zombie84 said:

My feeling is that Lucasfilm will do the least amount of work possible (i.e. just scan one source and say here it is, i.e. the IP or a print)...

Actually, I would prefer they do exactly that (scan an IP). It really doesn't make any sense at this point to try and reconstruct the original conformation of the o-neg, it really just seems counter-intuitive. It doesn't even seem like Lucas himself wants to hold onto the o-neg for purposes of his preferred version. He's got the Lowry master now and 1080p is good enough for him.

That's what makes it all the more frustrating - he doesn't even feel like preserving the version he does like at an optimal resolution. Even the prequels had their final effects done at 2K (unless imdb is lying).

Has it been 100% confirmed that even the new effects for the '04 version were only done at 1080? Were the changes done first and then the Lowry restoration, or was it the other way around and the changes were only done at 1080 (TPM Jabba, etc)?

I dunno, it really wouldn't surprise me if the '04 restoration is eventually redone at 2K. I would hope they're gonna do that if Lucas really does plan for the movies to be shown on the big screen again at any point in the future. I mean, how expensive could the '04 restoration have been? Surely it wasn't more than a drop in the bucket against the record breaking first day sales of the dvd set (128 million bucks or so).

Jeez, it seems like I'm always nothing but questions on these boards.