stvn1974

I want the versions that came with the 2006 DVDs restored/remastered with HD 2.0 and 7.1 sound delivered to my house by George Lucas so he can apologize for what he did to the series.

Class316

They were still there. Just pretend that the other disc is an extra. True they were non anamorphic but still above laserdiscs and VHS. If not for the 2006 releases we would not have them in anything better than laserdisc.

I would say the Empire using English in ROTJ instead of imperial code (as with the first 2) is indisputably an error. As is changing lightsabre colors.

Mike86

They really weren't even better though. The only advantage to that set was that the films were on DVD but they were direct ports of the laser discs. They weren't remastered or anamorphic or anything. They were treated truly as extra features and almost an afterthought.

Class316

They're on DVD, and they're not fan transfers. That makes them better than laserdiscs. I want them remastered as much as the next person, but having those is better than not having those.

rocket1312

I'm not sure what imperial code you're referring to in RotJ. I know there was some English text changed to Aurebesh on the tractor beam controls in the original film, but Aurebesh didn't exist until RotJ, so this was not an error. It was just a ret-con.

As for the lightsaber colors, other than that one shot of Obi-Wan's lightsaber where it's apparent it's just a stick and the brief moment a couple of minutes later where Darth Vader's lightsaber is white, I can't think of any other problems with the lightsabers. I'll grant you that these were mistakes, but all in all they amount to roughly 3 seconds of screen time. I guess if Lucasfilm were to re-release the trilogy with nothing changed other than those three seconds, I wouldn't complain too loudly, but at that point why even bother? Just release them as they were and leave it at that.

Josh Z

The only way those DVDs were better than the Laserdiscs is that they didn't have side breaks. The video transfers were a direct port of the Laserdiscs, compressed to MPEG-2, and the audio was a very inferior Dolby Digital 2.0 as opposed to the LDs' uncompressed PCM.

There's also the matter that the analog format used 7.5 IRE for black level while DVDs and Blu-rays use 0 IRE, but those Star Wars discs were not corrected to compensate for that. So the DVDs have terribly elevated blacks and look washed out and faded unless you explicitly recalibrate your display to pull down the Brightness for those discs only.

Jay G.

Right, ROTJ had the characters that became Aurebesh on controls in the film when it was shot.

From the person that "created" the Aurebesh alphabet:
http://www.echostation.com/features/aurebesh.htm
The proto-Aurebesh symbols were used randomly in ROTJ. It wasn't until after those films that the symbols became formalized. The 2004 SEs replaced the random symbols in ROTJ with Arubesh, as well as replacing the English in ANH.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langua...r_Wars#Writing
https://youtu.be/kwje9BcvhgA?t=3m

Jay G.

Actually, the DVDs were taken from the video masters made for the Laserdisc, so the DVDs had a slight improvement in quality, as the Laserdisc format wasn't quite as high quality as the masters were.

To wit:


The other criticisms hold.

rocket1312

I knew that the language wasn't formalized until the roleplaying game came out, but I didn't realize that they actually edited the code in the RotJ DVD so that it translated to something other than just gibberish.

That's the sort of change that I just can't wrap my mind around. On one hand, they're catering to the most hardcore of the hardcore fans by making that change. How many people are even out there that read and understand Aurebesh? At most, that numbers got to be in the hundreds, right? And yet they continually thumb their nose at an even larger subset of the fans who want the original versions? I just don't get it.

All that said, I do believe Disney has intentions of releasing these films properly someday. Their blood feud with Fox obviously throws a monkey wrench into things, but they'll get it sorted out eventually. Of course no Fox logos would be a big time bummer...

mrhan

I still have the Definitive Edition LD set from 1993. Was there work done on the 1995 re-release on LD or was it just the packaging?

IMHO, the only way to really watch them is the Despecialized edition. The others just hurt my eyes.

Josh Z

As an analog format, Laserdisc picture quality varied widely based on the quality of the player used. There could be a significant difference in what you saw between an entry-level and a high-end model. Much more than anything you'd ever see between two different DVD players.

Further, those screencap comparisons are highly misleading. The disc used was in CLV format, which did not offer true still frame capability. When paused, you got a half-resolution interlaced field, not the whole frame.

Also, the "1995 PAL Laserdisc" was an NTSC-to-PAL conversion, which was not done very well back in the day and typically resulted in a worse image despite the higher resolution of the PAL format. Laserdisc did not have any significant market penetration in Europe, and most PAL LDs were inferior to their NTSC counterparts.

Screencapping Laserdiscs is highly problematic under even the best circumstances. The example posted is not the best circumstance.

I'm not saying this to suggest that the Star Wars Laserdisc was great quality. Just that, in this specific instance, any difference between the LD and the DVD is negligible.

The Definitive Collection box set had all the discs in CAV format, a half-hour of video per side. The 1995 re-releases were CLV format, an hour per side. The 1995 discs also had no bonus features. Other than that, they used the same video transfers.

Spiderbite

I sold off my DVD copies of the UOT (unaltered original trilogy...is that what is ia called anymore? It seems the initial change every year - OOT, OUT, OGT, etc.) for a tidy profit a year or so ago. I found that I never wanted to watch them since they were non-anamorphic and just wanted to watch my despecialized editions (I have the older versions).

I will say that my love for Return Of The Jedi has definitely waned since I was a kid. What's funny is it isn't because of the Ewoks, Boba Fett's dumb death, the wookie Tarzan yell, etc. It honestly comes down to the Luke/Leia brother/sister relationship. I didn't like it as a kid and and watching these as an adult, it really gets under my skin now. It just seems so phony and dumb and takes away the grandeur of the first movie (an average nobody farm-boy rescuing the princess of his dreams) and ruins the love triangle of the second one.

That relationship is going to make it even harder to watch the new releases that are coming since they are just going to expound on that bullshit, lame, last second storyline. I can't stand it.

Jay G.

I'm pretty sure the consensus was, when the 2006 DVDs were released, the DVD was better quality than the LDs.

See the comparison video at the bottom of the link here:
http://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/st...ive-Collection

From the link:

Josh-da-man

The Star Wars movies have traditionally looked dull and faded, haven't they? I would have been too young to notice when I saw the originals theatrically, but watching them on television and VHS in the mid-80s to mid-90s, I was surprised how bad they looked.

Geddlo

Luke's lightsaber in ANH is white now aboard the Falcon and Vader's saber in Empire isn't the correct hue, either.

neocheddar02

I'd appreciate it if someone could PM me & direct me to the despecialized editions. Haven't had much luck finding anything.

Michael Corvin

Yeah, I've looked before as well and didn't succeed.

rocket1312

Luke's lightsaber was always blue on the Falcon in the original theatrical prints. Any version that shows it a different color is due to sub-par video transfers. If Disney were to restore the film properly, it would be blue. There's no "fixing" needed beyond what was always there.

As for Vader's saber in Empire, I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to, but again, if the film is treated properly, there's no fixing needed.

Shannon Nutt

Up until the DVD releases, Vader's saber in ESB was red. Now, it's pink. It's a problem in ROTJ as well. This may have first occurred with the Special Edition theatrical releases - but I don't remember them well enough to say if it happened there or when they were transferred to DVD.

rocket1312

But again, this is an issue with the current transfers. This isn't a problem inherent to the films themselves that needs fixing. If the films are transferred properly, these issues go away.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, seriously, man, what the fuck is up with that? It looks like bubblegum or something.

Is it an oversight? Like, did something get messed up in the remastering and they never bothered to fix it? Or did Lucas tell them to make the lightsaber pink?

rocket1312

The color on the dvd/bd versions are pretty far from the original theatrical timing in some cases. The blue dial has been turned up pretty high on Empire and as a result the red lightsaber looks more pink/purple. The brightness and contrast are also all out of whack. Those 2004/2011 version have so much more going against them than just added scenes/effects.

milo bloom

I know Landis isn't exactly a nobody but is this his wheelhouse?

https://mobile.twitter.com/empiremag...35349006159872

E Unit

Yeah, why him of all people to drop a news it like that?

Jay G.

The only thing I can think of is that he was working on the remastering of one of his films, and another team was working on the Star Wars remastering next door, or one of the people working on his remaster is/was working on the Star Wars remaster, for it to be remotely credible.