I just bagged the Japanese Special Collection Laserdisc off ebay.
Fired it up in my laserdisc player(which I got in march)and am very impressed with the quality.
Actually hooked the laserdisc player to my 4k projector(which has component connections)just to see what the results were-it still holds up.
Was wondering if the insert section(which is in Japanese has ever been translated into English)---the print used for this 1986 widescreen transfer resembles the same print used for the pan and scan 1st release in 1982 as there are scratch marks in identical places(Han chiding Luke about the force on the Falcon ect)
Interesting that even the limited resolution of laserdisc still picks up the extra grain levels that spike in darker scenes.
But in my view this is the best official home video release of Star Wars. Period.
Why they did not use this master for the 2006 dvd is beyond me.
Vidiot(on the Steve Hoffman forum) claims that the O-neg of star wars were transferred to Japan in the 1980s and got badly damaged out there.Vidiot says that vertical scratches were created during the O-negs stay in Japan.
Was wondering if a 1st generation Interpositive(courtesy of the O-neg) was used for this 1986 master?
There are vertical scratches down the side(big black bar on the right hand side) when the star destroyer comes in overhead at the beginning.
If anyone can chime in on this one that would be great.