Ok, for the '97 SE, the remote along with its lasers was recomposited in every single shot, I also noticed that these laser-impact-effects, (which I believe are separate elements from the actual saber composites) were recomped. Just look how close they are in appearance to the original comp, I strongly suspect this is exactly what's going on with the actual lightsabers as well, also in '97 they didn't recomp these elements just for the sake of fixing the minor glitches in the composites, it was mostly done to get rid of the extra layer of grain and dirt. One problem with this IMO is that these primitive effects by today standards benefited from that extra layer of grain and softness it created, it was a part of these effects, if you remove those layers of grain, these old effects looks even more primitive, then you may as well produce an entire new digital effect in its place instead of using the same old composite elements with its minor glitches. That is also why it's hard to see what has been recomped or not, if you're not comparing them side-by-side like some obsessed nerd. ;)
These impact-elements only appear in one single frame, I included the JSC LD for easier comparison as the GOUT- transfer have the problem with DVNR-smear and clipped white levels.
JSC LD
GOUT
2004 DVD
JSC LD
GOUT
2004 DVD
JSC LD
GOUT
2004 DVD
JSC LD
GOUT
2004 DVD
JSC LD
GOUT
2004 DVD
JSC LD
GOUT
2004 DVD
As you can see they are damn close in their appearance, some of them almost identical. Btw these digital recomposites were all made in '97, doubleofive. To be continued...