Holy crap and mega pepperoni! I just watched the 2004 DVD of Empire Strikes Back (by renting it ofcourse!) and the picture quality is OUT OF THIS BLOODY WORLD! Honestly, I could as well have had a handful of slimey mud thrown in my eyes when I immedietly watched my TR47´s right after seeing the the 2004 DVD. The sharpness and detail is something I´ve never seen before, not even when I saw them in the cinema. But that transfer is not perfect IMO, for one it´s way too saturated colorwise (a deliberate move by Lucas to make them more like the kiddy PT, lots of colour for the kids!) and the black levels are a bit off. I had to re-adjust my picture settings from something that had worked universally for just about every DVD movie I have and I made those setting based on refrence quality material. I had to crank up the brightness levels somewhat to get it to look right.

But anyway, I´m glad I´ve finally seen what Lucasfilm has to offer and I still don´t want this new release, the cons still outweigh the pros. I was gutted to hear Boba´s voice, it is so badly done I can´t believe it! That bloody accent of his destroys those few but important lines he had, plus he delievers them quite badly especially the "what if he doesn´t survive... he´s worth a lot to me". Sounds way to rushed. The old dialogue had a much more sinister sound about it, which fitted perfectly with the character of Boba. Also the scene with The Emperor absolutely stank, there´s no emotion from Ian in that scene especially when compared to his rich performance as the very same character in ROTJ. And that new dialogue is ridiculous to say the least.

This new transfer has not vaned my interest in a new quality bootleg, preferably anamorphic since I already own the TR47 ones, I need more detail. We seem to be getting some quality work here from MeBeJedi, Laserman and the newest entry from Zion. Things are looking good for us OT lovers who ain´t buying into this 2004 Lucas crap.

peace,

Rebelscum