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Star Wars 2006 GOUT DVDs - is it still worth buying them?

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So I was thinking when I am able to buy something I would wanna buy the Star Wars 2006 DVDs with the bonus GOUT DVDs for my collection. Is it worth it ? (I already watch the despecialized editions just think it might be cool owning them)

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Having owned them since 2006, I would say it’s not worth splashing out on the GOUT DVDs these days if your main aim is to watch them. Back then when I still had a 22 inch CRT TV, the image was acceptable albeit a little disappointing. But on a 40 inch LCD TV (probably classed as rather small by today’s standards), the deficiencies of the GOUT are much harder to ignore. The resolution is pretty poor since these DVDs are non-anamorphic and there is plenty of motion-smearing.

But if you are a collector, then the GOUT is an important release and worth having.

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I think the prices aren’t as crazy now as they once were. The full screen sets often go for much less because people think the bonus GOUT disc is also pan and scan. It’s not! 😉

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Where were you in '77?

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I’ve had a quick look at the 3rd party prices on Amazon: if you want the GOUT new, the UK prices seem to be much lower than in the US. The UK GOUT is in letterbox format (non-anamorphic widescreen) like the USA GOUT, but will be PAL rather than NTSC. And as far as I know, the 2004SE discs (i.e. non-GOUT) in the 2006 UK release will always be in anamorphic widescreen; I don’t think the pan & scan option was ever available in the UK for these discs.

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I mean maybe, if you really want to collect the artwork on the inserts.

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Weird. The 2006 release of the GOUT is the last time I watched Star Wars. Back then it was on an older flat screen TV, some sort of 30-something inch. Truth be told, I have no real idea about the quality. At the time, I was so beyond Lucas having ruined the film for me, I paid little attention to the quality. I should give it a look one of these days. Considering the fact that Disney and/or Lucasfilm have done fuck-all to release it properly, it’s entirely possible I’ll go the rest of my natural life without ever seeing again what was my favorite film in the 1970s.

Well played, Mr. Lucas.

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There are black bars or borders all around the image if you try and watch it on a 16:9 HD set. You have to use the zoom button. Just like if you were hooking up your laserdisc player to your HDTV with rca cables. Not to mention it is the bad remix from 1993 with the smashing glass in the detention block when they shoot out the cameras. And a not very well defined image in postage stamp size at that. With the DVNR motion smearing which was never corrected. I assume that maybe at least the frames are progressive and not interlaced like the laserdisc, but i could be wrong.

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Anchorhead said:

Weird. The 2006 release of the GOUT is the last time I watched Star Wars. Back then it was on an older flat screen TV, some sort of 30-something inch. Truth be told, I have no real idea about the quality. At the time, I was so beyond Lucas having ruined the film for me, I paid little attention to the quality. I should give it a look one of these days. Considering the fact that Disney and/or Lucasfilm have done fuck-all to release it properly, it’s entirely possible I’ll go the rest of my natural life without ever seeing again what was my favorite film in the 1970s.

Well played, Mr. Lucas.

You should download one of the fan preservations. They’re much better quality than the GOUT.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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For your collection, to have and to love then yes add them. You’ll be very happy just having them.

RiK

“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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I bought these when they came out in the individual sets that were packaged with the Dark Horse reprints of the Marvel adaptations of each film . I still have the comics and the dvd’s themselves , but no longer have the cardboard boxes they came in . They are worth buying as collectibles and display pieces . I wish I had waited a bit and got the Best Buy tin pictured in this article https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/star-wars-original-trilogy-unaltered-dvds even without these extras , the dvd’s make great display pieces by themselves .Just take out the inserts that have some relatively rare movie poster art on them , and slip them under the protective plastic on the outside of the case .This way you can cover up the lackluster photoshopped movie poster remakes on the front .

https://screamsinthevoid.deviantart.com/

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SilverWook said:

I think the prices aren’t as crazy now as they once were. The full screen sets often go for much less because people think the bonus GOUT disc is also pan and scan. It’s not! 😉

Haha thanks for the tip!

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I have to imagine the 2006 unaltered DVD transfers will look like complete ass on any modern TV, but every so often I’ll watch movies on my PC at my desk, and if I’m using a highly customizable media software like VLC player where I can finnagle with the aspect ratio and zoom and sharpness and all to my heart’s content, the GOUT makes serviceable viewing.

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Just a warning about the above link. While it does lead to a Jar Jar lollipop, the webpage is riddled with pop-ups which locked up Safari on my iPhone.

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Barfolomew said:

I have to imagine the 2006 unaltered DVD transfers will look like complete ass on any modern TV, but every so often I’ll watch movies on my PC at my desk, and if I’m using a highly customizable media software like VLC player where I can finnagle with the aspect ratio and zoom and sharpness and all to my heart’s content, the GOUT makes serviceable viewing.

They were barely acceptable at the time as the major studios were more fully supporting 16:9 by then. And people forget the GOUT transfers are actually the THX Laserdisc masters from 1993! They were never the best transfers of the OT to begin with, with flaws visible even on the 20-inch analog tv I owned at the time.

The only thing worse is some of the deep catalog made on demand titles Fox was releasing as late as 2012 in glorious pan and scan.

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Where were you in '77?

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I recently tried converting my GOUT discs to 16:9, which I have done for a number of my LD rips or letterboxed DVDs without issue.

It turns out that the GOUT actually has a shaking/shimmering problem with the image that is headache inducing.

If I zoom in on the GOUT disc on my TV I don’t notice it, but when I have the raw video file converted to 16:9 and use a media player, it’s unwatchable.

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When the first efforts here made drastic improvements to the GOUT way back then I knew that major releases could and definitely did have issues and it helped me go down the rabbit hole of studying film transfer histories.

If you really want the GOUT discs it’s a bit of a challenge now. Most places or listings have them around $60-100 or more as so many people are unfortunately convinced they are the only “original versions”. I’ve worn myself out explaining them still and their lineage. Sadly the costs of LD and VHS editions are still sky high for usually the same reason regardless of edition.

The DC or Faces LDs destroy the GOUT in terms of PCM vs DD 2.0. Heck I’d go even further and say the VHS hifi has more of a punch and I’m a geek that has both pan n scan and letterbox boxsets of the VHS Faces.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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You’re not wrong, the Japan Special Collection discs, and the US release of Special Widescreen editions, and boxed sets still command high prices. Its kind of funny seeing how the last releases not counting the Special Edition, the faces releases were in 1995 on Laserdisc. And people will still pay a hundred bucks for a full set of the trilogy in 2021.

The Gout is now impossible to find at a good price on DVD. I’ve got the Fullscreen DVD from 2006, which was a mistake of a seller on Ebay way back in time. And the bonus discs are the 4:3 letterbox transfers.

As a collector i’ve tried to find the Japanese Edition Region 2 Best Buy tin equivalent, but it doesn’t come up on ebay that often.

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That’s why I still don’t have all three JSC or Faces lds. The price gouging is nuts on all SW. Just recently I realized there was a fancier version of the 97SE letterbox vhs set with some nice swag. I thought hmm I wonder what those go for. $75+ nope.

I feel I’m lucky enough on LD to have the SWEs, Technidisc ANH, non rotted complete definitive collection, JSC ANH and faces ROTJ on LD. TPM Japan also goes for a bit but I was patient and finally got one without obi for cheap. I still would like to get the other two JSCs someday.

I used to tell people to just get the SWE trilogy and that will work best overall for $15-25. Now I tell them just get the SWE as cheap as you can find them. Even the letterbox vhs iteration of these goes for more because of the vhs market explosion.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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Id say the Definitive LDs and Special Widescreen Collector LD Trilogy can be had for about 50. I got my definitive LDS set last year for that amount.

The THX Faces VHS tapes go for about 10-15 dollars for a complete set.

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captainsolo said:

That’s why I still don’t have all three JSC or Faces lds. The price gouging is nuts on all SW. Just recently I realized there was a fancier version of the 97SE letterbox vhs set with some nice swag. I thought hmm I wonder what those go for. $75+ nope.

The swag is so good though. I now have two of the medals that come with the sets, and I took the staples out of the “Art of the Special Edition” booklet (which is the exact content as the appendices of the “Art of” books) last night and got good scans of every page.

And I got 5 frames of Jabba’s ass, which is perfect.

Star Wars Revisited Wordpress

Star Wars Visual Comparisons WordPress

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doubleofive said:

captainsolo said:

That’s why I still don’t have all three JSC or Faces lds. The price gouging is nuts on all SW. Just recently I realized there was a fancier version of the 97SE letterbox vhs set with some nice swag. I thought hmm I wonder what those go for. $75+ nope.

The swag is so good though. I now have two of the medals that come with the sets, and I took the staples out of the “Art of the Special Edition” booklet (which is the exact content as the appendices of the “Art of” books) last night and got good scans of every page.

And I got 5 frames of Jabba’s ass, which is perfect.

Don’t remind me…I really want one of these boxes now.

Haha “now with 5 collectible Jabba ass frames!”

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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If they are going for a low price then why not? An important part of Star Wars history, from the fans’ perspective.
It may not be high quality, but that too signifies a turning point for Lucasfilm, in beginning to release lazy and shoddy work, with little in the way of quality control.
It says something about Lucas himself too, fans rejecting his Special Edition and still wanted the originals, or both, and he put out this POS in response?
I’ll take this POS and stand it proudly on my shelf, next to Despecialized and 4K Tn1 releases. The official Special Edition releases hidden behind them.