The NEW Star Wars on DVD thread

[Fatalist]

. It's a firefight, not a disco

It was the 70's though, afterall.

Edited September 22, 2004 by Fatalist

[Doktor Gonzo]

For those who have seen ANH, how was the lightsaber duel?

Did Lucas fix the scene where Obi Wan´s lightsaber looked like a huge needle?

I'd have to say, "sorta."

In earlier editions, the unrotoscoped stick-topped-by-a-lightbulb was plainly visible. For this one, it looks like somebody took the frames in question into Photoshop and airbrushed a translucent blue glow over them - so there's an effect of some kind there now, but you can still see the ol' stick-topped-by-a-lightbulb through it. Ah well, it's still something of an improvement I guess. Just odd, given that many of the other saber shots have been completely rerotoscoped to look more like the Prequel saber effects (a pity, I kinda dug the wider, brighter, cartoonier-lookin' blades from ANH...) One would have thought they would've placed an actual blade element over the gaffe.....

Oh, and on the dialogue issue, with dejr8bud and others saying the voices now sound different.... my guess is this: we're hearing these old audio tracks in much higher fidelity than ever before.... I think the "difference" that we're hearing (and it's clearest I think in Tarkin's dialogue.... his voice sometimes changes from "clear" to "muffled" in mid-sentence) is the difference in sound quality between dialogue recorded "live" on the set and dialogue that was ADR'd in postproduction. It's probably always been there, the mix just wasn't clear enough to hear it before. Now, I personally believe they could have gotten the different clips to blend much more seamlessly had they gone back and done a thorough digital cleanup and restoration of the audio masters..... let me guess, that's one more enhancement being withheld for the HD-DVD release....

[bsu legato]

Oh, and on the dialogue issue, with dejr8bud and others saying the voices now sound different.... my guess is this: we're hearing these old audio tracks in much higher fidelity than ever before.... I think the "difference" that we're hearing (and it's clearest I think in Tarkin's dialogue.... his voice sometimes changes from "clear" to "muffled" in mid-sentence) is the difference in sound quality between dialogue recorded "live" on the set and dialogue that was ADR'd in postproduction. It's probably always been there, the mix just wasn't clear enough to hear it before. Now, I personally believe they could have gotten the different clips to blend much more seamlessly had they gone back and done a thorough digital cleanup and restoration of the audio masters..... let me guess, that's one more enhancement being withheld for the HD-DVD release....

Dr Gonzo is teh smart. And right on the money, too.

[Max Jenius]

. It's a firefight, not a disco

It was the 70's though, afterall.

I laugh out loud whenever I think of Star Wars with a Disco style soundtrack...

Comedy Gold....

[fearyaks]

I went to Best Buy on my lunch break and they were fricken' sold out of the WS version! How crazy is that?

[Max Jenius]

I went to Best Buy on my lunch break and they were fricken' sold out of the WS version! How crazy is that?

Not crazy... inevitable.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Disco Star Wars? Need I break out my Mecco Star Wars Disco and unleash it on the unbelievers?

I have been reading a lot of "negatives" about the DVD transfers and it seems that some people have different thoughts on this... being a video/audiophile I really want a nice clean SW to watch but the reverse sound issue, the audio issues and some people even claim video issues are keeping me from buying a set.

Am I just being paranoid or is it really all that bad? Mind you I'll be watching this on a HDTV with a nice stereo and I'm one of those people who start adjusting the equalizer settings in the middle of a movie based on one tiny sound I keep hearing in the mix that is not right.

[do not disturb]

Disco Star Wars? Need I break out my Mecco Star Wars Disco and unleash it on the unbelievers?

I have been reading a lot of "negatives" about the DVD transfers and it seems that some people have different thoughts on this... being a video/audiophile I really want a nice clean SW to watch but the reverse sound issue, the audio issues and some people even claim video issues are keeping me from buying a set.

Am I just being paranoid or is it really all that bad? Mind you I'll be watching this on a HDTV with a nice stereo and I'm one of those people who start adjusting the equalizer settings in the middle of a movie based on one tiny sound I keep hearing in the mix that is not right.

so wait and buy it when it goes on sale or clearance. that way if you don't like it, you won't feel totally ripped off. thats what i'm doing. yeah i want to see a nice crisp clean version of SW but i still don't want to pay $40 if its all screwed up in other aspects.

believe me, theres gonna be plenty of these DVD's floating around and they'll end in some close out store of some sort in the next few months.

[Myriad]

Damn no Colt 45 Billy Dee commercials as extras........

I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

People are crying for something that they can get over the internet for free......

The LD's have been ripped and put into DVD format. Just download the damn things and stop crying. Hell, there are multiple versions of the Trilogy out there that are DVD ready. If Lucas does not want to make any money off the origianl versions that is his problem.

If your DVD is bad go return the damn thing and get another. There are good batches and bad batches. They probably used multiple companies to get such a large amout of DVD's pressed.

You can get the set for $45.99 at Target. That is $15.33 per disc. That is about the typical price of a new release. You people also want the 3 original versions included for that price? That would be $7.67 per movie. I don't see that happening.

[David Hingtgen]

I'll re-watch ANH Chap. 27 tonight with various audio tracks selected, see what happens.

PS--WS sold out at so many places already? Man, my Best Buy was like 90/10 split for WS/FS. Target's about the same--you've really gotta look to find full-screen.

[JsARCLIGHT]

I broke down and went and bought a WS copy at Best Buy tonight... suprisingly the Best Buy near me seemed to have them just falling off the shelves. Both WS and PS versions... tons of 'em, just sitting there.

I watched ANH a little while ago and the audio "glitches" (as some call them) are noticeable... but mainly only to dorks who have seen the darn movie ten billion times (like me). I watched it with my wife and found myself saying things like "Aaahhh! Aaahhh! There it is!" and she would just say "what? what do you hear that I don't?"... that is when it dawned on me... these "audio mistakes" are only noticeable by us dorks.

Other than that picture is immaculate on a upconvert DVD on HDTV. Ironically I find these DVDs a worthy purchase. This is the cleanest I have seen the OT in a long time.

[David Hingtgen]

Did some more checking on my Chap 27 "3 secs of lost footage":

On my 3-month-old Sony, it does it for every audio track, French and Spanish included. There is no pause/stutter/artifacting, it very smoothly and almost seamlessly just skips it--I watched the counter closely: 3:24, 3:25, 3:26, 3:27, 3:30, 3:31, 3:32... It's as if those 3 secs simply don't exist.

However, my launch-day PS2 which audibly groans when switching layers on most discs, plays it flawlessly.

[Mr March]

I broke down and went and bought a WS copy at Best Buy tonight... suprisingly the Best Buy near me seemed to have them just falling off the shelves. Both WS and PS versions... tons of 'em, just sitting there.

I watched ANH a little while ago and the audio "glitches" (as some call them) are noticeable... but mainly only to dorks who have seen the darn movie ten billion times (like me). I watched it with my wife and found myself saying things like "Aaahhh! Aaahhh! There it is!" and she would just say "what? what do you hear that I don't?"... that is when it dawned on me... these "audio mistakes" are only noticeable by us dorks.

Other than that picture is immaculate on a upconvert DVD on HDTV. Ironically I find these DVDs a worthy purchase. This is the cleanest I have seen the OT in a long time.

This is what I was waiting to hear. Sounds like the "problems" with these DVDs have been exaggerated by a lot of people with microscopes and tweezers. Sounds like the sets are certainly worth buying, but like all DVD releases, they aren't without a few small flaws.

I think I'll go ahead and pick them up. The bad press had me all worried, but it pays to be patient.

[bsu legato]

Noooooooo!!!!!

Must...not allow...thread...to be....derailed by...Rational Thought!

There's a speck of dirt on frame 2435398!

After Tarkin says "Terminate her. Immediately" the sound drops out and comes back up. It only takes 1/100000 of a second, but it's there if you listen!

Lucas replaced the "english" tractor beam controls with arubesh! That was my favorite childhood memory!

I had always imagined that this "ultimate" version would not only let Boba Fett live, but that he would have his own series of adventures in the Outer Rim. It's detailed in my fanfiction "Boba Fett: Uberdeadliest Badass"

[TheLoneWolf]

Other than that picture is immaculate on a upconvert DVD on HDTV. Ironically I find these DVDs a worthy purchase. This is the cleanest I have seen the OT in a long time.

I agree with Js. I confess that I haven't watched the DVD's thoroughly, but from what I've seen on my HDTV, they look simply amazing! I still have my laserdisc box sets (Definitive THX and SE set) and the video quality is by far superior on the DVD's. The audio's excellent too, but for some reason, the Definitive box set just sounds more "right." It seems like the music and sfx are ever so slightly out of balance in the SE and DVD sets, probably has to due with the old Dolby track being mixed to DD 5.1.

Funny that people are mentioning problems with ANH, because the guy who burned me my DVD copies had a problem copying that particular disc. That's right King George, you're not getting any more of my money, muhahaha!

[Drad]

Sounds like the sets are certainly worth buying, but like all DVD releases, they aren't without a few small flaws.

I think I'll go ahead and pick them up. The bad press had me all worried, but it pays to be patient.

Yeah. A lot of the "issues" are ultimately a matter of preference. Only Lucasfilm knows if they're truly flaws or not. The rest of us are limited to our opinions. However strong or substantial they may be, they're still opinions until proven fact. Still.. I hope you're more fortunate than I was and that you get a properly-encoded copy.

Encoding problems aren't exaggerations to me. I want a clean copy, damn it.

[Uxi]

Well now Hurin is finally "getting it" and making sense for SW...

But seriously, I haven't noticed any encoding problems, either. Only have done the specials disc and ANH, switching from commentary back to the 5.1EX mix. One detail I've been pleasantly surprised is the amount of detail on the Star Destroyer hull, for example. Looks great!

The green tint to Luke's (Anakin's) Saber is kinda weird, though, for example.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Blaine, Hurin, you both make excellent points. Blaine, you've even managed to sum up my whole stance on the issue for the most part. At least, you've put it better than I could at the moment. One must give Lucas credit for sticking to his guns, no matter how bad an idea I think it is. I too, have no problem with him making new versions as long as all versions are available, though I must wonder when it will end. it does sadden me that one can't voice a disagreement on the SE without getting flamed in most cases, no matter how innocent the original post. For some reason, if one doesn't like the SE, they automatically hate Lucas and everything he's done since. I can say that that's not true in my case, as I read the EU, will most likely wait to see ROTS, and enjoyed both prequels. Still, I will not be buying this DVD set. It's not the version I want, and frankly, like Hurin suggests, I don't care. in the end, we're all fans, we should respect whether or not one prefers to see Han shot first, or Hayden Christensen at the end of Jedi.

[TheLoneWolf]

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned that Lucas reneged on one of the changes that he made in Empire SE. In these new DVD's, Luke doesn't scream when he throws himself down the airshaft. Now, this is a change that I'm grateful for

Lucas is free to make whatever changes he wants, they're his movies after all, but please spare us from all the "this is how I always intended my movies to be" bull crap. If Luke's scream was "supposed" to be in the original 1980 movie, then why was it added in in the 1997 SE, only to be yanked from the 2004 DVD's?

[Hurin]

I believe it has been mentioned that the scream was taken out for the DVDs. I was disappointed to see that they retained the changed line when Artoo is spit out by the swamp monster though.

Original line: "You're lucky you don't taste very good."

New line: "You were lucky to get out of there!"

H

[SupremeKaioshin]

I just got my set today

[Guppy]

yeah, what's up with that line change anyway? It's a throwaway line, and the original is funnier than the changed one. And it's not like "you don't taste good anyway" is rude or politically incorrect.

The only logic I can make of it, is it's like when you start mucking around with a photo on photoshop and it starts to become addictive making touch ups and changes. That's the way I see GL is acting with the original trilogy.

[bandit29]

Watched Empire Strikes Back last night...wow it never looked so good. Most of the changes in this one are for the better. The new Emperor scene will take some getting used to.

Why in ANH when Ben gives Luke his father's lightsaber its blue. Later on when Luke is practicing on the Falcon it starts out green? What happened here?

Edited September 23, 2004 by dejr8bud

[Mr March]

Sounds like the sets are certainly worth buying, but like all DVD releases, they aren't without a few small flaws.

I think I'll go ahead and pick them up.  The bad press had me all worried, but it pays to be patient.

Yeah. A lot of the "issues" are ultimately a matter of preference. Only Lucasfilm knows if they're truly flaws or not. The rest of us are limited to our opinions. However strong or substantial they may be, they're still opinions until proven fact. Still.. I hope you're more fortunate than I was and that you get a properly-encoded copy.

Encoding problems aren't exaggerations to me. I want a clean copy, damn it.

To be perfectly honest, this thread here on MW is the only place I've heard of any potential encoding problems. I've been jumping around from digitalbits, to amazon.ca, and to a bunch of other sites with reviews and no one has mentioned the error you're refering to. Not saying it doesn't exist or that I don't beleive you, but I think this is a very isolated issue in the grand scheme of things. At this point, it's the risk you take whenever you buy any DVD, so it's really not that big a deal to me.

Regardless, I'm glad you posted and I'm glad I waited.

[bsu legato]

Why in ANH when Ben gives Luke his father's lightsaber its blue. Later on when Luke is practicing on the Falcon it starts out green? What happened here?

That's apparently something that came out of the print when Lowry worked their magic. Due to the rushed nature of the restoration, they did not have time to color correct that problem. Now that I think about it, the saber always did have a strange, slightly greenish tint in that scene.

[Jemstone]

Why in ANH when Ben gives Luke his father's lightsaber its blue. Later on when Luke is practicing on the Falcon it starts out green? What happened here?

Sounds like it's time to recall ALL the unsold DVDs to correct that scene and release another version that's even better.

[ewilen]

Damn no Colt 45 Billy Dee commercials as extras........

I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

People are crying for something that they can get over the internet for free......

The LD's have been ripped and put into DVD format. Just download the damn things and stop crying.  Hell, there are multiple versions of the Trilogy out there that are DVD ready. If Lucas does not want to make any money off the origianl versions that is his problem.

Yep, I just ordered the so-called "tr47" version of the OT. $25 shipped, and since I was going to rent Empire and RotJ at some point anyway (my wife has never seen them), I reckon the marginal cost was really only about $19.

According to the reviews, the tr47 version and the version that Keith posted a link to earlier in this thread are both pretty good. There's also some guy who's trying to make an even better version, which may achieve higher resolution by using the PAL LD as a source. Look here. Also visit http://www.originaltrilogy.com/

Signed,

Old guy who stood in a line around the block in 1977

Secret admirer of Monkey Woman

Edited September 23, 2004 by ewilen

[Agent ONE]

I am copying the DVDs now! The quality looks great.

[MrDisco]

Why in ANH when Ben gives Luke his father's lightsaber its blue. Later on when Luke is practicing on the Falcon it starts out green? What happened here?

thank god i'm not the only person who noticed this. its a definite greenish-white hue on the falcon

[Hurin]

Why in ANH when Ben gives Luke his father's lightsaber its blue. Later on when Luke is practicing on the Falcon it starts out green? What happened here?

thank god i'm not the only person who noticed this. its a definite greenish-white hue on the falcon

Noticed it too. . . then later in that same training scene on the falcon, it's nearly (if not completely) color-less.

My geeky theory to explain it away: It's running in "training mode". . . so Luke won't kill himself with it accidentally. When in training mode, it's running at a different "frequency" and therefore has a different color.

Hehe. . .

H

[Drad]

To be perfectly honest, this thread here on MW is the only place I've heard of any potential encoding problems.  I've been jumping around from digitalbits, to amazon.ca, and to a bunch of other sites with reviews and no one has mentioned the error you're refering to.  Not saying it doesn't exist or that I don't beleive you, but I think this is a very isolated issue in the grand scheme of things.

Not really. People on originaltrilogy.com and hometheaterforum.com have been reporting the same encoding errors that I have. Same discs, same problems, same chapters. Apparently chapters 26 and 27 on A New Hope are the culprits. One person said that their supplemental material disc had similar issues. I bought two Star Wars sets; one for myself and another for a friend. Both sets' copies of ANH were flawed. The person who bought the DVDs for me also purchased three more sets at the same time, for himself and others. Out of those three, only one was problem-free. I returned mine for a refund.. I didn't feel like continually exchanging DVDs until I got a set that worked properly. Looks like a hit-or-miss to me.

And the odds haven't been good so far.

Edited September 23, 2004 by Drad

[niomosy]

Not overly interested in the altered DVD's. I'll probably look more to the LD's.

[fearyaks]

Other than that picture is immaculate on a upconvert DVD on HDTV. Ironically I find these DVDs a worthy purchase. This is the cleanest I have seen the OT in a long time.

I agree with Js. I confess that I haven't watched the DVD's thoroughly, but from what I've seen on my HDTV, they look simply amazing! I still have my laserdisc box sets (Definitive THX and SE set) and the video quality is by far superior on the DVD's. The audio's excellent too, but for some reason, the Definitive box set just sounds more "right." It seems like the music and sfx are ever so slightly out of balance in the SE and DVD sets, probably has to due with the old Dolby track being mixed to DD 5.1.

Funny that people are mentioning problems with ANH, because the guy who burned me my DVD copies had a problem copying that particular disc. That's right King George, you're not getting any more of my money, muhahaha!

Yep, I was very pleased when I threw in Empire yesterday to preview the discs. On my HDTV it looks like the bomb. I'm only using component out too (only one HDMI input). The picture is great. Sound is fine too.

Regarding the R2 line change, that's odd. I'll have to check it out. I wonder why he did that.

[bsu legato]

That R2 line was something that supposedly showed up in the soundtrack that they used to make the '97 SE. They didn't even realize it was different until after the fact. There were several mixes for each of the films, in mono and stereo. Jedi is the only one that I doesn't have any alternate takes, afaik.

[fearyaks]

That R2 line was something that supposedly showed up in the soundtrack that they used to make the '97 SE. They didn't even realize it was different until after the fact. There were several mixes for each of the films, in mono and stereo. Jedi is the only one that I doesn't have any alternate takes, afaik.

That's too bad... it's quite a good line and I'll miss it. Regardless, you move on. I'd gladly take the improved visuals over a one-liner.