Home Theater Forum had a chat with BTTF producer/co-writer Bob Gale on January 21. Below is are some excerpts about the misframing.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/files/gale.txt
<Benjamin_Dorsey> There has been talk in forums like this about mis-franming in
parts 1 and 2, did you help universal along to correct it?
<bob_gale> The framing issue was first brought to my attention by someone in
Australlia where the DVDs were released in September. For whatever reason,
Universal never sent me check disks after the mastering, so this was my first
inkling of it. I got an email about it around Thanksgiving. I went ballistic
and came down on everyone at Universal to explain it. Near as I can
understand it, some idiot in the transfer house lined up the 1:85 mattes
with the hard matted ILM 1:66 mattes. My fault, for not insisting to look at
the 1.85 transfers, but this is one of those things you assume is idiot proof.
I've done this many times, and every other technician knows you lay the 1.85
matte from the center. It never occurred to me this would get screwed up.
Well, it did, we caught it, thanks to people like you all on this forum, and
the new versions are supposed to be finished at the end of this week. You
can be sure I will check them!
[later on]
<BrentJ> Hello, I'm sorry if this has already been asked, but I couldn't find it anywhere.
Will the fixed BTTF dvd's be released to stores?If so, when can we expect them and how can
we make sure that we don't get the originals? Thanks for your time!
<bob_gale> When the initial run of the DVDs has been sold, the new versions will be the
only versions available. I don't know what they'll put on the box to indicate this.
But if you have the original pressings, Universal will replace them with the new ones
when they're available. The official website should have the number to call, and
BTTF.com will have the correct info. The new pressings will not be availble until
next month -- probably late in the month. The remastering is supposed to be finished
this week. The new pressings will also have letterbox versions of the trailers.
Why they put the fullscreen trailers on the widescreen editions is beyond me.
Edited By DragunR2 on 1043952063