Audio Video News

Star Wars Saga Blus Coming in September

Mark Fleischmann  |  May 6, 2011

The Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga is coming September 16, 2011 in the U.S. and four days earlier internationally. LucasFilm made the announcement this week, on May 4, Star Wars Day.

The versions used will be the ones released theatrically in 1997 and restored for the 2004 DVD release, George Lucas told The New York Times. The press release does not list resolution but we're guessing it's 1080p. The audio codec is listed as "6.1 DTS Surround Sound." It is not known whether that's DTS-HD Master Audio or lossy DTS 5.1. However, Fox has supported Master Audio in many other BD releases.

The nine-disc release will include all six episodes as well as 40 hours of special features. While some of these date back as far as 1977, there are at least three new ones: Star Warriors, a tribute to costume enthusiasts; A Conversation with the Master: The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later, interviews with the principals; and Star Wars Spoof, a collection of parodies.

See maythe4th.starwars.com and The New York Times.

Months before it hits the street, the release is already attracting comment and criticism. See Amazon user reviews. (Enter at your own risk.)

COMMENTS
figuredmaple's picture
Submitted by figuredmaple on May 6, 2011 - 8:42pm

We own the first three episodes on DVD and am not interested in upgrading these to Blu ray.
I have not bought episodes 4-6 on DVD, but have been waiting until they are available on Blu ray.
No need to guess what we're getting for Christmas this year.

jlo913's picture
Submitted by jlo913 on May 7, 2011 - 8:08pm

How can episodes IV, V, and VI be released in 1080P? I never understood this. HD cameras did not exist when the original trilogy was filmed. Is it due to the "resolution" captured on film simply being transferred to a physical media capable of containing the necessary information?

I’ve noticed that remastered DVDs of classic movies, such as “The Wild Bunch”, contain imperfections and don’t have the same quality and clarity as newer films. I guess this is due to the condition of the original master.

If I may make a suggestion, an article explaining the process may be of interest, if it hasn’t been done already.

Regardless, as much as I liked the original trilogy growing up, I’ve never been able to stomach Lucas’ release schedules with Star Wars. Makes sense business wise, but when you’re worth roughly several billion dollars, it just seems avaricious. On the other hand, that is probably why he is worth several billion dollars, as opposed to only one or two billion dollars.

Kenny Kraly Jr.'s picture
Submitted by Kenny Kraly Jr. on May 8, 2011 - 8:39pm

I am very happy with the the star wars complete saga blu-ray box set the cover art looks great. I also like the it that we are getting those vintage star wars documentary's The making of star wars , SPFX The Making Of The Empire Strikes Back and Classic Creatures The Making Of Return Of The Jed , and also some new documentary's like star wars tech , antinomy of a dewback , ! A Conversation with the Masters: The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later and more. Also I am looking forward to seeing the dealted scenes from all 6 films and the tour of the lucasfilm archives and I think in the star wars archives discs we will get the all the trailers for the films and maybe the rest of the past dvd documentary's but we will see. Overall very happy with all of the content with the star wars complete saga blu-ray box set release and I can't wait for September 16th to watch the films in full 1080p and DTS HD Master Audio 6.1. Star Wars is forever.

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