Panasonic giving away Star Wars on Blu-ray

If you’ve been holding off getting Blu-ray until Star Wars was released, your wait is almost over. Even better, if you buy a Panasonic Blu-ray product you’ll get a copy.

From the 12th August to 31st December 2011 (while stocks last), the majority of Panasonic’s Blu-ray line-up will come with deal. All you have to do is register on the Panasonic Star Wars website and you’ll be sent your copy for free when it’s released on Monday 12th September 2011. The set comes with the original trilogy (episodes IV, V and VI), and you can buy episodes I, II and III (if you have to) separately.

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Eligible products include the DMR-BWT800 Blu-ray recorder, DMP-BDT110 and DMP-BDT310 Blu-ray players, as well as all of the Blu-ray all-in-one home theatre systems, such as the BD-BTT370 and SC-BTT775.

We were on hand at the worldwide launch of the Blu-ray and saw the first trailer for the trilogy. First impressions are that it looks fantastic and sounds great, with the both sound and image being remastered for the new format.

Not that everything is pure plain-sailing, as Bill George and John Goodson from ILM, which did all of the effects for the films, pointed out. In particular, the original trilogy was never intended for high definition, so they don’t all look perfect.

We saw the problems in action with the AT-AT scene in Empire Strikes Back, where you can see an ILM stage hand pushing a pole up underneath a walker’s foot to help it fall down in the right way. However, neither of the ILM guys has been able to spot the legendary tennis shoe that’s part of the asteroid field.

John Goodson is looking forward to seeing the HD shots of Naboo city, as he crafted a small model of a lawn mower and placed it on the set, as he thought that there was so much grass someone must have to cut it every day.

We also got chance to take part in a Q&A with Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Robert Watts (Producer on the original trilogy) and Nick Gillard (stunt co-ordinator on the new trilogy).

Although he doesn’t mind what Lucas has done to the films with the special edition, we learnt that Robert Watts prefers the original cut of Star Wars, as does Anthony Daniels. Jeremy Bulloch thinks that Empire is the best film, while Nick Gillard thinks that Phantom Menace is the best.

As for the Star Wars films being converted to 3D next year, we think Gillard summed it up the best: “I hate 3D.”