Sorry about the delay in posting back guys, I really needed a break from the OT to regain perspective so I moved on to other projects. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that I haven't been flamed haha
I think i've pretty much got the Star Wars and Return of the Jedi classic and technicolor settings sorted, i'll put up some ROTJ screencaps soon so you guys can let me know what you think.
Empire Strikes Back is a totally different kettle of fish though. Its transfer is certainly the odd one out of the three, the credits at the very end are a lot brighter than SW and ROTJ, suggesting a difference in overall brightness, and the transfer in general is a lot brighter than the other two which suffer from underexposure IMHO. Maybe a slight brightness boost is required but not much more than that, otherwise whites on Hoth start getting blown out and the final showdown between luke and vader starts looking too bright. I think both thematically and visually its supposed to be the darkest of the three films so overall exposure should be less than SW and ROTJ. The real question marks for me though are contrast levels and saturation, especially saturation. Is it also supposed to be the most desaturated and monochrome of the three films? What are your thoughts?
@Hal 9000: I don't know which missing cone of light you're talking about. On my Star Wars regraded encodes there's very much a cone of light. Here's a clip from Star Wars using the 'classic' settings that includes the scene you're talking about. Sorry about the size, it also includes the bit where luke and uncle owen buy R2D2 and C3P0. Have a look and post a screencap of what you're talking about because the cone of light is very much visible to me:
Star Wars regraded using 'classic' settings, clip 1 (from when R2D2 and C3P0 leave the sandcrawler to when luke joins uncle owen and aunt beru for dinner):
https://mega.co.nz/#!vlRXlRpR!3bw3VkRtqGELOyznJD6R018f13-vrN80Z5wBdM6G2v8