Holy $#!+: they fixed the saber clash (ROTJ Blu-Ray)

[Batman]

Um-Luke's lightsabre being green in the training scene didn't happen until the Special Edition.

[Darth Tedious]

I officially have no sense of humour so I have to ask to be sure. You consider others to be obsessive nerds but ...claim to have seen the OT more than a thousand times over.

It all depends what you're paying attention to.

I mean, did any of you catch that most of the Stormtroopers charging onto the Tantive IV didn't have their greaves done up at the back? Or pick up that the one who stuns her has no blue stripes on his helmet? Or notice the gaffer tape on the trooper's shoulder bell behind Princess Leia while she's talking to Darth Vader?

[Batman]

We're talking about watching ANH every month, ever since it hit theaters, which doesn't work because the thing didn't go to VHS leave alone laserdisc or DVD a long time later, and it gets worse for Episodes V and VI (leave alone the Special Editions).

[Havok]

I officially have no sense of humour so I have to ask to be sure. You consider others to be obsessive nerds but ...claim to have seen the OT more than a thousand times over.

It all depends what you're paying attention to.

I mean, did any of you catch that most of the Stormtroopers charging onto the Tantive IV didn't have their greaves done up at the back? Or pick up that the one who stuns her has no blue stripes on his helmet? Or notice the gaffer tape on the trooper's shoulder bell behind Princess Leia while she's talking to Darth Vader?

Not a single time.
Now I have to go look for that stuff, but yeah, this is what I'm talking about. Loving something and obsessing are two different things.

[Darth Tedious]

We're talking about watching ANH every month, ever since it hit theaters, which doesn't work because the thing didn't go to VHS leave alone laserdisc or DVD a long time later, and it gets worse for Episodes V and VI (leave alone the Special Editions).

You mean to tell me you don't watch it weekly?

Not a single time.
Now I have to go look for that stuff, but yeah, this is what I'm talking about. Loving something and obsessing are two different things.

I only started noticing this stuff once I got into costuming. You end up watching the whole films looking at nothing but the armour, helmets, boots, etc.

Also look out for a trooper in the background wearing his shins the wrong way around while Vader is choking Antilles to death. His sniper plate (which should be on his left) is tucked in behind his thigh belt, which would make it almost impossible for him to walk.

[Batman]

I don't watch the Batman movies (even the good ones-so basically the original Burton Batman and the Nolan stuff) regularly, leave alone weekly, and I AM Batman. So no, I do NOT watch the OT weekly.
Heck the only reason I bought the OT on DVD was because every once in a while I break down and get involved in a Wars OT movie debate and VHS is a pain when hunting for specific scenes leave alone frames.
Well that and the fact that the tapes were deteriorating and having to fast forward through all those interviews I couldn't possibly care less about got on my nerves. If seeing Greedo shoot first was the price I had to pay to get around that, it was worth it.

[Darth Tedious]

I don't watch the Batman movies (even the good ones-so basically the original Burton Batman and the Nolan stuff) regularly, leave alone weekly, and I AM Batman. So no, I do NOT watch the OT weekly.
Heck the only reason I bought the OT on DVD was because every once in a while I break down and get involved in a Wars OT movie debate and VHS is a pain when hunting for specific scenes leave alone frames.
Well that and the fact that the tapes were deteriorating and having to fast forward through all those interviews I couldn't possibly care less about got on my nerves. If seeing Greedo shoot first was the price I had to pay to get around that, it was worth it.

You didn't get the laserdisc rips of the theatrical versions on the second discs? Man, you got a bad deal...

I should have mentioned in my last post that the costuming community is rather concerned that when the BR versions come out, high definition will reveal a whole lot of tiny details that we missed. Resulting in hundreds more hours of repeat watching all the films for research. All while paying almost no attention to the story, dialogue, or any of the cool stuff (like whether or not they actually fixed those lightsabers).

[Batman]

I wasn't aware I was supposed to get the laserdisc rips of the original stuff along with the Special Edition DVDs. At 30 Euros or so for the whole set, I don't feel particularly cheated.

[Darth Tedious]

I wasn't aware I was supposed to get the laserdisc rips of the original stuff along with the Special Edition DVDs. At 30 Euros or so for the whole set, I don't feel particularly cheated.

Okay, I know this is turning into a slight derailment here, but did you get second discs with each film? That's what the bonus discs were, here in Australia (and the box set was roughly the same price).

[spooky spice]

Eh. I think I'll wait for the next format to come out.

I thought everyone had agreed to ignore the next format, due to no one wanting to re-buy all their favourite movies again...?

I'm sure there was a memo

[Vympel]

The only thing that ever really bugged me was that you could see the wire that powered the original hilt that made the actual blade rotate. I don't know if they ever got rid of that.

I never even noticed a tenth of the crap you obsessive nerds point out on a continual basis and I have watched all the original trilogy movies, LITERALLY, (I did the maths) over 1000 times each.

Funny thing, I never spotted that until someone pointed out, and its way harder to spot, objectively speaking, than Obi-Wan's sad glowstick

The colour problems though only arose in the 2004 DVDs, and they're impossible to miss.

[Lord Zentei]

I officially have no sense of humour so I have to ask to be sure. You consider others to be obsessive nerds but ...claim to have seen the OT more than a thousand times over.

It all depends what you're paying attention to.

I mean, did any of you catch that most of the Stormtroopers charging onto the Tantive IV didn't have their greaves done up at the back? Or pick up that the one who stuns her has no blue stripes on his helmet? Or notice the gaffer tape on the trooper's shoulder bell behind Princess Leia while she's talking to Darth Vader?

Arguably, that sort of thing isn't about being obsessive, but about being attentive to detail. Some people can catch these kinds of bloopers on just a single viewing of a movie, others don't even see them even after multiple viewings of movies they really obsess about.

[Eternal_Freedom]

As far as I know you can still see bullet casings in a couple of scenes, and the amusing bit where a Stormtrooper smacks his head on the door because it opened too slowly, and everyone just carries on

(For reference that is the scene where the stormies break into that control room to find Threepio and Artoo in the cupboard)

[Panzersharkcat]

Um-Luke's lightsabre being green in the training scene didn't happen until the Special Edition.

Never saw the original version. The Special Edition is what I grew up watching. Ah, well.

[Lord Insanity]

Um-Luke's lightsabre being green in the training scene didn't happen until the Special Edition.

Never saw the original version. The Special Edition is what I grew up watching. Ah, well.

Actually it wasn't green until the 2004 DVD Edition. The Special Edition released on VHS didn't have that problem. All the Special Edition CGI added scenes were upgraded for the DVD Edition. There are some other minor differences between the DVD Edition and the Special Edition too. The most obvious is when Luke is falling down the cloud city shaft in ESB. The Special Edition added him screaming, the DVD Edition removed that and used the original Theatrical Edition falling in silence.

[Panzersharkcat]

Um-Luke's lightsabre being green in the training scene didn't happen until the Special Edition.

Never saw the original version. The Special Edition is what I grew up watching. Ah, well.

Actually it wasn't green until the 2004 DVD Edition. The Special Edition released on VHS didn't have that problem. All the Special Edition CGI added scenes were upgraded for the DVD Edition. There are some other minor differences between the DVD Edition and the Special Edition too. The most obvious is when Luke is falling down the cloud city shaft in ESB. The Special Edition added him screaming, the DVD Edition removed that and used the original Theatrical Edition falling in silence.

Hmm. Well, just blame that on my poor memory.

[Vympel]

The Luke scream in the original Special Edition was the stupidest fucking thing in the Special Edition of TESB. It was completely against the tone of the scene, and worse, it was simply a reuse of the Emperor’s death scream when he was falling down the pit in RotJ. It being removed in the 2004 DVD edition was a welcome change.

[Elfdart]

Um-Luke's lightsabre being green in the training scene didn't happen until the Special Edition.

Never saw the original version. The Special Edition is what I grew up watching. Ah, well.

I had the old CBS/Fox laserdiscs and in those scenes Luke's lightsaber looked almost pure white with a VERY slight greenish-blue tint. It looked a little more turquoise in the VHS version released in 1995-96. I think that was just a yellowish tint in the lighting for that scene (Luke spars with the remote and Han says "Don't everybody thank me at once."), since Han's shirt goes from being cream-colored on Tattooine to the color of a Manila envelope.

[Havok]

The old ANH VHS versions, IIRC are copied from different prints of the movie as well so they aren't all the same. Like the whole "Close the blast doors/Open the blast doors" keystone cops bit.

I swear to fucking all existence that I NEVER had a version that had "Close the blast doors!" in it, until the SEs. I was like, that is stupid, why did they add that line? But supposedly it was always there in some of the audio cuts they used.

[spooky spice]

I swear to fucking all existence that I NEVER had a version that had "Close the blast doors!" in it, until the SEs. I was like, that is stupid, why did they add that line? But supposedly it was always there in some of the audio cuts they used.

Are you talking about the bit where Han and Chewie are chasing some Stormtroopers, then end up having to run away from lots of Stormtroopers? Cos I remember the line "close the blast doors" being in the original theatrical version...

[Darth Tedious]

IIRC, there were three different versions of the audio for the original theatrical release. One of them apparently had a less stupid line in place of the "This one's locked, move on to the next one" when the Sandtroopers failed to find R2 and 3PO.

[Lord Insanity]

ESB apparently had different original theatrical audio tracks too. The "recorded from cable" VHS tapes I grew up watching, after R2 was eaten by the swamp monster and spit back out Luke says, "You're lucky you don't taste very good." In the Special Edition he says, "You were lucky to get out of there." In the DVD Edition its back to the original as I knew it.

I also had this weird circumstance where I saw ESB and ROTJ "recorded from cable" many times growing up but I never saw the original till I was like 14 or 15. Needless to say I still think ANH is the weakest movie of the OT. Except for the "Greedo shot first" BS, the Special Edition upgrades (and DVD Edition revamps of those scenes) to ANH were all improvements. The DVD Edition of ESB fixed the only major issue I had with the Special Edition (the scream). The only thing in the Special Edition/DVD Edition of ROTJ that annoys me (besides the color issues that plague all the DVD OT movies) is the end music being different. They went from an awesome upbeat closing to a "funeral dirge".

At this point already owning 3 (or 4*) copies of the OT on DVD, I am not going to buy another in any format until I know they fixed the color issue.

* I own Laserdisc rips of the Special Edition on DVD (high quality stamps not burns, complete with printed discs and slipcovers), I got the 2004 DVD Box set with the special features disc, and I bought the second release DVDs to get the Original Theatrical "bonus discs".

[StarSword]

I swear to fucking all existence that I NEVER had a version that had "Close the blast doors!" in it, until the SEs. I was like, that is stupid, why did they add that line? But supposedly it was always there in some of the audio cuts they used.

Are you talking about the bit where Han and Chewie are chasing some Stormtroopers, then end up having to run away from lots of Stormtroopers? Cos I remember the line "close the blast doors" being in the original theatrical version...

No, it was after that. Han and Chewie are running towards the Falcon's hangar, chased by a squad of stormies. In the SE release and later, one of the stormtroopers yells, "Close the blast doors" over his comlink. (This line does not happen in the original VHS release.) A blast door starts to close ahead of them to cut them off, Han and Chewie dive through before it closes, and the stormies are blocked instead. Another stormtrooper says, "Open the blast doors! Open the blast doors!"

Stupid-but-funny stuff like that, or the part where the Falcon stalls in TESB, Han whacks the wall and she starts up again, adds a bit of realism in my opinion. Some things never change: military operations will always suffer snafus, and machines will always break down (although beating on it doesn't generally help electronics, now that I think of it).

The SE additions I didn't like was the Palpatine death-scream when Luke jumps off the bridge in Cloud City (just plain weird), and the ring o' fire effects when Alderaan and the Death Stars blow up (unrealistic -- rings of fire like that don't happen in zero-gravity -- and unnecessary).

[spooky spice]

No, it was after that. Han and Chewie are running towards the Falcon's hangar, chased by a squad of stormies. In the SE release and later, one of the stormtroopers yells, "Close the blast doors" over his comlink. (This line does not happen in the original VHS release.) A blast door starts to close ahead of them to cut them off, Han and Chewie dive through before it closes, and the stormies are blocked instead. Another stormtrooper says, "Open the blast doors! Open the blast doors!"

Yeah, that was the bit I meant, Han and Chewie are running from some troopers - I've never seen a version where a trooper didn't request "close the blast doors"

[Aniron]

Here's information on the set with some screen shots.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... eview.html

Regarding the Original Trilogy films, I don't think it's quite accurate to say that these are simply the 2004 DVD masters recycled for Blu-ray. These films are NOT the 2004 versions. It would be more accurate to say that these are new 2011 Blu-ray versions. Let me be clear what I mean by that: It's accurate to say that these are probably built from the same negative scans that were done for the 2004 DVD release, at whatever resolution those were produced. (Note that I'm working to determine the exact resolution of the original digital masters of all the films - the resolution at which the restoration work for Blu-ray was done, and from which the final Blu-rays were mastered.) But I can tell you from first hand observation that many fixes and improvements have been made to these films.