Renewal = 100% new transfer and remastering from the original films of the Director's Cut. All of the old film splices and damage are gone, and the show looks like it was redone with digital ink and paint (although I don't think it was). Renewal also boasts a 5.1 Dolby Digital track for the whole series.

Renewal is what you'll find if you try to buy R2/R3 Asian. It is 100% progressive (24fps non-interlaced) and will blow your mind away on an HDTV, computer monitor, or projector.

The US release of Renewal by ADV is called Platinum. It has a slightly reworked subtitle track from the prior release (some of the massive errors were fixed, but not enough of them to make the translation resemble not sucking), which is nice since the R2/R3 versions aren't in English. On the other hand, the R1 release is NOT progressive, so it will look worse on higher end setups.