Anyone of you speaking German?
In Germany private pay-per-view TV shows the SE's of EP4-6 last autumn - some guys grabbed these movies from their digital receiver and burned them in a really fabulous quality in DD5.1 and widescreen on DVD-R's!!

Me (as an old SW-fan) has been asked to create some covers - they´re now available at:

www.matrixresistance.de/sw.html

just tell me what you think of them - but be aware: they´re in german!

Finally got my 5 star versions today and I'm TOTALLY happy with them. Way better than the other special edition DTS versions. I can now rest offically until the offical releases are released :P It took 10 days to get to me, not bad at all. Unless another version that has tons of extra features and quality is better and price is a steal, then I won't be buying another copy. THANKS FOR DEAL :-)

I'm also quite pleased with the DTS banner set and will not bother checking out the 5-Star set.

Well, I finally received the 5-star set today. While I have not watched any of the movies all the way through, I did check out a few key scenes from each one. Those with digital front projectors don't fear. Blacks are fine with gamma adjusted down. However, the early brighter Tatooine scenes from Ep 4 are very fuzzy looking to me with low contrast. They were on the DTS banner set as well but they seem to look worse with this set. Everything else I looked at was better on the 5 star set but not tremendously so.

Another thing I noticed was a lot of "stairstep" artifacting and somewhat jerky movement in places, especially pans. I don't remember it being as noticable on the banner set. I'll have to do some closer comparisons over the next few days.

Everything said previously about the sound is right on. Sound is MUCH better on this set (and I liked the sound on the banner set). LFE (while still a little weak IMO) is evident throughout while on the banner set it was a no-show. Discrete 5.1 on Ep 4 and Ep 6 was quite an improvement. Even Ep 5 in 2 channel surround does sound better.

Oh yes, if cover art is important to you, the 5-star rules in that catagory .

Just curious - are the five star's the SE and the DTS logo ones are the original??

Yes, occasionally I noticed some "stairstep" floating horizontal lines as well. And I agree, they did a really nice job with the cover art.

I got the shipping information from the guy I bought my 5 stars from, but they seem to be stuck in Indianapolis, IN since 5/17 for some reason. I e-mailed the guy and he is supposed to be looking into it, but it's really been a pain in the ass since it was supposed to be here 2 day air. *sigh*

No, both are the SE versions. The only original versions out on DVD are very hard to find and nowhere near the audio/video quality of the SE DVD's!

True and not true. I don't know where this rumor is coming from that the original versions are hard to find. They are EASILY found at all the usual places. I will however, agree...the quality is horrible. Almost makes me want to sell my copy of the original trilogy since i prefer the SE's anyway. They look just dreadful.

On the other hand...I finally received my copy of the 5 Star DVD's yesterday and I can say that my laserdiscs will be sold within the next two weeks. I no longer have any use for them. Except for the sound screw up on Empire...these discs are absolutely FANTASTIC. The movies look and sound great (save Empire), have the trailers AND the 30 minute documentary from the laserdisc. Thus...i have no need for the original any more and any lasers I can replace are welcome.

Go and get em if you can. These will totally hold me over until 2006 or whenever George gets around to releasing his newest vision. Or until the next version of the bootlegs come out with Empire corrected and even BETTER image...if that's possible

I received my set of the 5 Star version yesterday, watched IV and part of V with my kids. Quality is better than I had hoped for, roughly on par with any direct laserdisc transfer to DVD release and better than some! Very good sync, no noticeable problems. Some picture softness in IV, not too bad.

I don't really consider this purchase as advocating piracy as there is no alternative, legit DVD set to buy. It really pisses me off that Lucas can watch the series with his kids on DVD but denies that right to fans that were there in the beginning and want to enjoy the films with our own kids. I will buy the legit sets when released but these are just fine for now.

How are the 5 Star DVDs compared to the (official, thus legal) VCD Edition available in Malaysia? I don't have a LD player so my only other option would be VCD. It's a nice box set.

I could get the 5 Stars for $38 shipped and I'm one step from doing it, but the VCDs would be around 10 bucks cheaper. Of course this is only worth of consideration if the quality is somewhat similar.

I haven't seen the VCDs, but I've heard that they are fullscreen. As for the quality, I wouldn't expect much better than VHS quality from the VCDs in terms of both audio and video.

Pan & Scan? Cool....

please let that be sarcasm...

i have vcd copies of the lion king and aladdin, and off the cuff, i'd say avoid them like the plague...sub VHS in quality. pixelriffic on my 61" screen.

Yeah, I heard some stories about sub-VHS quality, too. I just thought maybe this official VCDs might be an exception and perhaps even better than some bootlegged DVDs.

But thanks for the advice, I'll go for the 5 Star editions.

Are the 5 Stars original cuts of the movie or are they the Greedo shoots first and etc special edition versions of the movies/

They are the SE versions! If you have to have the original versions then you have to deal with a VASTLY inferior quality DVD then the SE's are.

Static: The link in the original thread doesn't point to this thread, but some other one that I can only assume got moved to the moderator forum. It is this post of yours:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...78#post2402678

Another reason this might be helpful to fix is that I actually found someone in another forum linking to the original closed thread, and it would be easier if the 'Closing' message pointed to this new thread:
http://www.trekbbs.com/ubb/Forum11/HTML/007844.html
(then do a search for 'DVDTalk' on that page)

That being said, it looks like the 5 Stars are the way to go for me. I've never been too fussed on the Greedo bit. But keep the info flowing on these, those of you receiving them! Every piece of information helps!

Of course, my Wells Fargo credit card will probably have a fit when they see an international charge come through after I find a place I trust. The security threshhold is really low. Twice on vacation they have locked my credit card due to 'abnormal charges'

I just received my 5 stars the other day and I can't seem to find any documentary on any of them.

My 5-star set has arrived back home, but I'm currently deployed to the desert and it'll be a couple more weeks before I can watch it. I don't have the greatest setup, but I do have a 55" widescreen RPTV and a fairly decent 5.1 setup, so I'll post in with my thoughts.

This will also be a fairly fresh take on the DVDs, as I've never seen previous versions of the bootlegs, and up until now have only watched the OT on my VHS (the non-SE that was remastered). Kinda blows hearing people say the non-SE DVDs suck in video/audio since the original movies are light-years better than the hacked-up SEs, but what ya gonna do? I saw the SEs once. ANH I vowed to never watch again (in SE form) because it changed the movie too much for the worse, though ESB and ROTJ I could tolerate. I'd rather have lower video and audio quality and be able to watch the classics in their true form than watch the SEs....

Well crap, guess I'm just gonna have to buy the non-SE set, too. It may not be perfect, but it's gotta be better than VHS!

I'll chime in when I get home and watch the 5-stars back to back.

I just received my 5 stars the other day and I can't seem to find any documentary on any of them.



You can find the documentary on the ROTJ Disc, it's under the trailer. Just watch that and it'll take you the docu.

So nobody has made DVDs of the original cuts of the movie that meet good standards?

Unfortunately no but that is more due to the fact that the bootleggers don't have a outstanding video source to start out with like the SW: SE laserdiscs which are outstanding!

After reading the Memento SE "tough case" thread I just have to make this comment even though it is a very small deal in the grand scheme of things. How come these bootleggers have the best securing mechanisms for their disks?? Both sets I received had securing mechs (you know, the plastic piece in the center that secures the disk in the case) that I have never seen on a legit DVD case. Very easy to get the disk in and out and is not hard on the disk like some I have that can cause cracks to develop from the inner hole.

How's that for a review of a previously unmentioned feature of this set ?

digitalfreaknyc-- "On the other hand...I finally received my copy of the 5 Star DVD's yesterday and I can say that my laserdiscs will be sold within the next two weeks. I no longer have any use for them. "

Don't list yours just yet. . ....my auction has a few more days to run. I don't need the competition! As soon as I received my 5-stars and tried them out, I knew my SE box set was auction bound!

Now, if they could just do some Indy discs right, I'd never leave my house.