Although the disc art (if that's the true 'art') is very disappointing, and some may be disappointed by box art (but I'm not, luckily, although I guess the complete saga art could have been more 'lively'), it all doesn't matter as long as these movies have the best treatment possible with picture and sound quality.
I'm not TOO worried honestly. The fact that they only had like 30 some odd days to do the DVDs was definitely the top reason on why the DVDs weren't as great as they could have been. In my opinion, the quality of those DVDs (at the time) were fantastic-I remember watching ANH the day it came out with my family and we were sitting there in awe over the actual quality. It was the color, the SFX errors, and the ANH sound mix that was all wrong, only because it was simply just rushed out.
From the sounds of it, this blu-ray release has been a few years in the making. That alone makes me confident that the overall quality of the movies is top notch. I mean, TPM even got a quality color change. There were also talks on forums in the past 1-2 years that Matthew Wood worked on a brand new audio mix for ANH. I also believe that there are a few surprises yet to be seen on the bonus discs-maybe not disc 9, but definitely discs 7 and 8.
I'm not saying don't worry, but definitely don't lose all hope. These movies will be groundbreaking.
Although the disc art (if that's the true 'art') is very disappointing, and some may be disappointed by box art (but I'm not, luckily, although I guess the complete saga art could have been more 'lively'), it all doesn't matter as long as these movies have the best treatment possible with picture and sound quality.
I'm not TOO worried honestly. The fact that they only had like 30 some odd days to do the DVDs was definitely the top reason on why the DVDs weren't as great as they could have been. In my opinion, the quality of those DVDs (at the time) were fantastic-I remember watching ANH the day it came out with my family and we were sitting there in awe over the actual quality. It was the color, the SFX errors, and the ANH sound mix that was all wrong, only because it was simply just rushed out.
From the sounds of it, this blu-ray release has been a few years in the making. That alone makes me confident that the overall quality of the movies is top notch. I mean, TPM even got a quality color change. There were also talks on forums in the past 1-2 years that Matthew Wood worked on a brand new audio mix for ANH. I also believe that there are a few surprises yet to be seen on the bonus discs-maybe not disc 9, but definitely discs 7 and 8.
I'm not saying don't worry, but definitely don't lose all hope. These movies will be groundbreaking.
Groundbreaking? What they are going to be the best BD transfers ever released? I highly doubt that...The only films themselves that were groundbreaking were the first three years and years ago. So far the extras (if that is the complete list) is hit and miss. Some crap could be taken out and better stuff insterted. What if they DNR the heck out of these things? The boards would really heat up then I bet (Wonder if the Lucas Fanboys would defend them?). Hopefully they will be nice transfers with better filler insetered and some disc art that at least looks as good as the DVD disc art. And maybe that egomanic will come to his senses and release the UOT for all of us that do love the films and care about film preservation and history.
I don't get it, whats going on with this thread..you guys have actually started commenting the blu-ray release..
Enough of this silliness!
OT vs PT anyone??
well in that case, Episode 1 is the best of the saga and here are the top 250 reasons why....
I think we just need a little patience and more info will come out. there are still 3 months to go and I wouldn't be surprised if there are some features they have not announced yet (maybe a few easter eggs). no matter what version of the movies it is, it should give your home theatre system a workout. and if you don't like them, use to the force to crush the discs one by one.
Groundbreaking? What they are going to be the best BD transfers ever released? I highly doubt that...The only films themselves that were groundbreaking were the first three years and years ago. So far the extras (if that is the complete list) is hit and miss. Some crap could be taken out and better stuff insterted. What if they DNR the heck out of these things? The boards would really heat up then I bet (Wonder if the Lucas Fanboys would defend them?). Hopefully they will be nice transfers with better filler insetered and some disc art that at least looks as good as the DVD disc art. And maybe that egomanic will come to his senses and release the UOT for all of us that do love the films and care about film preservation and history.
Wow. You are wigging out bro! Simmah down now! Even Lucas' strongest supporters on this board have all said: TPM and ATOC look pretty poor on DVD and also have said that the 2004 UOT was a trainwreck in picture/sound. No one thinks the Classic Trilogy was handled correctly on DVD. Its been mentioned by everyone that we are all concerned about Color, sound and DNR. If the picture qaulity sucks, I am sure there will be only one person here saying: "That is how the artist intends them to look and it his right..." The rest of us will be wigging out with you. But let's not jump the shark just yet.
We haven't seen ANY footage that is CONFIRMED to be the blu ray image yet. So we cannot complain about something we haven't seen. OR, for that matter, something that hasn't been confirmed. I.E. stupid disc art, and for god's sake its a promo flyer I could have photoshopped for you. Clearly a rush job to help promote the blu rays at Star Wars releated events. Numerous studios do that with place holder art for the discs. Cannot believe I am wasting time typing up a response on fn disc art... Even if it IS the actual art, who cares?
There are STILL two discs worth of bonus features to be fully announced. For all we know Empire of Dreams is on ONE of them. Even if it was announced that EODs was on the 9th bonus disc someone like YOU would find a reason to complain that "Lucas isn't giving us anything NEW!!!" So, this is a no win situation for you.
My advice; don't order the movies and wait for the reviews. The price will be the same for a while after release and will have confirmation of what is and isn't on the discs (not to mention the 'pretty disc art!') This is a luxury item you do not need to own. So wait on it, and if the reviews meet your standards then buy it.
To be honest, I'm sure Lucasfilm and Fox know the high expectations for this release, so I'm putting my faith in them to at least deliver on the quality side in terms of AQ/PQ. I'll reserve judgement until I have the set in my own hands.
My guess is, in terms of PQ these will be good, but not great. I think it was reported somewhere that Lucasfilm is, in fact, using the 2004 masters and not creating new ones on more modern equipment. I bet they will look slightly better than the best HD broadcast versions due to less compressioning and great bit rates. I would expect color timing changes and fixes, as well.
Some have also speculated that new masters will be created once the 3D Blu-rays are eventually released. The new work done for 3D would benefit 2D, as well. So, this might be the ones that look "great."
My guess is, in terms of PQ these will be good, but not great. I think it was reported somewhere that Lucasfilm is, in fact, using the 2004 masters and not creating new ones on more modern equipment. I bet they will look slightly better than the best HD broadcast versions due to less compressioning and great bit rates. I would expect color timing changes and fixes, as well.
Some have also speculated that new masters will be created once the 3D Blu-rays are eventually released. The new work done for 3D would benefit 2D, as well. So, this might be the ones that look "great."
Well, we'll have to wait and see, although I some interview said that "even more work" has been done on the films for this Blu-ray release. Like I said, I expect a top-notch quality release, but again, it's a waiting game....
Well, we'll have to wait and see, although I some interview said that "even more work" has been done on the films for this Blu-ray release. Like I said, I expect a top-notch quality release, but again, it's a waiting game....
True. I really think at minimal these will be good.
Wow. You are wigging out bro! Simmah down now! Even Lucas' strongest supporters on this board have all said: TPM and ATOC look pretty poor on DVD and also have said that the 2004 UOT was a trainwreck in picture/sound.
How is it by the way that AOTC looks so soft whilst the ROTS DVD looks really good? They were both shot with 1080p camera's after all.
For AOTC and ROTS. AotC was apparently the first major film to be entirely short digitally using the Sony HDW-F900. I suppose it was rather new back then, because by the time RotS came along, the better, more advanced HDC-F950 was used, higher resolution better colour reproduction. Or so I read...
And in anycase, this thread is about the Blu-ray. The DVDs were released a while ago, we should be looking forward not backwards.
Don't think Mr. Lucas is looking at these forums otherwise he'd know how a lot of people feel. Well, he does know how his fans feel, but it's his way or the highway. So on that note, this set for me, will be awesome. I need to watch Star Wars again, haven't watched it in over a year, at least, waiting for this to come out.
How is it by the way that AOTC looks so soft whilst the ROTS DVD looks really good? They were both shot with 1080p camera's after all.
If I remember correctly it had some noise in the picture during the end battle or something like that? Not enough for me to notice, but it was brought up by another forum member like 700 posts ago. I watched ATOC only once on DVD (didn't like the film) so def not an authority on the subject. But can tell you ROTS looks great, but the other films I recall (OT/TPM) left a lot to be desired. I don't own any Star Wars films at the moment (sold them all for the conversion to Blu Ray) otherwise I would check. But I do recall someone saying they were not thrilled with ATOC's presentation.
Here's an excerpt from the book Star Wars 365 Days byJohn Knoll (available at all good retailers lol....) each part comments on the beginning of the shoot and the equipment used.
Quote:
Ep. II Attack of the Clones
Changes
The really big innovation for Episode II was digital cameras (opposite, one of the digital cameras, with "B" camera operator Calum McFarlane). We were abandoning film and going digital, so we talked about what the requirements might be. Being able to download a "response curve" was one thing ILM really wanted.
All digital cameras start with an image sensor. The sensor reads the voltage, and that voltage is turned into a number. Between the voltage and the number is a mapping—the "response curve" of the camera. What we wanted to do is load our own response curve into the digital cameras. At the time, ILM was using an 8-bit standard called 8-log-38, which was a proven way to encode into eight bits of data a reasonable representation of the visual por¬tion of a film image. My scheme was to load an 8-log-38 table into the high-definition (HD) camera to match our system. But about five weeks before we were going to start shooting, after many revisions, we went with the Rec.709 response that was already loaded into the camera by Panavision. This response was originally meant for video; even though we had wanted a filmic response curve, it ended up working out reasonably well.
The digital cameras also created new elements on set: for example, the tented abode of high-definition (and quality assurance) supervisor Fred Meyers, whose "mother-ship" technical supervisor Michael Blanchard helped create (far right, with Blanchard, HD decks, and the computer that controls all the camera settings); and the video village, Lucas's mobile command center, now had hi-res, fifty-inch plasma monitors (right). It was just great to see these preview monitors on the set—they were linked directly to the digital cameras, so we knew pretty much exactly what we were recording.
The other big change was that production moved to Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia. Principal photography began there on Monday, June 26, 2000. On Wednesday, August 30, we began our location shoot in the Lake Como region of northern Italy, moving to Tunisia on Wednesday, September 6. After one day in Spain, we finished stage shooting at Elstree Studios in London, England, from Friday, September 15 to Wednesday, September 20—all in all, a sixty-one-day shoot. Pickups were filmed in London at Ealing Studios in March and November 2001, with an additional day in both January and February 2002 at Elstree Studios.
Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
Getting Better- All the Time
For our second all-digital Star Wars film, we were using the same basic technology, but we had the next generation of cameras, which were better in every respect—better signal-to-noise ratio—therefore we got a cleaner picture. We were also able to acquire higher bandwidth recorders, so we had less compression, which meant, again, a better image. We were also recording in 12-bit instead of 8-bit, which made for improved bluescreen extraction. In addition, there used to be a YUV color-space conversion in the camera: the chip was actually recording RGB, but then it was being converted to YUV; when we loaded it online, we had to convert it back to RGB. So there were actually two passes through a color-space conversion—but on Episode III, it was straight RGB to RGB, and that really made the images look better. (Opposite, cast and crew on set at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia.)
The images from the high definition (HD) cameras were so sharp we had to put Pro-Mist filters on them. In fact, we'd discovered pretty early on while shooting Episode II digitally that things you could get away with on film—like how much makeup actors had on, and the level of finish on sets—would appear fake because the images were too crisp; you could see too much. The HD image didn't jump around—it wasn't as noisy—it was sharper and clearer. Basically, we found that the images we'd recorded on film for Episode I were noticeably softer than what we were getting from the HD cameras on Episodes II and III, so we actually had to "dumb it down" as George says. In some ways the Pro-Mist filters were simply the continuation of a photographic style, since we had previously used them on Episode I; although so much has been printed about digital cameras not having the same resolution as film—it's just not true. The thing is it's not the number of pixels or the theoretical number of resolvable line pairs that optics can give you on film—where under laboratory conditions, one can achieve a certain high level of resolution—what matters is real-world performance. And there the resolution of HD is comparable or bet¬ter than that of film.
Here's an excerpt from the book Star Wars 365 Days byJohn Knoll (available at all good retailers lol....) each part comments on the beginning of the shoot and the equipment used.
Thanks for posting this.
I can't wait to see the results on BD.
These guys definitely know what they are doing.
I have tremendous respect for John Knoll.
He is simply incredible!
If anything I am most worried about the PQ to be consistent throughout the entire Saga.
Either way, I think this will be the final versions, as has been confirmed by John Knoll, and anyone who thinks that the will look better after the 3-D process is mistaken.
John has already confirmed that the same masters that are being used to create the BDs is going to be used for the 3-D editions.
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