**Official Thread** The unaltered Original Trilogy to be released on DVD

I'm just going to respond to this once. Questions and discussions about moderating are never on topic in any thread in any forum other than Comms. If you have a question about something we edited, you are more than welcome to PM any one of us. Discussing the moderation is derailment. That is why they are being edited. We also gave you guys an outlet to discuss the topic that has been the primary topic here, which was never really on topic to begin with. Therefore, we pointed you into the direction of where it would be on topic.

Any further comments about this in this thread will be considered off topic and will be either edited or removed.

 

People have been confusing the way the OOT always looked on home video with how they originally looked on film in the theaters. Any home video release of a movie is only a representation of that movie's picture and sound. Nevertheless, the industry standard in this day and age is to maximize the resolution to 480p or, in the case of anything wider than 1.78:1, as close to 480p as possible. The 9/12 release isn't even doing that with the OOT. We'll be getting the same thing as the laserdiscs from...you know what, there really isn't much of a point yelling about "bonus material" not getting anamorphic treatment. That really is the root of the problem and we should've seen it coming. LFL was softening the blow with their May 3rd announcement, a blow that wouldn't even reach us by way of them, but by way of thedigitalbits.com.

Harlock, I'm gonna go with the top one as the official OUT dvd. Out of curiosity, which transfer is the other one?

 

It's Dr M's recode of Moth3rs PAL to NTSC.

It is rather odd that the LD transfer has better resolution than the official one. But that may be because the source was originally a PAL LD, also some color corrections and filters were used. Looks like nothing was done with the Official release except for a guy pressing play on one machine and record on another.

 

Just saw the commercial for this while I'm watching the football game. Doesn't mention anything about the O-OT. Just that the SW Trilogy is now available individually on DVD for the first time.

 

Were the 1993 PAL LD's just NTSC converts? I seem to remember reading that they were taken from the same master.

 

That's an interesting question. And if that is indeed the case, how can Moth3r's LD transfer look significantly better thna the transfer coming from the LD Masters? I forget what efforts Moth3r went to clean up the picture right now though. But apparently LFL really did nothing at all.

 

Yeah, here in Canada, I've been seeing them since Monday. They don't reveal much.


I notice the sabers crossing in front of Palaptine have that creamy pastel coloring...

...so obviously the footage is from the SE.

 

well a PAL transfer from the master D1 tape would still look a lot better than the NTSC transfer from the D1 tape. I know many of the foreign versions had their own transfers though--i think someone once posted screen-caps from a German release that indicated it was from a different print than the American ones.

I'm actually extremely dissapointed in how poor the official disks look. In terms of detail they are equal to a quality fan transfer, such as Moth3R's, which right off the bat elminates the main draw to these new disks, and the colour and image clarity seems to be much better on fan-made transfers. Very surprising. And dissapointing. The only thing cool about the official disks is that the menu's look kind of neat.

If we are looking at a worst-case scenario where Lucasfilm only made these disks to combat the bootleg market, they really dropped the ball. Fan-made transfers still look better, don't cost $60, are anamorphic and some--ie XO project--actually have spent months frame-by-frame removing dirt and scratches. I just don't know why Lucasfilm didn't just make a new transfer...really really pointless.

On a related note, i just got the new 2-disk Apocalypse Now set, and while it is lacking in some areas i am elated to have both versions of the film. I still love the original cut much more but i am really impressed with the Technicolour-printed Redux picture--the colours and black levels are just impeccable, and the detail is incredible. I've never seen a film transfer quite like it! This truely is one of the best looking home videos i have ever seen. And just think--Lucas has pristine 1977 Technicolor seperation masters of Star Wars in his personal collection. Just thinking of how good the original version of Star Wars could look...it gives me goosebumps.
What the hell is the point of saving such a glorious treasure as the Technicolor seperation masters if they are supposedly never to be used?? For gods sakes, make a digital intermediate using these things and preserve a perfect copy of the original Star Wars for all time!!

 

I'm glad to hear Apocalpse now got such great treatment. I myself was in heaven with the new Criterion restoration of Seven Samurai.

An early review of Star Wars is up at DVDActive. http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope2.html

Briefly from the summation:

 

"Just saw the commercial for this while I'm watching the football game. Doesn't mention anything about the O-OT. Just that the SW Trilogy is now available individually on DVD for the first time."

Unlike just about every other ad and promotional item for the Sept. DVD set. I guess they got so embarrassed and humiliated by the obvious lie they've been telling that the unaltered Star Wars trilogy is just a "bonus" (all the while making it the prime feature of the set they promote in their ads) that they decided not to mention it in this t.v. ad...

 

Actually this contradicts that argument. They have stated from day one that this is simply a bonus feature. Have what ever opinion you may have, but that is fact. Misconstruing this into something else is just blatently incorrect. They have advertised their bonus disc. Fine. They have not misinformed anyone at any time that this is nothing more than a bonus disc. Changing the facts to justify your argument is not fair to the discussion.

 

Well, almost all the ads in stores and stuff that fans have reported seeing have been making a big deal that now you can have the "theatrical version", "see Han shoot first", etc. Even when they had the Star Wars stuff on t.v. the other day and they had some of the new DVD set available for advance order, the guy from Lucasfilm kept pointing out you can now see the actual theatrical version. It wasn't just some "bonus" feature, it was what they spent the most time talking about. It doesn't matter if it's technically a bonus according to Lucasfilm, it's the reality that the unaltered trilogy is what has gotten by far the most promotion from Lucasfilm. The unaltered trilogy is a *bonus feature* in name only.

 

The promotions push the GOUT (George's Original Ulaltered Trilogy).

The fine print says these are bonus discs, for the fans who really don't mind what condition the OT is presented in and fo those who want them separate, and for those who want both versions, and for those that have demanded them for years and hardcore fans and for the casual fans, etc.

 

Thanks for posting the review link, Harlock!! Very interesting!

Sounds as if the OOT disc of ANH looks better than he expected, with very good contrast and color, but it's still very grainy and marred with dirt and scratches, and further hampered by a few washed-out-looking scenes and wobbling of the telecine (most noticeable in the opening crawl, I guess).

All in all, a mixed bag...

 

It cudda been a contendah.

 

They have advertised their bonus disc. Fine. They have not misinformed anyone at any time that this is nothing more than a bonus disc.

Actually, the posters I've seen at many retail places that sell DVD just adventise them as the "unaltered" movies and do not mention bonus disc anywhere.

 

We know for sure that Lucas has a Technicolor print, but might it be possible that the seperation masters were kept by the company that made the print?

 

Still new negatives could be struck from positives as evidenced by the great job Criteriob did with Seven Samurai when the original negatoves were lost.

 

Will we have a separate DVD review thread? Or just post them here?

 

I don't see anybody talking about the most interesting thing that DVDActive review reveals:

"The mix that is included here omits several lines of dialogue found in later incarnations of the film, as well as including a few different sound effects and lines of dialogue delivered by different actors. Disparities such as these raise some interesting questions, such as just who is the ?real? Aunt Beru? The woman who voiced her in the Stereo mix, or the Mono mix?"


Sounds like another alteration to the 1993 Laserdisc to retroactively make it appear like the 1977 theatrical print, just like the opening crawl. You don't get that in fan-made Laserdisc rips. I'm interested to hear what Beru sounded like before the redub.

 

SqueakyG-: I assumed that the guy at DVDActive meant that dialog changes that were made in the Special Edition in 1997 are not there in this new DVD set. In other words, the soundtrack, including all the spoken dialog, on this new DVD set is exactly the same as the 1993 Definitive Collection laserdisk set. And it doesn't have any of the 97 SE changes to the dialog.

Is this not correct?? Can someone who has the new DVD set please confirm that what the characters say is exactly the same as the 1993 Definitive Collection laserdisk set? Thanks for any details you can provide.

 

I'm assuming that those who have seen the new disks would point out if it was the original 1977 stereo mix and not the 1993 stereo mix. The silence on this aspect leads me to believe that it is merely the 2.0 1993 mix from the LD (big surprise there). The comment in the above review also merely states that there are instances where the sound differs from the 2004 mix, which is true since all pre-1997 (well, 1985-1995 i believe) contained different voices, sounds and mixing.

 

I was able to TiVo this DVD commercail last night.
YouTube link to commercial
however I missed another that showed a family talking about Star Wars. Anyone seen that one or any others?

(check it out, Blue Snaggletooth now on MySpace. http://www.myspace.com/bluesnaggletooth)

 

Holy crap, it's got Beru's original voice? Well if it has stuff like that I might have to atleast buy SW. That gets me kinda excited.

 

Cuppajoe i don't think that the reviewer is implying that the mono Beru voice is present, only that the appearance of different sound effects makes one wonder which one should be considered the "true" version (in this case i suppose the alternate mono version technically, since that was done after the stereo and six-track version, but obviously Lucas inevitably went back to the stereo version since all subsequent releases used this, as well as many other elements from the stereo print). In this case, the audio on the new disks should omit 3P0's tractor beam line and the "close the blastdoors line", as well as including Luke's "your lucky you dont taste very good" plus subtle re-mixing and sweetening that was done specifically for the 1993 mix.

It really wouldn't be possible for the alternate Beru to be on a 2.0 stereo track since she only appeared in the 1.0 mono version which has never been officially released. Trust me, this is just the 1993 2.0 stereo LD track.