Original Star Wars Trilogy Pre-97 SE

My belief was that if George was the god of Star Wars, Kurtz was its savior.
Would have loved to seen the dark version of Jedi he proposed.

 

And how does that 2nd disc look on your tv?

 

I had to do a compare and contrast before I noticed the difference. The picture on the bonus disc is stretched out slightly when I watch it on my TV set to 16:9, because the presentation is actually letterbox. However, I'd rather watch it that way than watch the Special Editions.

 

That 2nd disc is a laserdisc transfer. I can't stand it. It looks terrible on my plasma. I've given up on the old films until I can get what I saw as a kid.

 

No, not exactly. It's not a transfer of a laserdisc (you can find dubs of those on the internet). It's a DVD made from the video master prepared for laserdisc release. There's a difference. Part of the problem is most older SD masters look like crap on a big plasma. You might do well to seek out the "de-specialized" editions of the films circulating on the internet...

Derek

 

Most TVs have a zoom option which just blows up the image but maintains the aspect ratio. Only problem is when the subtitles kick in they tend to get cut off the bottom. Doesn't look amazing but it works well enough and I'd rather that than the special editions.

 

Having owned the laserdiscs and the original trilogy DVDs, I think the Despecialized Editions are as good as it's gonna get until something official appears.

 

I just watched something called Star Wars 1977 edit and it contained many things I haven't seen in a zillion years. It was way better than the special editions. The picture quality varied here and there, but overall it was a great time.

 

I tried doing this with that laserdisc version of the DVD. I hated it. It looked terrible.

 

Not necessary for me as I simply popped the theatrical edition bonus discs into my DVD player, and they worked just fine. It appears on my screen exactly as the Special Editions do: widescreen from one side of the screen to the other, black bars on top and bottom. No need to adjust my TV in any way. I kept reading posts and articles describing the bonus discs as letterbox format, but it didn't look that way to me. I couldn't figure out what I was missing. It was like I was in an alternate universe where my bonus discs looked just fine. It wasn't until I did a compare and contrast between the Special Editions and the bonus discs that I noticed the subtle difference. My TV is set to 16:9, so no matter what you put on there, it will appear as 16:9. The image on the bonus discs was stretched out just a bit, but I didn't notice until I did the compare and contrast.

 

Is downloading the Despecialized Editions as difficult as it seems? I'm not very computer savvy. I've been to one of the forums, tehparadox, that has the download links, and it appeared that you would have to download it in parts. It just seemed like a big nuisance, so I didn't bother.

 

Downloading by parts can be a pain; there are programs out there like JDownloader that make it a *little* easier, but torrenting is really the way to go.

 

Do you find even the original, unaltered Star Wars trilogy too polished? Well, rather than relive the movies, vicariously relive what it was like to re-enact them. Empire Uncut (trailer) was just released. It is a fan-produced, Lucas-sanctioned "fan collage"(?) of The Empire Strikes Back. Here's the official blurb:

I haven't watched this new one yet, but the first one was great, uneven, shambling fun (even if it was too much for one sitting). I for one am relieved that Disney is continuing to allow such fan productions. Some were rightly concerned that the ownership change might be the end of nuttiness like this.

 

Why are the Limited Edition DVDs so hard to find?

 

Because they were limited editions?

 

There's no need to be condescending, he was asking a perfectly legitimate question.

 

I wasn't being condescending - I gave a legitimate answer.

If something is a limited edition, it's logical to expect it to be hard to find, especially almost a decade after its release...

 

The other day I was able to get my hands on a used vhs machine at a flea market. Of course the first thing I did was dust off the THX 95 release of the original trilogy and watched all three in a row for the first time in about a decade...perhaps longer.

While It took me back to that first time I saw the OT via those tapes and I still enjoyed them...but I must say, other than the stupid things that were changed with the SE ( the overly busy mos eisely in ANH...the Jabba scene at the hanger. ..Jedi rocks in ROTJ...Hayden in ROTJ) I realised I actually prefered the Special Edition. Nostalgia can only carry you so far.

Having said that, the originals unaltered warts and all deserve to see an official HD released. They are a part of film history.

 

I have the limited editions of Star Wars and Return Of Jedi. I had The Empire Strikes Back but it cracked in half about 5 minutes ago when trying to get it out of the case.

Thankfully I have several copies of the despecialized versions of all three on DVD, on my computer and on my PS3.

 

Does anyone have EMPIRE STRIKES BACK recorded from analog cable in the 80s??

I have the 1st and 3rd one IN ANALOG and Im trying to find the 2nd movie to complete my collection.....

Anyone have a VHS tape of ESB they recorded in the 80s off analogue cable?? (Ill give ya $20,$30 if ya want!)

 

When I first saw those 2-DVD sets in 2006, with the original theatrical versions on the 2nd disc, I bought them without hesitation. I still have a Sony Wega for viewing this and other movies, it has a 16:9 mode, they still look okay. I almost bought 2 copies of each, thinking this would be the only instance Lucas would ever do this. of course, back in 2006 - the notion that Disney would buy Lucasfilms wasn't even on the radar yet. It was worth getting them, just to see the opening of "A New Hope" without seeing "A New Hope" appear in the opening scroll.

 

Just so there's no confusion, the 16x9 mode on those older Sony 4:3 TVs were for squeezing down anamorphic DVDs with no resolution loss. Unfortunately, the Star Wars "bonus" DVDs of the OT were non-anamorphic (ugh!) so that feature would not be of any use. In fact, if you applied it to those particular Star Wars DVDs, your picture would be all smooshed flat.

 

Thank you for correcting me. I realized now that those are a few of the DVDs that I did not use the 16:9 mode, since they did not look at stretched out upon first playing. Yes, I just played them in normal 4:3 mode.

 

For those who aren't into downloading and just want to watch the theatrical version of Star Wars. This is the Silver Screen Edition, restored, cleaned up and all that good stuff by Team Negative 1.

 

I wonder how long before Disney pulls this down.

FYI, this isn't even the latest version (1.6) that TN1 did, meaning it's not even close to definitive. Also, I can tell the quality suffered quite a bit from the YouTube upload process. The real 30GB+ BD version is stunning, and includes the original Dolby-encoded LPCM stereo audio.