Does anyone know if the GOUT is really complete or if there are frames it doesn’t have?
The US ANH GOUT is missing the last frame of reel 5. The UK GOUT appears to be complete. The reel changes are the only places that there is any variation due to missing frame between the LDs, GOUT, 97 SE broadcast, DVD, and Blu-ray. The UK GOUT, DVD and Blu-ray have exactly the same reel breaks. The 97 SE braodcast of ANH is complete, TESB is missing 1 frame, and ROTJ is missing 8 frames (when you compare the TB and G’kar versions to complile a complete version). Many of the LD versons are missing multiple frames at each reel break. The Definitive Edition and Faces should be complete since they are from the same source as the GOUT. I have no idea why the US GOUT is missing that one frame when it is there in so many other versions.
I have not yet checked to see if the US GOUT of TESB or ROTJ are missing any frames. It is on my list. But between the UK GOUT, the DVD, and the Blu-ray, there are no frames missing at any reel breaks. And for the 97 SE, it is only at 1 reel break in TESB and 4 in ROTJ where there are missing frames. I’ve even aligned the blu-ray to the GOUT and found them in complete agreement aside from the SE edits. For instance, during the ANH Death Star battle, all the SE shots that replace the originals run for the same number of frames. Same with the Cloud City shots with the windows added.