Yeah the lightsaber thing definitely is a curiosity. To me, it looks for sure like they were altered in some way. Rather than being fat and "electricy" they are thin and sword-like, like in the prequels. I assume this is a new re-comp, but crushing the blacks and other image manipulation could have changed this. The saber's were definitely re-comped in at least some of the shots, because I've seen footage of it happening.

Also, the Falcon saber--in that one wide shot--was always green-cast. The sabers were never consistent, and in ANH Vader's alternated between red, pink and orange. The problem is that this was very, very mild in the original version, so you never noticed it, while in the SE they jacked the colouring on the sabers waaaay up, and then did all sorts of other colour manipulation which just exaggerated this further. As a result, it's not just a mild shift in the colour cast, like in the original, it's outright full-on re-colouring.