Here's what I think:
I think the sound is great. I assume it's the '93 mix, and it sounded wonderful, even from my TV's built-in speakers. I noticed a slight "pop" at the layer change (which is right after Tarkin says "terminate her...immediately!", BTW). I suspected this was generated by my DVD player, so I tested it later on my Sister's RCA DVD player, and there was no detectable pop, just a second or 2 of silence.
Now for the picture.....I was expecting the picture to be better than the DC and Faces laserdiscs, and it was. In fact, I think there is a HUGE improvement in the picture quality. (I haven't done an A/B test with a LD yet, I just wanted to sit and enjoy the film without any interruptions). But just sitting there watching, I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that this DVD blows the LD away. However, I did notice quite a bit of aliasing, which I expected- due to the fact that there's aliasing on the LDs, and I think some of the LD's relative fuzziness masked some of the aliasing, so it seems a bit more obvious on the DVD.
That being said, the DVD has a level of crispness and clarity that is simply not present on the laserdisc. I have a good LD player, not as good as the X0 or the X9, but it's a Pioneer cld-d703 and it supposedly has a picture that's as good as some of Pioneer's mid-level ELITE players.
Honestly, on my little TV, I don't think I would really notice a difference between the SW SE DVD and the OOT DVD, aside from the fact that on the OOT DVD the colors look more like the Star Wars I remember (and I don't think it looked 'washed-out', either), and the SE DVD is darker and has the ever-present 'blueish' tint. There are some film speckles here and there, but none that aren't on the LDs that I'm used to watching. I didn't notice any additional grain or film 'weave' either.
One thing that I realised after the film was over, is that I didn't notice ANY garbage mattes. Maybe it's the way my TV is adjusted- but I didn't see any at all.
All in all, I'm extremely pleased with my first viewing. I really don't think that the screen caps I've seen posted are indicative of the DVD's quality. My only gripe (aside from the non-anamorphic issue) is that they made the Huttese sub-titles in 2-lines (instead of one line, like they are on the LDs) which is sure to screw up people trying to zoom in on this disc on their 16:9 TVs. The DVD probably won't look as good on a larger TV, but I'm really pleasantly surprised at how good it looked on my little TV, and I hope the other 2 movies look as good.
I found myself getting a little teary during the last part of the film when Luke turns off his targeting computer, even though I have seen this film so many hundreds of times over the last 24 years that I've lost count. Maybe it was just a bit of left-over emotion from yesterday's 9/11 anniversary....whatever it was, it was really great to watch the un-f**ked-up version of Star Wars, looking better than it ever has on my TV. Yes, I wish it was anamorphic, but I can safely say that I'm never watching the SE DVDs again, nor do I think will I ever find the need to watch my LDs again.
Anybody want to buy a nice, used LD player?? I'll throw in the laserdiscs free.
