All the gobblygook talk about anamorphic widescreen is about to be made totally obselete.

That said, where I work we just this week started carrying Toshiba True-HD DVD players and HD DVD's.

So it doesn't make sense, from this moment forward, to constantly refer to "anamorphic" Dvds as the techno-snob's sin quo non of formats.

They'll momentarily be the BetaMax of DVD's, perhaps momentarily technically much bally-hooed - but in the scheme of things no big deal.

Everybody seems to be greatly excited over seeing the original trilogy come out on DVD.

But will they be put out on DVD now that HD DVD is available?

Probably.

So now those people who seem to be having a coronary over Lucas reversing himself over releasing DVD versions of the original Trilogy will soon have yet another thing to stroke out about:

namely: How long will it take for all the different versions to be re-released on HD DVD?

Won't happen. Fox doesn't support HD-DVD.

I'm not necessarily talking about the current consumer format.

The final format will work itself out eventually just as the current DVD commercial encoding has been worked out.

Does anyone doubt the movies will eventually be released in high definintion too, whatever the specific format finally becomes?

I don't plan to repurchase any of the movies I've got.


I think a few million other people feel the same way.

"Not planning to" is not a resolute feeling. It's a guess as to what you think you will or won't do in the future.

It's easy to say that a few million people don't plan on rebuying the movies.

A few million people probably don't plan to climb Mt. Everest, go bungy jumping, take your pick of what a few million people aren't planning on doing.

But what Star Wars fans are likely to do is another matter altogether.

Of course few people are planning on replacing their movies with something that doesn't even exist yet. That really doesn't say very much.

Probably virtually no one plans to do so now. Not yet at least.

By the same token, most people who bought BetaMax, VHS, and Laserdisc movies didn't do so saying to themselves "I just know one day I'm going to replace these things so maybe I should wait and buy nothing."

I know people who bought a couple of episodes of Trek on 16mm. Then VideoTape, then Laserdisc, then DVD.

Did any of them plan to be rebuying in the future as they bought each new version? Probably not.

We usually buy fan stuff for today's gratification, there's seldom a plan involved, in my humble opinion.

How many of us, for example, bought comic books and posters and cut them up and pasted them into favorite posters of our own making, only to years later rebuy some of the same comics we were so careless with as children?

We didn't really need to buy any of the movies, even the original DVD's. We buy this stuff because we like it.

Once we all have high definition TV's and come to experience and enjoy the difference, I predict that most Star Wars fans who aren't now planning to rebuy the same movies in high definition will nonetheless rebuy them, whether they are planning to do so now or not.

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated! :lol:

most people who bought BetaMax, VHS, and Laserdisc movies didn't do so saying to themselves "I just know one day I'm going to replace these things so maybe I should wait and buy nothing."I suspect you're right, Chuck. I mean, to a certain extent it's like saying "I'm not going to buy a computer today because they're just going to release faster ones next year." You can end up waiting forever.

Also, when better versions of movies are released on a superior format device, there will be some who think, "Ha! Look at all those suckers who bought these on DVD! They wasted that money, because now they're going out and buying them all over again." It's as if those of us who did that got no value out of being able to watch the movies (on the best format available) whenever we pleased, while other people waited.

And while the studios, electronics companies and everyone else involved knew for years that a better format was coming (and so have the rest of us, at least those who were paying attention), it's not as if they just had the HD stuff in a warehouse the last 10 years, waiting for the right time to "bilk" another generation of consumers.

Qapla'

SSB

Here’s a news flash for anyone who hasn’t been paying attention; George Lucas will re-package, re-market, re-format, and re-sell these movies as long as there is a demand for them in the marketplace -- in other words, indefinitely. Audiences will buy them, or not buy them, for their own reasons and at their own discretion, but anyone holding out for the "ultimate" version of STAR WARS is in for a long wait.

Am I the only one cynical enough to suspect that Lucas is doing a "Harriet Meyer" and has no real plans to release the originals non-anamorphic?

Am I the only one cynical enough to suspect that Lucas is doing a "Harriet Meyer" and has no real plans to release the originals non-anamorphic?Nope. :D But I'm not sure that counts as cynicism.

Qapla'

SSB

Here’s a news flash for anyone who hasn’t been paying attention; George Lucas will re-package, re-market, re-format, and re-sell these movies as long as there is a demand for them in the marketplace -- in other words, indefinitely.And if he didn't, for whatever reason, people would complain about that! "Why won't mean old George share his movies with us? We went to see them forty-eleven-dozen times in the theater -- he owes it to us!"

Qapla'

SSB

Am I the only one cynical enough to suspect that Lucas is doing a "Harriet Meyer" and has no real plans to release the originals non-anamorphic?

Like I said before; if there's a big enough demand, it will happen. It's only a matter of time.