I always thought a good way to release them would be online thru the official SW site. That way the majority of people would still be watching his newest versions like he wants, and those that want the originals can have them too...

All well. Still not picking these up.

Biggest change I noticed is when Padme is lying on the sand dune and a Clonetrooper comes running up asking if she's okay. On the DVD, she kinda groans a little bit and says "uh huh." In the theatrical I remember she gives a very enthusiastic "yes!" or something like that and basically jumps up right away. A lot of people were laughing about it, including me.

An even bigger change is that Natalie Portman's nipples, which were clearly visible through her white jumpsuit theatrically, have been digitally erased on the DVD.

Lucas has gotta be bi-polar in some way. First he tapes down Leia's breasts in A New Hope. Then he throws her in a gold bikini in Jedi. Then he digitally erases nipples? Bah!

I'd but that.

But I won't be buying the "new" OT release they're foisting on us.

Are you talking about the remastered version changes?
Leia was always in a gold bikini in Jedi?

Natalie's nips were the best thing about Attack of the Clones. Seriously. After just watching Lucas mangle the all-important Tusken slaughter scene and the iditioic aftermath between Anakin and Padme, her nips helped me cope.

May they rest in peace in digital hell...

I don't have the Laser Disc versions, so I will be buying these; whether they are anamorphic or not. I don't think the Unaltered Original Trilogy will ever be released in a High Definition format, especially since so many fans will abstain from buying this release, it will be seen as unprofitable to release them on HD by Lucas, who already thinks that fans don't like the Unaltered OT.

Which is a pretty dirty way of doing things. If we don't buy because we think they should be at a decent level of quality, Lucas can say we don't like the unaltered versions. If we do buy, then they'll think we'll buy any piece of shovelware they throw out there.

It's kinda petty and childish in my opinion, it's lowered my opinion of Lucasfilm way more than anything from the prequels ever did.

Don't make the mistake of thinking a couple hundred of very vocal "internet" fans make up the masses. Under that logic Serenity would have made $10,000,000,000,000 but it didn't, so just keep reality in check with these things. I laugh every time I see someone posting that if these had been anamorphic that they would sell so much past the other DVDs that Lucas would have to "admit his mistakes."

Don't mistake the popularity of Serenity for the popularity of Star Wars.

I agree with Pixy's main point. There are still too many people (many in this thread ) that either don't care, or have such a poor understanding of the 16x9 process for DVDs that their posts hurt the cause more than helped.

There was a post just a few days ago about "how they weren't anamorphic back in 1977", that proves people still don't get it.

I'm afraid we've lost this battle honestly. It would seriously take somebody that Lucas respects as a colleague or something to tell him he's being a bit pigheaded here. Even then, it certainly wouldn't happen in time to help this release.

Maybe Spielberg could change Lucas's mind?

I mean Spielberg got Universal to include the original version of E.T. on the standard limited released instead of only in the overpriced gift set. Maybe he could convince him to do the right thing and release them 16.9 enhanced?

They're doing time with Lindsay Lohan's "Fully Loaded" boobs.

The thing I think people may not realize about this is that it's not just that they're non-anamorphic. They're also old transfers. Telecine technology has come a long way in the last 13 years, and these will probably look bad, even if the transfers back then were anamorphic.

Yep, either way, we're fucked. I want the un-altered trilogy, so what the hell am I supposed to do? As I've said before, I have bought other DVDs of un-screwed-with movies that are non-anamorphic, and, well, so be it. I will never, under any circumstances, unless I'm paid money, and even then I'll cheat by using them as coasters (and I will get rid of the Discs 1 that come with this set), have the 2004 versions of Star Wars in my house just because they are anamorphic and the originals are not.

Anyone go to the San Diego Comic-Con and know if Steven Sansweet had anything to say about this?

Especially since most people dont even know that the movies are really changed from their original state.

Here's one http://www.jedidefender.com/yabbse/i...7330#msg247330

And AICN
http://aint-it-cool.com/display.cgi?id=23941

Sansweet is pretty much a filthy pimp at this point, all the emphasis is on the "Han Shoots First" angle at this point.


At first I was kinda surprised there wasn't more discussion around the web about this presentation, but then I realized it's likely an indicator of how jaded people are becoming with Star Wars as a whole.

It just makes me laugh that the O-OT versions are bonus material, but Sansweet was handing out 'Han shoots first' buttons. I don't have any ill will against him, he is just working for Lucasfilm and giving the company line. He is like a press secretary for the President just relaying info from the top. But it goes to show that Lucas is getting to be like a politician cause everything he says now is never a definitive answer. He has become a big filthy liar.

I just want to ask all the people who were telling us to cool down in May when we first heard it was non-anamorphic, and just to wait til a real announcement. OK, the first reports are in: It's laserdisk quality!

So now what do we do? It is one step above bootlegs, I am so glad we didn't jump the gun and waited for someone to see the product. I can't wait to hit that zoom button on my HD-TV in September.

I can't believe Lucas has turned me off this much as a SW fan.

The last time I check, 80,000+ fans signed the petition on www.originaltrilogy.com

If you do the math at $75.00 for each person buying all 3 movies:

That is a cool $6,000,000 profit of people who just signed it, just think of all the fans that haven't followed SW since 1983 that would gladly pick it up.

And if you remember the E.T. DVD in 2002 contained both versions cause supposedly a couple hundred of vocal internet fans bitched and complained about them not including the original cuts, and that one became a best seller that year.

Nobody is going to have to pay $75 for the trilogy. $45 is a more reasonable figure.

The figure is more like $3.6 million ASSUMING that everyone who signed the petition buys it. That's unlikely. You are also assuming that it is all profit. Another unreasonable assumption.

If this was the first release of Star Wars on DVD, then I would agree that it would've made a major impact. But millions have already bought the trilogy. The number who will purchase this release (even if the O-OT were anamorphic) is pretty small by comparison.

Spielberg is NOT Lucas.

That was a completely different situation. In that case, the transfer and compression were already done for the original cut, and they were going to include it only in the gift set. All they had to do was reconfigure the 2-disc versions to include the already completed original cut.

With SW, they would have to find the proper film elements (which they say they don't even have) and spend the money to do new transfers, compression, etc. It would push back the release by at least a few months.

We may still get the OT with the proper treatment someday, but they're not going to scrap this release to do it.

How many of those are people that WON'T pick it up now that it's anamorphic? Hopefully the same amount of time will be put into getting the word out about these sub-par releases as there was in getting it out in the first place.

I'm beginning to think that aside from the vocal members of DVD Talk and Home Theater Forum, only about a dozen people on this planet know what anamorphic means. Notice this quote from one of the linked articles where Sansweet was asked about the non-anamorphic issue:

I don't understand. Was the image enlarged to fill a 16x9 screen? I'm very skeptical as to how good this presentation looked if that was the case. (I assume the two "joke" demos before that made this one look great by comparison.) And why is he talking about the black bars like he is apologizing for the way a 2:35:1 image fills a 16x9 screen?

Well I'm convinced that the effort to change Lucas' decision about this through pressure in the media, etc., was doomed from the start. Getting people to understand anamorphic is more impossible than winning a fullscreen lover over to the benefits of widescreen. Complaining about something being non-anamorphic is about as pointless as complaining that the transfer is missing a pixel. It just falls on deaf ears, unless you happen to be talking to the 12 people that know what you mean!