{"id":678,"date":"2006-09-20T16:02:53","date_gmt":"2006-09-20T16:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=678"},"modified":"2006-09-20T16:02:53","modified_gmt":"2006-09-20T16:02:53","slug":"the_digital_bits_on_the_new_st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2006\/09\/20\/the_digital_bits_on_the_new_st\/","title":{"rendered":"The Digital Bits on the New Star Wars DVDs"},"content":{"rendered":"

For anyone out there who is thinking of purchasing the new “Limited Edition” Star Wars<\/i> trilogy set in order to get the original, unaltered theatrical versions of those classic films on DVD — and really, what other reason would you have for buying, yet again, these three films that we all have 20 copies of already — consider the following<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As expected, the films on Disc Two of these sets are presented in non-anamorphic (letterboxed) widescreen in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The DVDs were mastered from the same 1993, standard-definition film transfer as the Definitive Edition laserdisc box set. I will say that these DVDs DO look better than the laserdiscs. The folks at THX have obviously gone to some trouble to make the 15-year-old transfers look as good as they possibly can by 2006 standards, and hats off to them for the effort. But the reality is, most of the improvement in this presentation over the previous laserdisc releases can be attributed to the simple differences you’d expect from a digital presentation (read: DVD) versus an analog presentation (laserdisc). The quality here is nowhere near the league of the gorgeous anamorphic-enhanced video of the special edition versions of these films on DVD (as presented on Disc One of these sets). But compared to the laserdiscs, the colors here are more vibrant and accurate, contrast has been enhanced (so the blacks aren’t as gray and the brightest picture areas aren’t as blown out), and detail is somewhat improved. Given the lesser resolution presented here, however, there are banding issues and all of the picture flaws you’d expect – particularly noticeable if you have an anamorphic widescreen display [Ed. note: I happen to have such a display…]<\/b>, and choose to magnify the non-anamorphic image to fill your screen better [Ed. note: I don’t have to do that, obviously, but it would’ve been nice for my all-time favorite eye candy…]<\/b>. The transfer isn’t as horrible as I feared it would be, but it’s nowhere near good by today’s standards. The fact that the 1977 Japanese rip-off of Star Wars, War in Space, was recently released on DVD with a gorgeous new anamorphic widescreen transfer makes these non-anamorphic DVDs seem all the more lackluster by comparison. And yes… a few of the bootleg DVD versions I’ve seen hold up fairly well next to this.
\n…
\nThe bottom line is this: If you have the previous DVD release, you already own 50% of what you get on these new Limited Editions. And if you already own the original laserdisc releases, you’re going to have to think long and hard about dropping $60 for slightly better copies of the original films on DVD. This release is definitely more for the die-hard super collectors who just absolutely have to have every single version. If you plan to watch them on nothing better than a standard 4×3 TV set, then you’re going to be plenty okay with the picture quality. As for you serious cinephiles, DVD fans and home theater folks, who really care about A\/V quality and worship your anamorphic displays… this DVD release can ONLY be seen as a major disappointment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The simple fact is, one of two things is possible here. Either Lucasfilm already plans to release the classic versions of these films in better quality at a later date (perhaps in next year’s ultimate Star Wars Saga box set to commemorate the original film’s 30th anniversary)… or this is the ONLY time the original versions will be available on DVD (and they’re going to “disappear forever”… AGAIN). If the former is the case, then this feels an awful lot like a blatant effort to milk a little more money out of an already financially well-tapped fan base. If, on the other hand, we’ll never see these films on disc looking better than this… then what a shame. If this IS it, isn’t that all the more reason for Lucasfilm to have gotten it right THIS time? Ah well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I really, really wish I could recommend these discs to all of you. If Lucasfilm had JUST done new anamorphic transfers of the original films, that alone would have made these DVDs an absolute must-have. As they are, your mileage will vary substantially. If you’re one of the few people on the planet who doesn’t already own these films on DVD… or you just don’t care that much about the higher quality a new transfer would have given you (or that you’re getting milked again for films you’ve probably already purchased any number of times)… then go ahead, buy these DVDs with our blessing and enjoy. For EVERYONE else, however, $60 is just WAY too much for the value you’re NOT getting here. We’d advise you to save your money for something better… like next year’s yet-to-be-announced, ultimate box set release. ‘Cause you know damn well that it’s coming, and you know damn well that it ain’t gonna be cheap.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t have much to say on this subject that I haven’t said already. I’d like to see the theatrical versions of these old favorites available in an officially sanctioned home-video product that’s up to current home-video standards of quality. That’s not what’s been we’ve been given in this release. I am disappointed, but I was expecting to be, so it’s not all that painful. At this point, for me, George Lucas is like that ne’er-do-well uncle who was your best buddy when you were a kid and whose drinking problem is now finally getting the best of him: I love him for what he used to be, but I’ve grown accustomed to him letting me down.<\/p>\n

I’m willing to rent these discs and have a look at them; if the picture is sharper than my bootleg DVDs, I may buy them. I may not. I may wait for that rumored 30th anniversary set and hope that Uncle George finally does the right thing by his best creations, the movies that made him his fortune and deserve to be his legacy. Or I may just live with the 20 other copies of these films I already own. I’m not feeling a lot of urgency one way or the other… in fact, I’m feeling pretty indifferent to the whole thing. And that, I think, makes me even sadder than not being able to get the theatrical cuts. I never thought there’d come a day when I’d be indifferent to anything to do with Star Wars<\/i>…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For anyone out there who is thinking of purchasing the new “Limited Edition” Star Wars trilogy set in order to get the original, unaltered theatrical versions of those classic films on DVD — and really, what other reason would you have for buying, yet again, these three films that we all have 20 copies of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}