Star Wars Trilogy 4-Disc DVD Set 9/21/04

[ssbomberman]

Folks I won't post a direct link, but suprnova.org has your answer.

ssb

[Rumpy]

Is it true suprnova is being "watched" now? RIAA and such know about it now.

[MechDeus]

Does anyone know what this is going for in most places? So far I've seen the $69.99 "suggested retail price" listed at one store before it came out and on a couple websites, but when I went to pick it up at Walmart it was $42.99 (yes, I bought a travesty at a travesty).

In any case, even despite everything I've said about the changes, it still doesn't affect how much I love these movies. Tearing off the shrinkwrap and opening the box to see that black side with an X-Wing and Tie Fighter on it and the words "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." put a big ol' fucking grin on my face. I'm now most of the way through ESB and absolutely love how crisp everything looks and sounds, it really helps bring out what has to be one of the greatest movie soundtracks EVER. My only two problem so far were both in ANH: A bunch of the tie fighters during Han and Luke's turret battle had red squares around them that looked terrible, and both Han's dodge with Greedo (which overall works just fine since they both shoot together) and his walking over Jabba's tail look like they somehow managed to create stop-motion real people. It was really jarring, but I guess if you want to rationalize it you could say that because it looks so crappy it makes it more of a late '70s special effect.

In the end, though, I can't help but adore them. So if you'll excuse me, it's time to go watch some more.

[Roufuss]

Does anyone know what this is going for in most places?

Anywhere from 39.99 to 44.99.

[NightWolve]

Yeah, got it at $42.99 too (on sale though) via Best Buy. Plus they included some SW insider magazine that I really don't care about. It goes back to ~50 or something after the sale's over.

[Mr-K]

but when I went to pick it up at Walmart it was $42.99 (yes, I bought a travesty at a travesty).

Yeah so did I, but it was the only place open after I got out of class at 9:15.

I felt so goddamn dirty.

[Scourge]

Well, I'm up to the Death Star run in ANH, so I'll give my impressions, so far.

I've heard a lot of things negative about the dvds since their release, from bleeding colors to sound drop outs, channel reversal etc.

My experience so far is this:

The colors are certainly saturated and deep, but I don't see any bleeding and I like the heavy color palette.

I don't hear any sound drop outs at all. There's a scene with Tarkin that supposedly drops out, but I was listening close expecting it, and it just didn't happen. What I *can* say for certain is that it's obvious some of the sound stems were in better shape than others, and this to me was only apparent in dialogue. Some of the dialogue is tinny, while much of it is warm and smooth, but it can be somewhat distracting when it's happening within the same scene. But really, if you aren't listening for it as closely as I, then it really isn't a problem. Negligible at best.

I think Mech brought up the garbage compactor scene, too. Listenend closely to that as well and while the dialogue audio of that scene isn't on the good end, I think there's a couple of reasons. One, the audio of that scene in the originals had quite a pronounced echo effect on it, them being in a small metal room. I think the echo was dialed down in this version and that's the 'buzziness' you were hearing. And there are a lot of incidental sound effects layered all over that scene, that are of a better quality recording, most notably the water movements. Even more pronounced because of the channel separation, which lets you hear distinct differences between the quality of the sound effects vs. the dialogue. Once again, I wasn't bothered by this, but took special note because I'd read others' opinions of it beforehand. The dialogue in that scene has never sounded very good to me.

I am still not bothered by the 'boxes' that appear around the ties in the dogfight scene. While I would have liked for them to be gone altogether, I guess I've seen them enough to not feel they're that bad. They're the only ones I see in the movie thus far, so it's kind of questionable as to why *they* couldn't be removed. Still, no biggie. It only happens about 2 and half times (a half because one tie moves from left to right and off screen very quickly when you see the box).

I gotta say, I was pretty pleased with the SE reworked scenes like Greedo and Jabba. Especially the Greedo one. It actually worked for me like this. I'd still rather it be the original way. As for Jabba, it's certainly better. One thing though, and this never gets mentioned for some reason but I think my ears were pricked up quite high listening for sound errors or whatnot: Jabba's voice does not have the resonance it does in Jedi, and that *was* bothersome. No .1 in his voice in ANH that I can recall, and it absolutely rumbles in Jedi.

Now for the two things that really made me shake my head:

1) Those yellow flashes during the lightsaber duel nearly gave me an epileptic fit. That was overboard.

2) When the stormtroopers enter the room where 3po and r2 have been waiting on the rest to get back, and the one stormtrooper hits his head on the door, there is now a very loud 'bump' sound effect, like Lucas played it up now. I even rewound (or whatever you call it on a dvd) a couple of times to rewatch and relisten. Now, in the original I don't recall it making a noise in the film at all. I may be wrong, but if I am it's because the noise was so minimal that it didn't attract attention. Here though, it's pronounced and purposeful as though that mistake is being exploited as a bit of comic relief. Ug. It was funnier before.

I haven't watched the attack on the Death Star so I can't comment yet on the trumpet fanfare as the the X-Wings drop down being minimalized or not. And obviously I can't comment on whether the channels are switched around on the score during the medal ceremony, but I can say I haven't noticed it elsewhere, but that might be because a) it doesn't bother me or b) I'm not sitting directly between my back speakers so I'm not hearing it that way. Supposedly the instrumentation in the front speakers is switched on the back speakers so if you hear a horn section on the left front you also hear it on the right back or something. I dunno.

That's it for now.

[Mr-K]

Now for the two things that really made me shake my head:

1) Those yellow flashes during the lightsaber duel nearly gave me an epileptic fit. That was overboard.

2) When the stormtroopers enter the room where 3po and r2 have been waiting on the rest to get back, and the one stormtrooper hits his head on the door, there is now a very loud 'bump' sound effect, like Lucas played it up now. I even rewound (or whatever you call it on a dvd) a couple of times to rewatch and relisten. Now, in the original I don't recall it making a noise in the film at all. I may be wrong, but if I am it's because the noise was so minimal that it didn't attract attention. Here though, it's pronounced and purposeful as though that mistake is being exploited as a bit of comic relief. Ug. It was funnier before.

I watched Empire tonight and praaaaayed that they didn't do the same thing in there. Which of course, they did. But it's definitely not as profound as in ANH and I don't think they use it throughout the whole fight thankfully. I don't get the point in the yellow flashes; were they in the prequals?

As for the head bump... I chuckled, what can I say?

[MechDeus]

Oh sweet Jesus I totally forgot about that horrendous SE song-and-dance in RotJ at Jabba's Palace, which was apparently directed by whoever does the camera work for Disney comic relief characters. Man what I wouldn't give to have that thing edited back out, I think I was happier having blocked it off in my mind after seeing the SEs in the theater.

I am still not bothered by the 'boxes' that appear around the ties in the dogfight scene. While I would have liked for them to be gone altogether, I guess I've seen them enough to not feel they're that bad. They're the only ones I see in the movie thus far, so it's kind of questionable as to why *they* couldn't be removed. Still, no biggie. It only happens about 2 and half times (a half because one tie moves from left to right and off screen very quickly when you see the box).

Yeah, it's not something big or anything, but I wonder why Lucas would spend so much money adding CG creatures to random scenes that add nothing and don't blend in with their surroundings while not touching up the special effects that are already in there and have flaws. Wierd.

1) Those yellow flashes during the lightsaber duel nearly gave me an epileptic fit. That was overboard.

Yeah, that was really distracting and dumb.

Re: Sound dropouts: I don't think I've noticed any sound dropping out but I have noticed the music will sometimes overpower the dialogue and lines start getting lost in the noise. A number of scene effects are also a lot clearer then anything else in some scenes which can be a bit distracting, like on Dagobah where Luke will talk and then you'll hear some water bubbling which comes through twice as clean. Again, nothing big here, just a series of minor annoyances.

[kabuki]

Oh sweet Jesus I totally forgot about that horrendous SE song-and-dance in RotJ at Jabba's Palace, which was apparently directed by whoever does the camera work for Disney comic relief characters. Man what I wouldn't give to have that thing edited back out, I think I was happier having blocked it off in my mind after seeing the SEs in the theater.

Me want honeycomb, indeed.