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Info Wanted: Star Wars Episodes 1 to 9 - Correct buying / downloading versions?

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I was planning on buying every single Star wars Movie (1-9) this year and could someone please tell me what are the correct ways to buy each film or download and put on BD disc

Fate is best Anime/Visual Novel.

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If you want the theatrical versions
The Phantom Menace: 2000 Widescreen Video Collector’s Edition (VHS)
Attack of the Clones: 2002 widescreen DVD is identical to the digital projection version
Revenge of the Sith: Theatrical version never released, but the 2005 widescreen DVD and 2011 Blu-ray are almost identical (Disney+ version is the Blu-ray version upscaled to 4K)
Original trilogy: 1992 Special Letterbox Collector’s Edition or 1995 THX Widescreen Edition (VHS)
Sequel trilogy: Every release is the same

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kujythrgefdw said:

If you want the theatrical versions
The Phantom Menace: 2000 Widescreen Video Collector’s Edition (VHS)

Also laserdisc.

Attack of the Clones: 2002 widescreen DVD is identical to the digital projection version

This is probably false (as far as we know the garage scene was extended for the DVD) but we don’t know for certain since we have no bootleg of the digital theatrical cut.

Revenge of the Sith: Theatrical version never released, but the Blu-ray and 2005 widescreen DVD are almost identical (Disney+ version is the Blu-ray version upscaled to 4K)

Literally the only difference between the HDTV/DVD and the theatrical cut is a wipe that accidentally got changed to a hard cut.

As for the BR, the wipe was fixed, but moss was added to Kashyyyk rooftops and some sound effects added when the clones attack on Utapau. That’s it. Other than that, the BR is the theatrical cut.

Original trilogy: 1992 Special Letterbox Collector’s Edition or 1995 THX Widescreen Edition (VHS)

Also laserdiscs and 2006 GOUT DVD release.

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ChainsawAsh said:

kujythrgefdw said:

If you want the theatrical versions
The Phantom Menace: 2000 Widescreen Video Collector’s Edition (VHS)

Also laserdisc.

Attack of the Clones: 2002 widescreen DVD is identical to the digital projection version

This is probably false (as far as we know the garage scene was extended for the DVD) but we don’t know for certain since we have no bootleg of the digital theatrical cut.

Revenge of the Sith: Theatrical version never released, but the Blu-ray and 2005 widescreen DVD are almost identical (Disney+ version is the Blu-ray version upscaled to 4K)

Literally the only difference between the HDTV/DVD and the theatrical cut is a wipe that accidentally got changed to a hard cut.

As for the BR, the wipe was fixed, but moss was added to Kashyyyk rooftops and some sound effects added when the clones attack on Utapau. That’s it. Other than that, the BR is the theatrical cut.

Original trilogy: 1992 Special Letterbox Collector’s Edition or 1995 THX Widescreen Edition (VHS)

Also laserdiscs and 2006 GOUT DVD release.

We have a normal bootleg of the AOTC tho?

Fate is best Anime/Visual Novel.

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Centropy made a bootleg of the 35mm version of AOTC, so yes.
The Phantom Menace laserdisc doesn’t have English subtitles for the alien languages, so it doesn’t exactly represent the theatrical version.

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kujythrgefdw said:

Centropy made a bootleg of the 35mm version of AOTC, so yes.
The Phantom Menace laserdisc doesn’t have English subtitles for the alien languages, so it doesn’t exactly represent the theatrical version.

Actually, the international theatrical version didn’t have subtitles for the alien languages, that was specific to the US and UK versions.

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Also, according to Wookieepedia, there is a different wipe and slightly shorter “Noooo!!” from Darth Vader on the Revenge of the Sith DVD. Is this true?

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ChainsawAsh said:

Literally the only difference between the HDTV/DVD and the theatrical cut is a wipe that accidentally got changed to a hard cut.

As for the “Nooo,” that’s false. We have the theatrical audio.

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If the audio part is false, then the different wipe is probably false as well, which means there was indeed only one change for the Revenge of the Sith DVD. Can this be proven?

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I talked about the wipe in my first post and quoted that same part in my second post. Here, I’ll quote it again:

ChainsawAsh said:

Literally the only difference between the HDTV/DVD and the theatrical cut is a wipe that accidentally got changed to a hard cut.

As for the BR, the wipe was fixed

It’s the transition from Obi-Wan on Padme’s ship to Anakin’s charred hand clawing at the ground on Mustafar.

  • Theatrical: diagonal wipe (we have proof of this because we have a bootleg of the digital theatrical cut)
  • DVD/HDTV: Hard cut
  • Blu-Ray: diagonal wipe

Now, if you’re talking about a different wipe, I have no idea because I’ve never heard anything about a wipe change other than this one, and people have combed over the theatrical bootleg to compare it to the DVD/HDTV and BR versions and the missing wipe I’m talking about is the only visual difference between the bootleg and the DVD/HDTV.

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ChainsawAsh, I’m talking about a different wipe. Wookieepedia says “There is a different wipe and slightly shorter “Noooo!!” from Darth Vader” which would probably refer to the wipe at 0:24 in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tim5nU3DwIE and if the shorter “Noooo!!” is false, then the different wipe probably is false as well.

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I’ve never heard anything about a wipe being different other than the one I’ve already mentioned about six times by this point.

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If you’ve got cash to spare and the hardware to play it, I’d probably just suggest you get the latest 4K/UHD Bluray releases. It’s the best video quality officially available for all nine films, and it makes sure you’re as legally ‘in the clear’ as possible when downloading fan versions, which I would absolutely recommend you do to supplement that set.

For AOTC, Schorman’s HDTV preservation is arguably superior in quality to even the new 4K Bluray, due to not having the overzealous noise reduction that the 2011 and 2020 Blurays suffer from (overly smooth looking skin, lack of small details). TPM is also cursed with too much noise reduction, but unfortunately for that movie the HDTV preservation is even worse because it was sourced from an earlier, poor quality scan of the film, so you basically just have to come to terms with that.

For the OT, I would recommend you check out 4K77 and 4K83 (4K preservations of the original unspecial theatrical versions), and D+77 and D+80 (semi-despecialised edits of the movies based on the new 4K versions) which are worked on over at the Star Wars Trilogy Forums.

If you’re short on cash, the new 2020 4K/UHD Prequel Trilogy Blurays are only a tiny tiny improvement on the 1080p 2011 Blurays, so the old prequel Blurays would do just fine. I’d recommend strongly against the 2011 OT Blurays though as they’re much worse than the new 2020 Blurays, on account of being based on an older, inferior scan of the film prints, and having some seriously misguided colours. For the ST, you can grab either the 1080p or UHD Blurays really - there’s a bigger difference than there is with the prequels, since the ST was actually shot on film rather than on dodgy early digital cameras, but any Bluray you get of those movies will be fundamentally the same image just at a different resolution/colour depth.

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I had no idea there were so many changes to the prequels. They’re so small and inconsequential. Roof moss? Really, that’s what bugged him most about AOTC? I really only knew about TPM pod race and CGI Yoda.

Original vision my ass. George just has a neurotic inability to consider something finished.

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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Roof moss was in ROTS, not AOTC. I agree with you though, Disney needs to release the unaltered versions of every Star Wars movie. I say every Star Wars movie instead of just the OT and PT because there was even a change to TFA’s credits music.