my experience is pretty much the opposite of most peoples here..
i've never owned a vcr, never bought a videotape, never rented a movie.......................EVER........................
when i decided to jump into the video market, in the late 90's, it was straight to laserdisc,
there was no question that all my high-tech friends had both vhs/beta/and laserdiscs later on
because IT was the highest quality possible at the time...
since i joined the laserdisc market late, although it was still considered semi-videophile equipment,
there was no issues here in the US, finding players, or discs...............widescreen, full screen , criterion etc..........
it was a revelation to me, and i totally jumped on buying every cool laserdisc i could think of, and could find
(i never used mail order), and of course i didn't know about the internet until much later...
well, i bought the original star wars series in letterboxed format, and still have them to this day, in excellent quality, sound and picture...
skip a few years ahead.......................i heard something about thx versions coming out (the faces set), but didn't get.....i also saw that
there was a definitive collectors box set with AMAZING SOUND and picture quality, but it was too expensive at the time.............
----------------------------------------time passed---------------------------------------------------------
i watched the discs a couple of times, and then they were put away into storage for another decade......................
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i kept getting the star wars insider magazine, and amazingly i read all about the SE versions coming out, and
was extremely happy, and excited.................................i counted the days, and was there opening day, for
all 3 movies again............................................................which would be the 3rd time for star wars, the 2nd time for empire,
and the 2nd time to see jedi in the movie theaters........................................i can't describe what a rush it was to see it,
and enjoy it with sold out crowds, families bringing their kids etc..........................i still remember each movie, and each day.....
=========================================================================================
a lot more time passed ------------------------------------several years later---------------------------------------------------------------------
somehow i stumbled across this board, and read that people were making their own conversions of laserdiscs onto some new
format called a 'dvd'.........................................i wondered what that was, and if it was any better...................much to my horror,
i discover how this evil format was going to take over from laserdiscs, and set back the future of video several years..........
i quickly forgot about this site, and the dvd's...............
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------a few years ago-----------------------------------------------
i gave in , and finally bought a 'dvd' player........................apparently star wars had come out for it.....finally, so i ended up getting
the box set with SE versions, and was happy enough with them, but it didn't have the originals...hmm.didn't matter, i had them
on laserdisc............................and then a few more years passed and they were released again, with the originals, so i picked it
up again.....................with about the same results...................ok, so know i have a version thats the same as the laserdiscs......
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------a few months ago----------------------------------------------
came back to this board, saw adywans ep4:revisited, and was very impressed, then i started reading up on all the versions,
the changes, the formats, etc......................................................................so i went on a buying spree, and now have
pretty much every widescreen version (us, and japanese), every boxed laserdisc set, the definitive set, the faces set, every
fullscreen, and widescreen DVD, in NTSC, and PAL................all the documentaries, and every original release on laserdisc,
in full screen, widescreen, CAV, and CLV...............(since most of these are pretty old, i picked them all up used, and for dirt cheap prices)...
after all this, i can't thank Lucasfilm enough for putting out the amazing quality THX faces versions, the Japanese boxed laserdisc sets,
and the definitive collections................................
i have more versions of the Original trilogy than i could ever watch....................................this is probably the best time in history to be a star wars
fan for me...................................and on top of that getting all the movies again in 720p, 1080p, mkv's, avi's, and WMV's completely free has been
probably the most eye opening experience i have ever had..................
well done Lucasfilm, and thanks again George for all the hard work, and now i'm finally getting a chance to watch it all..
later
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