Star Wars a New Hope: 1993 master vs. 2004 master

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 09 Jan 2007, 02:36

I find it very hard to enjoy the theatrical cuts on my HD-TV. They don't
look too bad on my CRT television but when blown up on a widescreen
display things can get ugly.
The subtitles aren't 16x9 friendly so if you're thinking of using mattes
you may not want to.
However the transfer for the Special Edition can be fairly dark. It is much sharper
though, with zero dirt and dust (the Lowry touch), hardly any visible grain and a wider scope.
As usual with Lowry the darker sequence have been given a
darker blue colour-grade (OHMSS beach sequence).

Overall if you're going for quality, go for the SE. But if you want the
original experience of the Star Wars films then go with the TC.

Top: 1993 master
- Featured on the THX approved Laserdisc and the 2006 2-disc DVD as a bonus - non-anamoprhic - originals without added CGI - 2.0 surround

Bottom: 2004 John lowry digital restoration master
- Featured on the 2004 DVD release and the 2006 2-disc DVD - anamorphic - Special Editions with the added CGI - 5.1 and 2.0 surround sound

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 09 Jan 2007, 08:16

However, Lowry/Lucas/Fox has added a purple/red colour cast to the 2006 releases. Not very visible in these shots - however I remember noticing it when we watched them on my calibrated setup at home. I'll see if I can't remember when/where...

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 09 Jan 2007, 13:15

Could we please get the approximate time codes for the original TC Joe? I wanna post the PAL caps.

A guy on TheDVDF keeps reckoning that it's NTSC-PAL, I find this claim really odd since the transfer shows no signs of interlacing combing or ghosting and is subject to PAL speed-up.

Killer Meteor · Post by **Killer Meteor** » 09 Jan 2007, 13:23

I've seen other PAL DVDs derived from laserdisc masters - Lifeforce and Dragon The Bruce Lee Story - and they have a hazy NTSC look to them, but no blurred frames or combing. My guess is such masters were done on a more universal video master OR the Hollywood studios can do proper conversions - see the recent Reverse Standards Conversion on some of the Doctor Who DVDs.

Another thing that would be useful on this comparison is the Greedo scene. On the PAL DVD of the original version, the subtitles are a) too low to be seen on a 16:9 zoom and b) missing the odd line

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 09 Jan 2007, 13:32

Ivan Drago wrote:I've seen other PAL DVDs derived from laserdisc masters - Lifeforce and Dragon The Bruce Lee Story - and they have a hazy NTSC look to them, but no blurred frames or combing. My guess is such masters were done on a more universal video master OR the Hollywood studios can do proper conversions - see the recent Reverse Standards Conversion on some of the Doctor Who DVDs.

I thought that they maybe reverse-telecined as well.

Another thing that would be useful on this comparison is the Greedo scene. On the PAL DVD of the original version, the subtitles are a) too low to be seen on a 16:9 zoom and b) missing the odd line

Those subs are zoom friendly on my R4, but I generally use 14:9 zoom to get around my TV's overscan.

Killer Meteor · Post by **Killer Meteor** » 09 Jan 2007, 13:40

The subs aren't even 14:9 friendly on my CRT but maybe the overscan is too tight on that. When watching Jedi with my girlfriend, I turned off the subs and did the voiceover myself, including translating dialogue unsubbed in the film but translated in the novelisation! I must admit I do a neat Jabba The Hutt!

On the UK DVD of Star Wars, one of Greedo's subtitled lines is missing. On the subs for deaf people, it has a caption saying "translated from Huttese" alongside the missing line so I reckon some twit did the alien subs from the overall subs and didn't bother to check what he was removing

I really hope the original versions of the trilogy get a better DVD. They might not but hey, I'd didn't think we'd get these either!

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 09 Jan 2007, 13:54

Laserdisc really sucked in hindsight. Sure, it had the uncompressed 5.1 that reportedly sounds much better than anything DVD can do; but I'd take superior progressive component anamorphic video + compressed audio over interlaced letterboxed video + uncompressed audio any day.

Killer Meteor · Post by **Killer Meteor** » 09 Jan 2007, 14:12

Yeah, I feel sorry for all those poor people who spent so much on laserdiscs over the years - though there are the odd treasures out there

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 09 Jan 2007, 14:17

EvaUnit02 wrote:Laserdisc really sucked in hindsight. Sure, it had the uncompressed 5.1 that reportedly sounds much better than anything DVD can do; but I'd take superior progressive component anamorphic video + compressed audio over interlaced letterboxed video + uncompressed audio any day.

I'll take both and author a new disc.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 09 Jan 2007, 14:25

Lourdes wrote:
EvaUnit02 wrote:Laserdisc really sucked in hindsight. Sure, it had the uncompressed 5.1 that reportedly sounds much better than anything DVD can do; but I'd take superior progressive component anamorphic video + compressed audio over interlaced letterboxed video + uncompressed audio any day.
I'll take both and author a new disc.

That what ocpmovie has done, see this thread on originaltrilogy forum

Looks good, can't wait. I have the moth3r transfer which was from a PAL laserdisk made anamorphic to tide me over

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 09 Jan 2007, 15:40

Ocpmovie is one fucking arsehole. WTF, man - charging $10-25USD for his bootlegs.
http://www.freepowerboards.com/fanedite ... asc-0.html

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 09 Jan 2007, 15:50

EvaUnit02 wrote:Ocpmovie is one fucking arsehole. WTF, man - charging $10-25USD for his bootlegs.
http://www.freepowerboards.com/fanedite ... asc-0.html

Really!!, didnt know it was that much. Liked his previous stuff, didn't know he asked for that much, i just downloaded it. You only have to pay for shipping and blank dvd, how can that be 10-25 USD!!!!

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 09 Jan 2007, 16:00

EvaUnit02 wrote:Ocpmovie is one fucking arsehole. WTF, man - charging $10-25USD for his bootlegs.
http://www.freepowerboards.com/fanedite ... asc-0.html

Nobody is forcing you to buy it actually so why are you so mad?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 10 Jan 2007, 18:55

Thanks again CJ. This just shows how badly the TC needs remastering

My Asian bootleg (which I bought 5 years ago and also happens to be the TC

) looks exactly the same, no thanks Mr. Lucas.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 10 Jan 2007, 20:24

The 2004 one looks bad sometimes.

Incompetant Lucas.

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 11 Jan 2007, 10:04

Why are people comparing LaserDisc to DVD?

When LD's was "in" they were competing with VHS, and they were MILES ahead of VHS. A good LD offers good competition for non-anamorphic DVDs and the first year of DVD they were about equal in terms of quality. Of course with time, better encoding and anamorphic enhancments DVD would really shine (that said, something called HD-LD in Japan STILL beats DVD, though with about 15 minutes per 12" side it's pretty useless

)

LD's for me was GREAT, they offered me years of high quality films, and I don't regret any amount of money I used on them.

Sure they don't do much good these days, but then again - I doubt your precious DVDs will in 10 years either