I'll just order it online and have it delivered to my mailbox. No fuss, no muss.

i'll just wait for the inevitable double, triple, quadruple dip.

This is Star Wars after all. Remember how many times the VHS version was rereleased

Yea I'll probably wait for a better DVD release. In the meantime I guess I'll stick with my bootlegs of Han Shoots first, R2D2 not tasting good, and correct Ewok dance.

Agreed! Price may keep it from being the highest selling.

Fat chance! It doesn't matter how many versions they own. Why do you think they bought all those versions to begin with. They're huge Star Wars fans. They'll buy it again, and few if any will stay home on this. In fact, I'd bet 99% will jump all over this the minute it comes out.

Yes, and the vast majority of those that bitch and moan about the changes, and claim they won't buy it, will indeed end up buying it sooner or later. Sure, some of them won't buy it. But as you said, this group is such as small minority it won't even make a dent, even if most of them pass. But you know most of them won't.

I believe it's safe to say that the every average Joe that's a fan of these films, will buy this DVD. Well, maybe not everyone, but the overwhelming majority will. The vast majority probably aren't even aware of changes.

I wouldn't be surprised if it became the highest selling DVD of all time. But I agree the price tag will keep it from achieving that. If it retails for $70, it's going to be at least $45 in stores. However, there's no doubt it will destroy the record set by the Indy DVD for the highest selling DVD boxset of all time. I think it will get close to the all-time best seller, but will come up short.

Heck, it was already the highest selling DVD on a number of sites 2 months ago, 6 months before it's released.

"Most people" don't know that they added the CGI Jabba.

The average person who saw the SE trilogy in 1997 couldn't have told you what was new and what wasn't. Most people just like the films, have seen them a few times, and want to buy them on DVD. They probably haven't seen the films since 1997/8. Other than Lucas sticking obvious prequel-stuff in there (i.e. Hayden's face), I doubt that more than 5% of the viewing public could point directly to changes with any sort of accuracy.


Again, most "average" people have only seen these movies a few times, not the hundreds of times that most "Internet" people have.

VERY STRONG AGRREMENT.

I have always said that those who bitch and moan the most about the films will be the first ones in line to buy this. and that they will. I know star wars fans. I'm one myself and I have seen my fair share to make this educated guess and have it be right.

I too agree. rabid fans are not discerning. You could stencil "Star Wars" on a "meadow muffin" and the fans would buy it.

yeah, but they will still bitch and moan that they just had to buy two meadow muffin's because one was a variant of the other and it was short packed in the case.

There is no way these will sell out anywhere. I'm sure there will be plenty to go around. I'll be there at 8am after a good nights sleep.

doc

No, I have the preorder with Amazon for under $38.

There's a Star Wars Muffin now? Where?!

I think it’s safe to say that your average Joe won’t notice most of the changes. While most would know about something as obvious as the Jabba in ANH, Cloud City in ESB, or the new Dance in ROTJ, stuff like Greedo shoots first and R2R2 being “lucky he got out” would go undetected.

You'd probably be better off pre-ordering it from an e-tailer known for shipping before street date.

I'm actually thinking I should hold off on buying this and just wait for the HD-DVD version that should be out in a couple of years. I think the laserdisc set will hold me over til then...

No guaranteee there will be an HD-DVD release in a couple years. In fact, the soonest you'll see another DVD release is in 2007 for what will eventually be the huge 30th Anniversary Box set that will include all 6 films and obviously cost a fortune. We're talking a minimum $150 box set, if not much more.

It took him 7 years to release this on DVD... do you really think he's planning an HD-DVD any time in the near future?


That being said, I hear what you're saying about the LD set. I'm a HUGE Star Wars fan, but I must say that the fact that I have the LDs and the long wait for these to come out on DVD has definitely dampened my enthusiasm. Of course, I'll probably eat those words after watching the film in anamorphic with 6.1 sound.

{broken record} I just wish we'd get the original versions {/broken record}

Lucas Film Ltd. has already said they will be releasing all six films in a box set on HD-DVD or BluRay with tons of bonus features not available now. This was mentioned at the DigitalBits. No date has been set, yet. But I´m sure we won´t see this before 2007/2008. I guess, it all depends how the two new media will be recieved by the customers. Also, Lucas Film Ltd. won´t be releasing them until the deamand is at the highest peak.

Seeing that this current DVD release is being done off a HDTV transfer I'd sure suspect that a HD-DVD version wouldn't be any big issue. And as we all know... Mr. Lucas is the master marketeer.

Yes, which is one of the major reasons he waited so long for this current release -- he wanted DEEP market penetration for DVDs.

How long do you think it'll be before HD-DVD has a similar market? I'm guessing at least 10-15 years, maybe longer...

You'll likely see a standard DVD double- or triple-dip on this before you'll see anything HD.

The Digital Bits lied. Lucasfilm has not officially announced any such thing. It's obviously been speculation that 2007 will be the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars. So it's pretty much assumed, and rightfully so I believe, that he'll do something fancy for that special occasion. But neither Lucasfilm nor Lucas himself have announced anything.

If there was an official announcement of an HD-DVD box set of all 6 Star Wars films, there would have been massive amounts of coverage. We've heard nothing. Considering that we don't even know exactly when HD-DVD will hit the market, there is no way Lucas would announce a set like that. Even if HD-DVD makes it to the market before then, it's highly doubtful Lucas is going to release a 6 film box set on a format that has such a small market penetration. Most people don't even have HDTVs. Nor is the average joe going to suddenly drop DVD and jump on HD-DVD. Heck, let's not even talk about the impending format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Has anyone considered the possibility that Star Wars might be the first films to be released on HD-DVD? What better way to usher in a new format than for it to debut with the last big title released on DVD?

Well, we haven´t heard any solid proof, yet. However, when The Digital Bits talked with Lucas Film Ltd. in relation to the announcement of the forthcoming DVD Trilogy release (article is somewhere on their website) Lucas Film did "hint" they would make a Box Set release of all 6 films in the future. Although, I agree this would be considered to belong in the rumor department.

But there is no question that we at some point will see a Box set release of all 6 films. The question still remains to as when. It will most likely be on either HD-DVD or BluRay, depending on how well future media will be adopted by the average consumer.

I would agree with you Dane. But Bill Hunt, as much as I love his site, does tend to stretch things every now and then. I've no doubt that a 6 film box set will be released by 2007. Certainly, there will be an HD-DVD release sometime. But I doubt we'll see one until HD-DVD gains a good foothold in American homes. It took DVD quite a while to take off into a mainstream format. I expect HD-DVD to take a lot longer than DVD to become mainstream, for all the reasons I listed above. One, few homes in America actually have an HDTV. The bozos developing HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are bound and determined to confuse consumers by having a format war. I personally believe consumers won't be so quick to dump DVD and re-purchase all the same movies over again after having invested so much in a relatively new DVD format. Last but not least, I imagine HD-DVD will be quite expensive upon rollout. It will probably take quite a long time for HD-DVD to gain appreciable market share, so it will probably remain expensive for a long time as well.

Of course, I could be wrong. But I think I'm in the ballpark. If I was a betting man, I would bet the 2007 box set, if there is a 2007 box set, will be on DVD rather than HD-DVD.

We can only hope. However, I´m sure the forthcoming DVD release of the Trilogy will do just fine for may years to come, regardless what will happen in the future.

Actually, this is completely false.

DVD was the fastest growing consumer media format in the history of all known time. It only took DVD three years to achieve the market penetration that VHS achieved in ten.

Five years in and every other household had a DVD player. Best Buy has a pretty decent little player for $30 this week, which is cheaper than some DVDs.