I ordered them a day after I posted the link here, I think. And I got the email confirmation from them, for the order on 1/16/03. And they arrived on Friday. So it took about a week.

There is no reason to feel any guilt. The "trilogy" it seems has been authorized to sell on DVDs in some countries, by Lucas. But not in North American. As it is a "legit" title in the UK it seems. As it's in the UK database of DVDprofiler, as it is also for China and Eastern Asia, and Germany as well. And I'm sure if it was not legal to be sold in those places, Lucas would have had done something about it. It's not like it's being sold undercover on the internet. It's out in the open for all to see. And ebay would side with him, by banning the sales as well, if it could not be sold at all.
He is only screwing himself, the more he holds it back here.

Globalization strikes again. Praise the Internet! I think it's great that the individual is no longer totally controlled by governments or large corporations. Unlike the bad old days, I can find an alternate source when "they" try to restrict my actions (or in this case, purchases) :) This may be one small thing by itself, but it's an indicator of the way I hope the future will be. Maybe someday _everyone_ will work together? Off my soapbox now...

I do feel and HOPE. Whe he does release it here in the US. That it will be a better product, as I'm sure these DVDs are nothing more than transfered laser disk prints, and as good as they are. And they are good, both in picture and sound. Is that the true DVD remasters, will be even better

BE FOR WARNED THESES BOOTLEG DVDS WILL SHUT DOWN YOUR MACHINE IN TIME I NO A LOT OF PEOPLE HERE IN THE UK THIS HAS HAPPEND 2 BEWARE

BULL!
Do you care to explain HOW a DVD is going to shut down a DVD player? You are crazy!
I already looked into the DVDs with both DVD Decrypter, IFOedit and DVDXcopy. They are made like any other normal DVD.

YOU have seen way to many old episodes of Mission Impossible I think!

I bought spiderman lent it my mate who owns pioner737 muilty and closed the machine down the disc came from Jampan with sub on the film only cost £3 i am only going by own exper, goog look to you if your happy so be it. if at any time your machine closes down I TRYED to warne. PS may be the disc are better made now after that i rather wait untill film comes out GOOD THING WE HAVE FREEDOM OF CHOICE. BEST REGUARDS EP

Are you saying the disc itself came apart?
I have the same Pioneer 737, and yes something could jam it, if it came apart. But any DVD could come apart, at any time. It's not the first I've heard of that possibility.
Even then, I can just backup the DVDs onto DVD-R's and avoid that. And play the backups. So I still come out OK.
But there is NOTHING encoded on those DVDs that will cause a DVD player to go bad!

Got my discs in (Star Wars trilogy and Indian Jones trilogy) and have watched them now. I placed the order on the 15th, received an e-mail confirming they shipped on the 16th, they arrived the 25th. This is an excellent shipping time for me. I live in Germany, but shipped them to a US APO address which means they went to New York before being relayed to me. Even from an address originating within the US, it often takes longer than ten days for me to get things.

I don't have anything to add to Johnla and the Captain's reviews. The video quality is _much_ better than my VHS tapes, and the audio is phenomenal, both the Dolby and DTS tracks.

One subjective thing: As I have mentioned in other threads, I generally prefer the DTS soundtracks over the Dolby, but not this time. Both my spouse and I agree that (to us) the Dolby 5.1 track sounded best. The various effects seemed more discrete and less muddy, IMHO.

Reference the Indiana Jones trilogy, virtually _all_ the same comments apply (packaging, audio/subtitle options, video/audio quality).

Well worth the money, both sets!

Ok. I got the DVD's (Star Wars Trilogy).
Episode IV, so far...
The Sound:
Is great. I use a Bose System, so no DTS for now. The DD5.1 sounds great. In my system If I select DTS, no sound is produced because Bose does not have DTS, but with these DVD's when I select DTS, the DVD player detects the DTS but there is sound on the speakers (I don't know if it is a real DTS and I can't find out if it really is). On some parts the dialogs distorted a bit but not too much.
The Image:
Is much better than the VHS copies, that's for sure. I have a Sony Plasma PFM42B2. In the plasma I had to make some adjustments in the image to get the widescreen as it was ment to (I don't think it is anaphormic as they say it is) I modified the vertical size to get it right. I had to make adjustments in color, brightness and color temp to get a better image with more contrast (Since I can save the settings, I don't mind, I just reload them whenever I want). I guess this is because the plasma gives more resolution than a normal TV and the minor details are bigger. When I watched the disc in a normal TV (in the bedroom) it was perfect. I didn't have to make any adjustment, the image was near to perfection (for a Laser disc transfer).
Anyway I am planning to make more close adjustments in the plasma for the other discs, I watched the first one at the end of a large busy day and I was tired, so I guess I will get better results with a clear mind.
The Transfer:
I think it is very fair. Let's keep in mind that these are Laser Discs transfers, not from the original masters, so we won't get the resolution of a normal DVD. In some points the movements weren't smooth but that didn't bother me.
The Discs:
The discs came with some scratches because of the package they used. I had to get 3 DVD cases to hold the DVD's. I had to clean the discs to avoid loss in the image. They came with the covers (fine printed).
The Menu:
Good but could've been better.
The Extras:
Well... the trailer looks fine.
Enhanced DVD?:
I haven't tried it yet, but they say, in the cover, that there are more extras if you insert the disc on a PC, don't know about that. I will see...
Well, that's all for now... I'll let you know about the other discs, I guess that, since this was the first one and made in the 70's, the others will look better.

Willy.

Are there noticable breaks where the laser disk side/disk swaps are located?

Didn't noticed any... I don't think it is a dual layer disc either, I didn't see any pause...

I only noticed the DVD layer change, and even then it was fast. No worse then any other layer change.

If you are remotely interested in them. BUY them, they are worth it. For the price they are sold for, you get your moneys worth. Just with how good the sound is over the VHS tapes, and the picture as well. They beat the VHS versions hands down!

Not sure if anyone is interested, but since we're on the topic, I bought the Special Edition (Five Star Collection) trilogy on DVD from this place: [Link: clik.to] The quality is pretty good. They're definitely Video Disc transfers. They're somehow encoded in 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS, although the laser disc isn't. The audio quality is definitely satisfactory, and the video and audio quality far surpasses VHS, which is what I was interested in. More importantly, they have chapter jumps, which is what really makes it great.

I don't usually buy bootlegs, especially DVD, since I think the DVD manufacturers do a great job at packing a lot of quality features in to their DVDs. So, Sorry George. When you release the original trilogy on DVD, I will be first in line (in fact, if you pull the crap that they did with the Lord of the Rings, I'll buy the set, then I'll buy the multi-disc set, and the set with the freakin' bookends!) Until then, I'll watch these boots, which are better quality than the VHS.

Just in case anyone's wondering, they're in Singapore, and it takes between 2 and 3 weeks to get the DVDs, they shipped almost immediately. My brother also bought this trilogy, along with the Indiana Jones trilogy. That trilogy isn't as good as the Star Wars trilogy, but not too bad (still better than VHS). He also bought 8 Mile, which was a HORRIBLE recording- I think it was a camcorder bootleg or something. At this place, every disc is $10, so the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Trilogies were $30 +Shipping (I think like $35 or something like that). You also get a DVD keep case insert (not the case).

I watched The Empire Strikes Back and it was a defective DVD. It was useless,only the first 40 minutes was OK, after that the DVD freezes.

I mailed them and they told me they will replace that DVD and I didn't have to send the defective one...

Let's see what happens...