Star Wars Blu-Rays... Again

[Solo4114]

.....but the other thing is that when 4K becomes the next HD format & (if) the OT comes out in that resolution,....the prequels will be stuck at 1080

J

This is a known dilemma. And...really there's nothing to be done about it, as with all HD digital footage shot in 1080P.

You can "upscale" kind of, but I think the way that works basically amounts to using a computer program to guess at what would be between the existing pixels (which could lend the whole affair an "unnatural" look). But then again, your blu-ray player "upscales" DVDs when it plays, too, and while it may not look nearly as good as a native blu ray feed, it still doesn't look AWFUL. But yeah, the bottom line is, there's only so far you can go with the 1080P digital source material, whereas film gives you much higher limits and the potential to squeeze more information out of a frame.

Anyway, in the end, it probably won't matter tons. To be honest, I've come to believe that you can pretty much skip TPM and only watch AOTC, the Clone Wars cartoon, and ROTS to get the story.

 

[Bryancd]

I suppose Disney could surprise us all and just buy the rights back, but that seems silly when they get them back for nothing by just sitting tight.

Bob Iger would never do that, he has shareholders to answer to and it wouldn't be worth it.

 

[cayman shen]

Still not buying. OOT or nothing.

And what's with this 4K crap? I JUST started buying BR like a year ago...

 

[niennumb1]

Still not buying. OOT or nothing.

And what's with this 4K crap? I JUST started buying BR like a year ago...

It's definitely a very sharp looking format, but I think in terms of movies you could only notice so much more resolution and in a lot of cases would you really be able to tell? If the footage was shot native 4k then you may benefit from that extra detail, but with a film it might be harder to see unless each camera shot is super crisp, which a lot of films don't always get a perfect focus.

In terms of Star Wars, Episodes 2 and 3 were shot on the Sony CineAlta HD cameras from 2000 through 2005 and those cameras shot at 1080 native. Anything greater of a format would be upscaling.

8 Have Seen Some really nice UHD stuff, but nothing has sold me on upgrading my projector or HDTV to a 4k tv at all. Also there's just too much content out there not Supported by 4k to make it even worth getting right now.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[The Terminator]

.....but the other thing is that when 4K becomes the next HD format & (if) the OT comes out in that resolution,....the prequels will be stuck at 1080

J

Not Phantom Menace. That was still shot on film

Still not buying. OOT or nothing.

And what's with this 4K crap? I JUST started buying BR like a year ago...

:lol welcome to the world of HD. I bought my first HDTV back in 2007 and jumped on the HD-DVD bandwagon and later bluray when the superior format: HD-DVD didn't survive the format war. Not so keen on 4K though... because I think we should skip that and go straight to 8K

8 Have Seen Some really nice UHD stuff, but nothing has sold me on upgrading my projector or HDTV to a 4k tv at all. Also there's just too much content out there not Supported by 4k to make it even worth getting right now.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Also it is rather expensive. Just like 3D was damn expensive back in 2010/11. I waited to buy my first 3D tv in 2012, and got it for little less than one third of what they cost when they first came out

 

[Jaitea]

.....but the other thing is that when 4K becomes the next HD format & (if) the OT comes out in that resolution,....the prequels will be stuck at 1080

Not Phantom Menace. That was still shot on film

Yep, but all the CG effects work were done at 2K,....same as the OT SE's,....but a HUGE amount more in TPM than what was added to the OT,.....so I'd say TPM is stuck at 1080 with the other 2

J

 

[The Terminator]

Yep, but all the CG effects work were done at 2K,....same as the OT SE's,....but a HUGE amount more in TPM than what was added to the OT,.....so I'd say TPM is stuck at 1080 with the other 2

J

Never know, they might re-render/redo them

 

[Halliwax]

Still not buying. OOT or nothing.

And what's with this 4K crap? I JUST started buying BR like a year ago...

i hear ya, I got my first bluray player last Xmas. I have a library of over 2,400 DVDs. the bluray is awesome, but I will only buy my favorite movies which I can count with 2 hands. Because it's only time before bluray goes the way of the Dino. Which I hate because you invest so much in these movies and then bam,,, no good anymore . This 4k stuff is kinda of a joke right now, you can go to a bestbuy or Sears and they will push for 4k... But boy are they fooled because cable isn't even projected at 4k yet... And by the time it is that 3,000 dollar TV you bought will now be extinct... Just had this huge argument with my dad who got suckered into buying a 4k TV.... They also pushed him into buying a 80 dollar surge protector...

does this his new box release come with more bonus footage?

 

[Treadwell]

Yep, but all the CG effects work were done at 2K,....same as the OT SE's,....but a HUGE amount more in TPM than what was added to the OT,.....so I'd say TPM is stuck at 1080 with the other 2

They said at the time that there was only one shot in the entire film that didn't have digital manipulation, and they went ahead and scanned that in, too, just for visual consistency and to simplify the mastering and output-back-to-film process.

Also, the Qui-Gon and Anakin portion of the Midichlorian scene (not Obi-Wan's part on the ship) was shot digitally, testing the waters for the workflow to come.

 

[batguy]

IIRC the resolution of actual 35mm is no more than perhaps 5k in practical terms. They can scan this stuff at 20,000 but that doesn't mean the image keeps getting better forever.

I have bought some other 1970s movies on Blu-Ray that realistically don't look better than DVD version because of the film grain. There is just nothing more to get out of it.

IMO we probably won't see much realistic benefit past 4k. Especially not on home TV screens any less than 50-60 inches. Continually pushing it higher will just work the disc players harder with more data.

 

[danzig]

Any word on whether or not these new steelbook releases will have that the magenta color tone fixed?I can deal with the special edition changes,but I cant figure out why they screwed with the color tones so much.Everything has a pink hue in the 2011 blu ray box set.They need to do to star wars,what they did to Jaws on Blu Ray.That was a beautiful remaster

 

[SirWilly77]

The one factor tempting me into getting a 4K monitor or TV is the fact that it'll essentially be impossible to see individual pixels like you can with current displays. For example, 1080p footage looks smoother and more "life-like" on an Apple "retina display" than it does on a screen that maxes out at 1080p resolution. I know this is less of a factor for people who sit a fair distance from their displays, but I'm admittedly a "close sitter" and would definitely benefit from the upgrade.

 

[Jeyl]

Any word on whether or not these new steelbook releases will have that the magenta color tone fixed?I can deal with the special edition changes,but I cant figure out why they screwed with the color tones so much.Everything has a pink hue in the 2011 blu ray box set.They need to do to star wars,what they did to Jaws on Blu Ray.That was a beautiful remaster

Nope. With the exception of Episode One (Which had a lot of pink in the DVD master), all the original trilogy movies use the same masters used for the DVD source, which means blue tint everywhere and Vader has a pink lightsaber.

Also, Spielberg and Lucas, despite being the best of buddies, are two different beasts. Where Spielberg will listen to a group of movie goers who say NO to the Special Edition of ET (Seriously, it's gone), Lucas will try convince you that the originals no longer exist because he painted over them.

 

[JD]

Also, Spielberg and Lucas, despite being the best of buddies, are two different beasts. Where Spielberg will listen to a group of movie goers who say NO to the Special Edition of ET (Seriously, it's gone), Lucas will try convince you that the originals no longer exist because he painted over them.

FWIW - while ET is an exceptional film, it is not Spielberg's life work... which is what Star Wars basically became for Lucas. Spielberg didn't even write ET. Nor did ET become a huge franchise that crossed over in ways no other movie series has ever done... so while he did dabble in changes at one point and restored the original, you're not really comparing apples to apples.

As a side note, the Indiana Jones series is available in steelbook format at Target.

 

[Jeyl]

Nor did ET become a huge franchise that crossed over in ways no other movie series has ever done...

That doesn't mean they didn't try.

As a side note, the Indiana Jones series is available in steelbook format at Target.

Incorrect. Those are the somewhat inferior "MetalPaks". There is only one Indiana Jones film that received a Steelbook package and that was Raiders of the Lost Ark. It had a short run at Best Buy a few months ago.

 

[batguy]

Also, Spielberg and Lucas, despite being the best of buddies, are two different beasts. Where Spielberg will listen to a group of movie goers who say NO to the Special Edition of ET (Seriously, it's gone), Lucas will try convince you that the originals no longer exist because he painted over them.

George Lucas's entire career was a lifelong effort to get more creative control over his works.

He wanted to be free of the studios who re-edited his first two movies. The limitations of the SFX he grew up with. The limtations of budget restraints (this one didn't go as well as he hoped), etc. He merchandised his movies like crazy just to get more money - so he could borrow less money from the big studios to fund each future movie. He struggled with vocal co-workers like Kurtz, Kershner, Harrison Ford, etc, until he was down to Rick McCallum and bunch of compliant PT actors. This theme has run through everything he has done since the aftermath of THX-1138 and American Graffiti being re-edited 40 years ago.

When the SW fans started complaining about Lucas's first round of SE changes to the OT movies in 1997, it basically stepped on the same hot-button nerve again. They are his movies and he starts digging his heels in & getting stubborn whenever anyone pushes him to change something. He might have made fewer additional changes for the DVD & Blu-Ray releases of the OT if the fans had been complaining less.


In 2012 I guess he finally decided he'd had enough of the whole SW thing. He was probably thinking "I might as well figure out where my stuff ends up now, because it will all end up in the hands of a big studio eventually. If I do it voluntarily while I'm still above the ground then I can have some control over where they go."

 

[Riceball]

Never know, they might re-render/redo them

That would still be very time consuming and expensive and not quite as easy as it sounds. When working with CG/3D models you build to the final resolution that you're going to render out at, this means that you only put in as much detail as you think you'll be able to see on screen and no more because to do so means more time modelling and more time rendering those extra unseen details. So for them re-render the effects out at a higher res they'd probably have to go back into the models and re-work them so that they don't look like crap at twice the original resolution, how much would depend on how detailed the made the original models and how much they overbuilt them or not.

Before anyone starts to use this as an argument for practical vs. CG, the same would apply to practical models as well. If they were to build a physical model for filming in 4K they'd still have to devote more time and energy on the details since at the greater resolution you'd be able to pick out much more. They'd probably have to use less recognizable greeblies, make sure the fit and finish is as perfect as they can get with no gaps or excess glue showing. Paint jobs would have to be more detailed, done so that no brush strokes can be seen, no missed spots, etc. And the physical model would probably have to be much larger so that they can add in all of the detail needed since you can only put in so much detail on small miniature.

 

[Treadwell]

...and that is if ILM even still has software and hardware that could load up projects from as far back as 1996. Pixar has encountered similar trouble when they've gone back to remaster or 3D-convert their earlier stuff.

 

[Solo4114]

I'd say that if/when the OT is revisited for a remastering and re-release at a higher resolution, there's a better-than-even chance that we'll have seen the last of the SEs. After all, the argument for continuing to use them has been "Nobody cares. Nobody really notices the differences that much, or if they do, they just don't care enough one way or the other." That works in two directions, though. If you decide to remaster at a higher resolution (e.g. 4K or 8K), then that argument plus the extra time/cost angle, means that -- on balance -- the better choice is to ditch the SE. Not for any artistic reasons, but because (A) audiences don't care, and (B) it costs too much and would take too long to be worth the effort to re-do the CG stuff.

 

[Bryancd]

I would challenge the idea that the audience doesn't care about the SE changes, especially the effects shots. They are much more dynamic and to remove those would be noticeable and likely less desirable in terms of the "general" audience.