Darth First said that he was under the impression that some restoration work had been done to the new OUT release. From LFL's point of view - according to Steve Sansweet at SDCC - there has been extensive cleaning and color correction done to it. The catch is that it was done in 1993 and we've already seen it as the Definitive Collection laserdisc set. If you've been reading over at MF.com, you also know that insider HB said, "Hunt is 100% correct - these are the 93 LD masters and non-anamorphic," also mentioning that they have gone with cheaper vendors and even the menus on the bonus discs are static.

If Lucas still holds original negatives/prints/whatever of the original films, nobody really knows for sure. Just like people say that they went to great lengths to destroy all prints of the original films that were released. One could probably make a case that either one of those statements is false, or that both of them are true. The truth is, we don't know what still exists in the "Lucasfilm archives" or in the hands of Lucas himself.

He could have 4k scans of the original films sitting around collecting dust for all we know. I remember hearing a report back in 2001-2002 that they had already begun digitally transfering the original film negatives. But again, who knows if that is true.

All I know for sure is that most of the people here are going to be dissapointed with the OUT release, no matter if they're interlaced and single layer or not. Five years from now when the SE's have all come out in the theater in 3D, we'll be having this same conversation about why the originals haven't been released on a modern format.