Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[nmycon]

Originally Posted by Panama Jack

And don't forget the VCD releases...

http://www.amazon.com/Lucasfilm-20th.../dp/B000VRHHLC

New for $12? That's a nice price!

STAR WARS ON BLU-RAY!

[Breather]

Originally Posted by Panama Jack

And don't forget the VCD releases...

http://www.amazon.com/Lucasfilm-20th.../dp/B000VRHHLC

Definitely.

[Kamdan]

Originally Posted by SAP12690

Found this link, I preordered it just because it was only $5. Does anybody know what it is exactly?

Link: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Star+War...sell&lp=5&cp=2

This isn't an extra disc like when the Indy films first came out on DVD, right?

[Breather]

Originally Posted by Kamdan

This isn't an extra disc like when the Indy films first came out on DVD, right?

It's just for a film cell with a preorder.

I'm no fan of store exclusives but in light of how many past special features they left off this set, especially those that never made it past VHS/LD, I'm hoping someone will have an exclusive disc with some of that material.

Fat chance, I know.

[aiman04]

Bill Hunt's report is up:

The Digital Bits - The 2011 Star Wars Saga Blu-rays - First Insights

[Jumpman]

How long have many of us being saying the '04 boxset was rushed?

Thank you Bill Hunt for pretty much putting an end to that debate...

[Jumpman]

From Bill Hunt's report:

The Supervising Sound Editor on the Blu-rays for Skywalker Sound, Matthew Wood, gave us a pretty detailed demonstration of the new 6.1 DTS-HD MA uncompressed audio mixes on these Blu-rays. (For those wondering why 6.1 and not 7.1, Matt said that 6.1 was chosen because it builds nicely on the 5.1 EX mixing work that was done for the Prequel films.) The first scene he showed us was the beginning of the assault on the Death Star at the end of Episode IV. Now, I suspect he showed us this scene for exactly the thing I noticed immediately upon previewing it. Some of you may recall that on the 2004 DVD, when the X-Wings begin their dive down to the Death Star, the familiar John Williams trumpet fanfare was buried in the mix so you could barely hear it. No longer! The trumpets ring true in the Blu-ray mix loud and clear. When I heard this, I couldn't help thrusting my arms up in the air in a bit of happy relief. I then turned to Matt, who as it happens was standing right next to me, and saw him give a little smile and nod - he knew exactly what I was reacting to. When I leaned over to thank him for fixing it, his simple reply made me smile as well: "Trust me, I read the blogs too..."

Yep. This set is going to be one of those sets; almost every meticulous detail that fans have been crying about for 7 years are going to get fixed....

Another reassuring quote:

In the scenes Matt sampled for us, the clarity, resolution and staging of what heard was really quite impressive. I have to say, talking with Matt was enormously reassuring. He just clearly gets it. He knows these films, and he loves them as much as anyone. He knows all the complaints fans have had with the 2004 DVD release and he made sure to correct them - to get them right at long last.

[Jumpman]

Excellent report by Bill Hunt. Clearly, it's a teaser to the reviews but he does address many issues within the report.

It's going to be kind of impossible for me to watch the '04 box set ever again after reading these reports.

We all knew the damn thing was rushed. Now, at least we have confirmation of it...real confirmation.

[PRO-630HD]

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...s/preview.html

"So the next obvious question is, how to the films look in HD based on what we say on Friday morning? The answer is very good indeed. Do they look better than the 2004 DVDs? Absolutely. Do they look better than recent 1080p HD cable and satellite broadcasts? Again, yes - not just for the fixes to problem A/V issues that have been done but also because of the added video and audio data rate afforded by the Blu-ray format, and the fact that each film comes on its own BD-50 disc. And don't forget that Episodes I, II and III should look fantastic simply for having been mastered directly from the digital production files.

On the other hand, will Episodes IV, V and VI look as good as more recent films that have had state-of-the-art negative scans of 4, 6 or even 8K resolution? No, probably not. It will obviously be easier to say for sure when the final product is in hand in a few weeks, and we all have some time to really go over it and live with it a bit. In any case, this is one of those issues over which personal opinions are going to vary widely. The takeaway here is this: These films will look notably better than they ever have before at home, on any home format, and most (if not all) of the A/V issues that have driven fans crazy over the years - particularly about the 2004 DVD release - should be fixed on these Blu-rays."

So basically Episodes 1-3 will look as good or state of the art as it can given the source material. Episodes 4-6 could have looked better given the fact the 35mm SE negatives should have been scanned at 4K. Fanboys will have you believe the 525i master on laserdisc looks stunning lol!

[JasonWard]

The Phantom Menace was shot on film though. It was not filmed digitally like Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

[Dellamorte13]

Wait a second...so does only the Complete Saga box set have all the extras ???

If so, I don't think I'll buy any of them. I could care less for Episodes I and II and don't want to have to buy a $90 set with 3 1/2 movies I do like.

[Jumpman]

At the end of the day, the films will be capped at 1080p for the foreseeable future because of Episodes II and III being shot digitally at a native resolution of 1080p.

Yes, technically, Episodes IV-VI could've looked better...but Lucas is going for a unified look for the six pictures.

[shelldweller]

Originally Posted by aiman04

Bill Hunt's report is up:

The Digital Bits - The 2011 Star Wars Saga Blu-rays - First Insights

Great, thanks for the link.
Good read, still there´s nothing we didn´t know (could assume) for over a year now.

Having said that, I really can´t wait for the set to finally come out!

[STARSCREAM]

This set just keeps sounding better and better! I can't wait to find out what all the "new stuff added" will be!!!???!!

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by Riddler95

I guess there was more time and effort put into the 1993 Definitive Collection Laserdisc Boxset than the 2004 DVD Boxset.

Well, I've never seen or owned a film on laserdisc in my life, but Lucas did farm out most of the DVD work to Lowry Digital Images, because ILM was swamped at the time with the post-production for "Revenge of the Sith".

[skyofcrack]

Originally Posted by aiman04

Bill Hunt's report is up:

The Digital Bits - The 2011 Star Wars Saga Blu-rays - First Insights

Great report. I especially like his enthusiasm for the extended scenes and the confirmation that most of them are in HD.

[Jumpman]

Lowry did the dirt and scratch removal for the '04 box set. ILM's the one that did the color timing for that box set.

At the end of the day, we all knew it was a rushed set. Lucas was adamant that he wanted to wait until he was done with Episode III before he released the Original Trilogy on DVD.

I don't know what changed his mind to create that '04 box set in the time frame that they did but they did it and we all knew it was rushed because a lot of the mistakes weren't there in the '97 Special Edition release.

The color timing was the biggest indicator.

[Merlinpants]

Originally Posted by Merlinpants

I go back to my original post many moons ago, have we actually seen any BD footage yet? All of this marketing material could have been culled from any number of sources,the OOT negative, the HD transfer in 2004, documentary footage, 1997 SE. All of these flaws should not exist on the BD, but the marketing material we keep getting alludes to it being there. But the issues we are seeing are all from different sources are they not? The see through cockpits were eliminated back in '97, but the pink lightsabre emerges on '04. It looks like we are not getting a true picture of what the BD will look like until someone gets it and shoves it in their drive.

Only then, at the end will we understand!

Ahem, I thank you again

From Bill Hunts report in case you missed it:

Once again, George has apparently added a few new "surprises" into these films. I don't know what they are and didn't get to see any of them on Friday, but I was assured that there will be "new things to notice" when we watch the films. I think we can safely assume that one of them will be the new all-digital Yoda in Episode I. Way back when Episode III was released on DVD, ILM digital effects supervisor Pablo Helman confirmed to me that the puppet Yoda in Episode I was replaced with a digital version to better match his appearance in Episodes II and III.

[KeithBL]

Originally Posted by Dellamorte13

Wait a second...so does only the Complete Saga box set have all the extras ???

If so, I don't think I'll buy any of them. I could care less for Episodes I and II and don't want to have to buy a $90 set with 3 1/2 movies I do like.

Back in my day that was an absolute steal for 3 & 1/2 movies. I really don't know why you'd expect them to be any cheaper than that. All things considered, Fox could have been greedy and charged $100 per trilogy.

[beckmen]

Originally Posted by JasonWard

The Phantom Menace was shot on film though. It was not filmed digitally like Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Yes, but it was edited digitally.

I still would like an explanation for the pics on thedigitalbits. The cyan/aqua/whatever color filter is still there, despite claims that the color timing has been 'corrected'. It looks exactly the same. Even the saber shot, Vader's saber isn't red. Or pink. It's both! On the left of the frame, it's pink...on the right, it's red.