Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by Ben Reilly

Eyeball it.
None of the VCRs that I had ever had a counter on them.

The later ones had an on-screen counter you'd see on the blue screen when rewinding/fast forwarding. The blue screen and silence was also a nice feature the later ones had, our first VCR just showed static and static noises.

[B72]

I know this isn't the "Vintage VCR " thread but nostalgia is a helll of a drug.

This was my families first VCR back in 1978. The RCA VBt200 I believe.
IMG_2428.jpg

We weren't rich by any means. In fact, I'm pretty sure we had to take out a second mortgage on the house to buy it. My stepdad had to get a second job just to afford the blank VHS tapes. You could forget about Betamax that was out of our league.

We watched programs on this.
IMG_2427.JPG

It was years later til I got to watch Star Wars at home.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Jakdonark

When Luke says, "There's Sandpeople alright, I can see one of them now." In the PS version you just see the two banthas. In the widescreen version you actually see one walking around. That's how it was in the original framing PS version. Like I said the 95 THX version had a different composition.

When they came out I was at my best friends house and his Mom came home with two sets of the trilogy, one for each of us. We popped in Star Wars, and when the camera first pans down, you can clearly see a moon around Tatooine, whereas earlier you could just see a sliver of it. We were both like, wow! This is stuff we've never seen! And on the Tantive IV some shots were composed differently. In one version you see the three rebel troops running down the hall and stopping to turn and shoot. In the other version the frame is on R2 and 3PO. Again, we were thinking this must be some alternate footage. It wasn't until I saw the letterbox versions later that year that it made sense.

That always cracked me up about different P&S editions of the same film, not just with SW but in general, as they didn't always make the same choices when positioning the frame. I often noticed this difference between TV airings and the proper store-bought VHS editions in particular, even as a kid I was thinking overtime about this stuff so perhaps folks can better appreciate why I'm such a Pixel Peeper™ now, it's damned near an automatic process in my brain which is why I can actually enjoy films and critically evaluate their appearance on home video at the same time.

[Nailwraps]

Technically, this doesn't mean the OOT isn't coming. I think Kathleen means they're not making anymore special edition versions. Meaning the 2011 versions (like it or not), are the final SE versions.

[Ben Reilly]

Which line is the original line:
There'll be no escape this time
There'll be no escape for the Princess this time?

[ElvisForever]

Originally Posted by B72

I know this isn't the "Vintage VCR " thread but nostalgia is a helll of a drug.

This was my families first VCR back in 1978. The RCA VBt200 I believe.
Attachment 168232

We weren't rich by any means. In fact, I'm pretty sure we had to take out a second mortgage on the house to buy it. My stepdad had to get a second job just to afford the blank VHS tapes. You could forget about Betamax that was out of our league.

We watched programs on this.
Attachment 168233

It was years later til I got to watch Star Wars at home.

The thing is, that those pictures illustrate how well made products were before.

CRT's have a great degree of accurate color rendering(bleeding is another story) and you could literally burn your eyes out with the Vector displays like Asteroids.

Then you have the fact that VCR's back then had much more stable displays. Hell I wish I had one to do my tansfers now. Buying a tape used to be an event because they cost a 100 bucks!

[crissrudd4554]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

That always cracked me up about different P&S editions of the same film, not just with SW but in general, as they didn't always make the same choices when positioning the frame. I often noticed this difference between TV airings and the proper store-bought VHS editions in particular, even as a kid I was thinking overtime about this stuff so perhaps folks can better appreciate why I'm such a Pixel Peeper™ now, it's damned near an automatic process in my brain which is why I can actually enjoy films and critically evaluate their appearance on home video at the same time.

This is actually why I still get a kick out of watching my VHS editions of my favorite films, particularly Star Wars. Growing up a lot times the P&S framing of the films will also become embedded in your mind that when you see it framed differently on another release. For example my first SW trilogy was the 1995 'Faces' set. In ESB there's the closeup on Luke's face after Vader ignited his lightsaber in the freezing chamber. The 'Faces' tape that shot framed around Luke's head only yet the previous releases and the SE tapes frames it so you could also see the tip of Vaders saber to the far right.

Granted I agree widescreen is the best but I lost the 'ohh''ahh' feeling for it in recent years now that it's become the norm. When 4:3 was still the norm seeing something in widescreen was very eye opening. That feeling has diminished, for me at least, in recent years.

[Ben Reilly]

For the longest time, I never saw the Dark Troopers when the Falcon was being brought into the Death Star.
I only noticed it, for the first time, when I bought a DVD copy of the LaserDisk editions that my local video store (112 Video in Medford) was selling.
Blew my mind...

[Nailwraps]

Originally Posted by Ben Reilly

Which line is the original line:
There'll be no escape this time
There'll be no escape for the Princess this time?

The second. The first was done for the Revisited fanedit by Adywan.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by crissrudd4554

This is actually why I still get a kick out of watching my VHS editions of my favorite films, particularly Star Wars. Growing up a lot times the P&S framing of the films will also become embedded in your mind that when you see it framed differently on another release. For example my first SW trilogy was the 1995 'Faces' set. In ESB there's the closeup on Luke's face after Vader ignited his lightsaber in the freezing chamber. The 'Faces' tape that shot framed around Luke's head only yet the previous releases and the SE tapes frames it so you could also see the tip of Vaders saber to the far right.

Granted I agree widescreen is the best but I lost the 'ohh''ahh' feeling for it in recent years now that it's become the norm. When 4:3 was still the norm seeing something in widescreen was very eye opening. That feeling has diminished, for me at least, in recent years.

I completely agree with the first comment about searing the P&S framing into your brain, for me it's Die Hard which has that honour.

However, I must disagree with the second comment as I'm still overjoyed that we can finally enjoy widescreen movies as they were meant to be seen. Even cropping to something like 2.00:1 is enough to ruin proper widescreen composition, never mind 4:3, as when I saw Apocalypse Now in 2.35 for the first time it was like watching a different film.

[Ben Reilly]

Originally Posted by Nailwraps

The second. The first was done for the Revisited fanedit by Adywan.

That's what I thought.
Why the heck was it altered?

[crissrudd4554]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I completely agree with the first comment about searing the P&S framing into your brain, for me it's Die Hard which has that honour.

However, I must disagree with the second comment as I'm still overjoyed that we can finally enjoy widescreen movies as they were meant to be seen. Even cropping to something like 2.00:1 is enough to ruin proper widescreen composition, never mind 4:3, as when I saw Apocalypse Now in 2.35 for the first time it was like watching a different film.

I agree with you. Like I said I agree widescreen is better but I just don't find it eye opening these days as I did in the days of 4:3 because these days there's nothing really to compare it to. Widescreen is..'it' really if that makes sense. I don't mean this as a criticism. I'm just saying that unlike the 4:3 days where you realize how much image you were losing, you don't really have that anymore.

[Hardback247]

Originally Posted by Ben Reilly

That's what I thought.
Why the heck was it altered?

Because C-3PO didn't even recognize Leia in R2's message.

[shinobipopcorn]

Originally Posted by Hardback247

Because C-3PO didn't even recognize Leia in R2's message.

It's possible he knew he was working for a princess but never saw what she looked like before. Especially if you consider he was on Antilles' ship the whole time and she only came aboard recently.

[Michael24]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

Thanks! That picture gave me a very vague but powerful sense of deja vu. I believe I had one with a counter like that. Does it count seconds?

I don't believe those counted seconds but I could be mistaken.

Originally Posted by shinobipopcorn

Bet that sucker cost a mint when it came out.

Yeah, my parents bought it brand new in '82 or '83. (More great pictures of it here. Damn, those bring back memories.) They recall it was over $500! My mom has always remembered spending about $60 for Ghostbusters on VHS and almost $80, I believe, for the original Star Wars, too.

[Jakdonark]

This was our first VCR we got in January 90, it was around $200 US. 4-head, but mono. After high school when I moved out I got a Sharp Stereo VCR and TV, even that made a difference watching Star Wars: "I think we took a wrong turn ... wrong turn... wrong turn...". In 96 I upgraded to a Sony SLV-R1000, which I recently fixed (one gear is notorious for breaking on Sonys) however now the timing is messed up and when I put in a copy of Star Wars (I have like 5-6 official releases, and one was handy) it only played in fast forward. If you hit rewind it would eject the tape. So I have to take the whole thing apart again and recheck the gear alignment.

The combo on top of my old Toshiba was picked up at Value Village for $10. It has Super Quasi playback, so if I wasn't able to get my Sony working again it was a backup to backup my SVHS recordings.

[Jakdonark]

Originally Posted by ElvisForever

The thing is, that those pictures illustrate how well made products were before.

CRT's have a great degree of accurate color rendering(bleeding is another story) and you could literally burn your eyes out with the Vector displays like Asteroids.

Then you have the fact that VCR's back then had much more stable displays. Hell I wish I had one to do my tansfers now. Buying a tape used to be an event because they cost a 100 bucks!

My wife's old Panasonic crt still looks pretty good and I have a 12 year old plasma that has very nice color.

I recently took part my Sony SLV-R1000 to repair a broken gear. Those things were sophisticated! Optical tech is so simple. This had so many gears that have to work in sync, the different mechanisms for loading and ejecting the tape, ensuring the tape is properly touching the head and sensors, it's actually a wonder of technology. I wanted to get it up and running so I could throw on my old Star Wars tapes for kicks! I also have a bunch of short Star Wars movies I did in the late 90s with my action figures, They were all edited onto SVHS tape, so a standard vcr wouldn't be able to play them back. I want to get those transferred to digital so I can upload them to YouTube.

[ElvisForever]

Originally Posted by Jakdonark

My wife's old Panasonic crt still looks pretty good and I have a 12 year old plasma that has very nice color.

I recently took part my Sony SLV-R1000 to repair a broken gear. Those things were sophisticated! Optical tech is so simple. This had so many gears that have to work in sync, the different mechanisms for loading and ejecting the tape, ensuring the tape is properly touching the head and sensors, it's actually a wonder of technology. I wanted to get it up and running so I could throw on my old Star Wars tapes for kicks! I also have a bunch of short Star Wars movies I did in the late 90s with my action figures, They were all edited onto SVHS tape, so a standard vcr wouldn't be able to play them back. I want to get those transferred to digital so I can upload them to YouTube.

The problem with todays VCR's is they have poor scalers which is what I am running into. I did some captures that came out really well...abd some have tearing at top that is just aweful.

The program I use has a "stabalizer" which basically chops and zooms....boooooo.

Ill find a good VHS player eventually and fix the problem ones. Good luck with yours! Sounds super cool!

[frogjunk65]

I remember getting the first family vcr in mid '82. I recorded MTV everyday and all the Connery 'Bond' films. Plus some other odd stuff. I still have those tapes and they still work. Talk about a time capsule. I love it! As for Star Wars I never had to worry. My parents weren't rich but they had three boys that loved SW. We always had the toys and the movies (never in beta). I honestly couldn't come up with a legit number of times I saw the OT in theaters. It was a lot. My parents would just drop us off at the Fox theater. We lived around the corner from it. Eventually the films would make their way to the .79 theater, 2 minutes away. Adds up to a lot of SW and other films.

[bobbyh64]

I just googled "Star Wars unaltered" and there are several news sites claiming that Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that the unaltered trilogy won't be released. Apparently the people claiming this don't know how to read or listen. All they do is give a quote she said but they don't even quote the interviewer accurately, who asked:

"I mean like George's final cut of the film that he left us with, like whether that might be altered over time."

This is an extremely vague question that I interpret to mean "Wil there be further changes made to the special editions?" All these news sites saying this confirms the Classic Editions won't be released are spreading false news. It might be true, but not based on what was said. You can't really trust anything you read online when people will interpret something however they want. Why can't they just report that the question was extremely vague? Better yet, why can't a reporter ask a specific question like "Are there any plans to release the unaltered versions of the original trilogy?"