Quote
Originally posted by: Bossk
I don't think there was ever a chance of Lucas releasing the SEs on DVD in 1997. That was the year that DVD was introduced and it was so new that many "big pictures" opted out of releases. Also, this was in the midst of the DVD vs. DivX war. Many people were waiting it out to see who would win. Finally, George was just getting back into the PT at the time. Why spend the time testing out a new technology that no one is 100% familiar with and give it a half-assed shot at best?
That's revisionism. DivX didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of taking off simply because John Q. Public would never approve of the format. Moreover, Lucas could've released movie-only versions of the films thus far on DVD (with maybe a trailer or two) in 2000 without ever lifting a finger and doing so would've done boffo business. Or hell, he could've released those same hypothetical versions in '98 and they would've singlehandedly established the DVD format and put the final kibosh in DivX... as if that latter format ever stood a chance. I know it might seem like it did, but I remember all that hype at the time and I remember thinking to myself "there's no way this format will ever take off simply because you never actually own anything."
- Trentobi