I've only seen ep.4 in the despecialized editions, but so far yes it's very impressive work.
The attention to detail is crazy for a project like this.

keenmaster486 wrote:

Lucasfilm has said that they won't press charges if it's not being done for profit.

<citation needed>

The Wall Street Journal wrote:

Distributing altered versions of the movies is illegal, but Lucasfilm, owned by Walt Disney Co., doesn’t pursue charges unless people are doing so for profit, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

Oh, also:

The Wall Street Journal wrote:

“Fans are an incredibly important part of our legacy and we never cease to be amazed by the passion and creativity they bring to all things ‘Star Wars,’ ” said a Lucasfilm spokeswoman.

I have Star Wars widescreen edition on LaserDisc, and official LaserDisc transfers of the other two movies on DVD. I think it's cool that people have the passion to do fanedits, but it's not for me.

Well, the idea of the fanedits was to basically create an HD version of the LaserDisk master, i.e. if Bluray had been used instead of LaserDisk at that time. So they took the LaserDisk versions, plus various other sources, and combined them with the official Blurays to create the closest thing to an exact copy of the original reels as is possible.

They're also color-corrected, shot by shot, to match what would have originally appeared on actual movie screens. I'm liking them more the more I watch them 😀

I dare say that, if there was a rip in the space-time continuum and Lucasfilm actually released a professional scan from the original negatives on Bluray, that it would match the despecialized editions 99% of the time.

My issue with fan edits is that they "fix" things as much as they restore them. I like seeing a goofed effect here and there, adds to the charm of a movie.

Despecialized is better than most in that respect, which is quite nice, but still give me a LaserDisc any day! 😜

SquallStrife wrote:

My issue with fan edits is that they "fix" things as much as they restore them. I like seeing a goofed effect here and there, adds to the charm of a movie.

Despecialized is better than most in that respect, which is quite nice, but still give me a LaserDisc any day! 😜

Thankfully RF demodulator is quite easy to find these days.

I've watched all 3 of the despecialised versions and they are great, incredible how it looks considering the 720 resolution of episode 4 but then again its 17 gigabytes, goes to show how resolution is not the be all end all.

Yeah, I've watched all 3 of the Despecialized editions. Stunning work and amazing attention to detail! The videos they have released explaining how they went about creating them, are really interesting. It's truly amazing what passion and skill can produce!

Did they take the soundtrack from the BD version? The DTS-MA sounds a bit flat, but it might be because the size of the movie is rather small. I believe the BD rip of the original "enhanced" trilogy was over 100 GB which would make one film about 35 GB in size.

I think they did with the soundtrack what they did with the video, that is, used the BD version where they could, but where it diverged, used other sources "quality enhanced" as much as possible. But don't quote me on that.

Despecialized are the only existing unaltered trilogy versions in HD out there. That's why I like it. Only problem is they're not 1080p, just 720p.....yet anyway. It doesn't help LucasFilm's case that the current Blu-Ray quality that's sold is absolutely horrid with incorrect colour timings and terrible upscaling. Oh, not to mention the SE garbage. It was as if it was just slapped together. And as a result the DE's quality, even though the res is lower, looks loads better than the official BluRay.

^ Amen. I don't know what's wrong with Lucas. Insanity would explain a lot 🤣

Oddly enough, the Despecialized Editions were my first exposure to the original trilogy when I watched them last year. Before anyone goes off, I DID watch some of the original trilogy when I was younger but it was from the 97 special editions on VHS. I am not sure if it was just the kid me not getting it at the time, or the special edition garbage turning me off at a young age without realizing it, but I was not sure if I even liked Star Wars from then on out. I rectified that last year watching those editions before seeing Episode VII with my cousin on Christmas day and from what I can tell, these are amazing edits. They may not be, "correct" but for close emulation of the original unedited films in HD, they are practically godlike.

keenmaster486 wrote:

^ Amen. I don't know what's wrong with Lucas. Insanity would explain a lot 🤣

Why did Microsoft give the world Cortana (aka Clippy Jr.)? The answer is 'hubris'.

gdjacobs wrote:

The answer is 'hubris'.

Yes.

Check out Mike Verta's vids on restoring Star Wars at https://vimeo.com/mikeverta
The dude has no plan to ever release the film to anyone else, which sucks, but there's interesting stuff in there regardless. He sets the standard for obsession with detail.