hairy_hen said:

Assuming I'm understanding what you're saying correctly, Mike, it appears that all the elements of the 1981 version were reused for the SE (aside from the starfield background), including the timing of the laser blasts and explosions relative to the beginning, and also the total number of frames in the shot. Both the 1981 and 1997 versions appear to be missing one frame compared to the original (the 'STAR WARS' title card must come in a frame late, and both the Technicolor print and the Bluray are missing an additional frame at the end of the shot, accounting for the total 2 frame discrepancy).

That's not the case though, the elements of the 1977 version were reused for the 1981 version except the starfield but the 1997 version does have different elements in it but reused the 1977 starfield. One example is different laser impacts.

Something is definitely not right here as all three versions should definitely match framewise. I'm surprised Harmy says the BD is missing a frame in this shot, the 2004 DVD didn't. Do we have a 4th version of this shot on our hands or is it just Lucasfilm seal of quality?