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Would you happen to know why they filmed the Hobbit at 5K when most theaters are 2K (are they still?), and (more to the point) the better theaters project 4K? It seems like 5K dowscaled to 4K would be worse quality than just shooting 4K in the first place.

After the SE film release, all prints of the original film still in circulation (always owned by the studio) were recalled and probably destroyed. There is no more Star Wars-The Original Version.

Nope. He did not get them all.

One was even shown a couple of weeks ago. In a state far far away (from me).

http://www.bigscreen.com/journal.php?id=1961

...so there were no such things. It looked pretty dang good.

samsung announced a line of LED-based DLPs at the recent CES:

http://www.bigscreen.com/journal.php?id=426

Number one, whomever moderated this post as a Troll doesn't understand the moderation system. HomerJ brings up a good point: many people here have complained about the substance of TPM, so why are people hopping mad about not being able to buy it on DVD?

I accept Lucasfilm's position that they want to make the DVD releases "special" by enhancing them with additional work. However, I don't understand why Lucas would require more than a supervisory role to get the job done. Think about what items would be on a "default" TPM DVD:
- the movie: only widescreen version, can't include a pan & scan version unless released as a dual-sided, dual-layer DVD based on the length of the movie, even without lots of extras
- theatrical trailers: which we've already downloaded as Quicktime videos, but it would be nice to see them on a larger screen
- cast & crew notes: which would be regurgitated from the immense amount of material already written about the movie
- other features: Dolby Digital soundtrack, which would have to be downmixed from the Dolby Digital EX soundtrack (info here), subtitles, alternate language soundtracks, perhaps.
- packaging: simple DVD carrier

What on this list would Lucas need to personally manage? Perhaps he would supervise a pan & scan mixing of the movie itself, but other than that, I don't see what the big deal is. If he wants to include more features than what I've listed, he could certainly create an enhanced version later; and by stating this upfront he probably wouldn't even impact the sales of the initial DVD significantly.

I think the reason they're not releasing it on DVD initially is to ensure that they've milked this cash cow as efficiently as possible. Think about it: many of us who would purchase the DVD but not the VHS version of the movie will probably rent it at least once. And the more voracious of us would probably not hold out until 2005 to purchase a copy of the movies for our libraries, so they would probably buy the VHS version anyway (widescreen, collectors version with all the goodies, of course - certainly more than $20). So what they're really saying is that they have such huge sales projections in the home video market that the 3% of the market with DVD players is not important to them. And another item to consider is that a third- or fourth-generation of DVD might be on the market in 2005, perhaps Lucas thinks he can make a better product, hence more money, later.

All of that being said, let me say that I enjoyed the overall story of the movie, the cinematics, and even some of the Jar-Jar slapstick. I would purchase the "default" DVD I decribed, perhaps for even more than the $20-$25 average price. However, I'm not going to lose sight of the fact that the major movie market is one that responds passively to its fan base (each individual either pays to see or own a copy of a movie or they don't, and the studios don't know any of us from Adam), and that fan feedback plays very little role in the process, except for those who participate in test screenings. The reason why many Slashdotters wants a DVD copy of the movie for their collections is due to its cultural significance, technical excellence, and Natalie Portman. ;)