Jim Lynch: Off the Top of My Head…

I can’t wait to snag my copy of these films on DVD! We’ve been waiting for far, far too long!

Over the past four years, Lowry Digital Images has emerged as the pre-eminent destination for studios looking to prepare their classics for DVD. Having cleaned up the Indiana Jones films for last year’s DVD package to the satisfaction of Lucas, director Steven Spielberg and studio Paramount, the Burbank-based firm earned the chance this year to do the same for the Star Wars trilogy.

Even though the original film elements of the three movies have spent most of their time resting in vaults, they had gathered wear and tear that would have been noticeable had they been transferred, as is, straight to DVD.

“The most popular movies are often, by far and away, in the worst shape,” Lowry says. “They have been printed more often and been duplicated more often, and each of those passes adds scuffs, dirt, scratches and the like.”

The high-definition video transfers of the first three Star Wars films (Episodes IV-VI: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) that Lucasfilm delivered to Lowry, he says, “were a little rougher than we expected coming in the door. I thought, ‘Oh, man.’ “

It’s heartening to hear that they’ve all been cleaned up so well for this release and that we have the potential to eventually get some high definition DVDs later on too. :mrgreen:

But wow! Talk about computing power for this. Holy mackerel! :shock:

But Lowry mobilized the forces: 80 employees and 600 networked Power Mac G5 computers with the equivalent of 378 terabytes (378 million megabytes) of hard-disk storage.

The process: First, he analyzes the film and notes its biggest problems, be it dust or softness. Then he sets parameters for the restoration software. The computer system divides the film into segments and applies fixes, identifying flaws by comparing neighboring film frames. Lowry and his team check the processed scenes daily, frame by frame.

Restoration took about a month per film. As footage became ready, segments were downloaded onto a portable hard drive and shipped to Lucas for approval.

The result is as if a veil has been lifted: The annoying hail of visible noise is gone, and colors are richer. The footage seems to shine, as if brand-new. “We have given it the kind of sharpness which doesn’t create ugly edges,” Lowry says.

Beyond a stellar DVD, Lucasfilm now has a high-definition master stored in its vaults that won’t degrade as celluloid does. The master can be used to make new film prints and high-definition DVDs.

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