Originally posted by: Mojo_LA
... I'm not sure what the second "downconverted" image is supposed to be, but the third image (which I assume started life at 1080) shows the same increase in detail...

I would hope so, since the third image is actually the untouched 1080p.

Here's a bit more explanation:
I found a frame near the start of the 2004 DVD and "zoomed in" on an area of fine detail - pic 1.
I had previously grabbed the first few RAR files from WG's post, so I was able to extract an incomplete 1080p WMV file. I found the same frame in this file, and downscaled the image to standard definition DVD resolution. I then zoomed in on this same area (pic 2) to compare with the image from the DVD. (Note this does not include the effects of further MPEG-2 compression you would have to do to make a DVD.)
Pic 3 is the same bit of the image from the unscaled 1080p file.

I don't know why adywan's downscale is showing an improvement over the DVD (I can't tell wether the improvement is real or perceived detail, due to there being slightly more contrast in the left hand image). Perhaps he was comparing a downscale from the original h.264 source, and maybe some detail was lost when WG re-encoded his version to VC1.