Have any dopers purchased the imported versions of the original trilogy on DVD or VCD? I am considering buying, but I don’t want to get ripped off. Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Pash
I don’t think they were released anywhere in the world on DVD. VCD is just a … well I may not know enough to call it a cheap way of preserving video but it does seem like it. Where are you buying from? What country I mean.
If you want the highest quality of the original cut movies you will have to purchase the laser disks and a player for them.
I am considering buying off of eBay. Searching for Star Wars 4 dvd brings up more than a few auctions. From what I gather, they are from an Asian market, but I don’t know much more. I’ve sent an e-mail to one of the sellers for more info, but haven’t heard back yet.
Pash
There have been several different issues of the Star Wars DVD’s, all of them apparently Asian in origin.
The Original, Non-SE Bullshit Trilogy: as far as I know, there has been only one issue of these. The picture quality is pretty substandard, about the same as VHS, but the sound is excellent. Extras include trailers and short documentaries that were previously included on the U.S. laserdisc versions.
The Special Edition Trilogy: several issues have been made of the SE’s. The first to become available were as bad as the Original Trilogy DVD’s, but there have been several recent re-issues that were obviously taken directly from the laserdiscs. Picture quality on these recent ones is generally very good to near-perfect, and the sound is again excellent.
All DVD issues have been in widescreen, with the exception of some “Return Of The Jedi” discs.
It goes without saying that these DVD’s are pirated.
VCD sets are legally available, and of okay quality, but they are pan-and-scanned and not presented widescreen.
So is it illegal for them to be sold in the states? If I buy, will I be breaking the law, in an ethical gray area, or none of the above?
Dammit, why doesn’t Lucas put them out already!
Pash
Not going to be out until after Episode 3. Any version you get on DVD is a pirate of another version, usually the laserdiscs.
Were the laserdisc versions of Star Wars any good? Are they highly prized collectables or are they for hardcore fans only?
I wonder how many different DVD editions there are going to be. With the backlash against Lucas that seems to have been growing since TPM, it seems like he really needs to produce the be-all and end-all of DVD sets for the original trilogy. I bet there will be much rage if he blatantly makes it so you end up buying the same movie several times, or doesn’t offer the original, correct, Han-shoots-first trilogy.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Lucas will dig out his digital crayons to further deface his earlier works. The official word is that the original trilogy will never again be re-released in its original form so we’re probably be stuck with the “Greedo shoots first” travesty. However, history has shown that Lucas’ official word is about as good as his ear for dialogue so there may yet be hope.
As for the Star Wars LDs, the quality was excellent for the time of their release, which is not as good as DVD but far better than VHS. They’re also letterboxed with (I think) Dolby Digital sound. The pirate DVDs are analog rips of these LDs and, to contradict Keith Berry, are of very good quality.
Not the copies I saw. Must be a “remastered” pirate edition, heh…which does happen…a certain infamous website upgraded their bootleg DVD of Attack Of The Clones twice in the film’s first month of release, initially offering a very bad camcorder transfer, then a decent Telesync transfer, and finally what was advertised as a bona fide filmprint-to-tape video transfer.