FYI:

http://www.starwars.com/themovies/saga/mebd/bluray/index.html

Just pre-ordered mine....

I couldn't believe they were already advertising and taking preorders for it when I saw that ad in the Futureshop flyer this morning. I think I have a few more months to get my preorder in

C'mon, Jason, poor George needs the money now!

I used to have the old trilogy on VHS, never bought the DVDs patiently waiting for the Blu Ray release. I'll buy them when they'll come out.

You know what? The Star Wars that exists in my head will always be better -- in every way -- than whatever new format Lucas and co. release it in.

I am not falling for the bait and switch again.

In my mind, Obi Wan is a Sith, Darth Vader is a whiny wimp, and Padme was obviously suicidal.

I never got into Star Wars all that much. I always liked Star Trek and Doctor Who better.

I am looking forward to seeing it in HD in my HT.

Star Wars is fantasy in space. I prefer sci-fi, as the good doctor just said.

Oh, like Doctor Who and Star Trek are much more than candy sci-fi. I love them both, but...

The original Star Trek may have been miles better than Lost in Space, but it was still Space Cowboys...

Start Trek TNG was the only franchise that came close to sci-fi.

I was never impressed with any of the sci-fi in any of the Star Trek I watched, so I always preferred Star Wars, which didn't try for that. It did bring together a lot of really different ideas, though, and it was entertaining. Of course, I'm in the camp that believed Lucas really messed up by trying to do more than remaster, and I over-watched the original trilogy, anyway, so even if they restored and released the original theatrical versions, they wouldn't be movies I could watch too many more times. I'm sure I'll be picking up the Blu-ray set, but I'll feel horrible about myself as a person.

I still need to give Doctor Who a try. Haven't seen ANY.

I only remember Dr. Who from watching as a kid, very campy poor sci-fi, but it was fun to watch.

I used to record the Dr. Who shows back in the 80's Sat night and watch it Sunday morning. At one time I had VHS recordings for almost all of the old shows. Then lost interest and sold them all. I really like the new ones though. The same campiness is still there, only with modern tech to keep it interesting.

The first reviews are out and while the video quality seems to be inconsistent from movie to movie, it looks like the audio is reference quality on all 6 movies.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Star-Wars-Blu-ray/14903/#Review

Video rating that the review has given out of 5 stars:
I = 3.0
II = 3.5
III = 5.0
IV = 4.5
V = 4.5
VI = 4.5

Audio rating:
All are 5.0

Lowest rating goes to the introduction of Jar Jar. I take some inner pleasure in that even though it's unrelated.

I hate myself, but I'm buying the complete saga. Sadly, I think it's going to end up as demo material more than anything. I can't imagine I'll want to sit through too many full viewings anymore.

I know how you feel, I'm doing my best to resist but I know I'll eventually break down.

I must be a minor of one. I like episodes 1 and 2. I don't care much about the acting in 3, though.

It's no secret I place Hayden Christensen as #1 in my list of worst actors. This has been reinforced since seeing Jumper, Takers and perhaps the worst movie I saw this year, Vanishing on 7th Street.

He didn't annoy me as much in Jumper but in Star Wars and Vanishing I found his monotone acting (or lack thereof)to be distracting and kept removing me from the immersiveness (is that a word?) a movie should provide.

Is this where I mention that I haven't even seen all the movies? I saw the three original movies....what's that? Four, Five and Six?

Never saw the newer releases of the "earlier" prequels.

Mark, I think we are going to sign you up for Netflix and manage your queue for you.

Just 'cause you've got Netflix DVDs doesn't mean you watch them.

Sadly, I can attest to that. Finally put a couple in the mail today.

I've been on first Blockbuster, then Netflix movies in the mail for a long, long time. I still go through about 3 or 4 movies a week through them. I just finished watching The Beatles Anthology, and Planet 51.

I think when Lucas got it wrong is when he tried to make the prequels more "kids friendly" and "funny". The original trilogy was not funny, it was a dark story (although that has also been changing over the years from release to release). I am not a hardcore fan so I think overall, aside from these funny moments and Hayden's terrible acting, the prequels work pretty well.
My favorite battle from all 6 movies is the Duel of Fates in Phantom Menace and one of my demo scenes for surround is the Pod Race.
Although I prefer the old trilogy, I'll probably end up owning the complete saga.

Thanks for saying this. I know that everyone loves hating on Jar Jar (messa kinda likes him) but Hayden makes much of the second movie unwatchable for me and doesn’t help much in the third.

Maybe someone will remake it using CGI, where Jar-Jar and Hayden trades places.

Natalie Portman doesn't exactly demonstrate acting skills in those movies, either.

She was much better on Sesame Street.

Agreed 110%. They added too many burps, and farts, and other plain nonsense to cater to young kids, instead of just making it a serious film to begin with a touch of humor here and there. I know, today's generation isn't into Han's dry humor, or other witty dialog, but when they added the bumbling idiot Jar Jar, it was a mess.

Yes but at least I like looking at her.

*nods head in agreement*

nods 'something' in agreement.

You and your noddy bits.

That there's funny.

I didn't realize Star Wars blu-ray went on sale today. $80 at BB, List price $140. I've got to wait until Oct 7 to buy it. By then, the sale will probably be over.

I got my set from Amazon.com today. Sacrilege, but I haven't put in any of the original trilogy yet. I put in Phantom Menace to try out the audio in the pod race scene. Sounds very good, with plenty of bass. I've definitely been finding the limits of my receiver's power output. Whenever there's too much going on with the sound, the output seems to diminish. Can't stay as loud as it's supposed to. It'll be nice when I get some more serious amplification again. I any case, I can verify the crappy video quality in Episode I. I'm not even terribly picky, but the lack of fine detail was obvious.

Then I put in Episode III just to see the difference in video quality. It definitely looked better, but I need a projector like Dean so I can fully appreciate it. The space battle scene I was watching didn't nearly have the bass levels of the pod race, so I'll have to try out some more scenes.

And now I have to be quiet, so I'll get back to it tomorrow. But I have other stuff to watch, too, so I could be distracted.

Can someone comment on whether or not Episodes 4, 5, & 6 contain the semi-recent "digital enhancements"? We watched part of 6 on TV the other night and spent half the time commenting on stuff that wasn't there in the original release - and didn't improve it, either.

Prego. It's in there.

These and more...

Lucas apparently tinkered with the originals AGAIN. Vader now shouts "NOOOOOO!!" before offing the emperor.

I just scored a great deal on the complete saga
Futureshop has a promotion when you trade in 2 video games and you get the saga free.
Blockbuster is closing all their stores in Canada and are having 40% off on everything. So I went and was able to snatch 2 of the cheapest used games that were on FS's list. 2 x $34.99 - 40% = $41.98 + tax.
I went to FS and traded them no problem so got the set for a grand total of $47.44 all in
Watching episode 1 as I'm writing

Yeah, I could see how that would help make it watchable.

Ok, I’m pissed, happy, pissed and happy again. I think I got that in the right order.

I’m pissed because yesterday I got an email from Amazon saying my Star Wars BDs had shipped and would arrive on the 20th. Every pre-order I’ve had before arrived on the release date.

I’m happy because today I got an email saying the refunded me $10 because the price changed.

I’m pissed because when I checked my mail today (expecting something else) there was the Star Wars BDs. Which probably did arrive yesterday but I didn’t check because the email said next week.

I’m happy because I still got them in time to marathon watch all of them this weekend. 

P.S. maybe I need the doc to put me on some meds to smooth out these mood swings.

P.P.S. I better not have to do a firmware upgrade or I’ll be pissed again.

I still haven't decided if I want to buy them or not. I always told myself that I was going to skip over the DVD releases and get them in HD (Blu-Ray of course, but back then, who knew)... Now, the reviews are too mixed for my liking.

Of course, the longer I wait, the more changing George will put in to them.

So, I am going to deal with more cheesy versions no matter what, but if video quality is sub-par, then is seems silly to get them... Then again, it IS Star Wars... What to do???

I just watched the original “Star Wars” and all I’ll say here is if you plan to get a projector/screen get the BDs.

I was reading that episodes III-VI look great, but Ep I and II look sub-par... Hmmm. Maybe I should just pay now and deal with it.

Bah. I just ordered it from Amazon. No sense in fighting the force...

I'm going to pick them up today. I also skipped the DVD releases and am going straight from the VHS to the BRD releases. I loved the over the top description of the audio on blu-ray.com website:

Yes, yes, and yes again. I don't even need to write up separate audio reviews for each of the films. You know why? Because these lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 surround tracks are perfect. Not perfect like, "Yeah, they seem generally true-to-source and, no, there's no muffling or anything," but perfect like, "Yes. Hell yes. This is what sci-fi should sound like." Perfect as in completely exemplary in all the ways you'd hope they'd be. Superlative. Grade-A. Certified Gold.

Like I said, over the top but it's gotta be way better than my VHS copies!!! They'll be fun to watch cranked up with my son.

Watched Episodes 1 and 2 this weekend with my son (10 years old).

I can't believe how bad Ep.1 is (acting, Jar Jar, effects, story). Gets worse every time I see it. The only good part is the pod race. After the movie we replayed this bit with the volume cranked way up. Nice workout for the Axioms.

Ep.2 has great visuals and sound throughout. I still say some of the big ships move too nimbly for their size. Momentum is momentum no matter how powerful your engines are. The scene where Jango Fett pursues Obi-Wan through the asteroids around Geonosis has some powerful deep sound effects and I am sure I need to add a sub-woofer to my M80s to really appreciate it.

Actually, there is some very deep bass throughout all 6 movies and a sub will most definitely add to the experience.

But the love scene in Ep2 is probably the best one ever.

Your forgetting about the Inertial Dampeners.
I remember reading a scifi series when I was a teen collectively called "Lensman Series". In short it was about several generations of an elite intergalactic police force who were hand picked by super advanced aliens to wear a "lens" that enhanced your mental abilities to super human levels. I always remember one interesting concept where they invented an 'Inertia-less' drive that greatly enhanced space travel, primarily space combat. The described effects and the catastrophic effects of Inertia-less Drive failures is probably what got me interested in physics. Although I soon realized my advanced math skills were not sufficiently equal to my theoretical skills.

Note: If you decide to read this series, don't start with book one. It's a historical account of actual events on Earth and how they were secretly influenced by the advanced Alien race. It will make zero sense and be largely unentertaining if you have not read a few of the following 5 books first. Actually, start at three.

I started to watch a few scenes last night so I could compare against the HBO Tivo (Series 3) recordings I've been saving for a while.

Vs the Blu Ray, the audio remixes in DTS HD are done very well, even in Ep IV. My Tivo plays the Dolby Digital track but it's not even close to the BR.

For PQ, Phantom Menace was no comparison. I thought the PQ was fantastic on my uncalibrated Panny VT30 (THX mode).

However, I did notice something disappointing on Ep IV, curious if anyone else noticed. When R2D2 and C3PO just landed on Tatooine, they're walking around the sunny desert. During the scenes when the sun reflects strongly on C3PO, I found the scenes REALLY blurry, even having sort of a 3D effect to it when you aren't wearing the glasses. I thought my plasma went into 3D mode but it didn't. The previous scenes on Rebel ship were fine, detail was high but this follow on scene was pretty bad. Anyone else notice that?

Andrew, I looked up the Lensman series and it looks quite interesting. There seems to be different versions and such. . . .I need to do some more research on this.

It certainly was when I was younger. I may have to reread them to see if they hold fast in adulthood. I'm guessing they will as long as one bears in mind that it revolves around science theory written in the 1930s. Some of it was pretty advanced thinking for it's age.

I'm pretty sure I had doubles of at least two books via gifts. If I find them, they are yours.

Thank you, Andrew! That is very gracious of you.

This.