logo Sign In

Help Wanted: Ransom - Uncut; laserdisc preservation

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I recently bought a used laserdisc player and I’m buying rare uncut laserdiscs that were never released on
DVD or BluRay. One of them is the 1996 film Ransom with Mel Gibson. What I do is play the ld and record
onto DVD-RAM or DVD-R. Then I convert it into a digital copy. I don’t know if anyone is able to enhance
the video file into a higher definition resolution because I can’t do it. Im only so tech savvy. lol
The Uncut Ransom laserdisc contains an additional 18 minutes of cut footage. It’s one of the best ones
I found so far.

Author
Time

You can upscale the ripped LaserDisc video to a higher resolution such as 576p (PAL resolution) all the way to 4320p (8K UHD) with an AI upscale program such as Topaz Labs’ Topaz Video Enhance AI, which you can now upscale interlaced video with.

Author
Time

The Dead Poets Society has a LD with a signigicant amount of resotred cut scenes.
I used to own it and ditched it a long time ago thinking that a parallel release on DVD would be a slam dunk…

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I believe ET on its LD had some cut material as well, including a scene with Harrison Ford never seen since then

Raccoons

Author
Time

Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” is only available in the unrated cut on laserdisc (but that will probably be on blu-ray from Criterion at some point)
Peter Bogdanovich’s “Texasville” director’s cut
I know that William Friedkin’s “Jade” director’s cut was released on VHS, if it was released on LD that would probably be the best official release it’s had
James Cameron’s “Piranha II” director’s cut
“It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” roadshow cut - I forget the distinction here, but there’s something about this cut that is different than either of what’s on the Criterion disc
“Spartacus” - theatrical edit pre-restoration
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” - theatrical edit pre-restoration (early copies)
“Lawrence of Arabia” - pre-restoration video edit
William Friedkin’s “Cruising” - my understanding is that the theatrical cut was modified in some way for all the home video releases, but whatever you want to call that “initial video cut”, it is unavailable now.

exclusive bonus features (besides commentaries)
Ghostbusters - at least one deleted scene
Poltergeist
This is Spinal Tap - has an early TV appearance by Tap, never released elsewhere
sex, lies and videotape - this LD is the only release of Soderbergh’s short film “Winston”

there’s a bunch of exclusive commentaries that are already floating around on-line, I don’t want to list them all right now.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

In my experience upscaling is better left to your TV or media player. Keep the source at its original resolution. I’d recommend deinterlacing your video, but not upscaling.

Author
Time

nesboy43 said:

In my experience upscaling is better left to your TV or media player. Keep the source at its original resolution. I’d recommend deinterlacing your video, but not upscaling.

Agreed. What is this obsession of up-scaling suddenly? It doesn’t help.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

digitalfreaknyc said:

nesboy43 said:

In my experience upscaling is better left to your TV or media player. Keep the source at its original resolution. I’d recommend deinterlacing your video, but not upscaling.

Agreed. What is this obsession of up-scaling suddenly? It doesn’t help.

Glad I’m not the only one. Upscaling technology in players and displays is only getting better, upscaling your source file isn’t worthwhile. Apple TV upscaling low res content over Plex is incredible. I have LD rips I made that I play this way and they look fantastic.

Nice TVs tend to have great upscaling and deinterlacing as well.