And the new theory is that instead of going back to 1977A and 1977B to redo the wipes digitally in 2004, they just scanned in the negative that had 1997C on it and did the digital wipes OVER the 1997 wipes.

Right?

What we need is to line up some 1997 with 2004 and see when the wipe starts. It wouldn't take long to take a section, line it up framewise, and just see which one starts first. If they start at the same time, the wipes are off today because they decided to start them earlier in 1997. If the 2004 ones still start first, then they digitally wiped over the "new" optical wipes.