Shame on Lucasfilm. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! It's amazing that some people are calling us complainers and that we should be grateful we're getting anything when it comes to the Unaltered Trilogy. They speak as if this is a gift and not a product for sale, for which we are being asked to fork over our hard-earned money.
Would anybody be "grateful" if asked to fork over Camry prices for a Yugo simply because it sported a new design? Or more analagous, a "retro" design? Would anybody feel grateful if asked to pay full price for a house that was missing a back wall? The audio and video were bad enough on the 2004 release, but this ... this is unforgivable. THX used to stand for the ultimate quality in a video release. Now they are just embarassing themselves.
Make no mistake, the Unaltered Trilogy release is an inferior product. Two-channel AC3 audio means, if nothing else, half the RESOLUTION of the Special Edition release. No original uncompressed PCM audio means the original mix is NOT being presented. No anamorphic transfer means any widescreen TV will make the picture look terrible. Inferior audio. Inferior video. These are both indicative of a half-assed release by LFL designed either to make a quick cash-grab or to make the Unaltered Trilogy seem inferior by comparison to sate Lucas' ego -- or both.
Between casual fans not willing to shell out more for what is perceived to be the same release, and videophiles (whose numbers have grown exponentially since the 1993 Laserdisc set) jaded by the lousy transfer being released, Lucas is doing everything in his power to make the unaltered trilogy pale by comparison. The content is no longer at issue, but quality is. It doesn't matter if it is Star Wars or LOTR or Harry Potter or Spider-Man, ANY new release with these limitations would be worthy of serious criticism. SHAME, I say. SHAME!!! A pox on Lucas' house!
Now that you've uncovered that it's non-anamorphic, you need to uncover whether it is progressive or interlaced. I'm willing to bet on top of it all, we'll be given an interlaced transfer, halving what remains of the video quality.
Call for Lucasfilm to release the unaltered version separate from the special editions. Then we'll really see where demand is. Assuming that dream will never come to pass, I have an idea for how fans can strike back against Lucas' evil empire:
1) Sell your 2004 sets on Amazon or eBay today so that the value plummets. How many times are you really going to watch Empire of Dreams anyway?
2) Purchase the new set in September to replace it.
3) Keeping the unaltered "bonus" discs for yourselves, mail back the 2004 DVDs to:
Lucasfilm
P.O. Box 29901
San Francisco, CA 94129
Be sure the 2004 disc is rendered unusable so they don't just re-sell it!
Include a note saying "Even your horrible non-anamorphic transfer of the unaltered trilogy means more to me than your special editions. It's a shame THX couldn't do a better job of preserving the most important films in history."
If thousands of people all do this in September, LFL will HAVE to take notice. The front office will be swamped with packages.