It should work on a PS3. I do see the existence of a 2.0 "fixed" version mentioned around. It's supposed to work in most Blu-Ray players, though. But that's because it isn't a DVD it's a AVCHD disc. Which is a 720p video authenticated and burned on a DVD9 disc (DVD+R Dual Layer disc). The bonus disc is DVD, though, but also a DVD9 disc because of so much content. But the first three discs won't play in a DVD player for that reason.
And I tried it on a PC. Works fine if you navigate to the video file (the .m2ts file in the STREAM directory) and open it with Windows Media Player or VLC. The actual players seem like they don't know what to do with a AVCHD disc in its authenticated format.
Figured I would share my opinion on this topic. For starters, I'm not really a Star Wars fan. I've seen all the movies and they're not bad but I just can't get into them as much as everyone else has. But I do understand why people would be angry over the changes being made. Personally, I think that the original version of anything should be kept intack like the way Disney handle Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. With those you can choose to just watch the original. But the way they are handling Star Wars you almost never see the original. I know I haven't. I've only seen the version with the added CGI. And this kind of bugs me.
To put it another way. I love Jurassic Park. To me, the movie is perfect. And if they were to take Jurassic Park and perhaps remove the animatronic and cgi raptors and replace them with full all new CGI raptors with feathers all over their bodies because that's how they think they look now I would be pissed. Why? Because it would be screwing up with what the original crew created. It's a slap in the face to the fans and to the people who worked on the movie.
I do understand why people would be angry over the changes being made. Personally, I think that the original version of anything should be kept intact like the way Disney handle Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. With those you can choose to just watch the original.
No. I will not. Give us the originals then I'll appreciate the changes. Screw that.
Agreed. Obviously this columnist has no idea what bothers us most about the changes: that we have no option to watch it as the version we loved for so long, save for a transfer of highly inferior quality (letterboxed transfer from laserdisc) or on an outdated and increasingly degrading technology (VHS).
Fan edits don't count. Certainly they are an option, but shouldn't be required by all just to make up for the increasing levels of incompetence and narcissism of George Lucas.
Indeed. When it's totally possible to see the original unaltered format in the same quality as the SE's (sans the CGI effects etc) even these fan edits pale in comparison of quality and sadden me (Hyperspace, as good as it is, is noticeably upscaled from the laserdisc version. There's a lot of noise and unnatural curved edges). But seeing as George created new masters out of the SE version, I doubt he even has the originals anymore.
Indeed. When it's totally possible to see the original unaltered format in the same quality as the SE's (sans the CGI effects etc) even these fan edits pale in comparison of quality and sadden me (Hyperspace, as good as it is, is noticeably upscaled from the laserdisc version. There's a lot of noise and unnatural curved edges). But seeing as George created new masters out of the SE version, I doubt he even has the originals anymore.
I can't see how Lucas could "not have" the originals. It just doesn't make any sense with regards to how studios of their size store their legacy properties. There's generally a great deal of redundancy and high-quality second-generation copies.
He doesn't have to care about them, he just has to realize that they're the lowest layer of his creation. Certain tweaks would require going back to the "original" source to re-do a bit of CG or whatever. Maybe he, say, decides that he wants the Ronto ass to take up slightly LESS than 90% of the original frame. Make a more slender, tighter Ronto ass for a new generation of children. In such a case, he'd need a copy of the originals to put new CG over.
Stuff does get lost from time to time, even stuff you'd think they'd take good care of... such as the original video footage for Wing Commander 3, so there's no way there will ever be a DVD quality version there... at least that's what I've been told by a friend of mine that's been a huge Wing Commander fan ever since the third game was released, so I'd be surprised if he was *that* wrong.
I heard they don't have the original footage for Gabriel Knight 2 anymore, either... but I can't even remember where I heard that so it might very well not be true.
These are games though, there might be huge differences in how well they preserve things in those two industries... I have no idea.
Worst case scenario: George Lucas has gone completely insane, destroys every backup master in existence. In such an unlikely scenario, original thaterical 35mm film still exists in private collections, and a fairly low-cost(for LucasFilm) restoration effort can be done from there.
I can't see how Lucas could "not have" the originals. It just doesn't make any sense with regards to how studios of their size store their legacy properties. There's generally a great deal of redundancy and high-quality second-generation copies.
Lucas [...] said in a 2004 interview. "I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it."
[...]
Publicist Lynn Hale issued a general statement which read in part: "As you may know, an enormous amount of effort was put into digitally restoring the negatives for the Special Editions...The negatives of the movies were permanently altered for the creation of the Special Editions, and existing prints of the first versions are in poor condition. So many fans have requested the original movies, we wanted to find a way to bring them to you. But since these movies do not represent George's artistic vision, we could not put the extraordinary time and resources into this project as we did with the Special Editions. The 1993 Laserdisc masters represented the best source for providing the original versions as DVD bonus material."
[...] Preeminant home theatre website Digital Bits own Robert Harris, the guy who hand-restored Lawrence of Arabia and Vertigo, said that he knew it was not true that the 1993 master was the best source, and knew that there were 35mm elements available, and he and the Bits offered to obtain 35mm material for a new transfer. This began a lot of debate about the original negative.
Well, as I've written on the site before, Lucas is being technically accurate, but misleading. The negative is conformed to the Special Edition edit, because there can only be one original negative. So, technically speaking, the negative assembly of the originals does not exist. But it would be very easy to simply put the original pieces back in and conform it to the original versions. Actually, in a theoretical modern restoration, they would just scan the original pieces and make a digital edit, especially since disassembling the negative puts a lot of wear on it. There are also secondary sources, such as separation masters and interpositives, both of which were used to make duplicate pieces to repair parts of the original negative for the 1997 release.So, basically, the official Lucasfilm stance is a lot of crap, designed to confuse people who don't have a thorough knowledge of how post-production works.
What the publicist said is also technically correct, but misleading. The last time a new transfer was done of the originals was 1993, which was also re-released in 1995. There are ample 35mm materials available to do a new transfer, but the most recent pre-existing version is from 1993, ergo this is the best version Lucasfilm had access to without having to re-transfer the films fresh. Again, if one did not fully have knowledge of the home video history of Star Wars, this might seem to imply that this is the best version of the films that is ever going to be possible.
So, in September of 2006, the DVDs hit shelves. [...] Lucas was interviewed by MTV for the release, where he stated: "It's just the original versions, as they were. We didn't do anything to it at all. But we're not sure how many people want that...Now we'll find out whether they really wanted the original or whether they wanted the improved versions. It'll all come out in the end."
Of course, gone was his pretentious statements about his vision. It seems these versions do exist to him after all. It marked a severe injury to Lucas' crusade; his personal integrity about artistic intent had imploded. And if it was about stopping bootleggers from pirating the original versions, as some theorized, then it shows that not only does he still acknowledge these versions, it also shows that making money is really the bottom line when it comes to this franchise and the integrity of his "vision."
However, fans had a sneaking suspicion about the reasons for the quality of the release. It borders on paranoia, but there seems to be lots of truth in it. On originaltrilogy.com, the release was coined the GOUT--George's, Original, Unaltered Theatrical versions.
That is, Lucas deliberately wanted the original versions to be presented in an inferior format so that they would not have to compete with the Special Editions.
[...]
I should also point out, making a new transfer from a 35mm source is not expensive. It literally costs thousands of dollars, which is why stuff like Revenge of the Nerds 2 are presented in modern, anamorphic transfers from 35mm material. Lucas has convinced some people that one would have to totally restore the films for them to look good and spend millions of dollars, but they would still look acceptable if taken from existing prints and materials, and certainly many times better than a master made in 1993. As I have written in other articles for this page (most recently here), Fox restored the negatives in 1995-1997, and almost all of the work is already done. But of course, given that Lucas is a billionaire, this is a moot point, isn't it? Which is why his using this 1993 master is likely a deliberate attempt to create an unfair advantage for his Special Edition.
I have trouble imagining a scenario where they don't have high-resolution versions of the original scenes on their computers there. Like Dashing said, Ronto ass and all that.
All I know is that I recall George saying that when he made the first SE versions he created new masters out of them. Meaning that he did not keep intact the original versions. I think any changes he's made since those first SE's were done ON TOP of those SE's, not once again from the ORIGINAL masters.
In short, Lucas is a selfish moron for not allowing the world to have both versions. There's something more at work here than just beyond "it's too expensive". He's a freaking powerhouse monster movie producer. And he's NOT MAKING ANY MOVIES. He just keeps updating Star Wars. And if that article is anything to go by, the cost of upgrading the original material is pennies compared to what he's done on the SE's.
Whoa, whoa, whoa there, guy. Let's not go giving him any ideas, here. You know anything he were to make, he'd require complete creative control over, and you'd end up with a two and a half hour epic biopic of the life of Dexter the Coruscant diner owner.
Whoa, whoa, whoa there, guy. Let's not go giving him any ideas, here. You know anything he were to make, he'd require complete creative control over, and you'd end up with a two and a half hour epic biopic of the life of Dexter the Coruscant diner owner.
He will save the republic by scratching his ass for 2 hours in Star Wars Episode IX: The Revenge Of The Chair.
Whoa, whoa, whoa there, guy. Let's not go giving him any ideas, here. You know anything he were to make, he'd require complete creative control over, and you'd end up with a two and a half hour epic biopic of the life of Dexter the Coruscant diner owner.
Actually, that could have the potential to be an interesting story. Probably hilarious as well...but probably not if Lucas were in charge.
Er, you guys do know he has a movie coming out in January right? It's called Red Tails, he's been talking about making it since the '80s. Of course now he's just a producer but apparently he wasn't happy with the film and has been doing reshoots himself. So I guess we'll see how it turns out. Here's the trailer.
Red Tails is just a direct and blatant remake of the movie The Tuskegee Airmen. And not only does The Tuskegee Airmen star Cuba Gooding Jr. (same as Red Tails), but it also stars Lawrence Fishburn and John Lithgow, so it isn't that obscure a movie.
Something tells me that George is having hard a hard time coming up with any original ideas... at least ones that aren't as stupid as aliens attacking the Old West.
Red Tails is just a direct and blatant remake of the movie The Tuskegee Airmen. And not only does The Tuskegee Airmen star Cuba Gooding Jr. (same as Red Tails), but it also stars Lawrence Fishburn and John Lithgow, so it isn't that obscure a movie.
Something tells me that George is having hard a hard time coming up with any original ideas... at least ones that aren't as stupid as aliens attacking the Old West.
Er, you do know that the Tuskegee Airman were real people right? As I said, George has been talking about making this movie since the '80s. Unfortunately since it's taken him forever to get around to it someone beat him to the punch but that doesn't make his film a ripoff or remake.
Yes I do, and yes it does. He can say that he's had an idea to do a movie about racism in the military or whatnot and that's fine, but to have planned to do a movie for so long specifically about that exact same unit, and to claim to have had the exact same idea ten to fifteen years before the first movie came out.... It's not just a movie based around a similar theme. It's a movie about the exact same real life people in the exact same situation, and in one case starring the exact same actor. Of course it's either a ripoff or a remake.
He doesn't just "claim" to have been thinking about it for 10 to 15 years. I've read vintage articles from the time where he talks about it. To claim Red Tails is a remake because another film was already made about the subject before is the same as calling Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor a remake of Tora! Tora! Tora!
Comments
I should know. I tried.
And I tried it on a PC. Works fine if you navigate to the video file (the .m2ts file in the STREAM directory) and open it with Windows Media Player or VLC. The actual players seem like they don't know what to do with a AVCHD disc in its authenticated format.
To put it another way. I love Jurassic Park. To me, the movie is perfect. And if they were to take Jurassic Park and perhaps remove the animatronic and cgi raptors and replace them with full all new CGI raptors with feathers all over their bodies because that's how they think they look now I would be pissed. Why? Because it would be screwing up with what the original crew created. It's a slap in the face to the fans and to the people who worked on the movie.
Like this:
Agreed. Obviously this columnist has no idea what bothers us most about the changes: that we have no option to watch it as the version we loved for so long, save for a transfer of highly inferior quality (letterboxed transfer from laserdisc) or on an outdated and increasingly degrading technology (VHS).
Fan edits don't count. Certainly they are an option, but shouldn't be required by all just to make up for the increasing levels of incompetence and narcissism of George Lucas.
I heard they don't have the original footage for Gabriel Knight 2 anymore, either... but I can't even remember where I heard that so it might very well not be true.
These are games though, there might be huge differences in how well they preserve things in those two industries... I have no idea.
....
In short, Lucas is a selfish moron for not allowing the world to have both versions. There's something more at work here than just beyond "it's too expensive". He's a freaking powerhouse monster movie producer. And he's NOT MAKING ANY MOVIES. He just keeps updating Star Wars. And if that article is anything to go by, the cost of upgrading the original material is pennies compared to what he's done on the SE's.
Whoa, whoa, whoa there, guy. Let's not go giving him any ideas, here. You know anything he were to make, he'd require complete creative control over, and you'd end up with a two and a half hour epic biopic of the life of Dexter the Coruscant diner owner.
He will save the republic by scratching his ass for 2 hours in Star Wars Episode IX: The Revenge Of The Chair.
Actually, that could have the potential to be an interesting story. Probably hilarious as well...but probably not if Lucas were in charge.
Something tells me that George is having hard a hard time coming up with any original ideas... at least ones that aren't as stupid as aliens attacking the Old West.
That movie was actually pretty cool. Dumb, sure. But cool
Er, you do know that the Tuskegee Airman were real people right? As I said, George has been talking about making this movie since the '80s. Unfortunately since it's taken him forever to get around to it someone beat him to the punch but that doesn't make his film a ripoff or remake.
Probably toking, she has a drug addiction.
Um, no it's not a rip off or remake. He's just a good actor, there's like 30 or more black actors in the movie. He's just a good actor.
This isn't called part two, doesn't even have the same title if I'm correct.
Actually the actor is TYPECASTED for this sort of role. So, I honestly think it's incidental.
Now I feel less saddened by the destruction of that planet. Thanks Lucas.