Tag: blu-ray

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Star Wars Blu-ray report: Cropping, sound, extras and… The Holiday Special?

The HDRoom’s Dan Bradley was another tech-oriented journalist invited to Lucasfilm’s Blu-ray junket. The first part of his report covers a few basics we’ve heard about from the other sites and Lucasfilm themselves. Part two focuses on Matthew Wood and sound mixing. And part 3 takes on, of course, the deleted scenes, special features and Dennis Muren.

Here’s one interesting bit:

In response to my question, Kayleen answered “You’ll have to wait and see! The Holiday Special is a challenge, but look for some Easter Eggs. What’s a Star Wars release without a couple of Easter Eggs?” I read into that as something pertaining to, if not the entire Holiday Special is hidden on these discs. These Easter Eggs are also what LucasFilm is referring to when stating the leaked bonus features are “incomplete.”

An additional Blu-ray inner sleeve depicts a scene from Droids, the animated cartoon revolving around the further adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Does that mean an episode of Droids or maybe something from the Ewoks television show is hidden as an Easter Egg? We’ll have to wait and find out on September 16, 2011.

I’ve always thought that the Holiday Special – or the less tedious bits of it, anyway – would make an excellent Easter Egg.

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CGI Yoda, as rumored to be on the Blu-rays

This is apparently the ‘new and improved’ CGI Yoda who has been rumored to be on The Phantom Menace blu-ray, replacing the traditional puppet. (I’m told this is different – or at least longer – than the clip on the Revenge of the Sith DVD.) Better? Worse? I was never a fan of the TPM puppet – he looked off – but I’m not sure this is any better. (via)

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Classify your favorite Star Wars moments with new site

Some fans love to rank things, and argue things, and just get all obsessive over who/what/where/how is better/worse that another who/what/where/how. I am not one of those people: I have my own favorites, of course, but I just tend to find the whole enterprise of categorizing them further than that exhausting. And thus Lucasfilm’s new site Star Wars Moments is just making my eyes cross. But if that is your thing, hey: Go for it. It’s certainly more productive than trolling Wookieepedia talk pages.

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A look at the Star Wars Blu-rays

Bill Hunt of Digital Bits got a look at the Star Wars Blu-rays last week, and he’s wrote up an extensive post with all those technical details folks have been wondering about. It includes this interesting bit:

Now, you’ll recall that a little bit ago, I said these should probably be best considered new 2011 versions of these films, and not the 2004 DVD versions. All the fixes and corrections alone justify this in my opinion, but there’s another reason too… and you can probably guess what it is: Once again, George has apparently added a few new “surprises” into these films. I don’t know what they are and didn’t get to see any of them on Friday, but I was assured that there will be “new things to notice” when we watch the films.

Though – again – nothing is confirmed, he goes on to mention the digital Phantom Menace Yoda that’s been knocking around in DVD extras for years.

But overall, his prognosis looks good, particularly for those disappointed by the last few releases.

UPDATE: Another report from Chris Chiarella at Big Picture, Big Sound. Adam Gregorich of Home Theater Forum was there too, and he has pictures of the inside movie page sleeves, which we have yet to see so clearly.

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Preview the Star Wars Blu-ray’s HD

The official Youtube account now has scenes from each movie in HD. I’m not embedding them because you have to go directly to Youtube to select the HD version (Example in the screenshout above.) Check them out: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

There’s a new extra posted as well: A feature on the Acklay creature from Attack of the Clones. That’s available in HD as well, but there’s an embed under the cut. Continue reading “Preview the Star Wars Blu-ray’s HD”

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Star Wars is on the money, at the zoo, and more…

Chewbacca and Han Solo are looking to make a few more credits.These credits will do fine: The Pacific island nation of Niue will be issuing a series of Star Wars coins, starting in November. Ten $1 coins and eight $2 coins are being issued in this first part of their Star Wars series, which will continue with additional designs to be released in 2012, to coincide with the 3-D movie release, for a total of 40 coins. While they are legal tender on Niue (Queen Elizabeth II is on the obverse) and made by the New Zealand Mint, the coins probably won’t see much circulation on their island home as they will be minted in small quantities for sale on the collector’s market – no more than 50,000 of the $1 coins will be minted, while the $2 coins will be limited to only 7,500.

The $1 silver-plated coins sport the likenesses of ten classic trilogy characters: Yoda, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, Han Solo, Obi-wan Kenobi, R2-D2, Chewbacca, and Emperor Palpatine. Each of these, shipped in a holder, will cost about $20 US.

You got an ATM in that torso Lite-Brite?The $2 coins will come in special four-packs with display cases – the dark side set of four coins (Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Stormtrooper, and Death Star) comes in a case shaped like Darth Vader’s mask, complete with breathing sound effects. The Rebel Alliance set comes in a Millennium Falcon case with hyperspace sounds and includes a Luke Skywalker & Princess Leia Organa coin, Han Solo & Chewbacca, Yoda & Obi-wan Kenobi, and C-3PO & R2-D2. Don’t expect to just pay 2 Niue dollars for these, as each of these coins is a whopping one ounce of silver!

Don’t feed the rancor! The Los Angeles Zoo will be having a Star Wars Day on August 27, including character visits, a sneak peek at the Blu-ray special features, and lots of comparisons between real world animals and the creatures and aliens of a galaxy far, far away. Just don’t pull a Jar Jar and accidentally let the animals loose!

Revelations decoded? Last week saw the release of two Star Wars comics, and launch of comics reviews on Big Shiny Robot by a familiar face. Check out GONK’s review of Invasion: Revelations #2 andThe Old Republic: The Lost Suns #3.