On to the movies... they work in my DVD player, yay! Initial impressions are good. The picture looks great and is surprisingly clean. Right off the bat I'd say they look much better than my Collector's Set VHS. The THX remaster cleaned up quite a bit so it's a better print as well. I don't have the LDs to compare, but I'd venture a guess and say that they're pretty darn close. Specks and dirt are still visible and colours are muted, but small object detail is decent as I can see stuff I never noticed before. It's a soft picture overall, but I suspect it's true to the source. Those used to the new digitally scrubbed transfers of today's blockbusters might be dismayed by the heavy amount of grain, but this what film looks like and how Star Wars has always appeared. Although the picture isn't anamorphic, compared to a set my friend got in Chinatown which is anamorphic, this looks way better. Sharper picture with none of the digital break up and artifacting. I also got some shots from my VHS set, but I can't post them so you'll just have to use your imagination.
However, they're not perfect. Compression is good for the most part, but there are signs of video noise occasionally, with interlace problems and combing. I watched TESB all the way through and there is one shot of scene distortion in the Hoth base control room. The image on the right side of the frame seems to stretch out for a second and then fixes itself and this is definitely not on my VHS. There is also a long black pause (5 secs) during the falcon when they're doing repairs in the asteroid 'cave' before it cuts to Leia welding. I can only assume this was a poorly handled disc change, and there aren't any other such problems during the movie. Nonetheless, these are relatively minor issues and don't impact my enjoyment of the films. I'll post again after watching the two if I encounter any other problems.
The sound is excellent. I've never heard Star Wars like this at home. Thumbs up. The only menu is on the extras disc and it's nice and simple. The trailers look really bad, but I'm sure that's just the shape they were left in.
These discs are good enough that I've decided I can finally halt my quest for the pricey LDs now. In fact I think I will see if I can back them up as I've heard that DVD-rs can die out, and in case anything happened to them I need a safety set, just so I can watch them whenever I want or maybe lend them to my brother. So despite a few quibbles I'm quite happy with the discs and heartily recommend them to anyone who is considering picking them up from TR47. I especially can't wait for this new set that he might have cooking up soon, so until then I can live with these versions of the original OT.