Dateline: 4/04/00

Ok, its here. I picked up the film today at a local Best Buy store (no lines) and plunked down my $30 for the Widescreen collector's edition. The film is available in both the Widescreen and Pan/Scan Version. My suggestion-get the Widescreen Version. Its packaged with a souvenir film strip and a well illustrated booklet on how the characters and virtual sets were designed for the film.

My complaint: VHS doesn't do this film justice.

First: Inferior picture quality. The VHS transfer is flat and muddy, background details are lost, edges not sharp, color bleeding noticable with bright colors (what do you expect from VHS, anyway?).

Second: The lack of a Dolby Digital or DTS Surround Soundtrack (which is not possible with VHS anyway). The Pro-Logic sound is only fair and lacks the depth of Dolby Digital and DTS.

If George Lucas is so concerned about quality, then where's the DVD? Even though the box states its THX-Mastered, I could not see that much of an improvement over other VHS Releases I own.