Resurrecting this thread for good cause.
The details of the DVDs are now out, and I'm sad to say...George Lucas hates his fans. Ignoring the fact that the originals are packaged in with the remakes (because he would be embarassed to see the original trilogy outsell the SEs), this takes the cake (taken from The Digital Bits):
The original theatrical versions of the films are going to be non-anamorphic (our original post on this indicated otherwise, but we have confirmed that the widescreen versions will be letterboxed only). What this likely means is that Lucasfilm has simply re-purposed the non-anamorphic transfers that were done for previous laserdisc and VHS releases of the "original" versions of the films.
Anamorphic enhancement is the widely accepted industry standard for the presentation of widescreen films on DVD. This is not pie in the sky 'unobtanium' technology that costs untold millions to implement... it's a basic technique that is standard practice on DVD and has been for many years now, since the fairly early days of the DVD format back in 1997.
What's more, George Lucas has given countless excuses why he can't do this, all lame. They are:
1) The original film negatives are gone, 2) the other existing original elements have deteriorated too badly, 3) there are just no quality film elements remaining anywhere that could be used, 4) the 1993 laserdisc masters are the best source material that can be found for use on DVD after exhaustive searches of the Lucasfilm Archives.
It's obvious what happened, he's angry the fans want the originals, and out of spite he is doing this, hoping people will be irritated with the poor picture quality of the originals and will put in the special editions instead. To quote Bill Hunt, an editor on the site, "Even if it's true that Lucas and his staff destroyed all of the original negatives, it's unlikely in the extreme that they also destroyed all of the interpositives, all of the separation masters, and all of the release prints. In fact, we know that they didn't."
Well, as much as I'd like to have the original Star Wars films on DVD, this is a horrible thing to do to the people that made him rich, that made him a big Hollywood name, and I'm sick of the way he treats his fans. I'm not buying them. I'd like to, but...I just am sick of his pettiness.