Baronlando said:
Anyway, very recently some guy in a post at Home Theater Forum claimed the black and white separations weren't done right. He gave no source or explanation, he just said it was "his understanding." Has anyone heard this before?
I've never heard that one (I'm also a member of HTF). I know that according to Robert Harris, the B&W seps for Spartacus weren't done correctly so they couldn't use them for the restoration, but I've never heard anything like that about SW (maybe I missed it).
The only reference to a SW Technicolor source that I'm familiar with (as reported in some publication) is that George Lucas had a Tech print that he wanted used as color reference for the SE. I think that a lot of conjecture has sprung from that one reference, unfortunately.