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?

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.

Ancient Chinese Secret, huh?

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.

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.

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

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

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...

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.

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...

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

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.

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...

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...

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!!!!

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

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

mraor, please stick with the topic of the thread.

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!

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?

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...

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!

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).

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.