Star Wars Ep 1-6 on Blu-ray Fall 2011

[AcuDefTechGuy]

They are going to make us wait for a full year???

http://www.starwars.com/themovies/saga/mebd/bluray/index.html

 

[j_garcia]

Old news

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64874&highlight=star+wars

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Old news

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64874&highlight=star+wars

That's it. I've lost it.

 

[jayg84]

probably some annivesary of something

 

[j_garcia]

It says in the article 35th anniversary of the release of the first film. Not exactly a "major" anniversary, but George probably doesn't want to wait for the 50th anniversary

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Only Episodes 1-3 will be remastered to full HD and uncompressed audio.
4-6 will ported over from special editions as is

Lucas said it'll too expensive to redo these....

 

[j_garcia]

The new ones are already in good shape. They shouldn't need remastering, and they aren't as good IMHO. The originals are the foundation of the series and what should be focused on, but I do understand that they are old and that it would be a pretty good size undertaking. They should know, they've already done it once...

 

[its phillip]

The new ones are already in good shape. They shouldn't need remastering, and they aren't as good IMHO. The originals are the foundation of the series and what should be focused on, but I do understand that they are old and that it would be a pretty good size undertaking. They should know, they've already done it once...

This! I don't even care about the new ones, I'll just be getting the original trilogy. If they are going to be straight ports of the special edition dvds then I won't bother, though, since I have multiple copies of the dvds and even my old tapes :/

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

If they can remaster Bladerunner and give it a 5 star Video & Audio, why can't they do the same thing for Star Wars?

We are talking about one of the best original trilogies of all times here.

Anything less than a 5 Star Video/Audio quality remaster would be a disappointment to billions (okay millions) of fans.

 

[Serj22]

One request, as per the TV version I saw about a year ago. NO HAYDEN CHRISTIANSEN ghost in the 3rd movie. No!

 

[Seth=L]

Only Episodes 1-3 will be remastered to full HD and uncompressed audio.
4-6 will ported over from special editions as is

Lucas said it'll too expensive to redo these....

I thought the remastered transfers they did for 4-6 were in HD scaled down to DVD resolution. I've even seen the HD feeds on TV, what gives?

Also, the 3rd installment was filmed with digital cameras at 4x resolution of 1080p. I can't imagine that would be hard.

 

[MatthewB.]

What's weird is I have all the DVD's and have seen the HBO HD versions when they did that marathon a year or so back, but when it comes to watching the original I drag out my laserdisc version, not only because it has the super cinewide version of the film (making it look far more expansive) but the fact it is in it's unmolested form and Greedo shoots first. Granted it has the splotches and you can clearly see the pixcellation around the tie fighters on the Laserdisv version, but to me it's how I saw it in the theaters as a kid and brings back fond memories.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

What's weird is I have all the DVD's and have seen the HBO HD versions when they did that marathon a year or so back, but when it comes to watching the original I drag out my laserdisc version, not only because it has the super cinewide version of the film (making it look far more expansive) but the fact it is in it's unmolested form and Greedo shoots first. Granted it has the splotches and you can clearly see the pixcellation around the tie fighters on the Laserdisv version, but to me it's how I saw it in the theaters as a kid and brings back fond memories.

My original source:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/14/george-lucas-officially-announces-star-wars-on-blu-ray-in-2011/

Lucas told the New York Times that only the special editions will be included, since restoring the original versions in high enough quality would cost too much

Real Source:
NY TIMES:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/star-wars-films-coming-to-blu-ray-next-year/

Mr. Lucas said the versions of the first three “Star Wars” films – “Star Wars,” “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” – included in the Blu-ray boxed set will be the special-edition releases that were shown theatrically in 1997 and digitally restored for a 2004 standard-definition DVD boxed set.

Perhaps bracing for the reactions of fans who decried some of the changes made to the special-edition films – like, say, an exchange of gunfire between Han Solo and a certain green-skinned bounty hunter – Mr. Lucas said that to release the original versions of these films on Blu-ray was “kind of an oxymoron because the quality of the original is not very good.”

“You have to go through and do a whole restoration on it, and you have to do that digitally,” he added. “It’s a very, very expensive process to do it. So when we did the transfer to digital, we only transferred really the upgraded version.”

Maybe I jumped the gun, but not too far:
What he's saying is 4-6 episodes will be transfers from special editions version which were already shown on TV multiple times in HD.... so - I'm not sure what to expect, but I prepare to underwhelmed....

Good Article about Blade Runner Transfer:
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/features/2008/01/blade-runner-how-great-hd-made

 

[j_garcia]

Blade Runner's remaster was nothing short of amazing. I was not a fan of the "updated" episode 4-6 films and what was added. There were a few things here and there that seemed to be beneficial, but in general I didn't like the rework.

Granted it has the splotches and you can clearly see the pixcellation around the tie fighters on the Laserdisv version, but to me it's how I saw it in the theaters as a kid and brings back fond memories.

Exactly I understand that Lucas wanted to add some details that he wanted in there that at the time would have added cost and time, but I don't see why he would NOT want the original to be the best version out there. It is a cop out IMO. It will be expensive? Yes, we know that. Would it be worth it? Duh Of course it would.