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10-05-2015, 07:47 PM
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Hi all,
Long time no see/talk, I've been playing around with this capture for a while and I can't figure out what is going on. So super super long story short, I tracked down the original star wars on rental vhs tape, I transferred it over to my pc and all is well except in some spots on the top left it says "S-VIDEO" (I think it does at least, its really hard to read)
Is this some form of copy right protection or something that Lucas put in? Is there a way to "shut it off" from my vcr? I know its a silly question and probably not possible but I have a panasonic 1980p. Screens are below
http://i.imgur.com/VERkAru.png
http://i.imgur.com/XMvb6qF.png
http://i.imgur.com/RDJSHaw.png
http://i.imgur.com/P0w4CPM.png
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Someday, 12:01 PM
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10-06-2015, 11:22 AM
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I have every release of Star Wars. 
Is this the 80s or the 90s VHS release?
Lucas copy protection was a beast back in the day. It was so strong that it'd often mess up the tape. You'd have to go through several, before one was clean enough to transfer -- even watch!
Please attach all images to the forum.
That is said, that error is odd. It doesn't look like any sort of copy protection. It looks like a bad dub, as I had mentioned. Many bad dubs existed.
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DeeSeven (10-06-2015)
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10-06-2015, 11:48 AM
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From the images, it's also a fuzzy, washed out pan and scan. The junk on top would have been masked by overscan on CRTs. You can mask it off with black, but why bother?
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DeeSeven (10-06-2015)
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10-06-2015, 12:22 PM
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You can clean those tapes up really nicely. I did so years ago. I just like having every version.
That said, the Laserdisc is better than the VHS.
The homebrew "despecialized" original is best overall. It's a 6gb MKV file available on torrents, since it's unofficial. I forget the full list of sources used, but you can find it online.
I'm not a Star Wars nerd, but this movie is a favorite for video editors to play with. There's just so much opportunity with Star Wars movies. The same is true of the 70s/80s Superman movies and Star Trek II. Those editors messed it up, so we always want to see if we can do better.
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DeeSeven (10-06-2015)
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10-06-2015, 12:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf
Is this the 80s or the 90s VHS release?
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Hey LS that is the thing, its not 80s or 90s its from 1977, the first, very first release on vhs which was allowed only by rental. I don't know if its a bad dub as its in an actual legit tape? pic attached to this post (sorry about the other ones totally spaced out on that)
Quote:
Originally Posted by sanlyn
From the images, it's also a fuzzy, washed out pan and scan. The junk on top would have been masked by overscan on CRTs. You can mask it off with black, but why bother?
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Bothering only because it is the only theatrical release for star wars. As I get older (few years older then LS  ) I want to rewatch the original star wars, not the special edition, thx, etc etc etc. I never really got into star wars as a kid so while Ive seen bits and pieces of all of them and probably have seen them all at some point. I'd really like to go back and see what my mom and uncle saw in the theaters
Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf
You can clean those tapes up really nicely. I did so years ago. I just like having every version.
That said, the Laserdisc is better than the VHS.
The homebrew "despecialized" original is best overall. It's a 6gb MKV file available on torrents, since it's unofficial. I forget the full list of sources used, but you can find it online.
I'm not a Star Wars nerd, but this movie is a favorite for video editors to play with. There's just so much opportunity with Star Wars movies. The same is true of the 70s/80s Superman movies and Star Trek II. Those editors messed it up, so we always want to see if we can do better.
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But the laserdisc isn't from the theater edition, which is the only reason why I'm doing it. I'm just wondering if I missed a setting on my vcr or not  but it looks like Lucas was just being himself back then.
One question, if I try to recapture this it will still show up that text on the top left right? as its the tape/machine. I'd have to get another tape
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10-06-2015, 01:12 PM
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Hmmm... I don't have the rental-only tapes. But I think the rental-only tape is the same as the release tape from the early 80s. I'm not 100% sure on that, and would have to check at the originaltrilogy.com forums.
If I remember correctly, we got ANH and ESB retail tapes back in 83. I distinctly remember getting ANH and ESB before ROTJ was in theatres. And then the ROTJ VHS next Christmas.
The Laserdisc is the widescren edition. It's not the theatrical edition? I though it was.
I've not done much with the original trilogy in several years now. I forget things. I've slept since then.
I tend to wonder if the rental VHS was made from an earlier master that still had timecode data. That's interesting.
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10-06-2015, 02:27 PM
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as far as I know the laserdiscs were edited under 2 hours to fit the format
its hard to find any info on the rental short of that its the only theater release of star wars and stupid rare
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10-06-2015, 02:47 PM
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The VHS tape would have had to fit about 2:00 as well. Back then, anything longer wasn't possible.
What is the running time?
Later tapes had about 2:20 available, but earlier tape was thicker (therefore less space was available).
I've never heard of a 70s tape running longer than 2:02.
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10-06-2015, 04:18 PM
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Isn't this out on DVD with both the old 4:3 from tape and the "improved" (sic) director-enhanced wide screen version as Star Wars IV? http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Epis...=UTF8&qid=&sr=
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10-06-2015, 05:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sanlyn
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That's not the same version. 
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10-06-2015, 08:13 PM
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The DVD contains the earlier 4:3 tape issue and a "revised" full screen version. How many pan and scan issues of the earlier 4:3 Star Wars are out there? I recall seeing that VHS tape years ago and wondered why people were paying to watch it. I brought my rental back to the Blockbuster store the same night I rented it and came home with Frank Capra's State of the Union in its place, or something similar. Maybe I should have just snitched the rental and claimed I'd lost it, in preparation for this sort of thing 20-odd years later. But it was too painful to watch.
Whatever. Another vote for restoration and preservation of original releases.
Last edited by sanlyn; 10-06-2015 at 08:24 PM.
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10-07-2015, 06:45 AM
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Somewhere I have Betamax dubs of the original issue VHS. My sister also has the last VHS release before the remastered special editions came out. Speaking of Betamax, those releases should all definitely be original given the format was dead before the special editions came out. The releases on ebay show running times around 124 mins., so there was likely more "slack" available on L-500 length tapes running on B-II speed.
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10-07-2015, 11:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by themaster1
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The concept is interesting, but I'm not seeing a lot of real-world benefits from some of the samples.
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