Star Wars Blu-Ray - Officially Announced for September

[AndyDursin]

I'd imagine it'll be about $99 for the whole series once the pre-order shows up at Amazon.

Note though that if you want, say, just the original movies (which will be available in its own trilogy for about $50), you're going to be missing the 3 supplemental discs including all the massive extras (which I imagine are going to be worth the wait), so it'll be worth the extra cash to pony up for the box-set.

Pre-order Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray Now!
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January 6, 2011

The most anticipated Blu-ray release ever -- the Star Wars Saga -- emerges from light speed this September 2011. For the first time, all six of George Lucas' epic films (Episodes I-VI) are united in one complete set. Fans worldwide are able to pre-order now with online retailers.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release Star Wars in three distinct sets to meet the needs of every Star Wars fan:


Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray (9-disc Set includes all six films)
Star Wars: Prequel Blu-ray Trilogy (3-disc set includes Episodes I-III)
Star Wars: Original Blu-ray Trilogy (3-disc set includes Episodes IV-VI)

Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray will feature all six live-action Star Wars feature films utilizing the highest possible picture and audio presentation, along with three additional discs and more than 30 hours of extensive special features including never-before-seen deleted and alternate scenes, an exploration of the exclusive Star Wars archives, and much more.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray will be available for $139.99 US/$179.99 CAN and the Star Wars: Trilogy Sets for $69.99 US/89.99 CAN. Pricing for each set will vary by international territory.

Flanked by a legion of his finest Imperial stormtroopers, Darth Vader himself joined Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment President Mike Dunn at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to announce the release, vowing "The forces of the Empire will be at your disposal to assure the success of this endeavor."

"The Star Wars Saga is the most anticipated Blu-ray collection since the launch of the high-def format," Dunn said. "The epic franchise pioneered sound and visual presentation in theaters and is perfectly suited to do it again in the home, with a viewing experience only possible with Blu-ray."

"With all six episodes available for the first time in one collection, this is a great way for families and home audiences to experience the complete Saga from start to finish," said Doug Yates, Vice President of Marketing, Online, Distribution, Lucasfilm Ltd. "And with the quality of high-definition, Blu-ray provides the most immersive home experience possible."

"The Star Wars franchise has been the most anticipated Blu-ray release by Amazon's customers," said Bill Carr, Vice President of Music and Video at Amazon.com. "We think that Star Wars will be incredibly popular with our customers, and we expect pre-orders to be very strong."

Pre-order Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray and the Star Wars: Trilogy Sets at Amazon.com today!

[AndyDursin]

Pre-order is $89 for the whole series.

That's actually pretty reasonable for all 6 movies and 3 discs of extras...even better than Alien Anthology.

[Eric Paddon]

Even if I had a Blu-Ray, I will NEVER buy any SW set that does not have the original cuts.

[AndyDursin]

Then you'll never watch them in HD Eric.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather watch the originals over the Special Editions as well (though I'm not puritanical like some of you about the changes; some of the new FX are better than the original cuts) -- but I'd certainly rather watch them in HD, even with the edits, than not at all or in upscaled standard-def.

Ought to be a tremendous set.

[Eric Paddon]

Understood, but I'm one of those who would much rather watch a cut I prefer in lesser quality than to outstanding quality in a cut I don't like. This is why every year the LD cut of "1776" is the one I watch at the Fourth of July while the version that got released on DVD I refuse to acknowledge the existence of. Likewise, I'm not watching the episodes of "The Odd Couple" that look great on the official DVD releases but which were senselessly butchered over music edit issues that shouldn't have come up at all. I still have some old syndication edits that suffice for that (I just watch the uncut episodes in the better quality).

[AndyDursin]

I know what you mean Eric, but there's a big difference -- at least for me -- between 1776, where huge chunks of film were removed/re-edited (i.e. song reprisals, etc.), and Star Wars, where most of the changes are simply cosmetic ones. Some new effects here, something else there -- and most of them were perfectly fine (Cloud City being opened up so you could actually see the sky, etc.). It's not like whole scenes had been removed.

The things that people find irritating, and that I wish he didn't do as well -- whether it's Greedo shooting first or Christensen showing up instead of Sebastian Shaw at the end of Jedi -- those are a couple of things in the course of a six-plus hour series. For me, I can appreciate everything else that's there. The tone doesn't change, the story really doesn't change, the film is still intact.

I'd certainly rather have the original versions as well -- and it's his mistake for not allowing it -- but that said, I'm very excited about everything else the movies still have to offer.

1776 is one of those cases where, I agree, the DVD does not do the film justice. I just don't get what happened to Hunt from the time he worked on the LD with Joe Caps to that DVD being released. Weird.

[AndyDursin]

This $89 price, BTW, is apparently a "Deal of the Day." Chances are that'll go up to $100 or $110 probably until release day. You can always preorder since it doesn't get charged until it ships (September).

Within minutes of it being announced it also skyrocketed to #1 among all videos, BD and otherwise, on Amazon. No surprise there. They ought to be able to sell BD players with this announcement.

[Eric W.]

I realize a LOT of work goes into prepping something like this for high def but it really is overdue any way you cut it.

This is THE franchise, more than any other, that moves hardware and gets a lot of remaining fence sitters to finally blink and jump. It's the last shoe dropping.

The hardware is going to move like mad when this thing streets. It's going to be nuts.

I daresay this is probably a lock to win out Holiday Season 2011 for any and all physical media sales at least. Probably going to carry over well into 2012 as well.

Hail to the king, baby!

[Eric Paddon]

I think what is really keeping me away from this Blu Ray thing is this whole matter of "firmware" updating. Does this mean I have to hook up this player to the internet all the time just to keep a machine up to date to guarantee playback of discs? I can't do that. There is no space or room in my dwelling to hook a video player all the way to my computer. Or if it means I have to keep downloading to a portable drive and plugging it into the Blu Ray to update it, that strikes me as a colossal nuisance. If this format is so wonderful then why can't it just PLAY the damned discs from the time the product is manufactured? That's how it's always been (in theory) with any other format of video playback.

I then read the horror stories of things like TZ Season 1 where discs won't play on just about all machines until some firmware thing happened or whatever. And in the end I have to ask if seeing more detail on picture quality when existing DVD already represents a big upgrade from what I started with long ago is really worth all that.

[Eric W.]

I think what is really keeping me away from this Blu Ray thing is this whole matter of "firmware" updating. Does this mean I have to hook up this player to the internet all the time just to keep a machine up to date to guarantee playback of discs? I can't do that. There is no space or room in my dwelling to hook a video player all the way to my computer.

A lot of these things are wireless now as well.

These days for sure: If you buy a BD player and you never connect to the Internet at all you should have no problems with the basic fundamentals which is, of course, playback.

Or if it means I have to keep downloading to a portable drive and plugging it into the Blu Ray to update it, that strikes me as a colossal nuisance.

See above.

If this format is so wonderful then why can't it just PLAY the damned discs from the time the product is manufactured? That's how it's always been (in theory) with any other format of video playback.

It does.

Stupid things happen in the first year or two of any new consumer electronics venture. We're WELL past that phase now.

I then read the horror stories of things like TZ Season 1 where discs won't play on just about all machines until some firmware thing happened or whatever. And in the end I have to ask if seeing more detail on picture quality when existing DVD already represents a big upgrade from what I started with long ago is really worth all that.

Sometimes crappy discs come out.

It's really up to your eyes after that. Obviously if you don't have an HDTV there's no point.

For myself and a lot of others: Once you go HD there's no looking back.

[AndyDursin]

I then read the horror stories of things like TZ Season 1 where discs won't play on just about all machines until some firmware thing happened or whatever. And in the end I have to ask if seeing more detail on picture quality when existing DVD already represents a big upgrade from what I started with long ago is really worth all that.

Eric, most of the concerns you raise were legitimate over the first couple of years of the format's lifespan but that's pretty much all in the rear view mirror (and I was quite critical of the format for a long time -- it needn't have taken so long for them to work the bugs out, whereas HD-DVD was guaranteed to play the second you put the disc in). These days I think they've got it worked out, the problem titles you hear about are few and farbetween and almost all of them are specific to older players that need an update.

As far as updating them goes in the event you need to -- all you need is a portable mini USB stick to download firmware onto. They cost less than $10 and take up several inches of space and the whole process takes a couple of minutes. But I haven't had to update the firmware on either of my machines since last year (in fact one player is on Autumn 2009 firmware).

I received the TZ Season 1 set two weeks before it came out and have never had a problem on either machine I own. So where these horror stories are coming from, I don't get it.

In fact I probably watch more BD's and put them in my player than any person in North America, or close to it, simply because I have to.

I haven't had an issue in a long while as far as not having a disc play.

Trust me, you'd hear about it from me first and foremost since I crack them open and throw 'em in, even if it's just to check out the transfer if I don't have the time to watch it all the way through.

If you are buying a new player, and you don't care about the online content (and most all of that is worthless anyway with a rare exception like the Fantasia set), you needn't worry about it.

And it's more than worth it. If you have an HDTV and it's over 30 inches, you will see an appreciable difference on basically anything. I always scratch my head when I hear people say "it's not any better than the DVD" -- even the worst BD transfer I've seen is better than DVD.

The larger your set, the more obvious the differences are. And name brand players are under $100 all over the place -- it's a certainly worthwhile investment to make if you love movies and have an HDTV.

[AndyDursin]

You can get the set for $71 plus tax at BN.COM if you have a Visa card and use the code R7V9J9N upon checkout.

If you get cashback from places like free sites like Ebates, you can save another $3, so the total was $73 for me shipped. That's a nice savings over the Amazon deal which is the best thing out there at the moment.

I highly doubt you'll be seeing this set lower, even on Black Friday.

[Eric W.]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/10/audi ... -player-t/

If this doesn't ice any remaining doubt that BD has fully arrived and is fully mainstream then nothing ever will.

[mkaroly]

I have a confession to make...I did pre-order the Star Wars box set. I still don't respect George Lucas at all as a director or a writer. But you know what? I want to see these movies in BR and watch the supplementals. Confession is good for the soul...lol...I feel filthy and dirty buying this, but I have to. BR is making a hypocrite out of me...lol...

Once the DVDs come out I will be reminded how horrible Episodes I and II were and will be back here complaining about it again.

[DavidBanner]

Eric P, I'd like to second Andy's comments here re Blu-ray and HDTV.

For many years, I was very happy to have a 19" TV, which worked great, and when DVD came along, showed off the letterboxed frame well. It wasn't a widescreen TV, so I couldn't watch anything with an anamorphic transfer, but was a pleasure to watch the usual movies, TV shows and classic material.

A little over four years ago, I picked up a 40" Sony HDTV from an outlet store, and within a couple of months of that, I picked up a PS3, which is a really good Blu-ray player. The difference in picture quality from regular DVD to the high-def Blu-ray discs has ranged from appreciable to jaw-dropping. In many cases, like the Robert Harris restoration of The Godfather, or like 2001, the amount of picture information was a wonder to see. And then watching the same film on VHS or regular DVD on the same set tended to be a bit of a letdown.

Now, if you're only using a 19" standard def TV, Blu-ray really wouldn't make any difference. But if you have a HDTV of enough size, it's a clear and noticeable jump in quality. And the other matter is software - if your primary interest is older films and television shows which have not had HD transfers done, then I don't think you'd see much advantage in having a Blu-ray player. On the other hand, if you're interested in the many classic films that have had excellent HD work done - like A STAR IS BORN, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, etc, you would be in for a wonderful experience.