Maybe he’s thinking jaundice.

Anyway, without having to rehash a huge discussion thread too much, SW DeEd 2.x was graded based on a Technicolor reference print. Why? The theory was sound – everyone’s got their own idea of what looks good, but Harmy wasn’t interested in what looked good, he wanted what looked accurate. Since most Star Wars prints had long ago faded to pink vinegar, we had no good color references… except Technicolor prints, which didn’t fade much at all under the right circumstances.

The result? DeEd 2.7 looks very much like a Technicolor print you might have seen in a theater in 1977.

The bad news? Technicolor prints were often very unlike other 35mm prints in terms of colors. Especially around this time, they often had a heavy yellow cast. So DeEd 2.7 looks very unlike what you might have seen in a theater in 1977, if it wasn’t showing a Technicolor print (which was most of them).

Going forward, Harmy’s indicated that he plans for a more neutral grade, or even multiple grades, when he redoes Star Wars for the 3.x series.

EDIT: The 1993 versions of the films have their own issues. They are heavily magenta-tinted, so everyone has red faces instead of yellow faces. In terms of color accuracy to non-Technicolor source, the 1997 Special Editions are actually pretty good for commercial releases, although I think the home video versions still got messed up somehow. I’d say DrDre has the best sense of Star Wars colors, if you want to check some of his threads. Nobody should use the 1993 releases as a color reference.