Star Wars Trilogy Special edition, VCD, 20th Century Fox Video/VideoVan Malaysia, 2000

The first official releases of the Star Wars trilogy on a digital video format came from the Asian markets in 2000. For many enthusiasts this was the closest they could get to a DVD release at the time. (We would have to wait until 2004 before we saw the trilogy released on actual DVDs.) There were many of us who rushed to import this set from any Asian websites who catered to international customers. The Malaysian versions were generally preferred, as they usually didn't have local subtitles, and the packaging was almost exclusively in English. There was also a corresponding release from Hong Kong. Due to the technical limits of the VideoCD format, only about 67 minutes of video will fit on a disc, so each movie is split across 2 discs. Each film comes in a 2-disc CD jewel case, housed in a cardboard outer box. The cardboard box is rather flimsy, and most of the sets I've come across have been crushed in some way. Mine included. I often encounter this set on eBay without the outer box, probably because it's been destroyed and discarded. As expected by 2000, these are the Special Editions of the original trilogy. The films come in cropped fullframe format, with English 2-channel PCM tracks containing Pro Logic encoded surround sound. There are no local subtitles on the Malaysian releases. All three films start with a 2-minute promo for Fox Studios Australia. To promote the upcoming release of Star Wars Episode II in theaters, this release contains a "Sneak peak behind the scenes" featurette running approx. 11 minutes. The mention of this bonus content on the front and back cover is a separate sticker, not actually printed on the box. I have a second copy of this set which does not have that sticker, but the Episode II featurette IS included all the same. The featurette is placed at the beginning of disc 1 of the first Star Wars film. It is letterboxed in a 16:9 aspect ratio within the 4:3 frame. The program is in English with no subtitles. I bought mine from videocds.com back in 2000, as you can see from the vendor-applied sticker on the front of the box, a common practice with asian online retailers.