It is 20 years since these awful DVDs were released.
I remember going to the store 2 or 3 days after the release, keen to buy them not knowing they would be Special Edition releases, with further changes made since the 1997. I wasn’t on the internet at that time, and had no idea of the audio channels being switched (and the insulting claim it was “a deliberate creative decision”), the awful blue tint/coloring changes, and that some of the DVD discs were faulty and had to be returned.
There were people in the queue returning their sets and also asking why the colors were so dark or wrong, and if these were the faulty discs? I admit I just ignored the complaints in the hope the set I bought would be ok. But for all the hype and publicity of these sets being “the first time Star Wars is on DVD”, these were awful. Lucasfilm QC really jumped the shark with this release. To me, until then, they had a good reputation for QC, their previous products came with lots of bonus material (CDRoms, games, box set releases), but this release was substandard to the point of being insulting. I don’t think I ever watched these more than twice, and the 2006 “GOUT” DVD bonus discs were my “go to” set for watching the OT for many years.