loved the extended death star reveal, but I found the vast planet surface below the death star kind of belittled the enormous scale of the death star compared to the fighters and star destroyer, the planet also looked a bit too much like Alderaan (and Earth) for my liking, it just seemed a little strange when they eventually arrive later at Alderaan to blow it up.
guess I'll join the chorus on the Ponda Boba arm, I think part of the reason why it doesn't quite gel with people even if you got the continuity correct is that the original severed arm with the blood and everything was always a bit of a 'money-shot' especially seeing the film as a kid and growing up with it, and although the bloodless cauterizing effect may be more realistic (even though this is the first of many light -saber related severing of limbs that we got to witness in the original saga and the only one where blood was spilled) the new version just lacks the impact and gruesomeness of the original and looks even more static than the original shot, perhaps you could work in a little severed nerve 'twitch' into the severed arm? and perhaps make the flipper look a bit more streamlined with more of a suggestion of a thumb of sorts , so that it actually looks more credible that the alien could use a gun?
perhaps even give the earlier background shot of Ponda with his fins something that resembles 'thumbs' so as not to throw out continuity,**edit*** took me a while to type this out so forgive that you've already adressed you won't be making it more 'hand-like' ****** but I do like the 'others' suggestions of glowing embers on the stump.
although I'm sure these suggestions are easier said than done. Also it seems in the new audio mix that the human screams of pain are more prominent than Ponda's (I wonder which bit of Dr Evazan Obi-wan managed to slice off in the fight?)
I tend to agree with a previous poster about some of the death star interiors being a little too desaturated to the point where the actors almost appear to look like they've been colourised over black and white footage (although I did look at the GOUT DVD and it looked very similarly monochrome, especially footage of the Falcon after it lands in the docking bay.
not sure about Obi-Wan igniting his saber before Vader ignites his, it just doesn't really seem to be very Jedi-like, it makes him look like he's on the attack rather than the defense, it also makes Vader's 'I've been waiting for you ' line seem out of place, as it almost looks like Obi-wan was waiting for Vader to arrive.
love the way you've sped up the duel and it fits really well with the prequel music used and looks great , but the 'choral' music just seems a little too grand and over the top to fit into the original trilogy, it's especially jarring when the original music swells back in much louder and stronger after Ben dies and luke has his 'Noooooooo' moment as they're scurrying back into the falcon.
love what you've done with the new space battle, adding in all the tie-fighters, but the action and the threat seems to go into a bit of a lull once the fighters begin to make their trench runs ,after it seems the rebels have managed to wipe out all the tie's except for Vader and his two wingmen, perhaps if there was a bit more to suggest that dogfights were still happening up above whilst the Y-wing's made their trench run?
after the spectacular job you did with the Alderaan explosion, the destruction of the Death star does tend to pale in comparison and is a little anti-climactic, perhaps the 'praxis ring' effect would have been better saved for the death star explosion rather than Alderaan?
and I can't help thinking that seeing the five beams from the Death Star cannon intersect should have resulted in the Death star firing off a fairly damaging laser-bolt towards the Yavin moon (not a planet destroyer but still would've been fairly devastating) in that split second before the Death Star exploded. maybe if we just saw the five green points of light appear around the dish a split second before the explosion?
I know it sounds that i've picked up on a few things in your edit, but they're really only minor niggles in an otherwise brilliant Revision.
I'm still amazed how you managed to make a 1.6 gig AVI look as crisp as the 2004 DVD's , can't wait for the DVR-5 version!