SFXB Forum

Okay, so is there anyone here who hasn't got it? Anyway, I've run into a slight problem. On the Bonus Disk, theres a blooper reel Easter Egg, which you have to input a code to access. However, I can't get my DVD player (a Pioneer DVL-919 - in case anyones wondering bought back when it was a little uncertain that this whole DVD thing was going to work out...!) to access it as number pad entries on the remote don't seem to work. I've also tried PowerDVD using my PCs DVD-Rom but also can't find a way to enter the code. Anyone got any suggestions?

Do you know how to bring up the number pad on PowerDVD? If you hover your mouse on the far right of the console, there's a little indistinct plus sort of sign. You should get a text pop-up for the number pad. Click, and it'll appear. Presumably that'll sort you out, I do (predictably enough) have the trilogy and watched ANH last night on my new surrond set up. Very, very nice. I understand they've done a little more to it since the special edition video release, and it looks better than some recently released films to my mind. Quality stuff.

I did try that, but couldn't get the number pad to appear. Will give it another go, though, Andy - thanks!I've got through ANH and ESB so far. Thing I noticed the most is the sheer quality of the image; for the very first time I noticed the red markings on the Rebel Corvette at the beginning of Star Wars. Very well done, just a pity the box the DVDs come in isn't quite up to the same standard...Favourite bit from the "Empire of Dreams" documentary - early non-FX added footage of the destruction of Alderaan, with a cardboard planet being obliterated by someone saying quietly "Bang!" off-stage...   I occasionally see Michael Sheard in my home town - theres a local Star Wars fan chapter and he occasionally gets invited to their conventions. Always gives me a bit of a shock to unexpectedly meet Mr. Bronson in person! <shudder> David Prowse also sometimes attends, but I'm yet to meet him, unfortunately...

Quote (AndyThomas @ 21 Sep. 2004,20:39)Do you know how to bring up the number pad on PowerDVD?  If you hover your mouse on the far right of the console, there's a little indistinct plus sort of sign.  You should get a text pop-up for the number pad.  Click, and it'll appear.  Sorry, Andy, no joy. My version of PowerDVD is a little too clever for its own good - the number-pad is media senstive and will only show a menu pad (no numbers) in DVD playing mode, something which the help file helpfully points out... MediaPlayer is another option, but I doubt theres a number pad in that...?

some possible spoilers ahead...keep scrollingOkay, in case you didn't know, there's a LOT of moaning around the web about the changes Lucas has made again. There has been a good number of much needed graphical fixes and touchups, but there have also been some more, uh, "artistic" changes.Among the complaint-worthy:Hayden Christensen (from the new SW movies) appears with the ghosts at the end of ROTJ.Audio is mangled in some places and important musical cues are muted, such as the music swell in the Death Star battle (right click and save link to disk, you may need a recent version of QuickTime for playback)Vader's eyebrows are painted off when Luke removes his helmet. Some suspect this was done to accommodate his "injury" in the upcoming Episode III.Despite all of the major cleanup, the horrible blocky mattes around ships like the tie fighters are still there and are actually more noticeable thanks to the color and contrast improvements.Among the praise-worthy:The Han/Greedo scene is improved BUT Greedo still shoots first.The CGI Jabba is completely redone and looks nicer.Luke's scream as he fell in Cloud City that was added for the ESB Special Edition was taken back out.English words on panels and screens were changed to an alien font.Lots of graphical touch-ups and fixes (like when ObiWan's light saber stops glowing briefly in ANH when fighting Darth)Rumor has it that when Lucas put out the big 6 DVD set after Episode III is released, three of the DVDs will be double-sided with the updated versions on one side and the original three (only with the cleanups, no artistic changes) on the other side.

I haven't got it. I'd buy the original trilogy, but not the messed up prequel-compatible versions that have been released on DVD. I have no problem with Lucas playing around with his films as much as he likes, but I do object to being denied the originals. I could tolerate some clean-up of special effects (not redoing or altering, just eliminating obvious flaws like the mattes around ships), but nothing more than that.

Ah, so the big square blob around the TIE fighters wasn't my imagination then... You'd have thought if they were redoing a lot of the Falcon and X-Wing shots they'd have caught that, but then perhaps they were too focused on the little things to notice the more obvious ones? Plus easy for us to nitpick, it's probably taken almost as long to re-do the originals as it did to make them in the first place...

Considering the, er, things said about the changes, you'd think someone would be happy about the TIE-fighter effects blob - after all, it was in the original... (just kidding, Andy!)Still no luck with the blooper reel - it appears I'm not the only one with this problem, but no solution seems to have yet appeared. Maybe I need to fetch the hydro-spanners...

Well, that's just the thing... everyone I know greatly welcomed the updated CG of the X-Wing departure in the Special Edition. Had Lucas just outright replaced the awful TIE scenes with shot-by-shot CG animations.For that matter, Lucas already went in and fixed up the terrible blue screen matte "ghosting" and transparency in the Hoth battle for the Special Edition. So, it clearly can't be a technical challenge.