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.

i noticed the same thing too on my Shaun DVD

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

Yeah, I almost noticed that.

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

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.

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.

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

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