Hahaha, perfect picture response, Laserschwer!

Encoding issues like that could be either an overheated component, such as RAM, CPU, or GPU, or, it's simply data corruption happening somewhere in between the source / destination (drive) due to any number of things. Something as simple as a bit of interference on the SATA bus, a bad connection, or at worst, bad sectors on a disk getting/receiving bad data.

Suppose it could be an OS issue, but I'd hope that *backups* are more importantly happening, no matter what (including all the project files etc.).

Suppose reinstalling OS might help, but I'm leaning more towards hardware. Try dusting first, maybe check RAM, always be sure the machine is getting proper ventilation, etc. just as a matter of good measure.

Regarding the Ben scene - The last round was ok, but this looks like a GREAT improvement! C3P0 looks "just right" towards the end, greenish hints are all but gone (R2D2 closeups in particular, and a couple of other places), red shift is fair, and in favor of some tasteful things, and the "washout" is all but gone in a couple of background spots... very cool!!!!!