Using the M2V also introduced scaling errors (as were present in the first Classic Edition), as it was impossible to resize it effectively. I re-ripped the video in Quicktime, but this time round I resized the video to its true size of 740 x 480 before exporting it to PhotoJPEG.

I'm really glad I redid it. It looks great, sharp and clear the way it should be.

To get some additional quality (and thus "wow" factor) in the first moments of the film I'm actually considering using the video straight from the M2V the way I did in Empire and Jedi, but that would remove the color correction I've done so maybe not.

I was also able to redo the first shot of the film, the star destroyer chasing the blockade runner. I'd actually fucked this shot up bigtime without realizing it. Letting it run fast at 30 frames per second (dropping frames all over the place) ... etc.

The version of the opening shot I'm using is something that Shadowman created for me for Deleted Magic, a long while back. It was also used in the first Classic Edition. As you may know, the version of the opening shot on the 2004 DVD is really screwed up - whatever crazy filters they're using have removed the laser blasts from the shot, so you don't really see the ships firing at each other - it completely ruins the impact of the shot.

Shadowman went through and restored the blasts to the shot.

However, his version of the shot is slightly smaller and slightly lower quality than the actual 2004 DVD is.

To optimize the quality of this first shot, I've actually combined it with the 2004 version of the shot. At the beginning, you see Shadowman's version of the shot, but as the laser blasts get less and less you just see part of Shadowman's shot pasted over the clearer 2004 version - until by the end you're just watching the 2004 version.

So.

I'll let this thing render. There's nothing more to do now, apart from making the DVD work and checking for errors.