BluRay: George Lucas officially announces Star Wars on Blu-ray in 2011

[MaxxMark]

As rumored, all six Star Wars movies will be released together on Blu-ray in 2011 for the 35th anniversary of the release of A New Hope. George Lucas personally announced the set on stage at the Celebration V event, and showed off a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi that will be included (embedded after the break.) While the "highest picture and audio quality" and extensive special features are promised, what won't make it to Blu-ray are the original versions of the movies; Lucas told the New York Times that only the special editions will be included, since restoring the original versions in high enough quality would cost too much. No word on price, release date or any plans to release the films individually, but if you can stand living in a world where Greedo shot first then this will certainly be on next year's shopping list.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/14/george-lucas-officially-announces-star-wars-on-blu-ray-in-2011/

Kom maar op met die BluRay!

De HiDef content die ik in antwerpen heb gezien van de diverse delen (Bij StarWars In Concert) zagen er al erg crisp uit, als alle delen in die kwaliteit zijn wordt het een geweldige release 

[bigbro]

OH man, wat heeft die man een goudmijn gevonden.

[MaxxMark]

True, en wij trappen er iedere keer weer in

[squeek]

ja, het blijft steeds opnieuw een "koopje"

hopelijk niet te ver achter in 2011, anders praten we nog over een jaar of meer vanaf nu gerekend.

greetz

[Freud]

Dat zal wel in mei zijn (volgens mij kwamen alle films in mei uit)

[Nooff]

Dat zal wel in mei zijn (volgens mij kwamen alle films in mei uit)

De herfst is niet in Mei, reken maar op Oktober/November 2011

van Areadvd:

SAN FRANCISCO, Kalifornien (USA)–Heute haben Lucasfilm Ltd. und Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment auf der Star Wars Celebration V bekannt gegeben, dass die vollständige Star-Wars-Saga auf Blu-ray-Disc kommt. Die Veröffentlichung findet weltweit im Herbst 2011 statt. Das Blu-ray Box-Set Star Wars wird alle sechs Star-Wars-Filme enthalten und die bestmögliche Bild- und Tonqualität liefern. Zudem gibt es viele spezielle Features, darunter Dokumentationen, Szenen hinter der Kamera aus alten Zeiten, Interviews, Retrospektiven und nie zuvor gesehenes Material aus den Archiven von Lucasfilm.

[Freud]

De herfst is niet in Mei, reken maar op Oktober/November 2011

van Areadvd:

Woopsie :-) Dat had ik dan weer niet gelezen. I stand corrected :-)

[WilcoL]

Nou, toch al zo lang aan het wachten dat ik daar geen moeite mee heb! De beroemde WookieGroomer-versies heb ik ooit wel ge-dl-ed, maar nooit gekeken: Blu-Ray is the way to watch it of course!

Nu, op maandag al nieuws van de week! erg goed om te weten dat het er in ieder geval aan zit te komen!!!

Groeten, Wilco

[Nooff]

Nou, toch al zo lang aan het wachten dat ik daar geen moeite mee heb! De beroemde WookieGroomer-versies heb ik ooit wel ge-dl-ed, maar nooit gekeken: Blu-Ray is the way to watch it of course!

Nu, op maandag al nieuws van de week! erg goed om te weten dat het er in ieder geval aan zit te komen!!!

Groeten, Wilco

Die WookieGroomer versies zien er wel verdomd mooi uit! 

[Nahpets]

Ik durf het bijna niet te vrage, maaruh....wat is een WG versie?

[celerontje]

OH man, wat heeft die man een goudmijn gevonden.

Hij moet toch wat nu hij de helft van zijn vermogen weggegeven heeft!

[celerontje]

Ik durf het bijna niet te vrage, maaruh....wat is een WG versie?

Iemand heeft eigengebakken BD's gemaakt van HDTV captures en die op internet gekwakt.

[Nahpets]

Iemand heeft eigengebakken BD's gemaakt van HDTV captures en die op internet gekwakt.

OK.

En wat is de bron van de HDTV uitzending geweest?

[celerontje]

Britse en Duitse volgens mij. (correct me if I'm wrong)

[Nahpets]

Mijn vraag was blijkbaar niet duidelijk.

De (blijkbaar Duitse en Engelse TV) hebben een HDTV uitzending gedaan. Welk materiaal hebben ze daar voor gebruikt. Een DVD die door hun geupscaled is? Of hadden ze toegang tot HD bronmateriaal?

[WilcoL]

Mijn vraag was blijkbaar niet duidelijk.

De (blijkbaar Duitse en Engelse TV) hebben een HDTV uitzending gedaan. Welk materiaal hebben ze daar voor gebruikt. Een DVD die door hun geupscaled is? Of hadden ze toegang tot HD bronmateriaal?

Ja, dat is mij ook niet helemaal duidelijk! En ondanks dat ze er inderdaad behoorlijk goed uitzien, vind ik het geluid niet echt geweldig te noemen... Dus ik wacht lekker op The Empire Strikes Back op Blu-Ray 

[celerontje]

Mijn vraag was blijkbaar niet duidelijk.

De (blijkbaar Duitse en Engelse TV) hebben een HDTV uitzending gedaan. Welk materiaal hebben ze daar voor gebruikt. Een DVD die door hun geupscaled is? Of hadden ze toegang tot HD bronmateriaal?

TV versies (of het nou HD of SD is) zijn bijna altijd speciale TV masters.

[MaxxMark]

Ik heb de WG releases ook.

De sources zijn allen (zal het zo ff checken to be sure)  1080p uitzendenen geweest van Sky (europe).

Hierbij heeft hij indien niet aanwezig de 5.1 tracks van de DVD's gepakt en deze aligned met de film. Tevens heeft hij voor EmpireStrikesBack de kleur gecorrigeerd zodat deze het origineel beter matcht (er was veel "blauw" weg gehaald).

De releases zijn subliem te noemen. Je zult geen betere versies gaan vinden. Het beeld is zeer goed in kwaliteit. De enige minpunten aan bijvoorbeeld A New Hope is dat de audiotrack te wensen over laat. Niet dat dat aan de release ligt, maar aan de bron. Je merkt dat het oude opnames zijn en sommige scene's hebben heel erg crisp geluid, en andere een stuk doffer.

Bij de tentoonstelling in Antwerpen bij de StarWars In Concert werden ook diverse scene's getoond van StarWars (ook 4,5,6) welke in HiDef waren. Deze zagen er ook uitzonderlijk goed uit en waren in mijn ogen beter dan deze WookieGroomer releases. Dat maakte het voor mij al erg aannemelijk dat ze druk bezig waren met het klaarmaken voor een SW release. Niet echt meer een "of" maar een "wanneer".

Om even de NFO's te pasten

***********************************************************************
                          WOOKIE GROOMER PRESENTS
                    Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
                              HIGH DEFINITION
                             BD50 BLURAY FORMAT
                       2009 Minor Adjustments Edition
           Han Shoots First / Restored Original Darth Vader voice
                  "I'M A MAJOR ASS BUT I HAVE A GOOD EXPLAINATION,
      I POSTED A PROPER RE-ISSUE FROM A BURNED BD50 THAT WAS CORRUPT
                       AND DIDN'T KNOW IT" EDITION                        
***********************************************************************

-----------------------------------------------------------------------                                                  
                           General Information
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Release Date : July 2009 - Proper Re-Issue August 14, 2009 - 3rd attempt to get this right August 20th 2009
Source       : 1080p Sky Broadcasting/1080p German Premier Caps Hybrid
Frame Rate   : 23.976 fps
Video        : 1920x1080p @ 35,000kbps H.264
Audio        : English AC3 5.1EX
Audio        : Isolated Film Score DTS 5.1 @ 1509kbps
Audio        : Isolated Film Score Uncompressed PCM Stereo
Audio        : Audio Commentary -Untouched from Retail R1 DVD
Length       : 124m

**FOR THIS 3RD AND FINAL EDITION**
OOPS, I burned my archival copy of A New Hope onto BD50 and then deleted the files. When I decided to post the corrected A New Hope I pulled it from my BD50 which unknowingly was corrupted and sadly I did not find out till long after the upload was complete and my newest set of victims started complaining. So, to rectify the situation I downloaded my very own first edition of this bluray that had a known audio sync issue (that was otherwise perfect) along with the corrected AC3 audio file I posted several days later. I demuxed the entire bluray project with EAC3to and re-authored a brand new bluray using my existing menu files and the posted audio fix AC3 file in place of the original audio file. Sadly, the DTS mix for the film is lost forever since I did not post that to the groups and the only version I had was the one in the feature on my corrupted BD50 disk. Since the sync was off on the original edition I could not pull from that, oh well... One good thing about that is you have 1.5GB less to download this time around. So what we have here is basically an identical proper reissue minus the DTS film soundtrack and no missing section. I swear, I will survive this project... damn it.

I have given all this work a lot of thought and have several times considered abandoning it. However, I strongly feel these are the finest editions currently available and I stand by what I am trying to do, despite the curse that has plagued me since I started official work in February of 2009. I can't even imagine what I would have become had I started on the 15 hours of supplimental material that was originaly going to accompany this set. Yikes.

I'm sure, once complete, the grief will be worth it and many people will enjoy these despite those that I continue to piss off and disorientate. Hopefully, you will get what you have been expecting very soon.

**********************************


Like Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, Lucas went back and made color adjustments to the Special Edition releases. With Empire he went  blue and A New Hope he went Red. With A New Hope, the bland black and white universe dominated by the Empire had suddenly become more colorful. Some of the scenes were overly hot adding a reddish hue and laserblasts were now a hot pink?!. WTF... I tried to clean up some of those issues. I didn't want to get tied up in some sort or obsessed "restoration" because I am only a little crazy. I tried to "fix" the pink/magenta laser blasts with either red or white depending on what seemed closer to the frame on the original theatrical version. However, I didn't do a frame by frame adjustment through the entire movie so I know I missed a few. I wanted to take away the obviousness of them so watching the scenes with a lot of laser blasts you shouldn't really notice anything except the action on the screen- no pink pops. Again, this is NOT an extensive restoration and against popular belief these blurays are NOT "color corrections" I never said they were. They are simple adjustments here and there to my liking. In fact, I could probably spend months tweaking the colors and brightness and never truly be satisfied. No one knows for sure what "correct" even means and should never claim so. One other tweak worth mentioning is the Cantina scene, I had to lighten it up some. I thought it was way too dark in many scenes and had to give it some breathing room. Compared to the theatrical version it looks like it was shot completely in the dark when in fact it use to be well lit.

For this release I mainly dialed back on the overall red saturation trying to bring the color tone closer to what appeared natural to me like I did 3 years ago on the original release. I felt the majority of the feature looked pretty good and I did leave a lot of things "as is" because I liked the punch of color. Even though I had already visited the high def saga back in 2007 with several of these adjustments- this go around is my preferred versions because I went much deeper than before and never quit felt happy, not to mention Han does shoot Greedo first as I have always done.  I never had access to H.264 encoding and my old obsolete version were compromised in almost every way. These things seem kind of trivial now since several have imitated this technique over the past couple years but up until now no one has actually threw the bits at it to fully enjoy it all on a real home theater system in a convenient "just hit play" format.

In the audio department I dug up an old laserdisc capture I had laying around and extracted the center channel dialog. I pulled out all of Darth Vaders dialog and plopped it into this release because I really liked how the old Vader sounded. I extracted the AC3 rf on an old capture card from a Pioneer DVL-909  Laserdisc/DVD combo player eons ago. I always hated the picture quality of the cap but the audio was bit perfect and sounded great. I also replaced the sound Obi-wan made when he first appeared on screen to scare away the Sandpeople with the original sound also from that cap.  So basically, these blurays are still the new Special Editions with what should be minimal "transparent" tweaks. I debated on deleting the Jabba scene but Harrison Ford is in that scene and you can't delete Harrison Ford. Like the rest of this project I am the first to provide a full uncompressed isolated music score that sounds awesome and I will NEVER use mp3 files downloaded from the internet on my releases. For the record the isolated scores on all my releases are directly ripped bit perfect from the original outstanding Sony Classics remastered CD's of the trilogy and carefully edited to match the films score as close as what's reasonable.  Even if you are a casual viewer you owe it to yourself to sit back and just listen to the fantastic scores that run through these films.

As a side note, you may notice an audio sync issue with the background sounds on the audio commentary. To re-edit the Han Shoots First scene several frames had to be removed. Since I plugged in the audio commentary as-is that edit will be apparent after the scene is over. I did not feel editing the audio commentary was warranted since it technically does not impact the feature itself. I also omitted all the foreign language tracks as they would have to be re-edited too in order to sync with the film and I did not need the extra headaches. New covers are provided will all these re-issues to accurately depict the actual contents of the disk.


[email protected]

 ***********************************************************************
                          WOOKIE GROOMER PRESENTS
               Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
                              HIGH DEFINITION
                             BD50 BLURAY FORMAT
                     2009 Minor Color Adjustment Edition
                         ....Boba Fett still speaks

 ****PROPER RE-ISSUE WITH CORRECTED CENTER CHANNEL AND WORKING MENUS****
 ***********************************************************************

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------                                                  
                           General Information
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Release Date : June 2009 - Proper Re-Issue August 11, 2009
Source       : 1080p Sky Broadcasting/1080p German Premier Hybrid Caps
Frame Rate   : 23.976 fps
Video        : 1920x1080 @ 35,000kbps
Audio        : English DTS 5.1 @ 1509kbps
Audio        : English AC3 5.1 EX @ 640kbps
Audio        : Isolated Film Score DTS 5.1 @ 1509kbps
Audio        : Isolated Film Score Uncompressed PCM Stereo
Audio        : Audio Commentary 1 - Untouched from Region 1 Retail DVD.   
Audio        : Audio Commentary 2 - Custom made from various sources
Length       : 2h 7m
Size         : Not for sissy boys or entertainment center hometheaters


This Bluray was meticulously edited and COLOR ADJUSTED to cut back on the blue tinting/saturation that blankets the film. For the 2004 re-release the original trilogy underwent extreme color saturation changes that altered the natural colors originally shot on film. For this final and definitive release the blue tinting present through almost the entire film has been nearly wiped away.

In addition to the extensive color adjustments a short Tri-Screen Vignette is included that showcases the differences between the newly restored 2009 Wookie Groomer edition with the original 1980 theatrical version and 2004 official re-release version with the blue tinting which is selectable via the Bluray menu.

In the audio department I have made an alternate audio commentary 2 track to compliment the original commentary already found on the official DVD release. This 2nd alternate commentary is a collection of rare interviews pieced together and placed in many key sequences through the film. In addition, I have created using raw uncompressed PCM 2 channel stereo a complete isolated music score that syncs through the entire film in both 2 channel uncompressed PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 Simulated surround sound also selectable via the menu. Not to mention the orginal Boba Fett voice has been restored again and corrected from the previous editions.

With the color adjustments, highest possible bitrate for unquestionable picture quality, Tri-Screen Vignette and a total of 6 audio channels including isolated music score no fan of the series could possibly pass on having this in their collection. The intention with this release is to provide a single definitive video/audiophile edition that can be enjoyed by even the most elitist home theater afficianadoes. My only regrets are that I could not do the animated menus, pop up menus and picture in picture split screen due to the major limitations of the authoring software I used. For the little girls that aren't serious fans that complained about file size I wish I could make this 60GB!

Included in the rar set is the iso & mds files and updated Bluray insert cover reflecting the subtraction of languages and corrected typos.

To burn the iso please use the provided mds file in ImgBurn.

[email protected]

***********************************************************************
                          WOOKIE GROOMER PRESENTS
                 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return Of The Jedi
                              HIGH DEFINITION
                             BD50 BLURAY FORMAT
                     2009 Minor Color Adjustment Edition
                  PROPER RE-ISSUE WITH CORRECTED AUTO SYNC
             AS TESTED BY MEMBERS OF WWW.ABHDTV.NET AND MYSELF                      
***********************************************************************

-----------------------------------------------------------------------                                                  
                           General Information
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Release Date : July 2009 - Proper Re-Issue August 18, 2009
Source       : 1080p Sky Broadcasting/1080p German Premier Caps
Frame Rate   : 23.976 fps
Video        : 1920x1080p @ 35,000kbps H.264
Audio        : English AC3 5.1EX
Audio        : Isolated Film Score DTS 5.1 @ 1509kbps
Audio        : Isolated Film Score Uncompressed PCM Stereo
Audio        : "Alternate" Dolby Digital Stereo Isolated Film Score
              with original theatrical editions of "Lapti Nek" and "Ewok Celebration"
Audio        : Audio Commentary -Untouched from Retail R1 DVD
Length       : 136m
Size         : If you have to ask, you can't afford it.

This is the "proper" final edition with correct audio sync as reported by viewers grabbing the original release. This has been tested and confirmed working. This one rocks folks!

Like Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope, Lucas went back and made some not so attractive color adjustments to the Special Edition releases. With Empire he took a blue crayon and just scribbled the crap out of it. With Jedi, he cranked up the heat and added a subtle (in some parts not so subtle) addition of red.

For this release I mainly dialed back on the overall red saturation trying to bring the color tone closer to natural. I felt the majority of the feature looked pretty good and I did leave a lot of things as is. Considering the wear and tear of the stock over the years I can understand why colors were kicked up during the remastering process for the Special Edition releases. In some cases they look good and in others I needed to step in and interfere for my own personal satisfaction.

In the audio department I have made two different Isolated Music Scores just as they appear in the film.  The first one comes in two formats; raw uncompressed PCM 2 channel stereo and DTS 5.1 Simulated Surround Sound. A second Dolby Digital Stereo score is essentially identical to the first except I swapped out the Jabba party music with the original 1983 versions of "Lapti-Nek" and the films finale "Ewok Celebration". All audio options are selectable via Menu. Also, for this release no DTS Soundtrack is provided because I did not mix the soundtrack from multiple elements like I did with Empire and New Hope.  

This re-issue concludes my Star Wars Trilogy on Bluray project. I hope you enjoy it.

[email protected]

Om even het EmpireStrikesBack voorbeeld te geven (open in new window):

En een full frame plaatje (open in new window):

[Nooff]

Tevens heeft hij voor EmpireStrikesBack de kleur gecorrigeerd zodat deze het origineel beter matcht (er was veel "blauw" weg gehaald).

Ter aanvulling: Ze hadden er juist een blauwe filter overheen gegooid, zie verschil tussen oude en nieuwe versie (1980/2004). Wookie heeft de filter weer gecorrigeerd en de kleuren zoveel mogelijk naar de oorspronkelijke staat terug gebracht. Het geluid komt inderdaad van de DVD, dus wie deze releases al top vond, de audio is gelijk aan de DVD versies. Vooralsnog is er niet beter en tot Herfst 2011 heb je gewoon een zeer mooi plaatje+geluid  

[Maartje]

tijd om je dvd`s te verkopen 

[paul groot]

George gaat weer een paar centen verdienen aan me..................

[audiosurfer]

Kom maar op!!

[Pos]

OH man, wat heeft die man een goudmijn gevonden.

En nog een nieuwe mijn gevonden  . Star wars films worden nu ook naar 3D omgezet.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/filmenuitgaan/film/7783550/__Star_Wars_reeks_eindelijk_naar_3D__.html?sn=filmenuitgaan

[pi]

En nog een nieuwe mijn gevonden  . Star wars films worden nu ook naar 3D omgezet.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/filmenuitgaan/film/7783550/__Star_Wars_reeks_eindelijk_naar_3D__.html?sn=filmenuitgaan

Hmmm, ik weet nog niet of we hier blij mee moeten zijn of niet... (maar misschien is dat een aparte discussie waard   )

[MaxxMark]

Khad al wat rondgezocht vandaag en het schijnt dat ze per deel een jaar over de conversie gaan doen en dat ze stellen "als je een conversie doet moet je het goed doen!". Een beetje de James Cameron mentaliteit. Laten we daar dus maar op hopen!

Misschien moeten we maar denken dat het goed is dat hij met EP1 begint, want dan hebben ze bij EP4, 5 en 6 eindelijk door hoe het écht moet en zijn die in ieder geval goed