I don't mind 'restoration' of old films and video, but adding the altered elements and effects to 'modernize' the video goes beyond that. The video edits to 'modernize' the animation are enough to call this title edited since the video is not the same as what was originally seen by the Japanese, but removing an entire episode removes that entire part of the story from them series. Whoever made the decision and whatever the reason, editing out an entire episode like this is not acceptable. The changed sound effects also alter the story, since many Gundam fans have come to expect certain sounds from the mechs in Gundam and altering them changes how the viewer perceives the action on screen.

Various video effects were used to make the animation look less dated and give more 'depth' to it. These alterations ranged from changing the focus of various elements, adding lights, adding reflective elements, and other miscellaneous changes to 'modernize' the animation.

Also, one episode (described by some as the 'island episode') was skipped for the English release (both broadcast and home video). Charles McCarter of Bandai Entertainment explained it on the Anime on DVD forums:

For the English adaptation, Tomino chose to cut one episode. It was an episode that, in his opinion, wasn't up to par with the rest of them. So it was deleted.
Therefore, the English version of Gundam is only 42 episodes.

On the Cartoon Network broadcast, the opening and endings were replaced with a new collage opening and an ending that took a scene from one of the episodes (mentioning which could be a spoiler, so I won't mention it).

Reportedly, the dub-only DVD has the correct openings and endings in their proper place before and after the episodes for the first two discs and then switches to the Cartoon Network versions starting on disc 3.