With its release on DVD this week comes the remarkable story of what its restoration required. Would you believe 600 dual-processor Mac G5's and 478 terabytes of disk space?

See the article on the Star Wars site (http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/feature/20040916/index.html).

I think it's interesting that when they rescanned the original negative into the computer, they only did so as a 10-bit RGB HD scan. Wouldn't they want to go higher (12 or 14 bits) for better results?

That struck me, too. There must be something about the process that we don't know because they sure didn't seem to be trying to economize.

Yeah, I guess if they were already using 600+ maxed out Macs, 10-bit had to be their limit, otherwise there's no reason not to go higher.

I would just like to let everyone know that there might be some
audio issues with the DVD set:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

It's a nice little article, but what would've been really cool is if
they had included some before and after shots. Like the blue
scratches they where talking about or the large grain amounts
in the light-saber and tatooine shots. Too bad.

I got my trilogy last night at midnight. I haven't noticed any audio issues yet. But I haven't watched all three movies all the way through.

A little OT, but is this new DVD release the actual original, untouched versions? I thought they've still modified it since the original.

Aaron

No, these are the special editions that were released in 1997. Actually, they have even added new footage/dialogue. So I guess you can call them the second Special Editions.

Just read an article on the restoration in Sound and Video magazine where they interviewed the guy who did the work. They asked why he didn't go to 4k and he said there were concerns over the quality of the optical effects in the original movie. Since they are made from multiple generations of film the grain, etc. is different and doesn't match the other sections and higher resolution would make this more obvious, thereby requiring more work to make the digital version consistent. Maybe the color depth issue is similar?

Evidently there is a more in-depth article on their website.

Sorry, it's really Sound and Vision magazine. Here's the article:

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=671