THX

Originally posted by: Jay in the original originaltrilogy.com petition
Perhaps a Limited Edition run of the original films along with a Special Edition release would be in order... Your devoted fans would more than likely purchase both an Original Trilogy release as well as any Special Edition versions.

Originally posted by: Susanne Ault on videobusiness.com
Some fans had been speculating that Lucasfilm was saving its big gun efforts for the new generation DVD formats. But the company said that at this time, there are no plans to release the original ’70s Star Wars versions in high-definition.

Originally posted by: Susanne Ault on videobusiness.com
Some fans had been speculating that Lucasfilm was saving its big gun efforts for the new generation DVD formats. But the company said that at this time, there are no plans to release the original ’70s Star Wars versions in high-definition.

"The prints for the Sept. 12 DVDs..." There are no prints involved in this process. The DVDs will be created from a video master.Although the video master was used to make laserdiscs (and VHS tapes), the DVDs will not in any way come from laserdiscs."...will bow in their original film composition, not in the more cinematic anamorphic widescreen transfer."

Originally posted by: Susanne Ault on videobusiness.com
In the wake of extreme fan protests, Lucasfilm is positioning its release of the original ’70s theatrical versions of the first three Star Wars movies as bonus features.

As groused about on various DVD enthusiast Web sites, including www.thedigitalbits.com and www.hometheaterforum.com, Lucasfilm confirmed the studio is not remastering these early films. The prints for the Sept. 12 DVDs of Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi come from laserdiscs of the films released in the mid ’90s. This means that Episodes IV-V1 will bow in their original film composition, not in the more cinematic anamorphic widescreen transfer.

Lucasfilm acknowledges that some imperfections are embedded in the prints, but director of publicity John Singh said the company felt there was little need to invest resources into sprucing up films that have already been restored to pristine form.

Special edition versions of the films with additions made by George Lucas were released in theaters in the ’90s and on DVD in 2004.

“We put a lot of time and effort into digitally restoring the negatives for the 2004 DVD releases,” Singh said. “The late ’90s theatrical versions represent George’s vision for Star Wars. We hoped that by releasing the original movies as a bonus disc, it would be a way to give the fans something that is fun. We certainly didn’t want to be become a source of frustration for fans.”

Although the prints aren’t in the best of shape, the masters used for the laserdiscs “do look good,” Singh assured.

Both old and new versions of Episodes IV-VI will be included in the Sept. 14 Star Wars sets, to be distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The revamped ’90s theatrical versions will be offered in widescreen.

This release also represents the first time the movies will be available individually.

Fans have threatened to boycott buying the original Star Wars films if they aren’t cleaned up.

“These are the versions that the fans saw as kids back in the ’70s—this was how they grew up,” said Ron Epstein, HomeTheaterForum.com co-owner. “George doesn’t like these versions, and it’s not the way he wants his legacy to be remembered. But fans [are saying], ‘You aren’t doing us a favor [in putting out] what basically amounts to a laserdisc transfer.”

Aware of the uproar, Lucasfilm is in the process of directly contacting its upset fan base in an attempt to smooth things over.

Some fans had been speculating that Lucasfilm was saving its big gun efforts for the new generation DVD formats. But the company said that at this time, there are no plans to release the original ’70s Star Wars versions in high-definition.

“We absolutely appreciate the fact that these fans are so passionate,” Singh said. “It’s indicative of the fact that they care so much about Star Wars.”

Originally posted by: Torsten Kaiser at Home Theater Forum
While a D2 (composite) master tape most likely was the source for the Laserdisc mastering itself, the transfer master and the final master was actually (as far as I know) a component digital D1 tape. Another option would have been Ampex' DCT. Both are very much comparable to the Digital Betacam format. Because of its 4:2:2 component properties, D1 actually is able to capture detail and resolution that the 4:2:0 DVD format because of the way of compression can't even show. For one, the Datarate is with 148 Mbit/s far higher than the 10.88 Mbit/s of DVD. So its not the tape itself that one needs to worry about.

What is a much more a factor is the telecine that was used. Transfers made with the RANK MarkIII pale in comparison with the SPIRIT Datacine or the Millenium II, where the image is dramatically more detailed, allows for much finer texture to register naturally and color depth to be captured without bleeding, while keeping inaccuracies to a minimum. The RANK, while good for its time, had many problems, especially when it came to displaying the greyscale and density accurately. The DVNR 1000 by Digital Vision also added a lot of artifacts whenever there was movement in a shot, and (as Jim Vaccaro said already) it also robbed the image of detail along with the grain, that SW producers so desperately tried to get rid of (also a problem of the RANK telecine, by the way, because grain was often displayed as artifact).

Originally posted by: THX in PRESERVATION AND FAN EDITS >STAR WARS RELEASES AND ONGOING PROJECTS

This post from home theater forum summarises the key issues discussed above about the state of the negatives and restoration work.
Originally posted by: Davis in GENERAL STAR WARS DISCUSSION>HOLD ON a second...

In the September 1993 issue of Widescreen Review, THX Technical Supervisor Dave Schnuelle describes the process of making the Definitive Collection Laserdiscs. Here are some comments from the interview:

"In this case, for all three films, we used interpositive elements that had been made directly from the camera negative. Other film transfers might be done from internegatives made from the interpositive, or from low-contrast prints, but we preferred the IP's for these transfers, because that's the earliest generation usable"

"One small difference from the original films is that in letterbox transfers we prefer to put any subtitles in the black border beneath the actual picture area. Thus we didn't use the same interpositive as the theatrical one, because that one contains subtitling already. In tracking down the elements, we found that the only ones in the vault were ones with subtitles- these clearly weren't the first generation off the camera neg because they had to have the subtitles burned in. So a massive search was undertaken and the first generation IP's were found in a special vault having only opticals in Los Angeles."

"A Mark IIIC with a 4:2:2 digital output [telecine] was used."

"[We used] a noise reduction and dirt concealment device made by Digital Vision, a company in Sweden. Their DVNR-1000 is a very powerful noise reducer for reducing film grain. Especially on the two earlier movies the film grain was very high."