STAR WARS - Finally Coming on Blu-Ray

[SoundGame]

As per the Canada HiFi blogs, we have news that in 2011, Lucas will finally be bringing Star Wars to Blu-Ray. http://www.canadahifi.com/comments.php?id_entry=1047

I'm sooooo excited but the wait is killing me. These will be the Special Edition releases and not the original films. Hopefully, George will have done some further tweaking of those digital effects to make them look more credible on the Blu-Ray format, which is notorious for exposing imperfections.

It was back in 1977, when my parents took me to my first real movie (in a movie theatre). It was my mom's friend that told her she had to take her kids to see Star Wars. Well, all I can say is that first seeing a movie on a big screen, in a large venue, with pop corn and all the surrounding excitement was the first step to making it a memorable event. But, it was the movie itself, with it's fairlytale nature and groundbreaking special effects that absolutely blew my brother and myself away. After that there was no looking back - we were Star Wars fans for life. In fact, my facebook picture is me wearing a stormtrooper helmut.

I can't wait to get the new box set in my home! I can only imaging getting the soundtrack with the John Williams score in lossless format.

[Suave]

I have been waiting for this annoucement since the day the Blu-ray format appeared!

Much like SoundGame, Star Wars was my first memorable experience at the movie theatre which instantly made me a huge fan. The epic story, the mind numbing special effects, the characters - I loved every part of it! Over the years I've read many of the Star Wars novels, comics and collected action figures.

George Lucas has hinted for a while now that he might one day release Star Wars in 3D. I suppose a Blu-ray release would be due first

Here's the official news from http://www.starwars.com:

"The Star Wars saga will at long last be released in a high-definition home video format as all six movies come to Blu-Ray in a Box Set in Fall 2011, as announced by George Lucas this morning at Celebration V. At the fan convention's Main Event, thousands of Star Wars fans braved the muggy heat of an Orlando morning to queue for a one-time only stage session between George Lucas and The Daily Show's Jon Stewart. Stewart asked Lucas questions submitted from the fan community, and one of the most frequently asked questions submitted online prior to the Main Event was about the saga's release on Blu-Ray.
"I wish I could say it was coming out this year," said Lucas, "but it will come out next year."

The set will feature all six live-action Star Wars feature films, with the highest picture and audio quality, along with extensive special features.

Star Wars fans were treated to a glimpse of bonus material, in the form of a long-lost deleted scene from Return of the Jedi. The scene has long been talked about online -- a sequence that depicts Luke Skywalker assembling his new, green-bladed lightsaber prior to infiltrating Jabba the Hutt's palace. After completing the Jedi weapon, Luke stashes it in R2-D2's dome. What makes the Jedi deleted clip so remarkable is that it made it all the way to postproduction before it was cut, so it is a rare example of a cut scene with completed visual effects and music.

Actor Mark Hamill came out to describe the scene, remarking that once again his original introduction in a Star Wars film was cut out (his Anchorhead introduction was, of course, cut from A New Hope). Luke's intro is purposely played as ominous, with his face cowled in shadows and his intentions unclear."I had the black cloak, the glove, and I thought, wow, this time around I get to be the antagonist. Little did I know I was predicting the path of the prequels," said Hamill, noting the similarities to Luke in this scene and Anakin Skywalker's appearance. "

[Gio]

with the highest picture and audio quality

So for the older movies what do they do to improve the original masters or is it just a copy of the the old analogue film to Blu-Ray? What I am getting at is will we a "remastered" Blu-Ray version pop up in a few years?

Regardless, the uncompressed audio will be nice.
Cheers

[SoundGame]

Hey Gio, since Lucas is using the digital masters that he created when he did the Special Editions of the first three releases (the second three in the prequel were all filmed digitall), he won't be going back to the original stock film. The Special Editions were remastered when they were re-release just before the prequel movies came out.
I hope and expect that he will be touching up all six of the digital editions to maximize the Blu-Ray experience - I'm sure he will do something but what I'm not sure of is whether he will improve all the digital special effects in the movies that were added or part of the prequel. It would be great if he would bring that up to par with current technology - an I believe that was some of his intent when he decided to film the new movies digitally.
No matter what - I do expect that five years from now we will have at least one new release with some pumped up image or special effects...the question is whether that will be release on Blu-Ray current spec. or some new enhanced media - perhaps 3D will be the first step.

Cheers.

[Donnie]

Maybe I'm a purist, or too nostalgic, but I prefer the theatrical releases. The digital additions for me just seem wrong. But I'll survive. I'd rather have a blu-ray of the special edition than a VHS of the original, I suppose.

[Suave]

Well I just picked up my Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Friday evening and I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised that it retails for a very reasonable $79 (considering that the MSRP for this box set was $179). This box set contains all six Star Wars films and 3 discs of special features - that's some really great value if you ask me

Although I've literally watched only about 10 minutes of episode 4 (because all my time is tied up by planning TAVES!) I did recognize a couple of things right away. The DTS-HD Master Audio sound track sounds amazing. The increased depth and detail of the soundtrack are easily noticable. And the picture - well let's just say that I've been waiting for this for a loooong time and I'm very pleased. The resolution and details of the 1080p picture raise the Star Wars experience exponentially. In the opening scenes, the textures of C3PO and R2D2's shells had details that I swear I've never seen before (and I've watched these movies too many times to count). The worn down and weathered driod shells were full of scuff marks and scratches. Ditto for Darth Vader's mask - I always thought that it was sleek and glossy but now in high def you can see all sorts of wear and tear. I feel like I'm rediscovering the Star Wars universe all over again!

For me, this is without question worth the $79

I'll post some more impression when I've had a little more time.

Anyone else here picking up Star Wars on Blu-ray? Any impressions on the audio/video quality?

[Cath]

My husband is not a fan of Star Wars so I can only hope that it ends up in my stocking from one of my kids! It would be fun to watch but I can wait!

[audit13]

There has been talk on the Internet about the downfall of physical media with the creation of streaming services such a Netflix and Rogers On Demand. I say physical media will be here for a while. Lets see Netflix stream Star Wars in Hi-def audio and video!

[John72953]

There is no question that physical media will eventually become only a niche market, but they will exist. Purists (IMO) will always prefer a physical copy over a downloaded one. They say Blu-ray will be the last physical format, but I'm not relinguishing myself to such doomsday prose!

[Donnie]

Actually I watched all the dvds recently, and I think I'd actually prefer VHS of the theatrical releases to blu-rays of the 90s versions. They look so dated with all the stupid computer animation >