I don't know why anyone would want a 5.1 track anyway since it would only alter what was intended for these films originally, and having too many choices for the audio would come at the expense of bit rate on the video. Besides that, adding 5.1 sound would make the point of the release kind of meaningless. An uncompressed PCM 2.0 track would have been nice though, but I'm willing to trade that in for a Dolby 2.0 track if it means a higher bit rate for the video.

Just got word from www.thedigitalbits.com that the theatrical editions will not, I repeat NOT be anamorphically enhanced.  What we're getting will be almost no better than the Definitive Edition laserdiscs.  Does this strike anyone else as STUPID?!?!  I'm sorry, what little shred of faith I had in the Lucas Empire is now gone.  He thinks these original editions are sh*t, so he's going to give us a sh*t transfer.

This throws me into serious doubt as to whether or not I want to buy these anymore.  I know it's a piddly thing, but one of the reasons I was going to buy these was that the picture would have been better than my laserdisc collection.  Now that it's not, I can save my close-to-$60 and go get something else.  What it amounts to is nothing more than what Triumph the Comic Insult Dog would call "George Lucas' table sc**ps".

Unbelievable.  I know I'm probably going to get boned for saying this, and people are probably going to tell me, "Well, you wanted these originals released, well now you have them, and be happy".  Sure.  But at least use the DVD's video capacity to its fullest extent, George!  The 2.0 sound is great!  No problem!  But to have a substandard quality picture is just absurd.  Maybe he's afraid we're going to see the matte boxes and all the imperfections just a little too clearly or something.  I don't know.  But here's hoping someone can change the minds of the manufacturers...

I hate to sound crass, but this is becoming hilarious. Talk about your mentally retarded gift horses.

Non-anamorphic!?!?!?!

Too bad I love the covers too.  Guess I'll just keep waiting.

So Obi Wan and Luke were eating in a chinese restaurant. Luke was having trouble with his chopsticks so Obi Wan suggests..."Use the forks, Luke!"

This is so confusing. I dont get it. The original films will be laserdisc! What the hell. They wont be anamorphic. This is stomach churning, Lucusfilm is a leader in top notch DVDs, so why would they be doing this. ITS SO STUPID! And that cover art, horrible. So ugly. This is so disheartening. I might just keep my regular DVDs.

From another forum...not so good!
Quote: We've confirmed something that we'd begun to suspect... and it's probably going to disappoint a lot of you. It certainly disappoints us here at The Bits. Those new DVD editions of the Star Wars films? The original theatrical versions of the films are going to be non-anamorphic (our original post on this indicated otherwise, but we have confirmed that the widescreen versions will be letterboxed only). What this likely means is that Lucasfilm has simply re-purposed the previous non-anamorphic transfers that were done back in 1995 for the last laserdisc and VHS release of the "original" versions of the films. And with that, our enthusiasm for this DVD release has just dropped through the floor. Anamorphic-enhanced versions of the theatrical editions, we'd buy in a heartbeat. But what we're going to get instead is little better than a ported-over laserdisc. In this day and age, releasing a widescreen film without anamorphic enhancement on DVD is just unacceptable. Does Lucasfilm really think fans want those versions of the films on DVD so badly that people just won't care? Yes Virginia, they do. How many versions of these films do you suppose Lucasfilm will try to get fans to buy in high-def over the coming years? And think about it... you just know the studio has to be prepping yet another standard DVD release for next year's 30th Anniversary of the original Star Wars. Do you suppose this means that the theatrical editions won't be included in the super-über box set of all six films? Probably. Ugh.

All I have to say is that those covers are AWESOME!!!

Well, I was going to buy these, but since I have an HDTV and non-anamorphic enhanced DVDs look awful and have borders on all four sides of the picture, I will be passing on this set.

What the hell is Lucasfilm thinking? I mean, would it really cost that much to do a 16x9 transfer? Apparently so.

Hopefully this is just gonna be some lame release and well all forget about it. I am still holding out for the Definitive boxed set with all sic films in HD-DVD and the works. I'm just gonna pretend that these 2-disc sets dont exist (unless lucus wises up and releases anamorphic widescreen on the original triolgy!)

I'm waiting on an official answer to my own inquiry, but if these are indeed a non-anamorphic release then they'll be no sale here. I was perfectly happy, nix that...ecstatic, just getting DVDs based on the '93 LD master prints, but there is absolutely no decent excuse whatsoever to not release these with the anamorphic enhancement that every suitable release gets these days. Anyone that knows anything about DVD authoring knows that anamorphically enhancing DVD-video is no big deal and a small step in the process of encoding video for the format, so much so that not doing it is more of a deliberate act than actually doing it and just substandard to what the format is all about. What a joke...but again I'll reserve judgement until I hear something definitive.

As for the covers...every one of the Star Wars films have had terrible cover art, so I guess it's nice to see that they've decided to remain consistant there.

Why would ya think they would be anamorphic?

Lucas will re-re-re-release his films as long as he lives. Smart move. Release them non-anamporhic so you can release them a year later anamorphic. ching, ching

So p**sed off!!  Couldn't see why he didn't do this when he released the boxed set.  Well, course I can see why he decided to do this.  To make guys like us dish out the extra bucks cuz he just doesn't seem to have enough in his bank account!!!  Ok, I'm done b***hing.  I know I'm still picking these up regardless...

Steven Carrier wrote: This is so confusing. I dont get it. The original films will be laserdisc! What the hell. They wont be anamorphic. This is stomach churning, Lucusfilm is a leader in top notch DVDs, so why would they be doing this. ITS SO STUPID! And that cover art, horrible. So ugly. This is so disheartening. I might just keep my regular DVDs.

HELLO, do you NOT READ. LASER DISCS? Dummmb ASSSSSSS. They are saying they will be using the transfer from the laser disc. You have posted  1,082 times? I don't even wanna think how many other stuid questions you asked.

SnakePETER wrote: i hate to sound ignorant, but what exactly does non/anamorphic mean? ... I think I sorta like these new covers... more so then the last ones, but then again i'm not sure if that's saying much. (my all time favorite covers were the ones for the '97 special editions.)


Hmmmm, you do sound IGNORANT. IF you have to ask that question, You should never post on here again and never be aloud to buy another DVD. Let me guess, you buy FULLSCREEN dvd's still?

Do an internet search before you ask one of the simplest things to know about a widescreen dvd EVER!!!!!