Man, there sure is alot of bitching about this release. I thought I'd temper some of that with some of my (overwhelmingly positive) thoughts.

Like some others, I've been waiting for a proper DVD release of these movies ever since I started pining for a widescreen HDTV. Sure, Episode I and II were cool, but for me, these three movies were the Holy Grail.

I've had my HDTV for about a year and a half, and I've been meaning to tweak the picture to get all I can out of it, but I just never got around to it. I decided that before I watched these movies again, I was going to perform the tweaks. I have a Sony 57WS500, and there is a tweak document out there which details getting into the service menu, opening the set, tweaking the focus pots, and focusing the CRTs. Not for the timid. I spent 3 hours Sunday night doing this work.

Last night I popped in Episode IV after tweaking my convergence. Good lord. As soon as the opening crawl fades into the initial chase sequence, I was BLOWN AWAY by the picture detail. I've never seen ANY movie look this good. Now granted, this was the first movie I watched on my tweaked set. But this is the best this movie has ever looked. The colors are so vibrant...and the detail! I noticed things I never noticed before. And I did see the Special Editions in theaters. It was as if a haze was lifted off of the picture.

You can complain about audio glitches, plot holes, etc. But last night, for two hours, I remembered what it felt like to watch these movies as a young boy. To me, this DVD set is worth 10X what I paid for it. Bravo, Lucasfilm. Bravo.

bloody oath, well said.

I was still pretty exicted about watching each movie, even though I knew of the changes (many of which I don't like) and whatnot. I hadn't seen any of them since the SE's came out in 1997.

The picture does indeed look amazing!

That disc 4 documentary alone is worth picking up the set. After watching that I thought 'hey, Lucas can change whatever he wants. it is HIS baby.' Last time I saw these movies was in '97 theatrical release as well, and I'm thinking this set looks even better!

Like watching it for the first time? Close, but not really. Nothing beats being 3 years old and seeing Darth Vader on a 50 foot high screen, in a 70mm projection, in Dolby Stereo. Ah, the memories of the glorious Cinedome:



I saw "Star Wars", "Empire Strikes Back", and "Return of the Jedi" for the first time in this theater. It was a kick ass place. Too bad it's closed.

The theater I first saw ANH in was a parking lot, and now a Family Video rental store. (The theater was torn down in 1978 I believe.)

Its a good release, but I'm looking forward to any future releases as well.