Star Wars Blu-Ray on its way!

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strange because i've been very disappointed by blu-ray, once the film has started i don't think you even notice the picture quality.

upscaled dvd looks almost as good.

personally i mostly watch x264 stuff
 
Dunno, big difference on a 1080p 60" LED panel :D
I didn't the difference so much on my Pioneer 720p plasma though. (Plasma in general has a softer picture than lcd and led, which whilst still good, defeats the purpose of Hi-Def for me)
 
On a big 1080p screen (100"+) the difference is night and day, especially with properly mastered Blu-Rays
There are many poor looking ones, from very old film transfers or just filtered to death to remove film-grain (another issue that makes me really :mad:).

As for x264/xvid/etc re-encodes, I dont go near them with a stick.
They're full of digital compression artefacts caused by the very low bitrate (anything below 25Mbit/s for 1080p is unacceptable to my eyes).
 
I have an LG 55'' 3D LED, I can say that I can spot the difference with Blu-Rays.
 
There are Blu-Rays and Blu-Rays, if you get me, so... ;)
 
Distance from the screen makes a huge difference also.

Can't remember the optimal size/distance per screen size to sat away from the screen but most complaints about HD come from too small a screen for the distance they're sat (End up not seeing much better detail than SD), or too large for the distance they're sat. (Start noticing the pixels :o )

Not suggesting yours is the wrong size or anything, but having spent a couple of years working in a high end AV store I got used to HD very quickly and notice how soft SD is now immediately.

As stated in my previous post though, Plasma, it's just a softer picture which makes it harder to notice the difference, on the other hand, Plasma's upscale free view and SD content way better than an LCD ever will.

Catch 22, still no perfect tech for doing both brilliantly.
 
I still dont like how LCD & Plasma TVs look, plus they're not big enough :lol:
I bought my first projector in 1996 & never looked back :)
 
But I like watching TV with the lights on :D

Joke. I know they look good even in well lit rooms nowadays :)
 
I have a 29" CRT TV for that, but it very rarely gets used for actually watching TV.
Right now its only connected to a CD32 , Atari2600 and my newly aquired ColecoVision :)
 
George must need the money ... how many more "edition's" must he try and get people to buy just for the same of a few sound effects and some CGI???

Sorry George, but you should leave well alone and stop meddling with the dark side!
 
George must need the money ... how many more "edition's" must he try and get people to buy just for the same of a few sound effects and some CGI???

Sorry George, but you should leave well alone and stop meddling with the dark side!

Here is a list of the changes in the re-releases. According to that list they're messing with the Greedo shooting yet again.
 
I thought it was a little unfortunate that DVDs got fixed at standard definition resolutions when the standard was announced, although it left the door open for future HD disc formats. I would have made sense to offer at least one slightly higher resolution in the format apart from the progressive mode.

Newer DVDs are generally well encoded, which makes a big different in picture quality. Encoding on most Blu-rays has benefited from the same advances and engineering practices at the encoding stage, so the quality of the mastered material generally degrades less on the way from the timeline to DVD.

However, this new Star Wars set is extremely poor in its presentation as far as I am concerned, especially the Original Trilogy. Apart from the terrible alterations post 1997 alterations, and the many often overlooked abominations that occur in the frequently revised audio mix, the picture has heavily crushed blacks. It is like most of the darker colours have been totally erased from the films, which is particularly evident in the forest scenes in Return of the Jedi.

I also hate how they mess around with the darkness levels in many scenes. Yoda looks a lot more like a puppet in the post 97 versions of the Original Trilogy, purely because they have ruined the lighting at the mastering/digital buggeration stage. I think a lot of fans of the films miss that fact that it is not just cuts and added cgi that has happened to the film. It is like they have gone over many shots with a paint brush and retouched many aspects of the lighting and camerawork. Yet at the same time, they can not get the colour of the lightsabres to remain consistent throughout the film. Bearing in mind the quality of the people that worked on these films, particularly the cinematographer who worked on the first, it is pretty scandalous conduct. I mean, that door on Return of the Jedi is utter buffoonary, and the added rocks in Star Wars (as we call the first film in our house) make no sense.

Eventually he will put out the original theatrical version on blu-ray, but I am sure he will try and bodge it again, like his did with the awful theatrical DVD transfer. Ideally he would put them all out with a choice of audio mixes, including the Star Wars final mono mix which included elements not ready in time for the earlier stereo and 6 track theatrical mixes.
 
For the original Theatrical Release many people say the best and most faithful transfer was the Laserdisc version. Many years ago I was fortunate enough to obtain DVDs from asia that were great conversions of the Laserddisc version, so I have that one in my possession. :)

Regarding the Blu-Ray, I have to say that the picture quality is first rate and worth getting for that alone. Yes the versions are the more recent CGi updates, and yes they have been tinkered with some more for this release, but IMO they are still great versions of the films.

The BD release is also worth it just for the mountain of extras included, which a nice interface to explore the content.
 
The theatrical bonus DVDs were actually made from the same masters as the laserdiscs (this is why they are presented in a 4:3 letterboxed ratio). I can appreciate that the sheer increase in resolution may be enough to win over some people, but the progressive number of changes to these films over three major revisions, has made a massive change to the pacing and basic cinematography. I bought the 2004 DVDs, but I had already decided to try and avoid even reading about the blu-rays, because I knew there would be more potty changes. George Lucas was the man who in the 80's stood up and appealed for the preservation of the original versions of films, and to prevent them being significantly messed around with forever. Charlie Chaplin did the same thing to many of his films for the fashions of the day when he re-released, and it did those films no favours.

I mean, you have to wonder what he will do next time? The things he has been doing are so ridiculous. Vaders 'nnoooo!!' is potty. I mean, why worry about 'fixing things' like R2D2 hiding behind rocks in Star Wars, when in the next film Luke Skywalker passionately kisses his own sister, and then in film after she tells him she knew he was her brother all along? Why didn't they fix that? Or why make a film where with 22 years prior knowledge of the Return of the Jedi script, you let Leah be dragged away from her mother within 5 seconds of her birth, even though you have previously indicated that she knew her mother during her childhood? All these daft superficial changes to make it more "real" just seem to do more and more to destroy the suspension of disbelief. And don't get me started about the Jabba scene in the first film, that one makes no sense at all. It duplicates most of the dialog from the Greedo scene! You have to cut most of the Greedo scene, or the Jabba scene has to go altogether, one or the other, you can't have both!

I tell you, one of these days, Luke will pull that mask off and it will be Hayden Christensen under there.
 
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