Originally posted by: Tiptup
Just to clarify, an “anamorphic” transfer to DVD does not require that you start with an anamorphic version of the film. The digital master which THX made in 1993 was certainly at a MUCH HIGHER RESOLUTION than Laserdisk offered and probably higher than DVD. That means a high quality, anamorphic transfer to DVD is most likely possible if they use the 1993 master. The digital master made at that time is probably very good, just not as good as what technicians could accomplish today.

Acutally, that is not true. The master for the LD would be inferior to today's component masters for DVD. I have several DVDs that are made form LD masters, 2001 for instance. In all cases they just don't hold up to even the most plebian of 16x9 masters today. The most important difference is that Laser Disc's were not mastered to component devices. A DVD is a component disc, separating th luminance (black and white signal) and the three color signals so there is no crosstalk. In 1993 there was a component video format called D1, but it was much more likely to be placed on the less expensive D2 composite master because there is no reason to pay for the overkill in the master. This crosstalk causes strange dot crawls aganst adjacent colors between lines. Also, this master would have 3:2 pulldown recorded in, and not transferred as they are today as a 23.976 progressive flagged to output a 3:2 pulldown. This is how progressive DVD players today output progressive sources and the old transfers will not come out progressive if this is the case.

As for resolution, the LD master is an NTSC master. It cannot hold more resoulution than 720x486 in visible resolution. There was no HD-Video formats in use, except for expermental use. Back then the only higher resolution master was the film itself.

I say to lucas: give us the best technology can muster with the old films if you want to prove the new ones are better.