DVD details for
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) More at IMDbPro »

Michel Hafner (30 November 2002):
The DVD of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) was a disappointment image quality wise. Has Lucas listened to the complaints and ordered some changes for this latest installment of the saga on DVD?
The film master used is no film master. The DVD has been mastered direct digital from the progressive HD master in 1080/24p. This should have been done for Phantom too (for which a digital master exists). As a result we get to see the original master element as is except for downsampling to DVD resolution and compression to ~6.5 Mbit/s MPEG-2. It does not get (much) better than that concerning the source used. Images are 100% clean and rock steady. One of the (still) rare cases where a 10 is appropriate.
Color and contrast rendition are as on the master and reflect the intentions of the film makers. No complaints at all. Blacks are much deeper and shadow detail is improved compared to the theatrical presentation of the film in 35mm and DLP if you use a CRT monitor/projector at home.
Image sharpness is the only aspect where I find this DVD somewhat lacking. To be honest there has a balance to be found between sharpness and aliasing artifacts. The downsampling was done conservatively so as to minimise the aliasing and sacrifice some sharpness in the process. A defensible approach. Once the HD version is released that compromise will no longer be necessary. The HD version will have excellent sharpness. The DVD is basically a teaser of things to come, but a mightily good looking teaser.
The noise level is very low. Some of the dark scenes show some noise (such as the fire place scene) but not much.
What about video artifacts that were the major downfall of the DVD of Phantom Menace?
I'm happy to be able to report that Lucas has listened here as well and the errors have not been repeated. The direct digital approach gives clean images that need no noise reduction and are sharp by design. There is no distracting edge enhancement visible at all. If they applied any it's very minor. But I'd say they applied none. Looking at some individual frames direct digital on a computer screen I found nothing objectionable in this regard. There is though a bit of aliasing at times. In chapter 13 if you focus on Padmé's hair ornament you can see some disturbance in the textures. There are very few examples like that. Overall this DVD is exceptionally clean concerning video artifacts as well, only comparable to earlier direct digital CGI and cartoon releases.
Compression at ~6.5 Mbit/s average is very good. For the ultimate in quality encoding at > 9 MBit/s would have been nice though.
The DD soundtrack is excellent and there are tons of supplements to enjoy. Interestingly image quality of film clips in the supplements (including the deleted scenes) is inferior to the film itself. Images are less sharp and show quite some more aliasing. We are still talking about very good looking material, nonetheless.
Summary: George Lucas has listened to what videophiles had to say about the Phantom DVD and fixed the problems for this DVD of Clones. The result is a gorgeous looking disc that is quite close to the technical limits of DVD and surpasses all theatrical presentations I have seen in overall appeal. Very high marks. Highly recommended.
Now give me the HD original on D-Theater, please, Mr. Lucas!