Star Wars 1997 Special Editions:new FX (1997) resolution

I recently bought a new A/V Receiver a Pioneer one (SC-LX76, 1899 €, around 2533 $), so I'm re-watching some of my fav BDs with the new receiver.
I'm not gonna talk about sound quality here as this is not the forum for, but over a week ago I watched all the OLD Trilogy Special Editions on BD and as most (as 1997 standards) FX weren't tampered for this release like the attack to the Death Star at the end mainly, Jawa's Sandcrawler, Stormproopers looking for the plans at the scape pod on Taooine, the departure of the Millenium Falcom from Taooine or it's arriving at Yavin 4, they were all done between 1996 and 1996 for relase in 1997. My question is, they look terrific (overall the full bunch of X Wings at the beginning of the Death Star attack), now my question is, at what resolution they were done? They look wonderful even on BD at 1080p, but I'm sure they were rendered at a lower resolution.
Maybe Vidiot or others know about these "new" (by 1997 standards) FX and their original render resolution.
Thanks in advance.

 

I might be misunderstanding since I don't own the Blu-Rays, but when the trilogy hit DVD back in 2004-ish they had been tinkered with yet again and I don't *think* the 1997 cuts have been released again since then. If it is the 2004 versions on the Blu, then they probably had the foresight to do it in HD this time around.

 

Sorry but you didn't get the point of my thread at all.
Thanks anyway.

 

Then I don't get it either, as I thought lugnut was on target. You seem to think that the Blu-rays have circa 1997 effects and he said that he figures they've been updated since then - what's the confusion?

 

I'm guessing that the 1997 FX have were done at high resolution. After all, it was being shown in theaters so anything that was done in lower resolution would look very bad in the cinema.

Since film has higher resolution than blu-ray, I don't see the problem with a straight transfer of the 1997 Special Editions. I thought there were some differences between those two releases though.

 

The 1997 Special Editions are not available legally on blu-ray, only VHS/LD/DVD. The only blu-rays from Lucasfilm are the 2004 versions with additional tampering (Nooooooooo!). I've heard there were HD broadcasts of the 1997 editions prior to the release of the current HD edit, but I've not seen any of those for myself. So what exactly were you watching?

I've watched the 1997 Special Editions on DVD (from the LD master) and they look crappy. I haven't bothered to dig out my LD's to see how they look on my HD plasma.

Derek

 

The 2003-2004 versions were scanned at 2K resolution (2048x1556) and finished in 2K, then output in HD 1080 on HDCam-SR digital videotape. All the work was done at ILM in their old San Rafael Building, with scans done at Post Group in LA.

There were very, very few companies doing HD mastering back in 2007. To my knowledge, those transfers were only done in SD.

 

I'm talking about the original digital FX untampered and as shown on cinemas in 1997 as "Special Editions". At what resolution were they rendered? No video, DVD,BD releases involved, only at what resolution was the original 1997 job done.

 

2K, standard Cineon files, as rendered by ILM's custom scanner and film recorder. This was essentially the same equipment they had used since Jurassic Park (1993), only with faster computers. Same movement, same mechanisms, same optics.

Film scanning and recording was very primitive 15 years ago. I think it only really got perfected in about the last 6-7 years. Since then, in general, the only change has been it's gets a little faster every year.

 

Thank you very much Vidiot, I knew you were the one who knew the answer.