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Originally posted by: Jedi Master DJR
I wasn't arguing the technical specs with you, both my examples were of more traditional director's cuts, that is true. But you bringing up ET is a good point. Very close to release Speilberg said only the ET SE, but at the last minute included the OT. Do you think there was a significant benefit in releasing both versions? Since the picture and audio quality would go down with branching, like with the Beauty and the Beast DVD movie disc, would there be much harm in making the boxset where the cases for each of the movies held two discs(like the prequal cases) and then of course have a fourth case for the majority of the special features?
First off, only including the 2002 version was Universal's decision, not Spielberg's; when he found out, he went over the video department's head to get both versions released in the regular edition.
Second, Beauty and the Beast is not seamlessly branched; there are actually 3 separate versions of the film contained on the DVD. That's why the quality is less than stellar. Seamless branching would not compromise quality, but given that John Williams created new musical cues for the SE, it could prove problematic in terms of continuity. I believe we discussed this before a long time ago, DJR.