The star wars transfers were sent off to Lowry in 1080P resolution. Which Lucas apparently thinks is archival quality. Just a few years ago i think he said DVD was archival quality.
That 1080 master might have passed for a dvd and a tv broadcast but won't pass muster with a blu ray release. They have to start out at least at miminal 4k and then compress down to 1080.
You have to roll over laughing 1080 is not even comparable to the resolving power of 35mm motion picture film much less a film trilogy that was designed to be shown in a showcase 70mm with the special effects produced on a extra large negaive area in vistavision i believe at 65mm. Or was that 60mm cannot remember the exact figure but 6k is miminally acceptable for vistavision opticals but probably should be rendered at 8k.
Phantom Menace was the last star wars movie produced on film. Episode II and III will look barely ok on blu ray. Anything higher than that in the future and the films will look like shit.
Lucas used HD video an unproven format to make his last 2 star wars movies. Therefore they won't ever be archival quality. And they look best of digital projection and look even worse when printed back to 35mm film.
Phantom Menace on the other hand could be rescanned at 4k or higher yeilding a very consistant blu ray image to the theatrical version as long as lucas and his pals don't dial up the dnr like they so love to do.
I have never seen the 1080 master of star wars as broadcast and really cannot comment if the grain stucture is intact but the mere mention of the name Lowry Digital these days infuriates me because of their digital grain removal process and digital color correction algorithms ruin films.
Some films i even have read people think they removed too much grain and then added it back in with fake digital grain. I mean that is so totally absurd an idea and laughable if there is any truth to its validity.
Some films and negatives are so far gone that they have to be restored both in the digital domain and repaired, washed and chemically restored frame by frame, reel by reel. Not every movie can afford the Harris treatment. I wish all my favorite movies could be restored at the level of Lawrence of Arabia, or the first 2 godfather films etc.