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star Wars DVDs
kaliyama
Left to find less-moderated foraRegistered User regular
Left to find less-moderated foraRegistered User regular
My gf hasn't seen the star wars movies and I'd like the first watching be as close as possible to the original product. Can anyone recommend me a DVD edition that is affordable? I know there was a special edition that offered a bad copy of the laserdisc, I'd rather skip that. I guess the only thing that is a "must" for me is that Han shoots first.
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The only DVD releases of the original theatrical versions of the first three Star Wars films feature non-anamorphic transfers straight off the laserdisc versions, and they're no longer what most folks would consider affordable.
Of course, unless you have a laserdisc or VHS player, that's the only way to watch the original versions. The VHS versions are much cheaper than the DVD versions, if you have access to a VHS player.
Edit: And unfortunately, the change to the Han and Greedo scene is in all of the "special edition" versions available on DVD or Blu-Ray.
[edit]Found it and the date says 2008, so that must be exactly what is being referenced as OOP.
Yep that's the one I've got too, it is the best set IMO. I was lucky and got it right before it went OOP. I was looking to buy another set for a friend who was still rocking her old VHS tapes just a few months later and was SHOCKED to see the prices being asked by Amazon and eBay sellers.
1997 and onwards VHS contain edited versions. In 2004 there was another round of edits made and this is where most DVDs are from. With the exception of the 2006 DVD release, which had both the 2004 edited versions, and a shitty copy of a 1993 laser disc release. Like they didn't even bother to convert it from 4:3 to 16:9, so you have a widescreen film squeezed into a 4:3 frame that is centered in your 16:9 screen. Looks like this:
which I got from here, and talks more about the crappy 2006 GOUT release (George's Original Unaltered Trilogy). This is of course also an issue for any of the Laserdisc/VHS releases as they were never intended to be viewed on HD widescreen televisions. Certainly none of the legal releases of the unaltered trilogy will look anywhere near as good as the remastered special edition releases.
None of the earlier releases are still for sale. Including the 2006 DVD release. So if you want any of these you have to buy them from a private seller, and costs will probably vary wildly.
There are also fan edits of the films where crazy people have spliced together remastered releases, older releases, pictures, and who knows what else to try and recreate a high quality remaster unaltered edition. The PA report had an article on one of them that has a video about how some of that was accomplished and it's pretty amazing. These are of course of questionable legality, but not that hard to find if you are interested.
http://static.nomachetejuggling.com/machete_order.html
I'll give you a bro, because that blog post is awesome, but I can't agree with watching the films in that order.
If you read down what he actually suggests is not watching TPM at all.
I mean, II is arguably the least watchable of the prequels (an argument could be made for I, but it's a close call in any case), and you're seeing it right after the best film of the original trilogy.
I can't help but think it'll make the bad so much worse.
...I've got to try it now, though. :P
Genius. She is watching them just so she can appreciate the xwing miniature game more, so we will stick to the original 3, but the machete order seems the best concession to the existence of the second three movies. Lets see if JJ does to Star Wars what he did to Star Trek, which would probably prompt the machete order to.be renamed to the Friday the 13th Order.
The main thing I like about it his big point: It makes Luke falling to the dark side believable. When I first watched them as a kid, I didn't even realize that some of the stuff was hinting at Luke falling, I just figured he was pissed. Putting it in context makes the actual jedi dark/light narrative understandable and interesting.
That's awesome. I'm definitely going to watch them this way with my family over the holidays.
No.
Lucas cared enough to keep fucking with it for some reason, which is half the reason it bothers people.
As discussed earlier in the thread, there aren't any DVDs, unless you're willing to pay out the ass.
I felt a great disturbance in the force - as if a million thrift store owners cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced by paypal.
IT'S GREEDO
Just kidding. But machete order seems like a good idea!
I am very tempted to watch this despecialized edition though.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
yes helo i am greebo
I did watch the first 5 minutes of A New Hope and honestly, my jaw dropped. Best version to watch ever.
am I mistaken?
I'll have to rewatch, but I was pretty sure that Han shot first on the ones I'm thinking of.
I would just recommend downloading Harmy's Despecialized Editions of the movies. If you search for this phrase, you can easily find them. If not, then your best bet is to stomach the special editions and get the cheapest DVD or Blu-ray set you can find.
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You probably got the 2006 edition which did infact include the original "mostly" unaltered trilogy, but those dvds aren't for sale anymore so you have to get them second hand. Plus as the monicker GOUT implies, those bonus discs look real bad on a HDTV. Most of the nerd community seems to believe that lucas did that on purpose so that the specialized editions look much better in comparison. That way most people would just get the versions that he wanted people to have.
oohhh gotcha
I haven't watched them on my HD TV yet, so I didn't know!
They're not adapted to widescreen, so you get a letterboxed low resolution 4:3 picture in the middle of your 16:9 set:
So ah... Maybe take a week or so between them?
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
I have the same set, I think? The DVDs came with a 'CGI' version and then an 'Original' Version that was transferred from like, the old reels or something? Isn't that why they are supposed to look like shit on an HD TV because they were recorded forty years ago?
They are off of the laserdisc release of the OT.
If they'd bothered to do a scan of the original film for the original versions it'd look way better, because film is natively higher resolution than even BD.
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