Atilla the Hut said:

A close-up of Qui-Gon made the rounds last year as an example of bad DNR. But that particular scene (along with the scene where Anakin's blood is analyzed) were filmed digitally on a Sony HDC-750 as a test for the other prequels being filmed digitally. From what I can dig up, the HDC-750 has a CCD resolution of 1920x1035 and stores to the older HDCAM format which is 1440x1080 (1080i, it's interlaced) interpolated horizontally to 1920x1080 on output. So it looks like crap because it was filmed on a crap prototype digital camera.

I saw a screenshot comparison somewhere (can't remember if it was here or at AVS Forum) using that shot of Qui-Gon, but I seem to remember the hdtv screenshot having more detail.

Wish I could find it.

EDIT: Nevermind, found it:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/78496/

It's too hard to say for sure whether that's more detail we're seeing in the old transfer or if it's simply IP grain.

Atilla, how sure are you that the nighttime Jedi Council scene was shot digitally?? I've read the story about Anakin's blood test scene having been shot that way, but where'd you read about the other one?

I ask because there are other shots in the blu-ray transfer that've been just as badly dnr'd as that Qui-Gon shot. There's a shot of Palpatine from the meeting with Amidala that's quite waxified, for example.