Grrr. Star Wars only recorded at 400x320.

The new just-released dvds of the OLD, not-altered trilogy are very
poor quality. They are recorded at approximately 400 horizontal x 320
vertical (laserdisc-quality master), instead of the usual 720x480
high-quality dvd resolution.

videonovels...

.

No I didn't. 400 x 320 (approximately) is the resolution of a
letterboxed, analog laserdisc. And that's what Lucas has transferred
to the DVD: Laserdisc-quality masters.

Do YOU have better numbers?

They will look blurry, especially when blown-up to a 40 inch screen.
Lucas screwed us again.

Susan Bartholomew...

So far the consensus seems to be that while they don't look great, they
look better than expected. I'm hoping to be able to rent them somewhere
and see for myself before I buy any of them...

Brian Henderson...

And you fell for it. Again.

lorincantrell...

You know, Lucas is at this moment sitting in the throne room set from
Return of the Jedi, thinking about how he's going to sell you HD DVD or
Blu Ray editions of the original theatrical versions. All because
Linda Ronstadt made him want to screw over the whole world. Rejection
and Saturday morning serials have brought us to this.

Invid Fan...

So LD's look bad on big screens? Never knew that before. Given VHS
looks fine to me on a 36" tv, if I have to have the originals this
release will probably do. Given the rumors that the original prints
were destroyed to make the Special Edition, this may be the best you
ever get.

lugnut...

As far as I take of it, these DVDs are *not* direct rips of the old
laserdisc as though they'd ran a LD player through a vidcap card and
called it a day. They're transferred from the same materials used for

videonovels...

.

Okay. How was the original master stored? Beta Extended Definition
videotape? If so, that's still only ~500 horizontal x 320 vertical. A
far cry from dvd-resolution.

the LDs, and they're not anamorphic, but virtually every comment I've
read from people who've actually seen the discs (and done side-by-side
comparisons with the old LD) say the DVDs look much better and that,
indeed, this is the best quality version of the OT released thus far.

That said, I still think this release is half-ass at best, but there
seems to be a lot of false impressions about this thing floating
around too.

Anim8rFSK...

You realize Troy made those numbers up? And they're completely wrong?
Even if the specs of laser had anything to do with what it was mastered
to pre laser pressing, which it doesn't.

Mike H...

No, sounds to me, given what source they have, according to them, they did
the best they could to give you what you want.