List of Star Wars Changes (Blu-Ray Editions, 2011)

Kurgan · September 4, 2011

Previously I thought that all that was going to be different in this set, other than the High Def transfer was that Episode I was going to have an all-CG Yoda. At least I had no reason to expect anything else. Turns out there were quite a few more changes...

The release date was September 16th, 2011 (for $73 on average). [Edit: According to Amazon, the "Saga" set is $90 new, $69 used, plus S&H. OT & PT sets are $40 new, $28 and $30 used respectively, plus S&H. 12/31/11]

Prior to this changes were leaked out (and have been confirmed).

We know for a fact that this set will NOT include any previously released editions of the Star Wars movies (except Episodes II and III... with each have only one

tiny minor change each... in fact Episode III on BD is identical to the theatrical version since it restores the "wipe" transition towards the end that was altered in the 2005

dvd).

Some of the changes appear to be fixed mistakes from the 2004 editions, oddly enough.

This youtube channel documents many of the changes.

I guess you could consider these spoilers...

This will be updated as we get more info. For the record, I won't be buying this set, but I might rent it later (I do now have a PC that has a blu-ray drive). I just know Lucas will double-dip this one and since the theatrical trilogy won't be included this time, I can afford to wait and save my money.

http://www.youtube.com/user/WideAsleepFilm (videos are spread throughout these two channels)

and also:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DrewtonTube

(please note, there are a lot of joke videos out there, some are pretty funny, but let's stick to the ones that are at least somewhat confirmed; some of this is out of order)

ANH:

A jumpcut of R2D2 starting to move (near the escape pod shaft) has been smoothed out.

After the droids land on Tatooine, the escape pod lid (or parachute as I once thought of it) was always blue, but now it has been changed to a darker gray in several shots (but remains blue in others).

Aunt Beru's line to Luke as he's going off to the droid sale is different. She now says "remind YOUR Uncle" instead of "remind Uncle" and there's a bit of a modulation/echo effect added (thanks DVDactive).

Several CGI rocks have been added to partially obscure R2D2 when he's hiding from the sandpeople. It makes you wonder how he was able to get back in there (and later, the rocks are suddenly gone, after he leaves the shelter).

Obi-Wan's "Yell" that scares away the Tusken raiders after they knock Luke out has changed, again. Now it's some kind of weird scream and echoing effects, instead of the birdlike whoop from 2004 (or the original modified Dewback growl).

Han & Greedo still exchange gunfire (remember in '77, only Han ever fired in the scene! We just saw an explosion and Greedo slumps over), but it happens even quicker than before (looks like he just sped up the 2004 version).

Luke's saber in the far shot on the Falcon (training with the remote) is changed back to blue (or more of a minty turquoise, instead of the bright green it was in 2004; for reference in 1997 it was a very light green, and in 1992 it was almost white).

During the TIE attack on the Falcon, we see a fighter head on getting shot at by the cannons, and originally on the right side of the screen there was a black bar (like it was cropped more on that side). The starfield and laser blast have been extended to cover the empty space. Like the wampa arm, this is another one of those I never really noticed before. Looking at a still frame, it looks like they did a pretty haphazard job, but it goes by pretty fast.

Also, the garbage matte boxes around the TIEs that attack are digitally removed.

When Vader and his TIE wingmen fly off towards the left side of the screen, you can see some graphical garbage at the bottom of the screen that appeared in 2004. This has been removed (the infamous "humdinger" glitch).

In the shot of an X-Wing flying through the explosion of a TIE fighter, the blast is colorless instead of the usual red/orange (though this may have first appeared in 2004).

The Death Star explosion still looks colorless (compared to 1977 or 1997), but the weird blue halo artifact that first appeared in 2004 has been removed.

ESB:

The shot where the wampa "arm" comes out and chokes the Taun Taun, swats at Luke etc. had a frame or two where you could see the edge of the puppeteer's sleeve. This has been painted out (though there's still a little black thing in the far left-hand corner)

More reflections have been added to the shot of the Cloud Cars flying by the Cloud City window (where you can see Leia inside).

When Chewbacca is rescuing Threepio's parts from the conveyor belt (and the Ughnaughts) on Cloud City, the formerly blue fiery interior of the "furnace" has been replaced with an orange one and some new yellow sparks and smoke.

Sabers appear unchanged from the 2004 edition.

ROTJ:

The door to Jabba's palace has been digitally modified to appear more massive and have a zoom in shot, for when we see the droids approach it. This creates a continuity error later on, but in the opening shots the door looks HUGE.

Sebulba (Dug from Episode I) walks into Jabba's throne room.

Han thawing out of the Carbonite is different. The "melting" effect appears more uniform like a dissolve, with brighter rays of light added peaking out from the "vaporizing" portions. Also the "imprint" left behind by Han's body in the melted carbonite now has a reddish hue, where before it was gray (and rays of light peak out as he falls to the floor).

The shot of Han "accidentally" hitting Boba Fett's backpack to send him flying into the side of the skiff uses an alternate take.

In the scene where Wicket the Ewok meets Princess Leia and shares a snack, he blinks his big eyes (CG enhancement of the mask).

The baby ewoks which appear in various scenes blink.

When R2D2 is hit by laser fire during the ground battle, his parts go haywire as before but with new digital tweaks. A cable next to him was removed, and several new attachments were added and/or animated. An appendage that was leaking water has been completely removed, and now steam shoots out of his holographic projector nozzle.

When the rebels say "Fighters... coming in" near the beginning of the space battle (when the trap is sprung) supposedly there are more TIE fighters added to the shot. I would have to compare them side by side, as I can't really tell in the quick shot.

The saber clash in front of the Emperor's face that was goofed up in the 2004 edition has been fixed, back to how it always looked (with bright white cores to both blades instead of two pastel blocks intersecting).

The "Emperor's slugs" have been digitally blended in this shot (at least), fixing a visual oddity that's been there since 1983.

Vader groans out a "Nooo." and then (more like Episode III) "NOoooOOOOO!!" (Naaaawwwoooo) when he turns and grabs the Emperor to throw him down the shaft.

Episode I TPM:

The movie is a brand new transfer, which is framed differently than the DVD edition (which was slightly cropped on all sides). The colors look somewhat different as well (not sure if they're better or worse, but different than the DVD). A few shots are darker than before and so lose detail (like when the two Jedi are talking by the balcony).

The shot of the Neimoidians looking at the Droidekas pursuing the Jedi (on their viewscreen) uses a different take, which is zoomed out and the screen is more obviously a digital projection.

There was a quick shot where the two-headed announcer had one of his hands clipping through his own clothing making it look fake. This was fixed.

Obviously, Yoda is replaced entirely with CG, looking like he does in Episode III.

Episode II: Suddenly the movie has a blue-tint throughout. Ugh.

Episode III: In the original theatrical version, the screen did a wipe transitioning from Obi-Wan looking concerned as Threepio drives the ship away from Mustafar to Anakin's robotic hand clawing its way up the sandy ground from the lava pool. The DVD edition in 2005 turned this into a straight cut. The Blu-Ray restores it back to the theatrical version.

And now (something I'm actually more interested in than George's endless tinkering):

UPDATED 10/13:

Confirmed DELETED SCENES. The Deleted Scenes are on a separate disc from the movies (so far only available with the more expensive "saga" set that contains both trilogies) and are not "cleaned up." These are definitely not "HD quality" and are much more worn, faded and dirty than the rest of the movie footage (it has that same "look" as the vintage gag reel/easter egg material from 2004, if you remember). However this is the best looking we've ever seen them. Prior to this many scenes were known about only from very short clips or stills. Sometimes we had less audio than we do now. Just to be clarify, there is no option on this BD set to view these scenes reincorporated into the main film footage.

ANH:

As Luke & Biggs are talking before the battle of Yavin, Red leader's dialog in full (there's a damaged film "wipe" partway through, which was replaced by a "guy walking past carrying some stuff" in the Special Edition in 1997). He says "I met your father once when I was just a boy. If you have half the skill he had, you'll do all right." (in the SE, he just says "you'll do all right").

Luke looking up at the "battle" with his macrobinoculars and seeing Treadwell "break down" before he heads off to Toschi station. This scene has been publicly available since 1998 (Behind the Magic) but a clip shown appears in color instead of sepia that the BTM clip had faded to (it also lacked sound, unknown if the sound is restored, it should be pointed out that the fan copies out there which have sound simply spliced in the sound from the Radio Drama, which has Mark Hamill's voice). Some special effects of the battle in the sky may have been added since '76 when it was shot, but in any case, it looks great.

Right after this scene is a shot of an old woman yelling (in the screenplay, the landspeeder zips by her and she reacts as any annoyed pedestrian would at a reckless driver).

Then we get the familiar Luke & Biggs scenes at Tosche (Toschi?) Station we've all watched since '98 but in far better audio and video quality than we've ever seen them.

Some rear projection footage of Luke talking with Threepio as he drives the landspeeder off in search of R2D2. The scene cuts off. It's cool to hear Anthony Daniels without his voice filters.

The faded-to-black-and-white alternate cantina scene (with spaces of silence and no dubbed voices or added SFX other than some squibs and the lightsaber physical prop) that we've been enjoying since '98 is back in all its glory. I swear there were some shots in color of "Jenny" but not in any of the clips I've yet scene.

Quick shot of a dwarf guy running from an unseen creature on stilt legs is seen (this exact footage was featured in the infamous '78 Holiday Special). This segues into the scene of the sandtroopers moving their search for the droids across the alleyway (and ends with a crewmember pulling out the clapperboard).

The scene of Vader talking with Chief Bast about strategic issues with the rebels in a hallway is back, with the original audio (the Star Wars Holiday Special reused this footage but dubbed it to fit in with the tv special's plot).

ESB:

General Veers dies! Yes, in this version, before he shoots the shield generator (I think), a snowspeeder plows into the head of his AT-AT, decapitating it and downing the vehicle. This scene is a mixture of black & white footage and hand-drawn animation.

Yoda's additional training. I remember this scene from the Marvel comics series based on the movie. Yoda tosses a silver bar into the air and Luke slashes at it with his saber (but misses). The actual scene is done in several takes, with no special effects (other than the bar being pulled by a fishing line, and then it's missing in the rest of the scene, presumably to be added in post). Parts of it are black & white and there's no dialogue yet.

Lobot's capture. I didn't realize this, but Lobot (the bald guy working for Lando who has the wrap-around speakers on his head) gets captured! After Lando signals him when he finally takes his opportunity against Vader's men, Lobot evades the Stormtroopers for awhile but then gets grabbed and taken into custody. So I guess the other guys came through though! A bit anticlimactic.

Leia cares for Luke. A rather extended sequence of Leia tending to Luke's injury in that little medical station on the Falcon. She fills Luke in on what's just happened, mentions Boba Fett by name (he's otherwise only referred to as "bounty hunter" in ESB).

Han makes repairs. Another sequence of Han bent over some big pipes in the Falcon doing repairs, and Leia fumbling around. A lot of off-screen cues from Kershner (sounds like him anyway). Alternate/extended kiss scene (b&w) for Han & Leia with a bit more dialogue. After he initially kisses her, she kisses him back before Threepio interrupts.

Shot of a wampa moving through the tunnel far off as Echo base is in chaos. This is just before or after Threepio rips the "danger" sign off the wampa room (mentioned in the script and seen briefly in the ESB trailer on the 2004 "Bonus Materials" disc, but only a second or two).

There are actually several "new" cut Wampa scenes. There's an extended version of Leia and Han's argument in the south passages on Echo Base. There's another version of this banter scene where the camera pans to a wall and we see a transparent piece of ice with a wampa claw tapping against the ice.

Several shorter shots of a Wampa (or two?) crashing through a snow wall, rebel troopers running at the (offscreen) monster and getting thrown back, firing their guns, and the snow monster itself in all its B-movie glory. It's quite hilarious by today's standards, but quite cool to see. Most of this stuff was cut because they thought the monster looked too fake and the guy in the costume was really awkward and blind with those stilts and long arms in the suit. One of the beasts is finally killed by the rebels, while the other is (we presume) trapped in the wampa pen we all knew about from still photos and vintage ESB trailers (and we get a nice looking version of the scene of Threepio ripping the "danger" sign off the wampa pen).

Later the Snowtroopers storm into the base with Vader, one of them opens the door to the "wampa pen" and gets pulled inside by a long furry arm, and the next guy closes the door and listens. Pretty cool.

A longer scene of Luke healing from the bacta (and what sounds like director Irvin Kershner off camera announcing that Luke is okay) is featured.

Luke and Leia have some dialogue after he's out of the bacta resting up and they go in for a passionate kiss (which is broken up before their lips touch by Threepio and then Han comes in to deliver his "pull the ears off a gundark" lines, from a different camera angle).

ROTJ:

Pilots. LOTS of material of new pilots (looks like an audition reel, as they say the same lines virtually). An actor is sitting in a cockpit that is shaking and a radio voice off camera prompts them to say various lines ("there's a heavy fire zone down there" "if you pick one up watch him" "I'm hit" etc). One of the pilots we see in the actual battle was overdubbed and is actually female! There's also an older woman and a guy in a Mon Calamari suit (who speaks english) as well as Nien Numb (or an alien just like him) speaking english. They have a bit of fun with the Mon Calamari guy too. The human pilot sequences are all in black & white.

Falcon gunners! This sequence is kinda cool. Various shots of guys with guns and equipment running around the Falcon corridors, fixing things, putting out fires (without full extinguisher effects). Nien Numb (or same alien species) dodging an explosion in the corridors. Footage of various human rebels manning the turrets and going through the combat motions just like Luke & Han do in ANH.

General Madine. General Madine (stoic guy with hair helmet and fuzzy beard) sits on a bridge similar to Ackbar's, surrounded by his human crew. He issues orders similar to Ackbar's about hyperspace and wishing the force to be with them. Color with offscreen cues.

The infamous "finishing touches on the lightsaber" scene with Luke wearing a hood that obscures everything but his chin and nose (leading many to suspect this wasn't actual 1983 footage, since it would have been easy to fake) that was the first part released. Vader is sitting in his meditation chamber on the Executor and says "Luke.... Luke, join me on the dark side of the force, it is the only way." Meanwhile, on Tatooine, Luke is in a cave, tightens something on the saber and then ignites it. We see the droids sitting outside the cave. The rest of the clip segues seamlessly into the opening part of ROTJ we're familiar with, of the droids heading towards Jabba's palace.

Han, Leia and the rebels are having a shootout with stormtroopers inside the corridors of the inside of the Endor bunker. This was meant to be right before they burst in and take over the officer stations. The troopers get wiped out. Later when the rebels get captured, Han questions being called "scum" by the Imperial officer.

The "sand storm" scene after they leave Jabba's is in there, and it's much longer than the literally 1 second long clip (and photos) we'd seen before. The party of heroes wear cloaks and goggles making their way to the falcon in the blowing sand and have some dialogue (which is extremely difficult to make out with all the wind machines going). It also looks like Luke rubs some goop on his injured robot hand (a possible continuity glitch if this scene were left in because it's still damaged and open in the scene on the cockpit on his way to Dagobah). It doesn't take, and he gets into his X-wing to leave.

Moff Jejerod (flanked by some red guards) tries to stop Vader from going into the Emperor's chambers and gets choked by Vader (who isn't dubbed by JEJ yet in this scene). Later we see clips of him talking with his crewmen about the Emperor's orders to blow up the Endor moon (even with their men still on it) if the rebels start to win. More dialogue with his men and finally the order is given and he stares into a (black, since no SFX finished) viewscreen.

Also, just for fun, I found this page which contains a lot of info on PREVIOUS changes to the films (mostly the 1997/2004 changes): http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Complete-Comparison-of-Special-Edition-Visual-Changes/topic/11927/

Alexrd · September 4, 2011

Episode I TPM: The movie is a brand new transfer, which is framed differently than the DVD edition (which was slightly cropped on the left and right sides). The colors look somewhat different as well (not sure if they're better or worse, but different than the DVD).

Just to clarify this: the DVD transfer was cropped on all directions, not just it's sides:

Old:

New:

And the colours are the original ones because this transfer comes directly from the digital source. The DVD transfer had a pinkish tint, IIRC.

Kurgan · September 5, 2011

I would have said reddish (others have said "magenta") tint, but yeah.

As for the cropping, you may be right, as I didn't study the screenshots for a long time. Most movies are cropped, but in any case, I presume it's closer to the theatrical presentation in terms of the framing at least.

As for the colors, am I remembering wrong, or wasn't the first "digital source" in the series Episode II? Episode I was shot on film, not DV tape like the other two. We can only assume they are the original colors if they didn't do some kind of "restoration" on the digital scan like they did with the 2004 transfers. All the movies are scanned into HD digital form now, but the question is what other sorts of unknown tweaks have been done since then.

Without comparing the negative, we've got the VHS and Laserdiscs to compare I suppose, since it's been a decade since it's been in theaters.

Thanks. I realize we're speculating at this point, but we'll fill the time until we know more.

Alexrd · September 5, 2011

As for the colors, am I remembering wrong, or wasn't the first "digital source" in the series Episode II? Episode I was shot on film, not DV tape like the other two.

Yes, Episode I was shot on film. What I mean with "digital source" is the version that was displayed on digital theaters at the time. I assume it's a more preserved version of the film.

More on that here.

Kurgan · September 5, 2011

Okay, after studying the Episode I shots are closely, assuming the shots are reliable, then yes, it's both top bottom AND both sides that were cropped smaller in the DVD release. Good call.

As for the rest, again, correct me if I'm wrong, but Episode II was the first of the series shown in digital theaters. If there was ever a "digital print" of Episode I, it was made sometime after its theatrical run.

The thing about the Episode I transfer is that not only does it include CGI elements created several years after the movie came out (Episode III Yoda model), but it's an almost sure bet that it mimics the 2001 DVD cut, and we know that material in that version was CGed after the movie came out (ie: Coruscant Taxi scene, extended Pod Race lap 2, Twilek senators).

I would call it a "preservation" only in terms of it is going to display a higher resolution than the DVD or Laserdisc, making the visual quality closer to the theater, and probably have an aspect ratio and framing closer to the theater. I'm sure the sound will be better as well.

Unless this set is goofed up (like the 2004 sets and Episode I), it's going to be the best these movies have ever looked and sounded outside of theaters. But I wouldn't call them "preservations," since they are just the latest remix, a new product, really.

Edit: Good link. The link confirms what I was saying (lots of movies contain "digital effects" but "digitally shot" films are something entirely different). When they make a blu-ray of a film (a movie released on celluloid), they can the actual physical film in high def via a scanner/printer. Digitally shot "films" (you can't really call them "films" anymore, so I just call them movies or "video") don't exist this way. They take the tape or data (on a hard drive or backup optical media) and convert that to a blu-ray readable format. Episode II and III were shot digitally and exist digitally, but most people (including myself) saw them in theaters as film since most theaters at the time were not setup for digital projection. However when making the DVDs of those movies they could convert them a lot easier. I'm told though that actually if a movie was shot on film, you can have a higher resolution end product for a blu-ray than a digital movie in these cases, because the resolution you shoot the digital movie at, is it (you can't go over the original source). Somebody can verify the exact figures but I've read somewhere that II & III were something like 2000K bit rate, while you could theoretically scan a movie as high as 8000K.

Most people have been speculating that Lucas won't do this, as he won't want the OT and Episode I to look better than II & III, so he'll just have them scanned at 2000K. I'm not an expert on this stuff, so I'm just going by what other people have written on the 'net about this stuff, mind.

I remember reading on the digitalbits how when the first blu-ray editions of the LOTR movies came out, they had to delay the "extended editions" because at the time those were made, the extra scenes and new visual effects (not shown in theaters) were only created in SD (for DVD). Hence they had to re-create or reconvert them for high def (for the blu-ray extended edition release). Lucas probably had to do something similar with the 2004 Editions and Episode I, since those effects were created for the DVDs. He may have figured as long as he was at it that he'd redo some other things. I was a little skeptical about these blu-rays at first, because I knew that high def versions of the movies already existed (having been shown in Germany and US cable some years back) but they were identical to the DVD releases other than having a higher bitrate (but still messed up colors and all the glitches of the home versions). So that made me wonder if perhaps the "digital master" of the OT created circa 2004 was itself screwed up. I wonder if Lucas had to go back and scan it again, or if they could revert the colors. But then, we still don't have solid proof that these 2011 Blu-Rays have had their colors fixed. We know the sound is fixed (those infamous "deliberate creative decisions") and we know some shots are fixed (like the lightsabers). Of course fan edits exist of these versions with the colors tweaked, so he could have had that done as well.

I get what you're saying otherwise. Lucas' hires have scanned the four films creating "digital masters" for any future versions already. Episode II and III are ready to go whenever he wants to use them.

Alexrd · September 5, 2011

As for the rest, again, correct me if I'm wrong, but Episode II was the first of the series shown in digital theaters. If there was ever a "digital print" of Episode I, it was made sometime after its theatrical run.

I'm almost sure there was a version of Episode I shown in digital theaters. I'll try to search more info about that, but I'm sure I've read it somewhere back then.

I would call it a "preservation" only in terms of it is going to display a higher resolution than the DVD or Laserdisc, making the visual quality closer to the theater, and probably have an aspect ratio and framing closer to the theater. I'm sure the sound will be better as well.

When I said "more preserved", I meant a version with no artifacts, etc, not an actual preservation.

I get what you're saying otherwise. Lucas' hires have scanned the four films creating "digital masters" for any future versions already. Episode II and III are ready to go whenever he wants to use them.

Yes. What I was saying is that a digital master of Episode I was created/released back in '99. It was played some months after the original release.

EDIT: Found it.

Kurgan · September 7, 2011

The Phantom Menace will be presented digitally for only a month, and because of this the traditional, celluloid-based projector still stands in the projection booth: the digital projector was installed next to its grandfather, on a temporary structure. This means that the conventional projector could still be used to show the trailers and anything outside of Episode I - but Texas Instruments wanted the audience to truly experiment digital cinema, from beginning to end, and so they had everything transferred to a digital master: their own introduction, the THX logo, the trailers, and even the AMC Theaters introduction sequence. Only one projector was used, and there was no need to load a reel of film at the beginning or to remove it at the end, let alone change reels during the screening.

Nice. Well I stand corrected! So Episode I was converted to digital all the way back then (though barely anyone would have seen it, 4 theaters for a month). Perhaps they didn't need to create a new digital master after all, and the bungling of the DVD version was probably for similar reasons that they bungled the 2004 editions from the "digital masters" created in the 2000's. They had to downsample and cropped the image and probably tweaked stuff along the way that goofed up the colors, brightness, sharpness, etc.

I still wonder about the digital masters created of the OT though, whether they were the 1997 master prints or the restored "originals" (prior to the 1997 changes, the originals had to be restored the old fashioned way).

Just for fun:

Looks like youtube is replete with spoofs of the new changes, like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6zTo5-IzYE (Obi-Wan steps on a piece of lego)

joesdomain · September 9, 2011

The changes confirmed so far are good to me. I have seen them on youtube. Just a shame the deleted scenes weren't cleaned up and in high definition plus give the star wars fan the option to add them into the movie. Those scenes would be a cool Ultimate edition of each 6 films.

Alexrd · September 9, 2011

I only like the cosmetic changes, not the ones that alter the story itself (like Han vs Greedo, Hayden's head, and Vader's 'no, nooo').

Kurgan · September 19, 2011

Well, they're out. I haven't seen them in person yet (maybe next time I am at the mall they'll be playing on those TV displays), but here's an exerpt from digitalbits.com's review:

It's fairly common knowledge that the Blu-rays were mastered from the same HD scans that were used for the DVD release back in 2004. That means these transfers are at least 8 years old - very far from state of the art. To make matters worse, those scans were done at near HD resolution - not the 4K, 6K, or even 8K of current negative scans for film restoration and BD release purposes, but essentially 2K (something like1828x1556 for a scope film image), which was eventually exported to 480p for DVD (and later 1080p for Blu-ray). As most of you know, those DVD presentations were rife with visual problems, so the prospects for any quality BD release using these transfers seemed dim. Surprisingly, however, Lucasfilm and Lowry Digital have gone to a great deal of trouble to correct those problems. For one thing, many of the worst color-timing issues of the DVDs have been fixed - not all of them to be sure and not completely, but at least to the point where they're not so egregious. Some of the inconsistencies of the lightsaber coloring have been adjusted too. More of the obvious "garbage" mattes have been removed. Most of the Snow Speeder cockpits in Empire are less see-through. Visual errors large and small in all of the original trilogy films have been corrected. To be fair, there are still flaws in these transfers due to the fact that they're nearly a decade old and were made at such low resolution. These include occasional edge halos, crushed blacks and somewhat oversaturated colors. (For the record, I'm not convinced that the crushed blacks and oversaturated colors are a defect so much as a deliberate choice on Lucas' part. They've been visible in these films since at least 1997, so it's hard to say.) There are also artifacts due to all the digital manipulation work that's been done, including filtering, static grain in select shots, etc. A New Hope is the most "crisp" looking of the three films, as Empire and Jedi were both shot with a deliberately softer look, using atmospheric smoke and fog and more subtle, elaborate lighting than the original film. All three films occasionally look soft in various scenes - or around the edges of the frame - owing to the use of anamorphic lenses. Jedi also has what appears to be a registration problem about halfway through the film (from 54:30 to 58:33, from the Rebels' arrival on Endor to the start of the Speeder Bike chase). It manifests itself as a slight loss of resolution in the image. This is visible in the HD master for cable and satellite broadcasts as well, so it's definitely a problem with the original master - something that might have happened when the films were being scanned. HOWEVER... all that said, there's still plenty of detail in the images, the colors pop and the blacks are nicely dark. I have a strong suspicion that the vast majority of Star Wars fans are going to be pleased with what they see. The fixes to the masters, the greater HD resolution and the high data rates Blu-ray offers combine to really deliver a massive improvement in video quality here from the DVDs. Regardless of the issues that remain, this is BY FAR the best these films have ever looked at home.

...

Without a doubt, the MAJOR treats here are the deleted and extended scenes from the original trilogy - some 23 in all. These are all shot on film and presented in HD. The quality is a bit rough. Some of the footage appears in color and some in B&W, but it all still looks fairly good - far better than a few of these scenes looked on the Star Wars: Behind the Magic CD-ROM to be sure. EVERYTHING you've ever wanted to see is here. From A New Hope, you'll see Luke watching the battle in space, racing to Toshi Station to tell his friends, seeing Biggs and having a long conversation with him; a rough-cut of the entire cantina scene featuring more creatures and Han Solo's girlfriend (notable here is that you get to see the ORIGINAL Greedo death); and more of the reunion of Biggs and Luke at the Rebel base. From Empire, all of the Wampa attack scenes are included; there's a longer conversation between Han and Leia in the Rebel base hallway; there's more of Luke being treated in the Med Center; you see Luke and Leia nearly kissing during his recovery; there's an alternate Han/Leia kiss on the Falcon; another scene of Yoda training Luke and more. And from Jedi, you'll see Luke making his lightsaber; the heroes returning to their ships in a sandstorm on Tatooine; more of the Rebel attack on the Endor bunker; the Death Star commander's conflict when ordered by the Emperor to destroy Endor; and a bunch of unused footage of Rebel fighter pilots from the final battle, including one that could be someone's grandmother!

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviewshd/bdreviews091611.html

DVDactive, which was a great help documenting the changes in the 2004 editions, has the following links with some information on the Blu-Ray changes:[/b]

http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/articles/star-wars-the-changes-part-one.html (ANH)

Changes noted (won't mirror the images just now, please visit DVDactive for the pics):

-The "escape pod lid" that was blue all these years (seen when R2 and Threepio are heading out into the Tatooine desert) is now suddenly gray in a few shots (but bright blue in the rest).

-There are additional big CGI rocks obscuring R2D2 on the left side of the screen when he's hiding in that little "cavern" during the Tusken Raider attack, before Obi-Wan's first scene). This creates a continuity error later on as its not shown how he was able to get out of that tight squeeze and the rocks are gone. Did he use some kind of silent jackhammer attachment to blast his way out? Maybe he has a more realistic holographic projector capability than we ever knew?

-DVDactive's take is that the Han/Greedo scene simply has 10 frames removed (from the 2004 version), making it look like they shoot at the same time.

-They report that although the one "far shot" of Luke's lightsaber whilst training on the Falcon has been made to look turqoise (light blue/green) instead of neon green like in 2004, that most of the other shots remain unchanged (greenish instead of bluish). So Luke's inconsistent saber colors remain, with one major shot being fixed only.

Overall while it appears a few of the color oddities from the 2004 versions were fixed, many of them still remain, in all the films.

-A "humdinger" glitch (but of white/gray graphical garbage lining the bottom of the screen) appeared (for the first time) in the 2004 version in a frame of Vader's TIE and his wingmen flying towards the left side of the screen. This was corrected in the Blu-Ray release.

-The Death Star explosion is still oddly colorless as it was in the 2004 version, but the "blue screen artifacting" glitch on the right side of the screen has been removed.

All of the initial reported changes have been confirmed by their article. They report that many audio glitches (like the "deliberate creative" decision to drown out the fanfare when they X-wings make their attack on the Death Star) have been corrected, but not all of them...

http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/articles/star-wars-the-changes-part-two.html (ESB)

-A few more subtle reflections appear on the window during the "outside view" of Leia at Cloud City (Cloud Car flyby).

-The end of the conveyor belt (in the scene where Chewie is recovering Threepio's parts from the Ughnaughts at cloud city) previuosly had a blue fiery interior, now the furnace has an orange glow, with smoke and some yellow sparks instead.

-Again, not every lightsaber gaffe from 2004 has been fixed (Vader pushing Luke towards the carbon freeze pit is unchanged for example). DVDActive reports that actually NONE of the gaffes of this type present in ESB have been fixed.

http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/articles/star-wars-the-changes-part-three.html (ROTJ)

As before, the previous reported ("rumored") changes have been confirmed in their reporting (though it looks like they missed the "carbonite unfreezing" change, which is

being reported on other sites). The "expanded door size" creates a continuity gaffe later as we see the inside of the door doesn't look as big as the new expanded exterior shot.

-After R2D2 is shot by a stormtrooper and he "freaks out" the effect has been tweaked for example by having more CGI appendages have been added and his domes and other appliances open and close more rapidly, and a cable that was in the background has been CGIed out.

-Many lightsaber shots are tweaked to look better than they did in 2004 (but not necessarily as good as they looked in 1997). Vader's lightsaber still inconsistently goes from deep red at times to light pink.

http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/articles/star-wars-the-changes-part-four.html (Prequel changes) Note: this thread is for OT changes, but I put it there just for completeness sake. Again, DVDActive did a great job of showing the various changes in the home digital home releases.

Alexrd · September 19, 2011

DVDActive has updated their "Star Wars: The Changes" article:

A New Hope

The Empire Strikes Back

Return of the Jedi

Prequel Trilogy

Kurgan · September 19, 2011

Yup. I see you can add comments too. Let him know how he can improve the articles! I asked him about the carbonite thawing scene in ROTJ, for example.

Kurgan · September 23, 2011

Ah, one new change, Beru's line to Luke as he goes to the droid sale (talking about bocce). Thanks DVDactive!

Kurgan · October 8, 2011

Well apparently this set has broken (blu-ray) sales records, which isn't surprising. I bet most people buying it had no idea of the new changes. Wal-Mart has already moved on to showing some animated movie over Star Wars. Until next time I guess!

LordVader1 · October 9, 2011

I never knew there were changes

Kurgan · October 12, 2011

Welcome to the world of Star Wars! (for better or for worse)

Can an admin or someone stick this topic? I imagine there are a lot of folks in LordVader1's shoes (even if you were kidding) who will be discovering this fact over the next couple of years...

ChAiNz.2da · October 12, 2011

Welcome to the world of Star Wars! (for better or for worse)

Can an admin or someone stick this topic? I imagine there are a lot of folks in LordVader1's shoes (even if you were kidding) who will be discovering this fact over the next couple of years...

Consider it done

Blix · October 14, 2011

I'm just looking forward to the deleted/unreleased scenes, I would probably buy this bundle just for those alone.

Alexrd · October 19, 2011

List of Star Wars Changes (Blu-Ray Editions, 2011)

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