TServo2049 said:

I think the O-neg has a larger image field than what we usually see - framing around the edges is not always the same on every print or every video transfer (like the scene with the Tusken scouts, where in one transfer - JSC? - we can see a sliver of sky at the top that we usually don't). Maybe they just framed it a little farther to the left when they did the restoration.

Yeah, the framing/cropping is never the same on every transfer, it's just that in this case it was such a large difference in composition but then again, this was done on several other places in the SE so what you're suggesting is probably what's going on.

TServo2049 said:

If the IPs used for the THX transfers were dupes, then yes, the PAL could have used a different dupe.

It really baffles me how they wanted a source with a closer generation, but the prints they used may well have been more generations removed than the ones used for 80s video releases. Yet everyone back in the 90s, myself included, saw them as looking superior to the old releases - was it just due to the improved video mastering? (DVNR aside, of course...)

Probably, they also had much more stable colors than earlier widescreen releases, and corrected scenes that were shot-day-for-night, you come a long way with that. :) But I must say that I noticed and hated that DVNR from day one, even though I saw them on a small 29" 4:3 TV back in those days. I actually first thought my set was screwed up somehow before I found out what was going on. The audio was really the true star of the THX release IMO.