It's merely a general reference, and we try to also compare to any film frames we come across. The happy medium would be somewhere between the better of the older transfers and the Lowry/MGM stuff but of course colored by someone who was competent and referenced vintage material.
At this time, I'm convinced that the best way we can present something watchable is to sync LD audio to SE video ala our old GOUT projects. Almost all of them are okay and the same as their LD counterparts-save with better resolution despite the low bitrates.
Does anyone here have the old THX DVDs for the first three films? I've come across some references that claim that while the SEs were the same and added the bonus features, that the old discs were 1.66 like their LD counterparts. Can anybody confirm this?