Notice what's missing from this picture?
I haven't decided yet whether to get those new DVDs with the original versions of the original Star Wars trilogy -- but someone named Travis B. just posted some interesting, and very disgruntled, comments about the video quality here.
FWIW, the IGN.com reviews here, here, and here also conclude that the new DVDs are "a worthwhile purchase only for folks who love the movies unconditionally, do not own previous versions of the films on DVD, or worry as much about home-theater presentation (and in fact would be hard-pressed to discern between the two editions on a small, non-widescreen television)."
To be honest, I am not sure how "unconditionally" I love these movies. I have the 2004 editions on DVD already, but I do count The Empire Strikes Back (1980) among my all-time top ten, and I cannot trust George Lucas to make these versions of the films available again in the near future, and I do want my own children to experience the films the way that I did all those decades ago -- all of which incline me to think that I should pick up the discs.
But ... but ... I dunno, money is tight? There are other discs I want to pick up between now and Christmas? And just how noticeably subpar is the video quality on these laserdiscs -- er, DVDs?
posted by Peter T Chattaway at 9:52 PM
7 Comments:
The quality doesn't look much beeter than the video tape I used to transfer to DVD.
I think it's just a matter of whether you want to watch it or not.
I have Tank Girl on DVD and the transfer is terrible quality compared to others but I still love to watch it.
It doesn't have to be perfect fro me to still enjoy it. I am a bit miffed at the price though - I got a deal with a 3 pack for 77.00. That's a lot of money for DVDs that I know aren't the best transfer they could be.
Lucas is being greedy, but I for one am glad to have them...just to have Star Wars without "A New Hope" at the start is a good enough start for me.
HOpefully the "vest on" "vest off" "vest on again" bit in Empire when Han get's frozen is still there too...and when Luke gets out of the Xwing after the Death Star asplodes and says "Carrie" instead of Leia.
It's the little things I know so very well about these films...I want them there.
The 4 year old inside me wants to watch them again teh way I remember them, warts and all.
Only 15 more days....
You had warts when you were four? Eww.
I am a bit miffed at the price though - I got a deal with a 3 pack for 77.00. That's a lot of money for DVDs that I know aren't the best transfer they could be.
Exactly. Here in Vancouver you can get each film for $25, for a total of $75 -- or you can buy it in a three-pack with an exclusive collector's tin at Best Buy for $85! (an extra ten bucks for a tin? aren't these promotional items normally supposed to be, y'know, free?) -- but that's an exorbitant price, really.
Consider that the four-disc set that came out two years ago (with the 2004 versions of the original trilogy, plus a bonus disc packed with extras) cost only about $50 before taxes, at least on the day that I bought it; I see that Amazon.ca now charges $65 for it. And consider that the three-disc set that came out one year ago (with the 2004 versions of the original trilogy, and nothing else) is now selling for $46 at Amazon.ca.
The usual practice is to lower prices over time. So why does the new edition of the original trilogy cost a whopping $75 or more, even though it lacks the bonus features of that original set? Because it contains the original versions of the original trilogy, obviously. But if that is the reason for the huge price gouge, then isn't it a little insulting that those original versions are of such low quality, and that they are treated as mere "extras" to the 2004 versions of those films, which are already available at lower prices?
I had read somewhere that the masters of these films have been destroyed and the only thing available to master these DVDs was the laserdiscs. Is there any truth to this?
If so it seems that, like it not, this is as good as it's ever going to get for these original films.
I had read somewhere that the masters of these films have been destroyed and the only thing available to master these DVDs was the laserdiscs. Is there any truth to this?
I doubt it. The laser discs may have been mastered in 1993, but the "original" versions of the original trilogy were released on VHS -- supposedly for the last time ever -- shortly before the release of the "special editions" in 1997. And if Lucas can go on revising the original films the way he does, then he must have the original elements somewhere.
Incidentally, the reason I put "original" in quotes in that last paragraph is because I don't know whether the VHS editions included "Chapter IV: A New Hope" in the opening crawl. It wasn't there in 1977, and it's apparently not there in the new DVDs, but I do know it was added to the theatrical version of the first film in the early 1980s, so I would assume it was there in the VHS editions, too.
Pete, by and large kids don't care about picture quality. The experience is everything. Star Wars the first time out, the way I saw it in theatres as a wee one, is an experience I wish I could feel again.
Too many people will be weening their kids on the tarted up crap, don't be one of them.
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