Hi, I’m sorry I’m a complete newbie but I was wondering if someone knowledgable could help me. I’m confused on differences between the 1984 American LD releases (I’ll just refer to them as singular for simplicity’s sake) and the 1992 American LD release. Besides aspect ratios and credit changes, I know of 2 things that are different:
Marion’s Bar being color-corrected to more warm tones. Definitely makes sense for a candle-lit cabin with a huge fire.
Different audio mixes
Now number 2 is where I’m confused. I’ve seen people say “The laserdisc mix is different” but not which LD release as to my knowledge the 1984 and 1992 LDs use totally different mixes. Do any of them use a theatrical mix? I thought the 1992 one has its own exclusive remix but does the 1984 one use the theatrical Dolby track or anything? I also heard people say that the staff dropping sound effect is different for one of the LD mixes but the Widescreen LD I have has the same sound I remember, although I can’t directly compare it with a modern release ATM.
P.S. MySpleen Invite would be super appreciated but I’m mainly curious on the question above.
There are several different mixes for Raiders:
1981 Early/Alternate mix (see below for details)*
1981 Theatrical Dolby Stereo 4 track mix on 35mm prints (also used for monophonic showings)
1981 Theatrical Dolby 6 track mix (used on 70mm film prints)
1983 Stereo mix (used for VHS, Beta, laserdisc and TV releases). Created specifically for the video release and does not have the encoded Dolby surround or center tracks from the theatrical mix.
1992 Laserdisc mix - new stereo mix with encoded Dolby surround and center channels.
2003 DVD 5.1 mix - derived from the 1981 6 track mix.
2012 Blu-ray mix - new mix with a loud LFE channel, different dialogue/effects/music balance and some sound effects pushed into the LFE channel.
2021 UHD mix - derived from the blu-ray mix with added Dolby Atmos effects and reduced LFE channel level.
The original 1981 Dolby Stereo mix has never been released on any home video format.
*To add complexity, an early mix with different dubbed voices, sound effects and music editing was used on some 8mm and 16mm prints and at least one HDTV showing. This mix was also used in 1981 as the basis for almost all international dubs. A new final mix was done very close to release but only used on English language releases because there wasn’t time to redo the foreign language mixes.