Bobby Jay said:
Could someone please point out what is inaccurate about the information given on the old davisDVD site?
Despite popular belief, this was not the only transfer made of Star Wars. At some point, a second fullscreen video transfer was created from a 16mm flat print source. Since an anamorphic (2.35:1) 35mm print had been reduced down to a flat (1.33:1) 16mm print, this 16mm source featured different pan & scan decisions made during the print reduction. One main difference in this transfer was that Luke's macrobinocular POV shot of the Banthas was squeezed to actually show the Tusken Raider walking to the side of the frame. This video transfer was only shown on HBO and was never offered for sale or rent [ Special Thanks to David C. Fein ]
That video transfer was offered for sale in both CED and LD format, whereas the VHS and Betamax contained the other P&S transfer.
The letterboxed Japanese transfer was used to create this edition and since the picture on that had been shifted up, some slight re-adjustment was necessary to equalize the letterbox bands and place the 2.35 frame closer to the center. How this was done was through a "controlled video scroll" (like adjusting the vertical hold on an older TV set) to move the picture to the approximate center of the screen. The top of the frame, now vacant of the original picture, was matted over with a black letterbox band. Now here's the kicker: since this was all done by eye, at some point during this correction process the top letterbox band began over-matting onto the top edge of the picture. This essentially changed the aspect ratio of the film midway! To check for yourselves, grab this laserdisc and chapter to the cantina sequence. Go up to your screen and mark where the top letterbox band meets the top of the picture frame. At the point Greedo gets shot, the top black band will creep down lower than its original position. And to make matters worse, this happens a second time somewhere during the course of the film. So by the point the rebels are preparing to attack the Death Star, the film's aspect ratio has changed from 2.35:1 to 2.55:1. This "Incredible Shrinking Ratio" was later corrected in 1992 and issued on both VHS and laserdisc. See below for that [ Very Special Thanks to David C. Fein ]
Sounds like a very weird way of handle it... actually both top and bottom letterbox bands increase in size during the transfer and I don't believe this to be the reason for the "incredible shrinking ratio" problem, the Special Collection and SWE ISR LD's are made from the same film elements/master, but the telecine is not the same, actually in some cases the ISR transfer shows even more picture information than the Special Collection transfer. See a few examples here: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Print-variations-in-77-Star-Wars/post/602483/#TopicPost602483
The 1989 laserdisc was quietly reissued with the newly corrected letterboxed transfer, completely doing away with the "incredible shrinking ratio" problem. This release, pressed by Mitsubishi Japan, features the same catalog number as the 1989 release. So how can you tell the two apart? This corrected edition is released by "Fox Video." Coupled with the 1985 audio mix, this could very well likely be the best presentation of the film [ Thanks to David C. Fein ]
The "incredible shrinking ratio" problem is still present on the Mitsubishi pressing, it was the Technidisc pressing that corrected the problem.