There are many SW 'fans' who feel that the prequels should have matched the OT to begin with... not required some retroactive tweaks to classic, beloved films that are 25 years old.

I include myself in this group.


Not sure what you mean by "fuller treatment of the SW mythos". I'm a huge 'nut' as you say. I've got a life sized Han in Carbonite in my home theater. I own every action figure since 1977. I have just about every non-fiction SW book ever written.

But that doesn't mean that I'm happy with the changes that were made in '97 or '04. Some are fine. Some suck. It doesn't make me any less of a fan to want to watch the same ESB film that I saw 200 times as a youth, the way it existed for the first 17 years.

I find the '04 version of all 3 of these films distracting to the extreme.


And to have the original versions finally released after years of begging, only to be intentionally degraded (or, more accurately, intentionally not upgraded) is upsetting. It doesn't mean that I'm more of a home theater nut than a SW nut.

EDIT: Never mind. I posted this before I realized how big your unit was.

Is this meant to be a joke, because the first part of your comment sounds like the comments of a fanatic.

I must confess, not only was no pun intended, but none is recognized ... which is weird, as I'm usually the one making bad puns that nobody catches.

Was it a penis thing?

Please stop thinking that a non-anamorphic DVD of these will be the same as ANY of the fine bootlegs that are out. I would bet lots of $$ that any version Lucas puts out (even a non-anamorphic one) will be much better looking than the best fan made DVD.

Come on now. A 1993 D2 tape > DVD will look much better than a LD > DVD.

Regardless of how good the LD transfer is, it's still not a new 16x9 transfer taken from film. Folks, you all need to seriously stop accepting "good enough". Even if you don't believe that we "deserve" a better treatment of these, think of it this way: "the films *deserve* better than this".


Also, I called the number that's been posted and they're apparently getting flooded with calls as the nice young lady asked me to send it toan email. Since she gave it so handily, I have no problems sharing it here:

[email protected]


Remember, keep it civil! This bickering on the boards is pointless, we must be unified in this effort.

I'm not exactly endorsing the bootlegs (and I should point out, I intend to buy the release and have no 'Star Wars' bootleg in my collection, because I started to look on ebay about two weeks before this announcement, thinking I might finally buy it, and I had a lot more trouble finding it than it used to be ... I think they were cracking down), but some of them are anamorphic, and the bootleggers generally have a better record of quality control when compared to Lucas's previous release of these films. I have heard nothing about audio problems. I am even aware (thanks to HTF) of a bootlegger who has successfully removed the garbage mattes ... which Lucas didn't do.

I'm just sayin', don't discount the amount of time and effort some people have put into bootlegs.

After reading this, I'm starting to get a bad feeling about these new releases. I'm starting to imagine what they might look like, and I'm picturing The American President. Would seem Lucas was right when he said, "We didn't do anything to it at all." They really didn't, did they! Going to have to wait for the reviews before I make any decisions. Damn, and it sounded so sweet.

--THX

Mod note: Can't you people be civil enough to carry on a decent/respectful conversation. Disagrement is fine, comparing body parts and swapping insults is not. Unfortunately this is typical of Star Wars threads for some reason... I'm leaving this open for now but if it continues in this vein it will be closed.

enh. everyone hates me until they get to know me. that said...it's par for the course with chance-boy. He's got a hard-on for me that would put my ex's to shame.

I love you all.

and i love star wars.

And I'd love to know who EXACTLY is going to buy this...because it's obviously NOT the people in this forum. Hmmm....good idea for a poll.

Unless I am mistaken, non-anamorphic video with an AR of 2.35:1 shown on Digital 16x9 TVs will have both "pillarbox" gray bars on the sides, as well as black letterbox bars top & bottom. This will leave only 40-50% of the total screen area for the actual image.

My boots are anamorphic, or at least "zoomed" from the original LD sources, so how can you call these abortions "much better looking than the best fan made DVD"?

Exactly. Your boots are just zoomed in (with duplicated scan lines). They don't have any actual increased screen resolution.

This is all theoretical at this point, but a properly mastered non-anamorphic transfer from the original D2 masters zoomed in manually on your 16x9 set should look significantly better than a bootleg sourced from a laserdisc and then manipulated to be 16x9.


[These are just the facts. It shouldn't be read as any sort of defense of Lucasfilm. I still think that to finally release these after all this time -- and hype the hell out of it -- only to have them be non-anamorphic is a travesty.]

That last sentence does not compute.

Behind the scenes stuff.

If you assume that it will be properly mastered, then I'd say, yes, it will be better overall than any bootleg. However, as soon as the bootleggers have this and stretch it out to anamorphic, which will look better?

I think assuming it will be properly mastered is a big assumption, given (strike 1) the 2004 release's audio problems and (strike 2) the indifference they're showing this release.

Nobody wants to suggest that they'll support this release in any way, especially given that HTF has gotten people working at Lucas to see the thread over there (which is much, much worse than this one, except that nobody is comparing manhood yet).

But you may notice, if you wanted to waste the time it would take to look back through my posts in this thread, that I've never said a single word about not buying them. Just don't tell LFL that because the truth is, I'd buy them on release day if they were anamorphic. If not, I'm sure I will still buy them, but it will be very low priority.

Where can I get the CliffsNotes for this thread?

how did they get people from Lucasfilm to see the thread?

While I am agreeing 100% with you that this is better than any fan made bootleg (on a purple DVD-R no less with home made printed inserts on some ink jet printer), Lucas shouldn't put out a product that's barely above bootleg quality. He should strive to put out the best damn product he can muster so nobody has an excuse to say they will just hang on to their bootlegs.

I am not going to judge anybody at Lucasfilm until all the facts are in. www.thedigitalbits.com wrote how and why it may very well be possible there is no way they can make an anamorphic transfer of these old movies anymore. If their scenario is true, then I will accept what we get. So far, I've not been able to find bootlegs of the original cuts that have satisfactory quality. I will be buying them regardless and living with it.

For those just joining the thread , here's what you've missed:

1) The announcement that the non-SE Original Trilogy are coming to DVD
2) Joy from fans and an upswelling of love for George Lucas
3) Speculation on what might be corrected in these versions
4) Complaints about having to repurchase the 2004 SE's
5) Announcement that the Original Trilogy will be non-anamorphic
6) Anger toward George Lucas and a return of balance to the force

We now return you to your "George Lucas raped my childhood" thread alrady in progress...

Somebody called the number which is floating around and got a woman on the phone who stayed on for 15 or 20 minutes, and when she asked "Where are people complaining about it?" he directed her there as an example. She read it while on the phone with him, and, while having no power herself, was at least going to bring it up the chain.

Dunno as it'll do anything, but the barrage of E-mails and phone calls isn't hurting the release...

Man. This thread sucks.

Ok, pre-emptive complaining in this case would be a good thing. And if we're going to do it, let's at least be coherent about it. (as opposed to some of the emotional outbursts of late)

Let's assume that someone from LucasFilms is reading this thread and asks the question, "okay... what do I have to do to get you into these releases?"

What is your answer? Being realistic, what would it take for you to purchase the new releases of these discs?

Man, I just read the article on The Bits, and I am disgusted. It is OUTRAGEOUS that Lucasfilm is releasing NON-Anamorphic DVDs of the original versions of the Star Wars trilogy. It's also hard to believe that Lucas is claiming that all anamorphic-worthy elements have been destroyed. He had to have kept the originals around - if for nothing else than to compare the multiple versions to the originals.

It is ridiculous at the advent of the widescreen age to intentionally put out a DVD that will look like CRAP (relatively speaking) on a widescreen TV! Hell, I think most people here would have been happier even if they took less worthy elements and anamorphically enhanced them. At least it would be formatted correctly for the new TVs!

I've been saying for years that Lucas is horribly out of touch with the fans - and that maybe he just doesn't care. This from a guy who was the ultimate fanboy success story. Money and ego have blinded him to what is really important to the fans.

Am I angry? Damn right I'm angry! And I know I'm nowhere near alone!

What would it take? Simple - anampophic versions of the original trilogy in it's original form. I've got the super-dee-duper versions with all the extras already, all I want are the originals in anamorphic widescreen.

We have to be careful to word it exactly right, but all I really want is a new anamorphic transfer of the original three movies ... I personally don't care whether it has the episode 4 crawl or not, but I do like the sound of it not having it. It's not a deal breaker, but I like it.

Things that would be nice (aka "pipe dreams"):
- a box
- not having the 2004 editions attached
- if you're gonna have the 2004 releases, at least correct the audio and light saber issues, and whatever else people are complaining about.
- previously released extras (is there a theatrical-cut commentary anywhere?)
- put the subtitles back into the picture so they don't get cut off
- remotely decent cover art