Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Gilrod]

Originally Posted by earmullet

Anyone know why they took down the Comic Con video?

The video's still on their Youtube page:

http://www.youtube.com/starwars

[Mavrick]

I can't stand that the Lightsabres don't have their colours.

‪STAR WARS TRAILER 1977‬‏ - YouTube

[adywan]

Originally Posted by Mavrick

I can't stand that the Lightsabres don't have their colours.

‪STAR WARS TRAILER 1977‬‏ - YouTube

That trailer was made before Star Wars was even finished. They only had a handful of finished FX shots to use for it and none of the rotoscoping was done, which is why the lightsabres have no colour and there are no laserbolts

[Indyjones]

Originally Posted by phil4853

Am hoping that they had added to the lightsaber fight in AOTC as it was too short and sucked when compared to end fight in TPM.

I would go even further and say that the duels in AOTC are the worst in the whole saga.

[AlexSing]

Hi,

Could one of you take a quick second to answer this for me please?

I bought what I now realise is the 2006 Original Trilogy DVD set which has both the special editions and the unaltered versions. I thought this looked fabulous upscaled on my (then) 40" TV - I haven't watched since I bought a larger screen.

My questions are the following:

Are they the identical transfers to the seemingly much maligned 2004 transfers? Does that go for the original unaltered cuts as well? And will they form the base for the BD's?

And is it your belief that the BD's will be a significant step up in clarity and "punch" over my 2006 editions?

Sorry for not posting something more controversial but I'd appreciate hearing from some of my more learned peers on this

[HylianBowcaster]

Originally Posted by Indyjones

I would go even further and say that the duels in AOTC are the worst in the whole saga.

Yeah, the duels in AotC are a little lacking, even with Anakin getting an arm chopped off. If it wasn't for the power and background to the fight between Obi-wan and Vader in ANH it would likely be the worst.

[Indyjones]

Originally Posted by Cook

Ben Burtt was in charge of the sound mix for the 2004 DVDs and anyone who has watched the ROTS documentary Within a Minute knows that Ben Burtt prefers sound effects to be more prominent than music. He actually got in a shouting match over it when they were mixing the Mustafar duel. Its no suprise that he near completely covered up the music in some scenes on the 2004 dvds. He wants his spx to stand out above the music.

Yep, and Tom Myers (ROTS) was handling the mixes. One thing I would've liked to see on the OT is Lucas bringing in Rydstrom on the side to do the remixes on the OT. It was rumored to have happened on the DVD's, but it didn't happen. I just hope that Lucas doesn't/didn't get a wild hair up his butt and mess with the mixes on TPM and AOTC, so that they sound similar to the other 4.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

I REALLY hope that these 3 trailers from the Special Edition releases make it to the extras on the Blu-Ray sets. I rememeber them very well from when the movies were being re-released, and they are also on the Widescreen SE VHS release (each tape has one of the trailers on it):

‪Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition - A New Hope trailer‬‏ - YouTube

‪Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition - The Empire Strikes Back trailer‬‏ - YouTube

‪Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition - Return Of The Jedi trailer‬‏ - YouTube

Of course George may not want to allow that because if you notice in the 3rd trailer, you can see that scene in ROTJ where Vader and Luke cross light sabers in front of the Emperor and the color timing problem isn't there. He won't want that on there as evidence to compare to the problematic version

In all seriousness, though, I do hope those trailers make it on there. For whatever reason I just really like them, and they even give me goose bumps watching them.


Unfortunately the only thing that we got on the bonus disc from the 2004 DVD set was an older version of the first trailer that didn't even have specific release dates for all of the movies, which I don't recall ever actually seeing in the theater:

‪STAR WARS SPECIAL EDITION TRAILER 720p‬‏ - YouTube

I have no problem if this trailer is also on the set, but I definitely want the other 3 on there if at all possible.

[nmycon]

Originally Posted by AlexSing

Hi,

Could one of you take a quick second to answer this for me please?

I bought what I now realise is the 2006 Original Trilogy DVD set which has both the special editions and the unaltered versions. I thought this looked fabulous upscaled on my (then) 40" TV - I haven't watched since I bought a larger screen.

My questions are the following:

Are they the identical transfers to the seemingly much maligned 2004 transfers? Does that go for the original unaltered cuts as well? And will they form the base for the BD's?

And is it your belief that the BD's will be a significant step up in clarity and "punch" over my 2006 editions?

Sorry for not posting something more controversial but I'd appreciate hearing from some of my more learned peers on this

your 2006 DVDs are simply the 2004 discs repackaged and sold with the bonus disc. The unaltered cuts are the 1993 letterboxed laserdisc transfers. From evidence provided earlier, these 2004 transfers were used to advertise the blu-ray saga at Comic Con, whether they will be used for the actual blu-ray release is anyones guess.

The bonus discs aren't actually the "Original Theatrical" versions of the films as they are described. The 1993 LD set was advertised as being the definitive edition of the films and the last release before the special editions (even though the laserdiscs were re-released in 1995, cheaper and without extras, but the same transfers), so some improvements were made, therefore the films aren't exactly "unaltered."

As for blu-ray being a step up in clarity and punch... that's kind of the whole point of blu-ray, isn't it?

It should be quite a bit clearer, 1080p is just over twice the resolution of DVD. I wouldn't necessarily say the video would have more punch, unless the colours have been adjusted dramatically, but sharp edges should look better. The lossless audio will be a significant improvement over the DVD and will certainly be several steps up in clarity and punch.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by AlexSing

Hi,

Could one of you take a quick second to answer this for me please?

I bought what I now realise is the 2006 Original Trilogy DVD set which has both the special editions and the unaltered versions. I thought this looked fabulous upscaled on my (then) 40" TV - I haven't watched since I bought a larger screen.

My questions are the following:

Are they the identical transfers to the seemingly much maligned 2004 transfers? Does that go for the original unaltered cuts as well? And will they form the base for the BD's?

And is it your belief that the BD's will be a significant step up in clarity and "punch" over my 2006 editions?

Sorry for not posting something more controversial but I'd appreciate hearing from some of my more learned peers on this

The main discs (the first discs with the changes and added effects) are the 2004 editions. They are the exact same discs. Literally. I mean... with DVDs in general, a PS3 system will remember where you stopped a movie if you take it out, watch something else, and then put the movie back in. And if you take the disc from the 2004 set, play it, stop it at some random point, and put in the disc from the 2006 set, it will pick up where the other disc left off because it is literally the exact same disc encode.

The only difference was the additional discs with the original versions. And no, those do not suffer from the same problems as the 2004 versions. The original versions in that set are just old laser disc transfers from before the 1997 special edition even came out (and the 1997 editions didn't have the problems that the 2004 versions have).


The Blu-Rays IMO will most likely be a major step up over the 2004 DVDs, but in some respects that's not saying much if the same problematic transfer is being used (which to the best we can tell so far, is the case... though we won't know for sure until reviews of the set start coming out).

[Dellamorte13]

Originally Posted by Beast

Given that it's the same packaging design as the one for the Aliens set, I doubt Lucas himself designed it.

We know his Daughter picked the packaging art. And Fox probably showed Lucas and her some options and he pointed to the one he liked.

And "No one likes it?" A lot of people seem to be pretty happy with it. It worked perfectly great for the Aliens set. It's just downright classy.

Whoever designed it was probably going for unique or artsy look and it looks as if it's going to be impractical and an overall mess. I've talked to a lot of people who didn't buy the Alien set because they didn't want the other two crappy movies so maybe that's why there wasn't a large group of those pissed off with the packaging. 'Star Wars' is a different franchise with a lot more fans who should be pissed that the packaging sucks. Hopefully there will be a backlash like there was for 'BTTF' and it will be changed to packaging that makes sense, rather than artistic.

'There Will Be Blood' DVDs had a similar case and was a flimsy piece of sh*t all because someone thought it was a good idea to save plastic (while using more paper) to make others believe they cared about the environment; just like eco-cases. Also, taking the movie in and out of the package f-ed up the disc.

Anyway, I don't see why I'm complaining anyway because Luca$ will probably re-release them individually or as a different box set (with proper cases).

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Beast

And "No one likes it?" A lot of people seem to be pretty happy with it.

Who? Like you and maybe 2 or 3 other people posting here? That hardly seems like "a lot".

[Dellamorte13]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Who? Like you and maybe 2 or 3 other people posting here? That hardly seems like "a lot".

Then to the rest of you I say, have fun with your scratched discs.

[Mavrick]

I've liked the artwork for all three sets. I don't know about anyone else but I actually think the Complete Saga looks better with the Blu banner at the top.

[kemcha]

I just caught wind of this on The Digital Bits and I have to say that after seeing how the Complete Series set looks, I'll be purchasing the individual sets. While I didn't want to, leave it to 20th Century Fox to, once again, screw up the packaging. I hate these "slip and slide" cases that they have been using. Charmed, Flintstones, Mash ... what is it whith these studios?

And I was hoping that the complete series would simply be the individual sets simply housed in the bigger box.

Check out what the complete series set looks like on the inside:

[kurtlingle]

Originally Posted by Strevlac

... Bluray is the first consumer format that makes it possible to project a video image on a 12 foot screen that truly looks like a 35mm film print.

I think this is the divide that causes the confusion and disagreements about transfer quality most of the time. Those of us who have such setups know what bluray is capable of and want that type of quality consistently. Others don't know the difference and tell us to quick nitpicking. Sorry, not gonna happen.

Correct. Sometimes, the guys with the 12ft screens forget that many of use have 42" screens. So that's where the difference of opinion can come from.

In some ways, it's nice to have a small screen (42") so most blu's I'm happy with. But even on a 42" TV, I sit close enough that DVD looks bad (to me) and some blu's don't look stellar (FOTR TE for instance).

Sure hope SW looks good on all our screens.

[Scooter1836]

Originally Posted by adywan

Now please tell me that the 2004 versions colour is "how it should be".

It's how it should be.

Well you wanted someone to tell you

[Beast]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Who? Like you and maybe 2 or 3 other people posting here? That hardly seems like "a lot".

I don't see endless complaints about the packaging choice in the ALIEN Boxset thread.

So seems to be a lot more than just 2 or 3 people.

[Beast]

Originally Posted by Dellamorte13

Then to the rest of you I say, have fun with your scratched discs.

The discs arn't going to get scratched by just the packaging.

My Aliens discs are still perfectly fine. But then I take care of my things.

[phatrat1982]

Originally Posted by Beast

I don't see endless complaints about the packaging choice in the ALIEN Boxset thread.

So seems to be a lot more than just 2 or 3 people.

I am perfectly ok with the packaging and I do not get what all the fuss is over.