Differences in digital version of AOTC?

[Lord_FinnSon]

Rick McCallum confirmed that Lucas made over 70 enhancements for D-cinema(digital version) few days before Celebration II and while most involved sharpening, tweaking wipes and color adjustments, there are some noticeable visual changes. I presume this will then also be THE version of the movie we'll see on DVD.

Now, because I have only seen print version(twice), and we have only one digital projector in here Finland, I should travel to another city if I wanted to see it digitally. I'm not sure, if I have enough time or money, so I ask those of you who have seen BOTH print AND digital version, did you actually see any noticeable changes/additions? BTW, I already know Anakin's mechanical hand reaches and holds Padme's hand during wedding scene, so no need to mention that. ;)

[Darth Talliusc]

im sorry but i dont even know which version i saw, it was in theatres (all 9 times) but how do you tell the difference?

[Lord_FinnSon]

Well, there are sharp-eyed fans out there who notice little subtle things here and there and every now and then pops out a thread where they discuss about these specific things. That's why I thought these people would have probably also noticed some differences between these two versions of same movie. At least I would think so, if someone watches a movie nine times in the theater; first time you watch it simply because of storyline, but after that you start to look up little details.

[Darth Talliusc]

ah, well i did start noticing more stuff each time, but they were all at the same theatre (theres only one theatre with huge almost imax style screens in my city) i saw some interesting things in the background of the bar scene. but i guess until i see the other version (be mine dig or the other one) i wont know what im missing.

[-[MotU]-Lyger|=-]

yeah man i dont kno what your talking about, maybe its something only in finland?

[Kent H]

I didn't see the digital version, but I believe that out of the 2500-3000 theatres that showed AotC in the U.S. only a few hundred had digital projectors, usually being in the major cities. They're expensive, and not all that cost effective. Print film projectors can be used for decades, only needing the occasional maintenance, while digital projectors will probably need to be upgraded/replaced every few years, like your computer.

And since it seems at least one person here doesn't know what we mean: Print film is what you see on a normal projector, in film cans, or when you take a VCR tape and open it up. Digital film is recorded by a digital camera, and is stored like any other computer file. Digital quality is superior to print quality, but the technology to run it is more expensive. If you have DVDs, those are essentially digital films. However, there's a difference here - most movies are filmed on print film, and then transferred to digital. AotC was filmed in digital, increasing the quality. Those of us who saw only the print version (probably most) really missed out. The DVD version of AotC SHOULD be of the same quality as what was shown by digital projectors, so at least we'll be able to get the digital benefit on the small screen.

[MaulerZ]

A friend of mine who has seen both (digital+print) said the only difference he noticed was: In the wedding scene where padme and anakin are getting married padme takes anakins robotic hand.....

[BCanr2d2]

The only downfall of shooting AOTC on digital, was that for most of the movie it actually looked ever so slightly out of focus, or slightly grainy. This is a problem with "downgrading" the quality of the print to a 35mm print, it had to be stretched to fit the film.
This wasn't just my observation, but that of a professional movie reviewer who made the comment. He basically stated once you get past that, just sit back end enjoy the Star Wars ride...

[Lord_FinnSon]

I noticed the same thing, BCanr2d2. When I first watched it on (seriously) big screen, whole movie was slightly blurry and I couldn't see little details closely. Then I went to watch it again, BUT this time to another theater where screen was almost half of the size of previous one and everything was fine and image quality as sharp as it should have been on traditional print version.