http://starwars.com/episode-iv/relea...825/index.html

You can view screenshots of the originals and the current dvd. If this has been posted, sorry. I wasn't going to wade through the whole thread to find out.

Quality comparisons (in terms of picture resolution) are meaningless with the size of those pictures.

Thanks for the link though. It is interesting to see the changes.

I concur. I've noticed most of these changes in the past, but some are a bit more subtle than the obvious ones like "Han shoots first."

Some are actual fixes to problems with the original film, like unfilled lightsabers or problems with matte paintings, like the tunnel matte illustrated in this example:
http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/r...rld=episode-iv

Another nice tweak is this one, adjusting the image so Luke's speeder actually hovers:
http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/r...rld=episode-iv

Neither of those changes are 100% needed per se, but I can understand the justifications for them.

What's annoying is all the little changes to things that weren't actually problematic in the original. For example, this arbitrary change of the Falcon in the Death Star bay:
http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/r...rld=episode-iv

Did we really need the bay to match up 100% to a bay in a completely different Death Star two movies later?

Or this change:
http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/r...rld=episode-iv

Obviously a lot of work went into that shot, and for what? To add a little more of the Sandcrawler to the shot?

It's also amazing to see just how much of the final X-Wing assault on the Death Star was digitally altered and CGI'd over. The comments in that section repeatedly use the term "more dynamic" to justify all the radical changes. Which is odd, since people had thought that end scene was plenty dynamic for decades before the changes.

Seeing those comparisons just makes me want a high-quality version of the un-nitpicked-over original versions of the film even more.

When the SEs debuted in 1997, I couldn't believe how much effort and money had been expended to completely redo the Imperial Walker sequence at the beginning of ESB for a result that looks almost completely identical to the original. Meanwhile, they didn't touch the jerkily stop-motion Tauntauns or the terrible blue-screen shots of the Rancor in Jedi. Talk about misplaced priorities.

uhhh...they didn't completely redo the sequence. in fact, they just removed matte lines. that's it. :)

yah, their are screencaps from the 1997 SE to the 2004...amazing how much better the improved F/X got in that time...who knows whats in store next

See, now I have no problem with that. Never noticed it in dozens of viewings. It just looks like the tunnel has a ramp up over top of something at the back. It's only a "problem" if you know it's supposed to be flat out to infinity.

Going through those pictures, it's just shot after shot of "unneeded change", "unneeded change", "unneeded change". Thousands, if not tens of thousands of unneccesary changes done.

What those pictures do point out is what could have been. Imagine the sharpness and clarity of the 2004 release on the 1977. Drool.

They actually have the balls to show the original 1977 non-"A New Hope" crawl and point to the new one as an "improvement". Amazing.

Those wonderful original shots bring a tear to my eye. At last I have what I wanted.

Now what's wrong with that? ;)

--THX

To be fair, the page refers to the differences overall as just "changes," only referring to some specific changes as improvements, which they don't do to the crawl addition. Also, the comparison actually shows an example where the original version has the superior shot:
http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/r...rld=episode-iv

The original version is not the superior shot; it is an interior scene, meant to be dark and foreboding. The brighter lighting of the original shot may look better in a knee-jerk reaction kind of way, but it's less accurate dramatically.

I think he means, as is mentioned in the caption, that they inexplicably removed the cone of light extending from R2's projector. It is a weird change to make, doubly so when even the official site calls it "strange."

How about here:
Check out the color differerences. Its a completly different shot at night..instead of dusk!

http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/r...rld=episode-iv

What? Its an interior shot allright, but there is a big open door right next to them leading directly outside. So its not supposed to be dark or foreboding.

From the caption to that comparison:
"The sky originally changed color when the camera cut from close-up to medium shot in this scene, since each was gathered at a different time. The Special Edition corrected the color of the redder sky to match."

They changes a lot of the sky shots to either better match up with other shots from the same scene, or to better represent what time of day was intended.

And as for the other shot I posted, The Third Jake is correct in that I was referring to the FX for R2 that was inexplicably left out of the SE shot.

I never really noticed a lot of the "mistakes" in the original versions that they spent so much time and money fixing (like the lighting issues pointed out above). I guess that's what makes the SE's so pointless in my mind. Some of the changes were okay, but when they did the new musical number in Jabba's palace, but neglected to rework the Rancor compositing, that tells me their priorities were out of wack.

It just points out the need to have the originals available in quality versions, to keep some sense of perspective for the future.

If you don't think the Rancor compositing was redone, then it's been too long since you watched the original 1983 version of RETURN OF THE JEDI; it looked the same in the 1997 Special Edition, granted, but appears vastly improved on the 2004 DVD.

The Rancor scene still looks pretty bad on the 2004 version.

The dvd menus for Empire are now on the web, here is the link.

http://www.starwars.com/episode-v/re...s20060829.html

The 1997 edition is what I meant. When my first viewing of ROTJ:SE showed me a brand new (bad) musical number, but then the same old bad compositing of the rancor scene, I subconciously started to realize something was amiss at the Ranch.

I know the story's been told that they ran out of time, but whatever happened to priorities? I just feel that any reasonable person would have started with the worst problems, then go after any other "enhancements".

Have they posted comparison shots between the original release and the new version for TESB yet? I didn't see it anywhere on the site.

Nope, not yet I am sure they will be up later this week.

Thought I'd chime in on the topic. Although I know I have nothing new to offer really. Everything has pretty much been said but...

I can't tell you how disappointed I am that the dvds are not anamorphic. I give props to Lucas for releasing the original theatrical trilogy, but what good are they if they aren't anamorphic? Doesn't he know that pretty much only true fans will buy this and most of them have Widescreen TVs are are going to get a Widescreen TV soon?

I really want to watch these but I refuse to buy them if they are not anamorphic. Can anyone name a big budget Hollywood film that has come in the last 3-4 years on DVD that wasn't anamorphic? I know every once in awhile MGM will release something not in OAR or in non-anamorphic widescreen but this is Star Wars for God sakes.

I'm going to go cry now.

Saxon

Well, they're on DVD now, for one, instead of being on VHS or LD. They're likely in higher quality than either of those formats too.

Well, it's pretty hard to quantify how many "true fans" own WS TVs, so what you wrote about ownership may or may not be true. However, it seems doubtful that these DVDs won't sell well.

Ransom SE DVD came out in March 2004.