Star Wars (1977) original Blu ray. Crappier than ever.

It's been changed again after the first change to make it more simultaneous. Regardless, Greedo must be such a bad shot that if he should ever apply to join the storm troopers, he'd be the only one ever to be rejected for bad aim.

 

I don't think that's true. I think Spielberg requested that all the new mastering for the Indiana Jones films would be done at Universal DVS on the lot, which is just a quick golf cart ride away from his office. Lowry has been out of business since late 2011. I think Paramount doesn't care as long as the work is done quickly and for a reasonable rate. The reviews on the Indiana Jones box were extremely positive, as I recall:

Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures Blu-ray Release Date September 18, 2012

As far as I know, there's generally only one remaster at any one time, and that becomes the new source for everything else (broadcast TV, syndication, home video, streaming, foreign, etc). There isn't a separate version done for Japan and one for Europe and one for America. That is the way things were done in the 1980s and early 1990s, but eventually the studios came to their senses and realized it made more sense to just create a single digital master file and derive everything from that. That way, it only has to be supervised and approved once, and they don't have to go out and chase down little fixes and mistakes that come from multiple versions.

I don't know if any film-outs were done from the most recent HD/4K remasters, but my guess is no. I think they would technically have the ability to record a backup negative, which would kind of protect the digital restoration, but the number of new prints struck these days is at an all-time low. I think digital projection has taken over so completely -- except for purists like Tarantino -- that I don't even think Spielberg could insist on a new 35mm print. (Lucas was opposed to film prints, and much preferred digital projection since about 1999-2000.)

I don't know about the sound mix, either, but they can and do new mixes all the time without telling anybody. In most cases, they're fixing mistakes that have been in the film for 10-20-30 years, and not necessarily re-balancing the entire film from top to bottom. I wish they would make more of an effort to create home video mixes that are a little more "TV ready," meaning a more narrow dynamic range so viewers aren't blasted out of the room every time a scene gets loud. (Take Tenet, please.)

 

It’s a really great disc and you can usually find all three on LD for a decent cheap price if you’re interested. If you don’t have a working player it would be a tougher recommendation since it’s not exactly an easy format to get into these days-but it is a heck of a lot of fun and discs are frequently dirt cheap.

 

Sony is pretty notorious still for their bad players among fans but they eventually made some good units. Pioneer was the standard for most people but the format at large is really player dependent and each model can have completely different output results.
The definitive master on Star Wars is what it is but I vastly prefer the older master which has better color and detail without the DNR and awful motion smearing. Of course I say this and own the big definitive box and still have my faces vhs sets as well.
If you haven’t seen them yet and are interested do pick up the older Fox widescreen LD versions of the trilogy as they have the better less messed with transfers on them from the far more expensive Japanese special collection releases.

 

I was saying Lowry worked on the 2003 DVDs. Most of what they did there was dirt removal and cleanup if I understand it correctly.

A new single master for the trilogy was made for the HD release but at least with Raiders it was then regarded by Spielberg and his team and then the sound was remixed and that turned up on the Blu-ray release. The original version turned up on Japanese broadcast channels without the altered color timing.
Prior to the Blu-ray release there were a few print screenings and then the IMAX showings of the new version. I saw the print at my local arthouse where no one had any idea it was brand new until it started and all of a sudden I noticed how different it looked. I know some of the people who worked there and they confirmed it was a brand new print-not to mention it was spotless. The audio seemed to not have all the extra effects and altered LFE that showed up on the new mix on Blu-ray a few months later. I wish I could see that print again to look at it once more with a critical eye.

The new Blu-ray mix was supervised by Ben Burtt and while I appreciate some of the new ideas it’s a track rebuilt from scratch in places and they made an entirely new LFE channel. With Lucasfilm titles of this era I think it’s very important to hold onto all the original mixes with their differences. It’s a shame we can’t get them included. Until I talked with Indy diehards I wasn’t even aware of a custom mono track-and ironically it appears under George talking in one of the dvd extras for a second-Indy goes under the truck and inserts the whip handle saying “Do they think I’m dumb?”.

Temple and Crusade look pretty good in hd but resemble hd versions of their dvd counterparts. I think they could look much better but at least they haven’t been subjected to the same amount of tomfoolery as Raiders has. The flip side of this is that apparently Raiders was one of the last titles Ron Smith worked on while still at Paramount and so I can’t understand why it deviates from his usual archival minded restoration projects other than director’s involvement.

 

Ron Smith hasn't worked at Paramount for 10 years, so it's been awhile. Everything gets redone: generally when they go for a 4K remaster, the previous work gets thrown out, but they use the last approved HD (or even SD) transfer as a reference. I've done that many times myself. (I worked with Ron Smith's predecessor, Garrett Smith, quite a few times on Paramount projects in the 1990s and early 2000s.)

I'm skeptical that anybody can remember visual details well enough to say that something definitely looked a certain way or changed something from a previous release. My joke is, I have trouble remember what I had for lunch 2 weeks ago, let alone what the color of a sky shot was in a specific scene. I like to believe that people like Ben Burtt are smart enough that they're not going to do a bad mixing job ever, no matter what crazy obsessed fans think. And Spielberg's people are pretty on top of things: they're known for doing multiple/multiple passes on things just to get it to the point where Spielberg himself comes in to approve the final. The director has said before that he wouldn't allow any major changes to be done on the Indiana Jones films... which in a way is a shame, because there are some airplane shots in Last Crusade that are about the worst composites ILM ever did.

 

This is exactly why the Star Trek films need a 4k box set made with loving care.

Or, at least, enough money behind it.

 

Just watched this video that Harmy put up on his youtube page, Star Wars has been put on the back burner because 4k80 isn't finished yet and there isn't really a decent copy of Empire Strikes Back out there. Apparently a few frames were taken out for the Special edition in the Wampa scene so he's had to go in and re-create them. Interesting stuff to watch really considering how easy it would be to half-ass it and drop in a few frames from the print sources and just hope no-one notices. The 4kXX releases mixed and matched sources to fill in gaps quite a bit actually and I only really noticed when I went through them frame by frame so it is reasonable to have such an expectation.

 

Thanks for posting that clip. It was fascinating to watch how the frames were recreated from the various sources.

 

I'd settle for a BD box...

 

I mean, that's all I would buy, but whatever it takes to make it happen

 

exactly!

 

The 2011 Raiders of the Lost Ark version broadcasted in Japan appears to be a different 4K master than was used for the 2012 bluray. Aside from the obvious difference in color timing, the bluray has a lot more DNR than the 2011 version. There are also differences in the digital fixes between the two versions. With respect to the color timing the 2011 version tried to stay close to the DVD color timing.

DVD:



2011 master:



2012 bluray master:



The bluray color grading is overall a lot warmer than the 2011 version, which appears closer to the colors seen on 35mm and 16mm prints.

 

There are substantial differences between the 1981 colors and the 4K masters, though. Here's a scene with the idol on the 2011 master:



Here's how it approximately looks on a 35mm preservation (which is consistent with 35mm and 16mm prints in terms of hues):



I developed an algorithm to match the color grading of different sources (more specifically for different shots of the same scenes), which by design prohibits the sort of black crush and blowout you see in the above frame. Here's how the 2011 master would look with the 35mm colors:

 

Another interesting scene is color grading for the Nepal bar, which was a lot cooler originally (both on film, and the earliest home video versions).

2011 master:



35mm:



1980s home video:



2011 master matched to 35mm:

 

The Indy blus need a better remaster as the Back To The Future trilogy just had. The new ones could be better but they're better than the original total wax job blu-rays. (What is with Universal and DNR?! Thank goodness Arrow rescued Weird Science and Sixteen Candles.)

 

I hear a biography of Jar Jar is included in the Blu Ray as an extra. Can anyone confirm?

 

Meesa no see that!

 

This might suit your desires.

 

Part Two:

 

I went a little nuts (and bankrupt), but I got myself a nearly flawless 16mm print of the original theatrical version of Return of the Jedi:

 

Cool! How do you watch it, screen size, audio?

 

I still have to buy a 16mm projector, and accesories. I will also have it scanned and restored professionally.

 

Alright. I have a projector and a 114" 2.35 screen and it's epic watching blu-rays.
But watching a real 16mm film sounds epic, man!

 

Finally, the best Star Wars film as it was meant(?) to be seen.