Such an inspiring project! Having been born well after George decided to make his original work completely unavailable, the janky early-2000s DVD was what I grew up on. I've never even seen the real original Star Wars, so I'm looking forward to sitting down and watching this sometime!

If you'd held out until 2006, there was a DVD release containing the unaltered versions of the films- referred to as GOUT (George's Original Unaltered Trilogy). As far as I know this was the last time the unaltered versions were released.

GOUT was my go-to for when I wanted to watch Star Wars, until 4k77 came along :) Can't wait for them to finish 4k80, as DVD resolution is pretty garbage.

Harmy’s despecialized trilogy is 99% as good as the real thing

Having watched 4k77 and 4k83 as well as Harmy's ESB I have to say I prefer the 4kxx versions and am eagerly awaiting 4k80. Harmy is amazing for doing what he did. However even besides the obvious issues inherent in stitching different sources together, I find the color palette of Harmy's a bit unnatural in places.

I too consider the 4kxx releases to be the “canonical” OT now, but there’s such a huge gulf between Harmy’s and GOUT and whatever the f**k Lucasfilm did to the colors for the DVD that I’m willing to forgive its shortcomings.

I found it strange that the 4K77 summary page doesn’t mention the Harmy Despecialized project at all.

It does and the author states he is a fan

So it does! Seems I only thought I read to the end … wonder how often that happens on the olde smartphone.

GOUT had serious problems, discussed at 5:25 in this video https://youtu.be/QXifjbxZDAM

This looks like an amazing undertaking, especially seeing the comparison to the bluray version. I was planning on watching the trilogy on bluray but I guess I have better plans now. :) Thank you!

Being a child of the 90s and of the digital era I am always endlessly amazed at the quality and potential of film. Every time I hear a story about how something more modern won’t even be released in 4K because they don’t have a high enough quality source because it's all digital I’m kind of saddened.

Even digital video created with low-resolution cameras will eventually be viewable in 4K, 8K and beyond because AI upscaling technology is just so great. See Anime4K for examples.

https://github.com/bloc97/Anime4K

Yes it "guesses" what the missing information is and populates it. Similar approaches will work for live action media too.

And successive video frames encode so much extra resolution that a single frame doesn't capture, so there's a lot of information to pull from.

That's pretty cool, anime seems to be the perfect material for doing that upscaling on. I tried the upscaling stuff newer video games have implemented and the real-time version of it can sometimes be glitchy.

I'll be happy to see higher res versions of digital stuff even if it means AI upscaling but as someone who loves messing around with photo and video gear for fun I will never not find film endlessly fascinating. Somehow the fact that that they had to do all effects practically meanwhile they had the technology to film it that was so detailed that it's still up to our current resolution standards is amazing to me.

> Every time I hear a story about how something more modern won’t even be released in 4K because they don’t have a high enough quality source because it's all digital I’m kind of saddened.

I think it depends on the movie, 28 Days Later was shot on digital potatocams and looks awesome.

> 28 Days Later was shot on digital potatocams and looks awesome.

I'll have you know they like to be called canon XL1s ;)

But I'm not sure how much was actually shot on those. I know a fair wedge of the action was, as it meant that they could do multi-cam shots (low budget, more realism, etc etc), I thought that they used ARRL something or others for slower shots. But I could be misremembering.

See also:

https://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/project-4k80/

https://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/project-4k83/

I came across it a few months ago and I'm amazed at the great work they've done. By the way for those interested, they are currently raising funds for a better scanning station, it's in their forum at https://forums.thestarwarstrilogy.com/threads/crazy-proposal...

Just figured I'd post it here given the great work they've done and how many people here seem to have enjoyed it.

It looks like the post is behind a login, and registration requires an invite code. I wish them luck, though!

Update: Here's the direct donation link if anyone else wants to chip in. They have just over 20k of the ~33k needed.

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=EDZSS68C4CHW...

They have open registration last I checked, with an invite code available in the publicly accessible part of the forum (sorry, don't have a link right now, but probably they prefer you go directly there anyway).

Ah, I found a link. Gracias!

The quote from George Lucas about how the older versions of SW will be lost to time and the blueray will emerge as the canonical version reminds me of historical criticism of the New testament gospels.. we only have the four, other versions having been excised or otherwise just lost and the current gospels being borrowed from older lost texts

Looking at the link they posted of the comparison (https://youtu.be/P1b47UP6ZGI) I cannot believe how much worse the blueray looks. The whole frame turns bright magenta during every laser rifle burst in the opening sequence!

I also think it's very telling that a bunch of fans made something better than the professional effort, with a small fraction of the budget, and are distributing it almost as a public good to ensue that it remains accessible in pereptuity.

I admire this enthusiasm so much, and it is so sad that it all has to happen in illegality.

I believe that nothing is illegal about the vast majority of these projects. They are using legally-obtained source material and performing legal alterations of it.

You could argue that redistribution of the material violates copyright. However, so far as I remember the distribution channels insist that this is material for license-holders only (those who have bought the original DVDs or other media). And honestly, the people interested in these projects really do already have at least one copy of Star Wars on legal media, and sometimes far more than one! I'll even take it a step further and state that with merchandising ties (toys, video games, new films) that the market of people willing to throw money at Disney (I cry) only increases when exposing people who don't have licensed media to this material.

Would my legally obtained version on Netflix count as a source for that? ;-)

Probably not. Maybe I'm overestimating the amount of people who watch on streaming services vs those who encountered Star Wars when physical media was dominant.

I wore out that Star Wars tape, and still kept watching it.

I looked at the comparison video and perhaps it's my untrained eye, but the 2011 Blue-Ray version looks best to me (not as green/brown tinged):

https://youtu.be/P1b47UP6ZGI

(MacBook Pro 2015 Retina screen)

the 2011 version has been re-graded, and that grade isn't static.

That is to say, they were willing to change the colour cast from the original print to make it more consistent.

There has also been a whole load of re-painting and restoration to get that extra detail.

The 4K77 version is literally just a scan from the print. The colour correction is almost static.

The 2011 version has its problems (crushed blacks, magenta flashes, a bit to cool color temperature) but I still prefer it over the rest

DNR (Digital Noise Reduction in this instance) has in the medical world another meaning of Do Not Resuscitate. I'm sure this will tickle those opposed

Wish I could just pay Disney a tax, and download these easily without going through newsgroups or torrents :(

Ew.

I instead wish creative works entered public domain _way_ sooner. Like mb 15/20 years.

What’s your plan for supporting the people who made those works if nothing they do in their later life ever reaches the size of that one big hit that they would have been earning money off of?

Is 20 years of earnings not enough? If they can no longer produce any other works or if their new work is culturally significant but not monetarily rewarding then it's a safety net issue, not a public domain issue.

If they have the ability to create something like Star Wars, my own personal plan is that they don't sit on their ass for twenty+ years reaping the benefits of a single achievement.

Really, given all the need there is in the world, this is a genuine concern of yours?

EDIT: And I should also note, the people who actually created the film are not the ones who reap those benefits for twenty+ years. It's only the people who control the IP.

I’m an artist, I made something ten years ago that has continued to sell better than anything else I’ve done. It is nowhere near Star Wars big but it is the creative equivalent of a “lifestyle business”. This is, indeed, a genuine concern of mine that affects my own finances.

Well the argument is that you can enjoy the financial benefit of your creation for only twenty years, and while I understand why you would disagree, I still think that is fair.

I suppose I still think you're an entitled asshole, then, unless you are also working hard to make a world where everyone doesn't have to come up with money for rent and groceries on a constant basis. Fair enough.

And do you think you should be able to coast off this forever?

I'm presuming it's your tarot card deck? (That doesn't look like you've even printed since 2018?)

I doubt this body has more than about sixty years in it at best, but I would certainly like to be able to continue to make money off of it while I'm still alive. Especially if my body starts to fall apart to the point where I can no longer make new work.

I don't have a plan for it because I don't care to solve that situation. The individual can figure out their own financial situation.

I don't know why you'd expect me to have (or care to have) some additional safety net for these entities, when my whole premise is that they should be losing exclusive access.

If they really want, they can continue to make stuff using that public domained IP. You realise they can do that right? If marvel became public domain, disney would still be the people outputting the vast majority of "high quality" marvel content*

It just means that joe bloggs can use the work too, without having to impoverish himself or work for free.

Or, you know, they can make something new. Or go get a job like everyone else. I really don't care.

* I realise this is an oxymoron

I genuinely don't understand your starting point.

Since when is society expected to support people regardless of what they produce?

Getting more work and/or a UBI.

Indefinite royalties certainly aren't it.

Long-term or perpetual copyright (as some copyright holders would push for) is the biggest form of welfare in the world.

I'd pay Disney to torrent their movies, it's a shame they don't offer the option.

I too can't stand the new 'special edition' versions. They are so much worse. As if a talented director has turned into a teenager with no taste and restraints, and I am very happy that this and Despecialized Edition exist. Bring my shuttle.

I would have agreed with you until I saw _How Star Wars was Saved in the Edit_ (https://youtu.be/GFMyMxMYDNk). Maybe George Lucas had _always_ been a teenager with no restraints?

EDIT:

Of course in the process of looking up the URL for HSWwSitE, I discovered _How "How Star Wars was saved in the edit" was saved in the edit (sort of, but not really)_ (https://youtu.be/olqVGz6mOVE) which is a really rather thorough (if laborious) rebuttal of the overall picture the original video sought to paint, and and quite justifiably takes the original video's creators to task for extremely selective reporting (and in several cases fairly woeful research).

But boy does it go on at some length (nearly 2h!). If only someone would save _How "How Star Wars was saved in the edit" was saved in the edit (sort of, but not really)_ in the edit.

> So far this restoration (including money spent on 4K77 and 4K83) has cost TN1 a little over $16,000, but sadly there can be no box office receipts or DVD/Bluray sales to refill our bank accounts when it’s all done.

If you're looking for a cause to donate to, this seems like a good one.

I had no idea something like this existed, very interesting

These guys are geniuses...can't wait for 4k80.