Moth3r said:
djsmokingjam said:
... the film was usually cropped to 1:85:1 in cinemas...

Is this true? In See No Evil's DVD release notes, he says that ED was shown cropped to 1.66:1 for its premiere; and after that cinemas usually showed it full frame at 1.37:1.

As much as some might balk at the idea of another ED re-release, I'd wholly welcome a DVD or at least a Blu Ray with a new HD transfer that had the best of all worlds: as sharp and clear as the Elite, with a colour scheme closer to the Japanese LD (but not quite as dark and blue-tinted), none of Raimi's mid-90s changes to the film, and an anamorphic 1:66:1 aspect ratio (which was what Raimi composed the film for during shooting anyway).

Although there's a BD release of ED2, there hasn't been an official release of ED yet as far as I know. (There is a pirate 720p version from an HDTV source around, but it's been cropped to 1.78:1 as you would expect).

So my 'ideal' version would be a Custom DVD as follows:

Video from Elite DVD (plus Anchor Bay DVD to restore the lightning/Cheryl shots) - for the best image quality and no burned-in Japanese subtitles - colour-matched to the HV laserdisc, then cropped and scaled to anamorphic 1.66:1 (a reasonable compromise for watching on a 16:9 TV without over-cropping to 1.78:1)

Audio options to include the original theatrical mono mix (has this ever appeared on a DVD release? If not, use the audio from the laserdisc) and remixed multi-channel Dolby Digital and/or DTS tracks.

With regards to the aspect ratio, both may well be true. I've read posts on message boards from people who say they saw it projected at 1:85:1 way back when (can't say for certain as I was in my mummy's tummy at the time!), but if it was a flat 35mm print, a projectionist may have gone one way or another depending on preference and the size of the cinema screen.

As far as I know, the only DVD release to contain a mono English track is the Italian 2-disc DVD (titled La Casa) - the second disc contains the fullframe version of the film (no idea if it's a different transfer unique to that release), and that's the one that uses it. I believe it's also the only DVD release of ED1 with English subs, iirc. Never seen it though.

The 720p version floating about on the Net is from the Monsters HD broadcast, and it's the same widescreen transfer as the Ultimate Edition DVD.