I see blu-ray as having potentially better bandwidth plus larger capacity(that is if the movie uses two layers which few do).
are the star wars movies going to be blu-ray or hd dvd?
- Thread starter BirdDad
- Start date
Currently 20th Century Fox (which is the studio with distribution rights) supports only blu-ray. If HD DVD were to win the war, that could change.
Lucas said that he won't release any SW movies on any format until there is 1 format left. While Fox says it supports BD, it has yet to release any discs. It has only paper launched in Europe. People said that when BD+ (ultra-extreme DRM) was ratified it'd announce releases, but more than a month later it has yet to announce anything. I think they're waiting on the sidelines to see what happens.
The larger capacity hasn't really been used. With the very good compression techniques on both formats the extra space doesn't really mean much. People say there is a quality difference, but nobody has been able to show any difference at all. That goes for the bandwidth also.
The larger capacity hasn't really been used. With the very good compression techniques on both formats the extra space doesn't really mean much. People say there is a quality difference, but nobody has been able to show any difference at all. That goes for the bandwidth also.
LoTR will be both, they said they were working on the soundtrack and transfer back in Jan, nothing announced so far. Although they'll most likely put out a theatrical and then extended edition months later to get people to double dip.
Fox has released blu-ray movies, quite a few actually......they just have not released any recently. X-men: The Last Stand for example is Fox release.
X-men at Amazon
Doubtful anytime soon.
Only episodes 2 and 3 would look any good. Those were rendered with HD level resolutions in mine. My friend has captures of those, they are just bitchin. Ep 1 suffers from too-low resolution in the creation of all its special effects. He also has an HD capture of that, and the effects (such as Jarjar) look just horrible, very bad compared to actual background and actors. They'd literally have to re-render the whole movie to make it viewable quality in HD.
And as for eps 4-6, well, Lucas, being the galactic ass-hat that he is, killed the negatives of the original theatricals several years back (see discussions revolving around the latest DVD releases) so any copies of those would have to be from prints. Dubious quality would be given to those, considering how much "enthusiasm" Lucas put behind the theatrical DVD release. You might be able to get HD releases of the Uber-revised-Director's cut (god knows what he'll change next time around) but even then, that'll be a while.
Lucas likes to trot out SW every few years as a cash cow, but as evidenced by how long the DVD releases took, he just seems to get more and more self-loathing about it as the years go by. I don't foresee an SW release until at least 3 years after the format war is settled.
Only episodes 2 and 3 would look any good. Those were rendered with HD level resolutions in mine. My friend has captures of those, they are just bitchin. Ep 1 suffers from too-low resolution in the creation of all its special effects. He also has an HD capture of that, and the effects (such as Jarjar) look just horrible, very bad compared to actual background and actors. They'd literally have to re-render the whole movie to make it viewable quality in HD.
And as for eps 4-6, well, Lucas, being the galactic ass-hat that he is, killed the negatives of the original theatricals several years back (see discussions revolving around the latest DVD releases) so any copies of those would have to be from prints. Dubious quality would be given to those, considering how much "enthusiasm" Lucas put behind the theatrical DVD release. You might be able to get HD releases of the Uber-revised-Director's cut (god knows what he'll change next time around) but even then, that'll be a while.
Lucas likes to trot out SW every few years as a cash cow, but as evidenced by how long the DVD releases took, he just seems to get more and more self-loathing about it as the years go by. I don't foresee an SW release until at least 3 years after the format war is settled.
I disagree with this. Even old movies like The Searchers or Sparticus look much better under HD-DVD or BD.
I highly doubt he killed any negatives. I am sure he has them in a vault.
lupi
Lifer
- Apr 8, 2001
- 32,539
- 260
- 126
Over the past four years, Lowry Digital Images has emerged as the pre-eminent destination for studios looking to prepare their classics for DVD. Having cleaned up the Indiana Jones films for last year's DVD package to the satisfaction of Lucas, director Steven Spielberg and studio Paramount, the Burbank-based firm earned the chance this year to do the same for the Star Wars trilogy.
Even though the original film elements of the three movies have spent most of their time resting in vaults, they had gathered wear and tear that would have been noticeable had they been transferred, as is, straight to DVD.
"The most popular movies are often, by far and away, in the worst shape," Lowry says. "They have been printed more often and been duplicated more often, and each of those passes adds scuffs, dirt, scratches and the like."
The high-definition video transfers of the first three Star Wars films (Episodes IV-VI: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) that Lucasfilm delivered to Lowry, he says, "were a little rougher than we expected coming in the door. I thought, 'Oh, man.' "
Especially prevalent were scratches and dirt on the Tatooine sand dune scenes in Episode IV: A New Hope and on the snowy slopes of the ice planet Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. Lightsaber scenes in all the films, Lowry says, "were softer and grainier and had all kinds of dirt."
But Lowry mobilized the forces: 80 employees and 600 networked Power Mac G5 computers with the equivalent of 378 terabytes (378 million megabytes) of hard-disk storage.
The process: First, he analyzes the film and notes its biggest problems, be it dust or softness. Then he sets parameters for the restoration software. The computer system divides the film into segments and applies fixes, identifying flaws by comparing neighboring film frames. Lowry and his team check the processed scenes daily, frame by frame.
Restoration took about a month per film. As footage became ready, segments were downloaded onto a portable hard drive and shipped to Lucas for approval.
The result is as if a veil has been lifted: The annoying hail of visible noise is gone, and colors are richer. The footage seems to shine, as if brand-new. "We have given it the kind of sharpness which doesn't create ugly edges," Lowry says.
Beyond a stellar DVD, Lucasfilm now has a high-definition master stored in its vaults that won't degrade as celluloid does. The master can be used to make new film prints and high-definition DVDs.
Even though the original film elements of the three movies have spent most of their time resting in vaults, they had gathered wear and tear that would have been noticeable had they been transferred, as is, straight to DVD.
"The most popular movies are often, by far and away, in the worst shape," Lowry says. "They have been printed more often and been duplicated more often, and each of those passes adds scuffs, dirt, scratches and the like."
The high-definition video transfers of the first three Star Wars films (Episodes IV-VI: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) that Lucasfilm delivered to Lowry, he says, "were a little rougher than we expected coming in the door. I thought, 'Oh, man.' "
Especially prevalent were scratches and dirt on the Tatooine sand dune scenes in Episode IV: A New Hope and on the snowy slopes of the ice planet Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. Lightsaber scenes in all the films, Lowry says, "were softer and grainier and had all kinds of dirt."
But Lowry mobilized the forces: 80 employees and 600 networked Power Mac G5 computers with the equivalent of 378 terabytes (378 million megabytes) of hard-disk storage.
The process: First, he analyzes the film and notes its biggest problems, be it dust or softness. Then he sets parameters for the restoration software. The computer system divides the film into segments and applies fixes, identifying flaws by comparing neighboring film frames. Lowry and his team check the processed scenes daily, frame by frame.
Restoration took about a month per film. As footage became ready, segments were downloaded onto a portable hard drive and shipped to Lucas for approval.
The result is as if a veil has been lifted: The annoying hail of visible noise is gone, and colors are richer. The footage seems to shine, as if brand-new. "We have given it the kind of sharpness which doesn't create ugly edges," Lowry says.
Beyond a stellar DVD, Lucasfilm now has a high-definition master stored in its vaults that won't degrade as celluloid does. The master can be used to make new film prints and high-definition DVDs.
Actually, it's an acknowledged fact he killed them back in '93. (See about 4 paragraphs down from that link, the one that start " It's been reported previously that when Lucas...") during the first round of updates he did on them back then.
And while I agree that some older movies are given excellent treatment during transfer, I do remain skeptical. I have to get ahold of my friend, post the stills from the HD captures he has so you can see what I meant with Ep 1 at least.
Yeah, lets not turn this into a HD-DVD vs BR thread. However, there is no proof that any format is "dead meat". Both are hanging in there pretty well and neither has any significant advantage, especially since both combined still are only a pimple on an elephant's ass as far as sales compared to DVD.
Again, what he says and what is actually true can be two completely different things. I highly doubt he destroyed everything, why would he? I am sure he has at least one copy thats in good shape sitting in a vault. If people knew he did they'd whine about it, so he probably just said he destroyed them all. I could be wrong, who knows.
Shawn
Lifer
- Apr 20, 2003
- 32,236
- 53
- 91
They've already done an HD encode of all 6 Star Wars movies for cable & satellite release. They were on HBO HD a month or so ago. They looked pretty good. Obviously will be much better with the higher bit-rates on disc than cable broadcast. These were the versions with the added cgi, like the scene with Jabba in episode 4.
They certainly weren't of the quality that makes you truly impressed with the picture, but who knows if it's the original they used for the encode, or just the low bit-rate for cable broadcast. Still, not bad for a movie 30 years old.
Toshiba and their shadow FUD groups conveniently omit the PS3 from hardware sales figures, thus 74% marketshare headline. When it comes to adding up software attach rates, they include the PS3, so Blu-Ray software attach rates seem lower overall. The fact that Blu-Ray software consistently outsells HD-DVD in PAL territories punches a giant hole in Toshiba's FUD.
What's going to be funny how Toshiba is going to recover from the two-hit combo of PS3 price drop and 5 free BD discs. If all 1.5 million 60GB units sell out and 2/3 of the people get the disc deal (1M) that's going to absolutely bury HD-DVD software sales on the charts.
Let's say that the PS3 60gb sales double, that means that only 176k players will be sold, doubling last months 88k figure. With the 25% attachment rate, that means only 44k HD-DVD stand-alone or 360 add-on players have to be sold to keep up with the PS3. At that rate it'll take Sony 10months to sell out of the PS3.
People continually parrot this whole PS3 bury HD-DVD thing, but the PS3 sales absolutely suck. The price drop is only for the 60GB, which is discontinued. BFD?
I'm sorry, who exactly is this "acknowledged" by? I mean I always trust blog type post on the internet for all of my news, but......
That webpage is full of crap. It goes on to say:
"Either the films truly don't exist anymore, so it simply isn't possible to give them to you in state of the art quality (unlikely in the extreme, as we've said, despite public and private statements to the contrary)... or Lucasfilm DOES have copies of the original versions in their vaults, and they're just unwilling (or too damn cheap) to spend the money to give them to you in state of the art quality... yet."
How can it be "either" - if in fact your reporting that it's true?
Bunch of idiots.
They have 1.5M 60GB units to sell. I think this month is going to see a lot more than double sales on the PS3 if Amazon, etc are any indicator. The five free disc promo lasts until the end of September, so month-to-month, Blu-Ray is going to bury HD-DVD software sales more than they already have been doing. The 1.5M 60GB units are expected to sell out at the end of the year, at which time the 80GB unit will price drop anywhere from $399 - $499 to match the 360's price drop.
The fact is, that even with PS3 sales being not so great, there are at least 4M PS3s in homes today and a large percentage of those people are buying Blu-Ray discs. There are only ~500k HD-DVD units out there (including the 360 drive). There's just no way HD-DVD can compete.
PS3 sales will only increase as games come out and the price drops. Once Sony is comfortable with PS3 sales for games they drop the other shoe and reduce the price of stand-alone BD players. Production costs have been drastically reduced thanks to mass production of the PS3. Sony could drop the BDP-S300 to HD-DVD player prices if they wanted to, but they don't want to cannibalize PS3 sales. And, with HD-DVD software and hardware sales in the toilet, even at 1/2 the price of BD player prices, there's really no need to get aggressive at this point.
How is PS3 going to recover from the 6-1 sales ratio in Japan against the Wii? I mean the Wii doesn't even play DVD's and it's sales are far above the PS3.
Low Definition Wii is the new winning format in NTSC/PAL regions.
We all know that our moms, dads, aunts and uncles are all running out to purchase the PS3 for their exclusive Blu-Ray player.
Hell my son has one and he doesn't even play it!
Here's a news flash for you idiot Blu-Ray fanboys - PS3 is sh1t. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a PIG.
Sony ruined the PS3 by delaying it and way overpricing it to include Blu-Ray in an attempt to win a format war. While Blu-Ray may or may not win, it's obvious at this point that the PS3 is an total and utter failure. Droping the price means NOTHING if you don't have a single decent game to play!!!! That's the main reason our PS3 sits alone in the dark and our Wii and 360 are played to death.
You can stick all the features you want it in....but at the end of the thing it's still a CONSOLE. People are not just buying it for Blu-Ray.
" there are at least 4M PS3s in homes today" - Those numbers are for WORLDWIDE SALES.
Do some simple math here. USA has over 250 MILLION people. That 4 million is a drop in the bucket for just the US. Add that number to the total number of NTSC and PAL uses around the world. Get a clue.
Not to mention that you're factoring in ALL those PS3 machines as being purchased for the sole use of Blu-Ray? How many of those people actually have 1080P and purchased it for Blu-Ray? Or how many parents got one for their kids to just PLAY?
You really have no solid data and you're clueless. Taking numbers as a whole without analyzing them is retarded.
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