A Galaxy of Bootlegs

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Site created 12/15/97.

page created: 5/22/00

The Empire Strikes Back
(Version A)

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There seems to be only one bootleg version of The Empire Strikes Back in terms on content on the disc (Version B of this film differs only in the artwork on the disc). It was mastered using the special edition laserdisc release. The disc opens with the Fox Home Entertainment logo, followed by the Dolby Digital "City" and THX laserdisc trailers (both in 5.1). The main menu screen (below) allows you to view a single page of production notes, and a chapter menu (with 6 selections, although there are really 7 chapters). The menu also lets you select between 5.1 and 2.0 surround audio, both of which are included (and can be selected "on the fly" with your remote). The video is letterboxed and is of good quality, with English subs in the top bar of the letterbox in white, and Chinese subs in yellow at the bottom. There's also a brief "behind the scenes" featurette tagged on to the end of the film (from the laserdisc). One thing to note here, is that the authoring on this disc is very poor. Every time you hit a chapter stop, your player will freeze for a good second. And you can't scan back past these stops. This is the only bootleg I've seen thus far with this problem - the others mastered like this are fine. The artwork on the disc is of poor quality, but it's at least accurate (rare in a bootleg).

You can see screen shots from the disc below. Keep in mind that when resizing them for the Internet, Photoshop tends to minimize imperfections in the picture, so the images may make the video look better than it is. I would say that the video is slightly less than laserdisc quality (being a copy) but definitely better than VHS.

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