Star Wars Digital Collection (online review)

[Kurgan]

This of course could be posted in either the Prequel or Classic Trilogy sections, but recently I was seeing adverts for this "Digital Collection" obviously coming out as a cash-in to build anticipation for the new movie this Christmas, etc.

 

Anyway I was curious if there was anything different this time around and I'm not surprised to learn that no, this is pretty much identical to what we got on Blu-Ray in 2011, just slightly lower in quality.

 

So if you already have the "Saga" collection, there's no reason to get this unless you're too lazy to rip the discs if you wanted to watch it on the go, I suppose. Price wise it costs the same (or slightly more, depending upon where you get it) as the Saga BD set. I suppose one good thing about it is that if you wanted to buy an individual movie (instead of a whole trilogy) you could do so. Just remember these are the modified versions (SE 3.0) not the theatrical versions (except Episode III which IS the theatrical version and Episode II which is the cut shown in digital theaters in 2002, and I guess you could say Episode I 3.0 with CGI Yoda was shown theatrically, albeit in 3D).

 

Here's a review that I just looked at explaining it in more detail:

 

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=16638

 

PS: There's also a link to the Episode VII teaser trailer #2 on the page so if that's spoilers for you, don't look at the bottom of the page.

[Kurgan]

Just remember, if you get the "Saga" Blu-Ray set, you not only get the same content as this "digital collection" but better slightly better visual quality, you also get those bonus discs (of which for me the OT deleted scenes was the only reason to buy the set).

 

So again, it's good if you just wanted one of the movies to watch on the go, it has all the same flaws and changes of the 2011 set.

[Alexrd]

and Episode II which is the cut shown in digital theaters in 2002

 

I'm pretty sure it's the Blu-ray version.

 

Also, all movies (except A New Hope, which is the only movie Fox has distribution rights of) lost the Fox intro and fanfare, which was replaced by a cheap edit of the end credits music of The Empire Strikes Back.

 

But yes, in terms of quality, the Blu-ray version is still the best for the movies alone. Even a ripped version should have more bitrate than the digital versions being sold.