moviefreakedmind said:

Regardless of how horrendous the quality was, he still gave people an opportunity to see the unaltered versions; as long as they don't replace the Special Editions then he won't care.

The quality wasn't horrendous, it just wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. The old homespun LaserDisc transfers ("TR47", etc.) used to get nearly universal praise on this forum, even into 2006 just before the GOUT was released. In fact, people here were still gushing about the recently-released (at the time) Cowclops/TR47 v.2, right as the GOUT was being announced. The GOUT blows all of those LaserDisc transfers out of the water, at least in terms of video quality (its 192 kbps AC-3 audio is nothing to write home about though).

The GOUT was the ultimate "LaserDisc transfer" (so to speak), given that it skipped the LaserDisc and went straight to the masters that were the source of the most commonly transferred LaserDiscs ('93 Definitive and '95 Faces).

I loved the original "TR47" when I first discovered it in '05. However, I played it side by side with the GOUT the other day on my PC and it was horrible in comparison. Not only is the TR47 less detailed/clear, but the brightness and borders of the letterboxing constantly and rapidly flicker in it as well.

If the GOUT had been released by an OT.com forum member in 2006 instead of by Lucasfilm, it would have set this place on fire, and said forum member would have been an instant OT.com "celebrity".