One & Only Thread About Star Wars Trilogy Picture Quality (merged)

[slop101]

I apologize for starting another Star Wars thread - but I just want to focus on their transfers here.

Now, don't get me wrong, these transfers are awesome - incredible detail, rich colors, crystal clear image, deep deep blacks... and that's the thing - the blacks are so deep that the transfers seem a lot darker than they should be. This darkness goes away and everything looks fine when I turn up the brightness/picture on my set, but since my set is properly calibrated, I shouldn't have to do this. I even tried the THX optimizer thingy on the discs and that didn't really do anything.

Again, this is not too big a deal - it just seems darker than it should.

(BTW, yes, I do feel like an ass complaining about this - I just want to see if other people noticed this, as the reviews don't mention it.)

[Groucho]

Might get a better discussion going when the official date hits and more people actually have the discs.

[JoeyOhhhh]

I thought the same thing about the transfers. A little too dark.

[PopcornTreeCt]

Is it just me, or is this a barely disguised bragging thread?

[QuiGonJosh]

they are a tad dark...I suspect its just that the black levels have finally been corrected...they still look amazing...

[GuessWho]

Maybe your previous viewings were too light ;)

[Qui Gon Jim]

Originally posted by PopcornTreeCt
Is it just me, or is this a barely disguised bragging thread?

LOL!

It would be best to wait until those of us without "connections" IE people breaking street date agreements to get our sets.

Thx

[fumanstan]

Originally posted by PopcornTreeCt
Is it just me, or is this a barely disguised bragging thread?

Its just you.

[Bronkster]

I'll wait for Dalvin's official reveiw of the transfers, since he's had the set for a few days now -ptth-

[mjlukich]

Yeah, my set seems kinda dark too. This must be a trend, because I noticed the same thing on my Van Helsing, Troy, and Shaun Of The Dead DVDs.

[Canadian Bacon]

Originally posted by GuessWho
Maybe your previous viewings were too light ;)

:up:

[slop101]

I compared them to episodes 1 & 2 and those are far lighter than 4-6, literally and figuratively.

[darkside]

I would think the darkness would add to the atmosphere of the films, but I will have to actually see how dark myself to know for sure.

I'm planning on watching the new versions and then looking at the 97 and original version to do some comparisons. I'll try to see how much darker this transfer is from the previous versions.

[Turd Ferguson]

Outer space is, in my limited opinion, rather dark.

[Giles]

Originally posted by GuessWho
Maybe your previous viewings were too light ;)

Originally posted by Canadian Bacon
:up:

I'll do one better...

:lol:

[Kal-El]

Originally posted by Turd Ferguson
Outer space is, in my limited opinion, rather dark.

That's my answer right there. :D

[BobSolo]

I thought the same thing when I got my set 3 months ago, but after a couple months of viewing you'll get used to it.

;)

[digitalfreaknyc]

The ones on the internet were apparently too dark. The ones that i've been watching, however, are NOT.

[Terrell]

Maybe your previous viewings were too light

Bingo! The previous VHS and LD editions were always artificially too bright.

[TylerDurden_73]

Originally posted by slop101
I apologize for starting another Star Wars thread - but I just want to focus on their transfers here.

(BTW, yes, I do feel like an ass complaining about this - I just want to see if other people noticed this, as the reviews don't mention it.)


braggart

[Nosebleed]

Maybe the compression of the bootleg DVDs you downloaded has reduced the quality of the image. I know the ones released are barely over 3000kbps, which is very poor.

[Jackskeleton]

Originally posted by PopcornTreeCt
Is it just me, or is this a barely disguised bragging thread?

sounds like it to me.

But to answer your question, dark? no. the vhs were always just to bright. And the whites are much nicer now then they were before if you ask me.

[slop101]

How am I bragging?

And what the hell am I bragging about?

And yes, the whites are very nice - but there's plenty of detail that is lost to extra darkness - the asteroid chase in ESB is good example of this.

[Jackskeleton]

The old tapes you've watched and the old transfers brought up the brightness of the film. This new transfer has crisper blacks if you ask me. That is how you get good whites. ;) It doesn't have the white wash on it.

as for bragging.. Seems like you are asking a question that 90% of the readers here can't answer simply because you asked it to early. Asking this again on tuesday on release day would bring in a whole lot more folks who could actually answer your question.

[Mike Lowrey]

Originally posted by mjlukich
Yeah, my set seems kinda dark too. This must be a trend, because I noticed the same thing on my Van Helsing, Troy, and Shaun Of The Dead DVDs.

Now here's a man with "connections"...

[TomOpus]

Originally posted by slop101
How am I bragging?

And what the hell am I bragging about? If you don't know... then the OTHER 95% of us won't tell you -ptth-


:D

[Mike Lowrey]

Well if you have a video settings control on your player, you can change that to a lighter setting. For example, my Pioneer DV-434 has three video settings. Cinematic which makes the video pretty dark. Standard which lightens it up a bit. And Animated which supposedly ups the contrast on the colors a bit.

I always use the cinematic setting, but if I feel that these transfers are a bit too dark, I'll set it to standard.

[slop101]

Originally posted by Jackskeleton
The old tapes you've watched and the old transfers brought up the brightness of the film. This new transfer has crisper blacks if you ask me. That is how you get good whites. ;) It doesn't have the white wash on it.


I wasn't comparing it to the tapes or anything like that - just to almost EVERY OTHER dvd I have, including episodes 1 & 2, which I thought would have the same motif, but I guess not. At least it clears right up with minimal adjusting.

[Jackskeleton]

Perhaps you should stop comparing it to other movies and you should start comparing it to the other transfers of this exact same film that are out there. then you will notice why it is that way.

[Mike Lowrey]

I think the "darkness" can be attributed to the restoration process. Instead of seeing the washed out, faded look, which always look light and bright, we're seeing a fully remastered and restored transfer that makes blacks look black and whites look white as opposed to a bunch of "grays".

[Tarantino]

There are 6 Star Wars threads on the front page. Couldn't you have fit this into ONE of them?

[Kal-El]

Originally posted by Tarantino
There are 6 Star Wars threads on the front page. Couldn't you have fit this into ONE of them?

Join us (http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=385224) and together we can end all these unending threads about Star Wars and have a sub-forum!

Yeah I know, bad take on the Vader speech from Empire.

[DavidH]

People were saying the Indy DVDs looked too dark, as well --- I suspect it's just that they have finally been corrected.

[Rod Thorn]

Update your TV. CRTs are still the kings of black level IMO. Try the Sony KD-34XBR960. Plasma panels have only average black level and still can't replicate the deep blacks that tubes can. And LCD have rather below-average black level and low response time.

[Terrell]

Well, Episode II is a darker film than Episode I, both in tone and color. So the Episode II DVD also has a darker transfer.

[tommy28]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by slop101
[B]How am I bragging?

And what the hell am I bragging about?

And yes, the whites are very nice - but there's plenty of detail that is lost to extra darkness -
----------------------

Damn Racist!!!

;)

[NEUMANN]

Originally posted by Jackskeleton
The old tapes you've watched and the old transfers brought up the brightness of the film. This new transfer has crisper blacks if you ask me. That is how you get good whites. ;) It doesn't have the white wash on it.

as for bragging.. Seems like you are asking a question that 90% of the readers here can't answer simply because you asked it to early. Asking this again on tuesday on release day would bring in a whole lot more folks who could actually answer your question.

More like 99% of the readers here

[matrixrok9]

Originally posted by slop101
How am I bragging?

And what the hell am I bragging about?

And yes, the whites are very nice - but there's plenty of detail that is lost to extra darkness - the asteroid chase in ESB is good example of this.

LOL don't worry. On this board, posters will always get accused when they complain about a DVD quality before the street date. I think I was accused of bragging too when I complained that the Last Samurai quality sucked and I just rented that one.

[Jackskeleton]

perhaps the discussion of quality should be saved for when the majority of folks can actually view it. Either that or you might aswell complain about quality to a wall. You'll get the same response.

[tacomantt]

Post some screen caps and all this arguing can stop.

[Get Me Coffee]

It does look really dark. I don't want to change my TV settings for this movie.....

[slop101]

These are from the digital bits

the first image is from the laser disc, and the second from the new dvds - they look the same from these screen-shots, but look at the black borders and notice how the image from the dvd had to be brightened (The Bits obviously brightened it themselves) to look the same as the old one.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews3/starwars/4-11-1997.jpg
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews3/starwars/4-11-2004.jpg

[slop101]

Here are a couple more shots:

Here's a shot from the '97 "special editon":
http://perso.club-internet.fr/willow/SW_Changes/ROTJ_Changes_08_SE_01.jpg
and the same shot from the new dvd:
http://perso.club-internet.fr/willow/SW_Changes/ROTJ_Changes_08_2004_01.jpg

The next two shots are both from the dvd, but the second one is just brightened up a little more than it's "supposed" to be:

"as-is"
http://perso.club-internet.fr/willow/SW_Changes/ESB_Changes_01_2004.jpg

"brightened"
http://perso.club-internet.fr/willow/SW_Changes/ESB_Changes_01_2004_Touched.jpg

Like I said, it's not that major, but it's still there.

[Lokimok]

I remember being surprised at how dark the Empire SE was when I went to see it in the theater. At the time, I figured it was just a projector problem.

I've seen brightened DVD stills like the ones above at a couple of sites to make the lightsabers look better.

[jblackie]

Originally posted by Mike Lowrey
I think the "darkness" can be attributed to the restoration process. Instead of seeing the washed out, faded look, which always look light and bright, we're seeing a fully remastered and restored transfer that makes blacks look black and whites look white as opposed to a bunch of "grays".
This is beginning to sound like a 1960's laundry detergent commercial! rotfl

[Josh Z]

I can't speak for the DVDs, but when the THX editions of the movies were released on laserdisc, Lucas had the contrast levels pulled down to disguise the matte lines around ships in the space scenes.

[tacomantt]

Calgon -take my away.

[Lokimok]

Originally posted by Josh Z
I can't speak for the DVDs, but when the THX editions of the movies were released on laserdisc, Lucas had the contrast levels pulled down to disguise the matte lines around ships in the space scenes.

Oh yeah. That reminds me of the blob near the Emperor's eye. Early DVD reports conflicted. Some said it was gone. Some said it was still there. I guess instead of fixing it with CG, they just made the whole thing really dark & harder to spot...

[TomOpus]

Originally posted by Lokimok
Oh yeah. That reminds me of the blob near the Emperor's eye. Early DVD reports conflicted. Some said it was gone. Some said it was still there. I guess instead of fixing it with CG, they just made the whole thing really dark & harder to spot... That blob always bothered me. If I were Lucas, that would've been the 1st thing I'd fix. :)

[mraor]

Actually, the first thing I'd fix is to UNDO the latest 3 Star Wars flix. Man, thank gawd for these original three. Now if we can just find an easter egg that unlocks the 3 movies in their ORIGINAL form, I'll be happy.

Well...maybe not truly happy, but happier.

[slop101]

One hopeful sign concerning the "original" versions (as others have pointed out) is that the clips used in the documentary are all from the original, un-touched versions - and they are all cleaned up and look as nice as the new versions (along with the darkness ;) ).

They wouldn't go through the trouble of cleaning up the old versions, if they were only going to use them for the documentary, would they?

[Terrell]

and they are all cleaned up and look as nice as the new versions

Well, that's quite a leap to say they look as good as the new DVDs. They were seen on a television program where a lot of the flaws in a print can't be seen because of low resolution, etc.I can all but guarantee you they don't look anywhere near as good as the new DVDs. I understand what you're saying here, but let's not go crazy. The originals would need a significant restoration in order to look like they need to look on DVD.

[Jeff L]

Ancient Chinese Secret, huh?

[JM1]

I got my copy yesterday (ordered online in the UK, they appear to be sending them out early).

I watched the first movie and the doc last night.

In general, the restoration is pretty top notch, apart from in one sequence.

You remember how for years and years we complained about those horrible squares/matte lines around some of the spaceships on the video versions?

Well, during the attack on the Millenium Falcon by the Tie Fighters after they escape from the Death Star some of them are still visible. Not in every shot, but in at least 3 or 4.

This surprises me to say the least. After all, we are talking about possibly the most "restored" movie of all time - at least 2 major restorations have been done on this movie.

Perhaps the restorers left them in for nostalgic reasons, eh?

The cynic in me also says perhaps this is why they only released the first 30 minutes to people reviewing the movie - after all most people who want this movie will have already pre ordered it anyway.

Personally, I can live with it - but I am just a little irritated that these are not quite the ultimate restoration jobs we were sold.

And I don't suppose Lucas bothered to do anything about the terrible hand puppet swallowing the Falcon in Empire, or the awful matte lines around the Rancor in Jedi.

Oh, and for the record, the "Greedo shoots first" sequence has been slightly altered to make it look a little less silly - but it's still silly anyway And yes, Hayden Christiansen does appear at the end of Jedi.

It's a shame, because everything else about the package I have seen it very good. The main doc is excellent, the sound is excellent, and notwithstanding the aforementioned issue the pic is very good.

[darkside]

I remember in an interview the people doing the restoration had a time limit on each film and could not get to every single detail they would have liked to. All in all they seem to have done a very good job, but some minor things remain.

[tacomantt]

Originally posted by darkside
I remember in an interview the people doing the restoration had a time limit on each film and could not get to every single detail they would have liked to. All in all they seem to have done a very good job, but some minor things remain.

A time limit? You have got to be kidding me. The restorers had all the time in the world to restore these movies.

How about we all get them started on re-re-re-restoring them for release on HD-DVD. That should give them enough time.

[Jackskeleton]

god, people are already complaining? I thought it would hold off till atleast tuesday.

[Qui Gon Jim]

Originally posted by tacomantt
A time limit? You have got to be kidding me. The restorers had all the time in the world to restore these movies.

How about we all get them started on re-re-re-restoring them for release on HD-DVD. That should give them enough time.

Yes, a time limit. This has been widely covered in articles about therestoration.

[Qui Gon Jim]

Originally posted by mraor
Actually, the first thing I'd fix is to UNDO the latest 3 Star Wars flix. Man, thank gawd for these original three. Now if we can just find an easter egg that unlocks the 3 movies in their ORIGINAL form, I'll be happy.

Well...maybe not truly happy, but happier.

Thanks for adding such an original insight to the conversation. This, NooB is a threadcrap.

So did they or didn't they fix those blobs? That bugged me so much on the 97 VHS, I would hope they have been repaired...

[Terrell]

And I don't suppose Lucas bothered to do anything about the terrible hand puppet swallowing the Falcon in Empire, or the awful matte lines around the Rancor in Jedi.

Yes, the matte lines during the Rancor sequence in Jedi have been removed. The entire scene is cleaned up.

As for the hand puppet, if Lucas had replaced it with CG, I imagine you'd be complaining about that. So he's in a no-win situation.

[tacomantt]

Originally posted by Qui Gon Jim
Yes, a time limit. This has been widely covered in articles about therestoration.



Think about what you are saying. A culture changing landmark film does not have time limits for restoration.


Lucas to his restoring crew:

"Everyone in the world wants these DVD's. I was a little late in releasing these on DVD, but I was unsure this new digital format would take off -- I had the mindset that VHS tape would last forever.

Anyway guys restore these at a break neck speed and do a half ass job at it. You have a deadline of two weeks from yesterday. Wait a minute I have an added scene idea, hold the restoration process...

[Yocke]

There are some sound issues on the dvd release as well that none of the reviewers seems to have noticed. Listen to this:

From the dvd:
http://www.dvdforum.nu/images/selstam/anhdvd.mp3

From the officially released asian vcd:
http://www.dvdforum.nu/images/selstam/anhvcd.mp3

Here are some more times where the sound should sound weird. I have not checked this myself, as I do not have the box set yet. All times refer to the r1 release.

00.07.40 - Leia and vader - Check out the lipsync
00.34.12 - Luke and ObiWan
00.50.35 - Greedo - Han Solo
00.57.20 - Tarkin and Leia
00.58.15 - Tarkin and Leia
01.09.04 - Han Solo - Luke
01.10.02 - Obi Wan - Luke
01.10.43 - Luke - C-3PO
01.19.40 - Han Solo
01.27.26 - Luke - Leia
01.37.00 - Leia - Han Solo
01.38.50 - Leia
01.50.45 - the end fight

[slop101]

Originally posted by Terrell
I can all but guarantee you they don't look anywhere near as good as the new DVDs. I understand what you're saying here, but let's not go crazy. The originals would need a significant restoration in order to look like they need to look on DVD.
Dude, even if they're not as cleaned up as the dvds, they're pretty close, and LIGHT YEARS beyond what they've ever looked like. So much so, that it appears like they've had at least some sort of restoration, if not a major one.

[Cameron]

sound was a bit funny here and there...I have been viewing the VHS SE for over 6 months a few times a day (they loop in the video store i work in) It sounds a little different but i have yet to nail down any scene specific drops in sound. Vader talking with the Empire was the strangest scene to me..Let me say I am all about the OT but I never understood when they did start changing things (like it or not) why didn't they at least overdub the voice of the emperor...now digital Ian Mc, and new lines for him and vader... Hayden looks a little funny, like when your a kid and you walk into a party your parents are throwing. You look strange and out of place with all these older people around and they all know it...but what are they going to do...it's your parents party.

You just thought people bitched in 97...

[Holly E. Ordway]

I was at the Star Wars Media Day, and heard the head restoration expert John Lowry say explicitly that they had 30 days to restore each film. Period. If that's not a time limit, I don't know what is!

That said, I don't think this means that it was a half-assed job - not by a long shot. It was very evident that Lowry was a total perfectionist... and while that's nice in theory, in practice, people like that will take *as long as you give them* and never feel like they're finished...

[scott1598]

Originally posted by Jackskeleton
god, people are already complaining? I thought it would hold off till atleast tuesday.

Seriously! Who freggin cares. The movies, the DVD's are finally here. We have never seen the movies this good, not even when they were in theaters (new/changed scenes not withstanding)

Accept them, enjoy them and let it be...that is how they are and will always be...stop bitchin and moaning and love them for the glorious creations they are!!!!

[Rammsteinfan]

They just restored ROTJ so well that it aged Shaw on film 30 years back into Hayden.... ;)

[Cameron]

Hayden turns into jake lloyd when star wars goes hd-dvd

[Dead]

Originally posted by mraor
Actually, the first thing I'd fix is to UNDO the latest 3 Star Wars flix. Man, thank gawd for these original three. Now if we can just find an easter egg that unlocks the 3 movies in their ORIGINAL form, I'll be happy.

Well...maybe not truly happy, but happier.


mraor, please stick with the topic of the thread.

[calhoun07]

The only restoration issue I have is that Han is STILL WALKING OVER JABBA'S TAIL! It looks like pure crap. I can handle everything else in the DVDs, but please, somebody get this fixed!

[Yocke]

I'm very interested in this discussion. How do you mean they should fix it without him walking over his tail? The footage has already been shot, and his tail has to be around him somewhere, so how?

[AberAber]

Why does lucas put hayden in the end, and him LOOKING so young. What was wrong with anakin as he was? Some time has passed...almost everything new lucas has done, other than cleanups has been utterly terrible. Give me the originals...

[Static Cling]

A reminder: this thread is not about how the original version of the trilogy is better/worse/more authentic/less authentic/whatever compared to Lucas' "updated" version. Let's keep it on the topic of the picture quality. Thanks!

[jough]

They do look dark, but not as dark as the Episode III DVD. I mean, I know Revenge of the Sith is a dark film and all, but the DVD is way way too dark (not to mention the edge enhancement that's even worse than the Episode I DVD).

[IanH]

I just got mine and I'm just happy I finally have a copy of these movies on DVD with a few minor things altered to make it better than at least the 1997 SE's.

This isn't the final version of Star Wars I'll have in my collection for the rest of my life. We'll see more revisions and alterations esp. when the HD-DVD versions come out. And Lucasfilm will probably will probably "clean it up" even more for the HD-DVD as well.


Anyways, I'm never getting rid of my 1995 VHS widescreen boxed set even though the picture and sound is crap next to these DVD's.


Am I satisfied. Yes!! Once I get The Return of the King Extended Edition any other DVD I get for my DVD collection is just gravy.

[Terrell]

We'll see more revisions and alterations esp. when the HD-DVD versions come out.

I don't think we'll see anymore changes other than fixing some things that still need to be fixed, as well as further cleaning up of some effects. After all, there weren't nearly as many big changes on this DVD as many predicted and expected. Other than adding Naboo in the celebration shot, insertin McDiarmid into ESB, and inserting Hayden at the end of ROTJ, most of the changes are very small, with most of them being cleanups of existing effects. The way websites were reporting things, you would have expect Lucas would have made numerous significant changes.

I think these versions are pretty much it. Like I said, there may be some small things redone and more cleanup. But I don't think we're going to get anything any different than these.

[LikeMiamiVice]

Originally posted by mjlukich
Yeah, my set seems kinda dark too. This must be a trend, because I noticed the same thing on my Van Helsing, Troy, and Shaun Of The Dead DVDs.

i noticed the same thing too on my Shaun DVD

[jough]

Remember, when Lowry scanned these they did 4K scans, which is much higher resolution than HD-TV. So expect that they'll use the same cleaned-up versions for several media to come.

They could always continue to fix/change things digitally, though.

And we know of course that the originals are out there, since Lowry worked from the original negatives (and some of the cleaned up non-SE footage appears ever so mockingly in Burns's doc, too).

[Toad]

Two quick points from me:

1. I think there will definitely be more changes to come in the next releases, and I welcome them.

2. From the screenshots posted, I think people are a bit too nit-picky here. Maybe my eyes are bad, but if those are actually "good" examples, I barely see a difference.

[Mike Lowrey]

Originally posted by jough
Remember, when Lowry scanned these they did 4K scans, which is much higher resolution than HD-TV.

I'm not so sure of that. I thought that too, but it seems like I read somewhere where they only did 1080 scans for these. I may be wrong, but I found an on-line article about it somewhere that said 1080 and I was shocked that it wasn't the regular 4K deal.

[jough]

Well, at the press day event Lowry said they did 4K scans, but I'll see if I can dig up anything definitive.

If they only did 1080(p?) scans then they're still set for HD-DVD, but they'll have to revisit them again if they want to keep up with the emerging technology.

I mean, how long will HD-DVD be "high" definition anymore? My computer monitor has higher resolution than HD-TV.

Hell, my digital still camera is higher res. It's just a matter of storage capacity for digital video cameras to increase to the point where 11mp video is the norm.

[Terrell]

Remember, when Lowry scanned these they did 4K scans, which is much higher resolution than HD-TV.

Actually, I believe Lowry stated they did these at 2k, not 4k. At this point it doesn't matter, because there's nothing on the horizon beyond HD-DVD, at least not yet. Even so, these movies were shot on film. So even if there is a future display technology that surpasses the resolution of film, they will still be limited to that resolution. You're always limited by the lowest resolution, be it display capabilities or source resolution.

[jough]

Yes, but so far we have no home video technology that even comes CLOSE to the resolution of film, let alone a large format film like IMAX.

But we will, in time.

HD-DVD will be semi-obsolete when it comes to market. We'll already be looking ahead for the next big thing.

[Admiral7]

Lowry did NOT work from the original negatives of the theatrical versions. They worked from the original negatives of the Special Editions.

[TK-421]

Originally posted by Admiral7
Lowry did NOT work from the original negatives of the theatrical versions. They worked from the original negatives of the Special Editions.

Correct.. YCM Laboratories were the ones who handled the original negatives and made the SE ones in 1997.

[jough]

So Lowry only cleaned up the post-sfx work, then?

[bossman284]

Just finished watching "A New Hope" and I see some mastering issues. Right after Ben gets killed by Vader and the Falcon is speeding away from the death star there is a battle with some tie fighters. Two of those tie fighters have very distinct matt boxes around them...they almost look worse than I remember them on LD and VHS. I thought they spent millions cleaning these up, how did something so basic slip by. I'm watching on a Panny 42" Plasma and a Toshiba 4700. Anybody else see what I'm talking about or is it just me?

[FinkPish]

No, they kept a lot of the matte boxes in the film, and are mostly noticable in the space scenes. These films were never technically perfect to begin with, and will probably never be perfect. Just something to get comfortable with.

[Toad]

Yep, and as I answered in some other thread here or in Movie Talk, it gets noticeably better throughout the OT to the point that they disappear completely.

[Mr. Salty]

Maybe it was for the same reason Lucasfilm says the music is reversed in the surround channels: It was a deliberate artistic choice. Because, you know, they would never put out a less-than-perfect product after all these years.

[Toad]

Yeah, I almost noticed that.

No product is perfect; no one claims this one is.

[jonjj7]

Yeah, it was more noticeable than in the VHS version. Maybe because the quality is so much better? The mattes looked cleaned up during the battle on the Death Star though -- well the remaining shots that weren't redone with CG.

[lordzeppelin]

Well, since this thread has digressed into the same old same old...

Let's get back on track. I'm utterly impressed with the transfers on these. They look absolutely brilliant on my setup (Sony KP57WS500 and a Panny CP-72S player, all freshly tuned up with the S&V disc). I don't get how people think they are too dark - I think they're dead on. I've always thought the VHS was too bright. In fact, I swear I read somewhere that VHS tapes in general were generally brighter because the darker they were the more they could show the flaws in the format with regards to picture quality degredation.

There's still quite a few effects that needed "cleaned up" but it's only because I was really looking for a few of them (damn this thread....heheh), such as the outline around the tie fighters in the end of ANH.

[eatntae]

Not sure if this is considered "Picture Quality," but in A New Hope, the scene where they escape the Death Star in the Falcon, and R2 puts out the fire with his extinguisher, I noticed that right before he puts out the fire, there are a few white flashes. Were those flashes always there, because I don't remember them from before. They actually seem out of place. The only thing I could think of was that they were flashes from the laser fire. Are these flashes present in everybody else's copies?

The scene in question occurs at approximately 1:35:05-1:35:06

[jarofclay73]

The only thing I saw is a blue hazy tinge after the Death Star blows up in ANH.