Originally posted by: Jobel
Yeah but, a year from now everything will be HD anyway. Bluray/HD-DVD etc.
I call shenanigans. HD-DVD isnt' exactly the hottest new product on the market, and Blu-Ray -- when/if it is ever launched -- probably won't fare any better. Maybe the PS3 will encourage people to start picking up HD discs, but HD sets will still be fairly uncommon. A year from now everything will be SD DVD, and a few things will be HD. It will be years before HD reaches the same level of penetration that DVD has. (And the MPAA is doing everything it can to stifle consumer acceptance of the format, but that's another matter.)
Surely the fight will then be to get the OT on an HD medium?
Before we get it on the high quality medium, we need a high quality digital master. That's what some of us have been trying to get now, so Lucas can recoup the cost of the transfer over both the DVD and HD releases. The longer Lucas waits to do the transfer, the fewer opportunities he has to sell it, and the less attractive it becomes. And there may well be proportionately (or absolutely) fewer O-OT fans agitating for it. You've gotta strike while the iron is hot.
I remember years ago everyone assumed that Lucas would very soon now release a DVD set with both the O-OT and the SE-OT. Then when he said there'd be no release until the prequels were done, we all thought there'd be an archival/ultimate/whatever boxed set in 2006 with the O-OT and SE-OT ... look where that assumption got us. I'm no longer going to make assumptions of George Lucas's beneficence or wisdom, and I'm not content to wait for the next format to become entrenched or for the next popular uprising. It's been eleven years since the last release, have it not? Do you want to wait another eleven? That'll put us right on an anniversary, so it might pay off ... but if it doesn't, buy another decade's worth of calendars and start crossing off the days.