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originally posted on
Wed June 16, 2004 9:55 PM
Finally finished watching the torrent files of Star Wars. I watched those and the TR47 set back to back. I also did some side by side comparisons to really check stuff out. So here it goes.....
In picture quality the TR47 set comes out just a bit on top. Colors look a little better and the entire picture is a bit crisper when compared to the anamorphic set. Both sets seemed a bit soft to me. I wanted to check these against the laserdisc set I used to have but I can’t find those anywhere. I may have sold them. At any rate the laserdiscs may have been just as soft in focus. The Anamorphic set came out a bit weird on the anamorphic too. It seemed to me to be off as far as framing goes. It looked closer to somewhere around 2:00.1 as compared to 2:35.1. This could just be the set I downloaded and not the sets that are floating around here. I'm not sure of that but that is what I got out of it when played on my TV.
Final judgment on video...I would go with either set. As the video goes they both look good. Personally I like the TR47 set better but if you’re that concerned about hitting zoom on your remote just get the anamorphic. The improper framing on my set really wasn't even that big of a deal it was just something I noticed and wanted to point out to people. Again it could just be my set. Oh and yes the “Leia welding scene” IS missing from the anamorphic set.
As far as sound the TR47 set blows away the anamorphic set. It's a no contest here. The TR47 had a better sound stage presence with clean sweeps and pan from channel to channel. The anamorphic set was a bit hollow in its sound and seemed a bit forced to the rear speakers. It was weak when it even did appear in the rear channels, which wasn’t often enough for my liking. With a Prologic II receiver the TR47 set sound really close to a 5.1 mix (or as close as you will get in a bootleg) where as the anamorphic set sounds like a plain old vanilla surround mix that occasionally graces us with some sound out of the rear channels. Not much better than I get out of my VHS set to be honest with you.
As far bonus stuff goes...I should say up front that I hate bonus stuff. I really don't care much for it and never have. Now occasionally something will grab my interest but most of the time it's the same old crap over and over again. I would much rather see a movie only version of everything that just maxes out the sound and video presentation and doesn’t squeeze it onto a disc with bonus stuff. Again this is just my opinion. So with that it would be very unfair for me to judge this stuff. It's really the same on both sets with the exception of the commentary on the anamorphic set. You can all guess what I think of that just from what I wrote above so it's really up to you to decide on weather or not you need a commentary track from what I hear isn’t even a full on commentary track. (No I didn’t even listen to it)
WITH EVERYTHING SAID AND DONE...
The TR47 set was superior in both Video and Audio quality. However the video is only a slight step up from the anamorphic set. The anamorphic set does have the bonus feature of the commentary track but it severely sacrifices sound quality for this little thing. The bonus fourth disc is the same on both but in all honesty I didn't even bother trying to find the fourth disc for the anamorphic set so I’m not really sure if it is the same. Perhaps someone else knows about that.
So what it really comes down to is how well your TV can handle zoom. If you can handle that well or have a DLP/LCD front projector you should probably go with the TR47 set. If bonus stuff really concerns you go with the other set. Both sets are really nice representations of the original Star Wars movies with a few differences in between. The question is how big of a fan boy are you? Do you want one or both? All I know is that I'm really sick of Star Wars now. I have watched way too much of it in the past three days.
Equipment Used:
57” 16:9 HD Toshiba Projection TV (57HX81)
Pioneer VSX-D810S (Receiver)
Pioneer DV-F727 (DVD Player)
M&K V-1250 THX Subwoofer
Infinity 12” Subwoofer (BU-120)
M&K 550 THX Surround (X2)
M&K LCR-750 THX Front (X2)
M&K 750-THX Center (X2 - one in front and one in rear)
Monster Clean Power Center HTS2500 MKII