio of 4:3. Annoyingly, the video format that DVDs use is hard-coded to a range of fixed resolutions, all of which have 4 times as many pixels across as they have vertically. (Ok, I'm oversimplifying slightly, but not critically.) To fit content wider than 4:3 onto a 4:3 format, you have 3 choices:
To display an anamorphic DVD on a regular-screen TV, the DVD player will still need to shrink the image top-to-bottom, otherwise everything will look tall and thin. On such a TV, an anamorphic DVD will not look much different than a letterboxed DVD. On a wide-screen TV, though, the DVD player can stretch the image side-to-side to fill the entire width of the display. This provides a direct benefit over simply enlarging a letterboxed DVD image: You gain vertical resolution.
--JoeProgram Intellivision!
Schnapple
Err, typo above. "4 times as many pixels across" should read "4/3rds as many pixels across." Carry on.
Program Intellivision!
i just bought a 1080p LCoS set from Sony and own I already own the CLV versions on LD (with a nice LD player formerly used in medical applications). When my box arrived in the mail, I immediately opened it up and A/B-ed the DVDs with my LDs. The quality of video was marginally different, and if forced to choose, I'd pick the LD on simply because they were forged from the same master, but the LD didn't go through an ugly A/D conversion. In terms of audio, the LD has uncompressed PCM, but it was resampled from 48k-44.1, which sounds less bad to me than the compressed 48k on the DVD.
# fr for more
Basically, I got fucked. even the DVD version of The Wizard got a fucking anamorphic transfer.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa121.html
You people will always find something to complain about when it comes to George Lucas, won't you? If he discovered perfectly preserved original prints of the first trilogy, decided to release them in theatres again, got John Williams to play the Star Wars soundtrack live at each theatre with the London Symphony Orchestra, AND paid for everyone's first ticket to see them, you'd blame him for your popcorn being stale.
I applaud Lucas in his devotion to his creation that millions love. It's an icon of our time.
If you don't like the movies or the editing that has been done to them, that's fine. Don't buy them. It's that simple.
"You will pay for your lack of vision..." - Emperor Palpatine to Ray Charles
I'd like to see some screenshots. I mean, my original copies on VHS which were recorded from a TV transmission over 15 years ago look awful, and they're pan and scan. Then I've got stuff from paid satellite TV on VHS, widescreen but on analog TV => still look awful. These are from an analog format, but transferred to DVD and must be way better than what I have. It's still an upgrade in quality (especially the sound) compared to my two VHS copies. So, they could look better, but how terrible is terrible?
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
So I have the THX widescreen release of the original trilogy without the new scenes. What's the best way to transfer these to DVD?
I am fan of Star Wars...especially the first film released...and I hate these whiners who will never be happy with whatever they get...If you want the "original" then you need to get the film reels and appropriate projector...and maybe a theater & screen circa 1977...
My last memory of the originals was a worn out VHS copy, so this collection seemed pretty good to me. I was too young to see the first two films at the cinema, so I've never seen them as good as this.
In making the special editions any idiot would have digitized and archived all the film even if it wasn't eventually used. If some guys on the internet can string together a version based on the DVD with only select shots from LD then Lucas will have NO problem. Just a lame excuse.
So, what is everyone's vision of the definitive version?
Mine would simply be the original* cinema version with cleaned up picture and sound. Lucas should have stuck that on the two disk set along with the special re-re-release.
Anyone else?
*Personally though I do like the Death Star explosions in the Special Edition, they look more impressive.
Summation 2
When I discovered these weren't anamorphic, I had a crap attack just like the rest of you (btw, $48 at Fry's Electronics this week for all three - not THAT bad of a deal). But, I expected nothing else, honestly - with Lucas basically saying he had ZERO interest in releasing these at all. I expected mono, pan & scan (or matted 1.85:1) or worse. I watched Star Wars front to back yesterday after picking them up. The sound suffers a bit after being exposed to all the new remastered stuff, but it's better than I thought it would be. It's nice to hear things in their original glory. The video is indeed 2.35:1 non-anamorphic widescreen and the quality on my Toshiba second gen plasma suffered because of it. I have a feeling on a non-next gen TV, the quality would be perceived a lot better. Quite acceptable considering the alternatives (the bootleg laserdisc to DVD which I have seen all versions as well). Fact is - watching Han shoot first made it all worth it. I know that sounds petty and sad, but I've been without that classic scene for so long, I actually paused everything I was doing while I watched it and simply sat transfixed watching Han blast Greedo. I bathed in the glory that was the landspeeder and lightsaber "poor"effects - THAT'S how I remember Star Wars, folks. Nostalgia DESERVES to be preserved and this might just be it. This is one case where I'm going to just be happy we got them AT ALL.
So basically, they look terrible.
Now, I'm no expert but wasn't that the whole point with releasing the originals on DVD?
*ducks and waits for a +flamebait to hit him*
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
So, is this the equivalent to Star Wars Service Pack III? Even Microsoft stops updating it's OS after a certain number of years.
"Does this wine taste funny to you?" -- Socrates
Better a worse looking original than the ultra-pretty but ultra-crappy digitally enhanced versions released decades later with all the stupid stuff in them.
...is that he's change them so damn many times, he can't tell what "original" means anymore, or where the "original" copies are. Bootlegging an LD was probably the only option.
There's still hope for a remastered version:
http://www.x0project.com/
It looked like their project was going to be a dead end with the new release, but I guess it's still a go. It's sad that Lucas wouldn't actually hire some folks to do the same thing.
FIXME: Add a sig here
They make it sound like it was unavoidable to destroy the original footage. Somehow I doubt that.
Wouldn't the first step in making the "special editions" be to digitize and clean up the original film? And who in their right mind would destroy that data? It can't take up too many drives.
So to me it means one of two things:
1. In his hatred of his original work, Lucas ordered the data deleted, which is pretty stupid (since keeping it around would be cheap).
2. He *has* a very nice cleaned up original version sitting on the Lucas SAN somewhere but refused to allow that to be released.
Either way it blows....
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
Wow so a movie made in the 70s won't look crystal clear on my HDTV Set? Who'd have guessed??
I'm probably one of the last few Star Wars fans that does not have any of hte 6 on DVD. I have multiple flavors of VHS (Original, sound upgrade, and video/sound upgrade), and I think Ep1.
Would it make more sense to get those 2 box sets of 3, or all 6 movies in the individual boxes, especially with these containing both versions of 4, 5, and 6? It there additional content with the 2 sets that's worth it (I know that's subjective)?
I've finally "caught on" with the VHS versions, so I don't want to fall for any more revisions, etc, unless there's something new to watch.
Thanks...
Nuke Gay Whales for Jesus.
For $68 i got all 3 and it came with the graphic novel version of each movie.. which i wont read because comics give me headaches.
DAMN YOU GEORGE LUCAS!
WHY MUST I KEEP BUYING YOUR CRAP? oh well now that i have the originals i think im done, no more star wars dvds for me!
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According to the TV advert in the uk, this is the original thatrical release of all 3. So the reader claiming it would still have Episode IV in the titles is talking bullshit. Legally they couldn't advertise it as such, and besides, there is a clear few seconds of the trail without "Episode IV" in it. Better research needed, /. really is going down hill lately.
I already have the laserdisc converts to dvd from a Hong Kong website.
When are they going to release the Lego versions of IV, V and VI? I don't know if a full length film would be tolerable, but the short clips are very funny.
I hate to break it to you, but this is _very_ old news. As much as I despise AICN: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23493
I'm not generally in the "how is this news?" camp, but if something was the topic of a Penny Arcade rant more than three months ago ( http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/06/07 ), how is this news?
As I had not bought any previous DVD version, I bought the Widesreen Limited Edition of Episode IV yesterday. Upon seeing this discussion, I popped in the original version so that you could have the opinion of someone who had actually seen it. I am not a video buff, so I don't know all the jargon, but I am a photographer and have spent a lot of time looking at images. I'm using a 27" Trinitron CRT, so those of you with fancy, schmancy plasma screen may may have a different experience.
Overall, I would NOT say that it looks terrible, though if you want to find things to complain about you can. A couple scenes look somewhat muddy. Some scenes have some dust specks here and there, a few scenes have quite a bit of dust, others have none. But all in all the contrast, brightness and color are pretty good. If you sit up close you can see a fair amount of film grain, but sitting 10 feet back you cannot. What does seem to be missing is what I'll call the "ghost boxes" around the ships in the space scenes.
It does appear to be the original version. The title screen only says, "Star Wars", no "Episode IV: A New Hope" Han shoots first. There are no really bad CG characters added. The Death Star explosion is not enhanced. I'm not enough of a Star Wars nerd to know what else to look for.
I suppose it depends on what you are looking for. If you want to be a video geek and complain how its not that great, you can do that. If you want to have fun and remember how you felt as a 12 year old boy in 1977 seeing something that was completely unlike anything you had ever seen before, this is the way to do it. It still brought a tear to my eye when Han zooms in at the last minute and saves Luke.
Do I think Lucas is a prick for not at least cleaning up the dust specks and giving us the option of 5.1 sound? Yes, yes I do.
So there you are Slashdoters. I hope you are all happy that I ruined my first screening of Star Wars in 10 years looking for things not to like and jumping around looking for "enhancements".
About a year ago I was a little upset about there being no original Star Wars Trilogy DVD. So I downloaded rips of the LD's and burned them to dvd. From what I read the new release is basicly the same thing.
Here's an idea.... rather than say capturing from one laserdisc master, how about they collect 50 or so laserdiscs, capture all of them and then maybe some of the data lost in the analog process could be interpolated from all the copies to produce a clearer picture? I don't know how well that'd work.
Surely, they've got to have something better than Laserdisc versions. Hell, I bet the Smithsonian has a film reel or two.
I own the VHS copies of the original trilogy. I don't want the special editions. So I downloaded the TR47 DVD versions from BitTorrent. They're from the Laserdisc, and they look pretty good. They're a little mushy looking, but good enough for me to feel satisfied, anyways. There's also some great DVD cover art to go with them if you poke around. I recommend any Star Wars fan check those out.
If Lucas released a cleaned & remastered versions of the originals, where cleanup included things like eliminating those travelling trash mattes in some of the space battles, but no more, I'd be happy to buy it. Until then, I've got something that I think is good enough.
Cheers.
Awesome rundown, thanks for the info. :)
I already have the Ocpmovie DVD version, which seem better than the official release. Also worth checking out Ocpmovie's Deleted Magic.
These days computer users take a few things for granted. For instance, if a mistake is made, there should be ways to correct it.
Before the days of the iconic trash can and/or recycle bin, we lived in fear of accidentally deleting an important file. But now, first you are asked, "Are you sure you would like to delete this file?" And if you lose your brain momentarily and say "yes" when you should have said "no", you can pull it right back out of the trash.
Basic user interface design.
Now lets pretend we're designing the control centre for an industrial facility that has to sit in the middle of a lava flow for some reason.
Where exactly would you put the "destroy this facility" button? I mean, if you had the audacity to create one in the first place. Most people would avoid designing a control so sensitive as to turn "stable" into "complete structural failure".
If you're Lucas, apparently you put it right smack in the middle of the console, so that when two people are fighting, they can bump into it and send the structure to a fiery death.
No, "Are you sure you would like to destroy this facility?" At the very least if they really wanted to complete the destruction they should have had to empty their trash icon.
I can accept a lot of things, but seriously... for a guy who embraces technology at the expense of storytelling and style, Lucas makes some surprisingly poor choices for script devices.
With all the Star Wars fans out there and a growing number of Computer geeks, wouldn't it be possible to create an open source project that rebuilds the Star Wars movies part by part using CGI? Think about it - everyone could try to improve a part of the project; someone could model a Star Destroyer another one could work on the lighting of a particular scene etc. - and when enough people contribute the final result could even surpass the original. Until that point is reached though all are working towards one and the same goal (which is uncommon in huge open source projects) i.e. precisely recreating the movies.
Stage 2 would be the creation of an HD version, stage 3 might even be a 3D-Version. Just imagine: the space battles of Ep. IV and VI in full 3D!
And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
"It's working!!! It's wooorrrkiiinggg!!!!"
The last two Stanley Kubrick DVD rereleases I bought were better quality than most movies from the 90s. It's only a matter of will. (Both movies, of course, being 30+ years old)
I believe that the person you replied to meant the "new sorta-kinda original, sorta-kinda remastered" instead of the true original shown in theaters. :)
George Lucas is pimping out Star Wars like it was a grade A hooker from the 1950's in New Orleans. 10 year ago: "I love Star Wars". Present Day: "Star Wars is OK". 2 years from today and 20 re-releases later: "F*** George Lucas".
As soon as I heard they were just laserdisc transfers and not widescreen at all... I quickly changed my mind about purchasing the set.
Yes.
IIRC, all three star wars films were remastered to hell and back in the "THX remastered version" in theatres. This was the version released a year to year and a half before the special edition. When they released the LaserDiscs they had AC-3 tracks (don't know if they did 5.1, might have been 2.0 with Pro Logic Encoding). I distinctly remember making the comment, "It looks like they filmed it yesterday" when I came out of the film at the theatre.
.IFO. OK, so if the master was actual laserdisc resolution, (or stored as the actual FM composite video signal for some reason) how hard is it to spend a couple of thousand and do a routine transfer of ANY print from the release mentioned above? Also, if it was 5.1, give me 5.1.
If the new DVDs are from that master, how hard is it to crop the bars out a bit for 16x9 and turn the anamorphic boolean on in the
Non-Anamorphic is not excuseable for a 2006 release. Remember that ALL dvds were supposed to be Anamorphic from the beginning. Is was just cheaper to master a 4:3 frame with letterboxing and run the very same render to DVD and VHS, and nobody really policed anything.
I would imagine that to real Star Wars fans, ANYTHING from Lucasfilm is bittersweet. I sympathize, as Trek has long since jumped it's own shark, did their own non-anamorphic DVDs, etc. Non-anamorphic will not piss you off until you go out and buy an HDTV (or even an EDTV). A nice anamorphic DVD with a decent bitrate will look pretty damn good with an upconverting player on an HDTV.
Here in america, people are dumb. That's why there are still Full Frame or 4:3 pan and scan DVDs (a version made for all new films by popular demand!). I wouldn't really care but when there is a "Guaranteed to be there" thing at the rental store, you don't get the credit unless they are ALL out.
I bought a Sona Wega TV (normal-def) a few years ago. It has a special "widescreen mode" where it compresses the travel range of the electron beam to only 3/4 the height of the screen, effectively packing the full number of pixels into a 16:9 rectangle. Basically, you get a 33% better vertical resolution and 33% more brightness from the painted region, making anamorphic DVDs look absolutely amazing. If they weren't such a scummy company, I'd solidly recommend their CRT TVs to anyone.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
That's what I've been trying to tell you kid, there are no original negatives left, they've been completely blown away.
...make all of his old possessions golden and shiny, but as lifeless as a statue. I don't care how bad the originals look in comparison, it's still better than what we had prior.
The release of these DVDs firmly establishes that you cannot please Star Wars fanboys.
:(
Demand for the release of the original, unaltered trilogy on DVD has come up in the form of a great and plaintive whine in every single Star Wars-related story on Slashdot since probably around 1999. Now, here they are, and what are the "fans" doing? Complaining.
Sure, Lucas could have remastered the OT's picture and sound, made it anamorphic, and left out all the Special Edition changes. But then you would just have fanboys complaining that that constitutes an alteration. I know, you think that sounds outlandish, but I guarantee you it's not. Star Wars has become less about enjoying the films than complaining about the films, at least around here.
I think the only way the whiny fans will ever be pleased is when the technology finally emerges to Choose Your Own Star Wars Edition, where you pick from a digital menu which alterations you want. "OK, I want the non-Special Edition, with remastered picture and sound, Han shoots first, lightsabers are colored, old sandcrawler but new dewbacks, I want the new space battles... hmm, the Death Star explosion: ring or no ring?"
I'm kidding, of course. That won't actually solve anything, the whiners will just complain that they're once again being "forced" to buy another edition. George Lucas wants me to pay for entertainment. I have no free will and have to pay for every edition whether I like it or not. Boo hoo.
The unaltered OT is out on DVD. You got your wish. Now, for Christ's sake, quit your bitching. Instead of continuing to moan about what you didn't get, count your lucky stars that we live in an economy that can support your having so many choices in your entertainment. And recognize that it is a choice. You great big giant babies.
Ahh, okay, I feel better. Have a great day.
There is no point to this other than an excuse to release yet another version in a year or so.
"Because of the public demand we will be releasing a remastered version of the theatrical release..."
to be followed a year later by "Because of public demand we will be releasing a remastered vesion of the theatrical release with all of the digital enhancements and additions except for the 'Han shoots first' scene, which we will leave in"
All of this will fill the gap until the current media war is almost won. Lucas will then release many versions in the loosing format only. Once that format is no longer supported he will release it on the winning format.
By then true fans will have bought the original episode in 749 different formats and versions. Talk about milking a franchise!
Im not usually a conspiracy nut, but Lucas has really pushed my buttons.
My Akai (Samsung) 4:3 tv also has squish mode. It's fantastic. Unfortunately, they discontinued the model. I don't know if there's an analogous one out there anymore--it's been a couple of years.
I've even managed to convince my wife that widescreen is the way to go.
I higly reccomend this feature to any movie lovers who are on a tight budget.
Penny Arcade tells it like it is..
That, and wouldn't they have a project on a harddrive somewhere with the SE version?
Just click the checkbox to turn off added CG characters, and rerip!!!
That's what I'd want anyway, the restored edition - without the CG...
It's gotta be on a hardrive/tapebackup somewhere...
music - http://www.subatomicglue.com
I saw the theatrical rerelease several years back, so I was a bit curious about this point as well. I didn't watch ep 4 to see if they put Lucas' new Jaba the Hutt / Han Solo scene from the rerelease in, so I can't comment on that. However, I did make sure to watch the ending of ep 6 to see if it had the "new" ending, with the fireworks on all the other planets. It did. It also had another bit that was Never in theaters. Right at the end, where Luke sees the laughing dead Jedis, instead of the old (but unmaimed) Vader, we see Anikian (sp?) from episode 3.
Personally, I find these changes somewhat sacrilegous, but I guess they are Lucas's movies. I have yet to check the DVD options to see if there's a way to view the movies as originally released.
From THX1138 for the ignorant: Let us be thankful we have commerce. Buy more. Buy more now. Buy. And be happy.
Those flat colors.... that film grain... the cheesy special effects... Lucas really should've cleaned it up with a computer or something.
Beauty is just a light switch away.
What a turd. Actually, he's more of a turd-polisher.
Release every incremental improvement for the "I'll buy it, but I don't have to like it" crowd (thanks to prior poster for that characterization.)
Of course the originals in this set suck.
Of course he's got some lame justification.
In a few more years, when the product cycle is right, Our Inexorable Turd-Polisher will sell the miraculous story of the restoration process with the films as add-ons. Best of all, it'll make a Slashdot headline with endless discussion, as if it were surprising.
This is marketing. Features are released in dribs and drabs to maximize product sales. It's true in pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics and obviously in commodity art. This is just an extension of the "director's cut" product cycle. The amazing thing is that he's managed to alienate as many of his sycophants as he has. It's just a tribute to how bad he really is.
He'll keep feeding it to people as long as they'll eat it. Polish that turd, George. You can sell it again.
Can I submit the story now, or do I have to wait for a release date?
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
I happen to have the Star Wars Ultimate Edition on Laserdisc. A lot of effort went into making this a superior laserdisc release. This is documented in the materials that are part of the set. Color balancing across the matinee wipes (particularly numerous in the first film) was a nightmare. Glitch elimination software (fairly common now but exotic then) that filtered out scratches, specks, and so on, based on frame-to-frame comparison, produced a very clean image. It is not bad source material. It has high contrast and very good color.
2-3 years ago, I encoded and burned a set of soft telecined (24fps) anamorphic DVDs from the laserdiscs and the quality was very good even when viewed on a 1080i projector. I did it with Linux tools (!) including very careful tweaking with mencoder and some pretty painful editing with avidemux. Removing the hard telecine on the laserdisc is no problem and it gives clean results.
I'm going to do it again in a few months with Liquid Pro (mostly for the improved capture, but with more mencoder work if necessary) and I expect results that will just rock. I don't know what you really expect, particularly from the first film. Despite it being shot in a goofy large negative format, it's still not the world's greatest source material, mostly because of the heavy use of multi-layered optical printing.
This is just FYI. Don't even think of asking me for copies.
What's a laser disc?
Just kidding. I couldn't help myself.
Make love, not reality television.
I did all the crap they talk about, maybe better.
My 4:3 480i TV (a Sharp, flat screen 32" CRT bought ca. three years ago) has such a 16:9 mode as well. In fact, that was one of the reasons I bought that model.
While George is so kind in releasing new DVDs, can we see a high-def dvd of Triumph the Insults Dog vs Star Wars http://www.starterupsteve.com/video/Conan-Triumph- Star-Wars.html
The thing that gets me about this is that the versions of the original trilogy on this new set are literally no better than the bootleg versions that have been available for years...because Lucas is doing the exact same thing as the pirates--digitizing 'em from laserdisc.
Way to go, George.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Didn't it always say episode IV in the titles? I seem to remember it being that way since the original VHS release at least...
I for one, am going to buy the new 'release', because it's better than VHS, and saves me from having to convert it myself.. I thought the whole point of watching a movie was to enjoy it, not sit and analyze it's post production, but after reading an ongoing thread on 'originaltrilogy.com', several posts by someone who apparently 'works in production and has done work for lucasfilm', insists things like CGI grain has been added to the movies, etc.. Why can't you just enjoy the damn movies? Instead, it has become, I want super higher than high def video and ultra surround sound of a 30 year old movie.. criminey. I'd hate to be around some people when they see a movie in the theater... Just my $.02.
LiningUpTV went to Virgin Megastore in Hollywood for the midnight DVD release, like last year, and saw the crappy video playing on the TVs inside the store. So my friend got angry and destroyed the new DVD.
Lucas is a lucky hack. There, I said it. It's pretty well known that the reason he reworked the originals (other than the huge paychecks) was because he said they weren't up to his vision. He wasn't happy with them, they weren't really what he wanted.
He got his chance, multiple times, to create his vision - and they were terrible compared to the originals. The only reason they were successful is because they followed on the coattails of the movies that were good - those movies which he admits weren't what he wanted.
I am not a Star Wars nut, I just really liked the originals. OK, I thought the ewoks were too corny, but the trilogy as a whole was great. I saw EP I in the theater, thought it sucked. I rented EP II, and fast forwarded through most of it. I haven't seen EP III yet. These are Lucas' vision. I am not going to waste any time signing petitions to get the originals on DVD. I won't buy any super sets (or anything else) Lucas puts out. It's pretty much that simple for me.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
They're even dumber than you suspect. How many people bought a 16x9 format TV, yet still watch standard NTSC (4x3) programs? Answer: oh, pretty much everyone who watches TV. So, why don't they configure the set to keep the aspect ratio correct for those 4x3 programs? Nope, they just let the TV set strettttttch the lines so everything looks flat.
It's glaringly obvious when your local sports bar shows a football game on several TVs at time, and there's a 16x9 display next to a 4x3 display.
Either these people are idiots and they can't even tell the image is distorted, or they do notice but don't know how to set up the TV to display things properly, or maybe they don't like the black vertical bars on either side of the display.
My guess is option 1: people are idiots.
There were four domestic (US) LaserDisc releases for Star Wars (That I'm aware of). The first is a pan-and-scan version made from I believe the same masters that were used for the original VHS release, and boy does it look terrible. It does not have the "Episode IV" header. The second is a widescreen (matted) version mastered from the second theatrical run. It has the "Episode IV" header. The third is also a widescreen version released in 1993, mastered from the original theatrical run. LDs for Empire and Return were also done at this time. Like the first release it does not have the "Episode IV" header. The fourth release is the Special Edition verison, likewise widescreen. I own the second and fourth versions and I have seen (but do not own) the first and third.
The second and third releases both have excelent transfers from the masters. Both look good. I have to give the nod to the third release for visual quality but the differences are IMO neglible.
The new DVDs are mastered from the same masters that were used to create the 1993 LaserDiscs. They look better than the 1993 LDs. They look better than some films that have been given anamorphic DVD releases. Predator and The Terminator are notable examples from my collection. So to CmdrTaco I say get your knees out of your eyes because whether or not a film has an anamorphic transfer has little bearing on how it actually looks. These discs? They look good.
Does anyone else complete sections of Trilogy dialogue when they hear a piece of it from an unrelated source?
:(
Example: My Fiancee is playing through FFX for the third or fourth time, and she got to the part where the party is on trial. Yuna says, defiantly, something like, "I am a summoner, like my father!"
I immediately say "I am a Jedi! Like my father, before me", then, in my best Palpatine rasp, "So be it, Jedi."
I do it with other stuff, too, at least in my head. I hear as little as pair of words that were put together in the same way in the Trilogy, and I finish the quote. It doesn't even have to be one of the more famous pieces of dialogue.
Maybe that's just what I get for watching those movies 2-4 times a day, week after week, during my formative years.
If looking terrible means every shot of every scene isn't filled with computer animted crap like in his remasterings, then that'll do just fine. Just leave well enough alone, already.
Haven't you heard the saying "If you can't beat them, join them"? Well he joined you. Quit complaining.
Besides all you potential video engineers now have some legitimate material to work with. Now get cleaning, and may the force be with you.
After reading about the transfers being from a Laserdisc master, I went to ebay and bought the Trilogy on Laserdisc. I was all excited that i was sticking it to the man(George lucas) by paying under $30 for all three movies. I just had a realization. I don't have a LD player. CRAP!
I'm done with Star Wars. At one time I loved the series, but it's been dragged through the mud by the new prequels and screwed around with so many times on DVD that I don't care anymore - the whole damn series is dead to me. I'm not going to by 30 editions of the most adulterated trilogy of all time. Even if he released the original series uncut, unedited, in perfect quality, he's screwed the fans over so many times I'd be shocked if it didn't contain some edit or revision in it.
And FYI, I have the original series THX remastered box of 4,5,6 on VHS... I think it's pre-SFX revamp. I saw this whole stinking debacle coming a mile away, and spent years waiting for the real DVD release, but it's clearly never coming.
It seems he does not follow his own words.
qz
Why else would he have started with Episode IV? Usually, you start at the beginning.
My guess would be that IV is just as boring (over long stretches) for someone who saw them the first time in the "right" order (i.e. new trilogy first, old one last). Because it, again, explains a lot. A lot that you already know when you've seen I-III.
Lucas got it right with starting with ep IV, but blew it by doing ep VI before doing I, II and III.
Ever see "Pulp Fiction"? The movie starts and ends in the diner, the two scenes in fact overlap (different POVs). But the end (and beginning) of the movie is chronologically in the middle of the events that the movie relates. After the opening diner scene we go back a bit in time, then go chronologically (more or less) to the end, then jump back again to before the diner scene and move forward to the end (in the diner) of the movie. Something similar could have been done with Star Wars.
By the end of "Empire" (ep V), we pretty much know all we need to know about Anakin, Luke, and Leia, but not in any detail. Yeah, there's a cliffhanger with Solo -- mainly an excuse (at the time) to do ep VI, since the "grand arc" of Anakin/Vader's fall and redemption just isn't there yet. Episodes I, II and III should have been released between "Empire" and "Return" -- although I'd squeeze the 3 down to 2, probably cut "Empire" a little before where it ended (eg, perhaps right after the "I am your father" line). You'd have to cut a lot of the fat out of the first three (now sandwiched between TESB and ROTJ -- you'd have to renumber them) because of the cliffhangers.
After (historically) "Empire", though, SW was obviously being written for kids (Ewoks? Young Anakin? Jar Jar? GMAFB.) and that kind of convoluted plot thread is way above that audience. Although the more I think about it, the plotting and characterization (ie, the writing) overall stinks. Nice effects, sets, cinematography, and score though. Sigh.
-- Alastair
I bought the OT DVD set when it came out in 2004, and would have considered buying these ones too if:
1) They fixed the plethora of problems introduced by doing a rushed DVD transfer by Lowry Digital. Examples that stand out include forgetting to take lightsabre colours into account when colour-correcting scenes and flipping music channels. From what I gather Lowry had 30 days per movie.
2) They included the classic trilogy, obtained from film material from the 1997 film restoration of the OT for the DVD transfer. It seems they underwent a major film restoration process to get the best possible source material for the Special Edition. Surely they preserved that before Lucas started scribbling on it with new effects.
So as it stands I won't be buying these. They've done nothing to fix the Special Edition, and the Classic Edition looks no better than on Laserdisc.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
4K exceeds film resolution handily.
A good still-camera film, with good lenses, can capture 100 line-pairs per millimeter. This works out to about 5,000 dpi. For lossless digitization, you need to double this to 10,000 dpi. I can't wait to get my hands on an under-$200 150 megapixel camera. Oh well, maybe by 2014.
Movie film isn't nearly as demanding and you may be correct that 4000 lines is sufficient. Also, given the fact that movie film is usually "sideways" compared to print film, there's fewer square inches and therefore less information per frame.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
"You're making an assumption about someone else's competence. A dangerous thing to do."
Yeah! Let's save that for "Ask Slashdot".
Of course, these should have been the extras on the first DVD release, so this is obviously a ploy for more money. Yes, you can have the originals on DVD, but only if you buy a second copy of the new versions!
The sad thing is, the original should have been kept alongside the new for posterity. I am uncomfortable with this idea of changing historical footage. And it's catching on as well - how many WWII documentaries are we seeing now with faked footage pretending to be real taking precedence over real footage?
There is even a documentary out there of Marie Antoinette with faked Super8 footage of scenes from her childhood complete with faded colour, film grain and scratches!
In any case, are we saying that when the Smithsonian declared Star Wars an historic film that must be preserved, they did not keep a copy?
In any case, the original was already restored and converted to HD masters to make the new versions - so someone is not being honest.
try this CD ...
n dtrack/dp/B00030B9UC/
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Planets-Original-Sou
CK.
I have watched (some of) Episode IV, and I can assure you that the text "EPISODE IV / A NEW HOPE" does not appear in the scroll-up. Simply "STAR WARS" followed by "It is a period of civil war...". I was flabbergasted -- I've never seen that before, although I had heard that's how it appeared in 1977. Apparently by 1978 or so it had been added.
After spending 10 years as a video engineer, I am confused by the blind trust that is given to comments such as ". . . non-anamorphic transfers from the laser discs. So basically, they look terrible." I do agree that the picture is not the apex of quality, but many movies have been tranfered from laserdisc to DVD without much loss of quality. Most people have probably never watched a laserdisc to have a accurate baseline for comparison. I have done side by side comparisons with releases that I own on both laserdisc and dvd, using a WFM700HD waveform monitor, and the only significant quality difference was in the chroma levels (color saturation). Running the laserdisc signal through a time base corrector and cranking up the chroma produced a picture that wsa the same quality as dvd when viewed on a average television set (27" 4:3 standard definition) and my HD set (30" 16:9 CRT 1080i). A difference was noticed when viewed on a 63" 16:9 screen, but I think the standard def video format had more to do with that than format factors. In short, I don't think people should be turned off by comments along the lines of, "non-anamorphic transfer from laserdisc." I am sure that the movies are of acceptable quality. If you don't think they are, get out your VHS versions and watch those for a comparison. Even though there are quality differences between dvd and laserdisc, they are minor when compared to VHS or a compressed cable signal.
Now that its out I see that the release of the Original on DVD is worth the money. The quality is great and so what if it's only 2.1 Dolby it still kicks major arse and doesn't have any extra frills: from Lucas deciding to try and do what a budget and technology didn't allow. So all of you whiny little pissants out there should shut the f up and learn to live with what you get.