Info: James Bond - Laserdisc Preservations: 1962-1971 — Page 7

Are those OAR or widescreen-enhanced like the SE DVDs, I wonder? At least the cover for Dr. No is good, unlike those UE discs which are normally horrendous photoshop collages.

What I'm asking is if the yahve the OAR, or 16:9. The SE DVDs cropped the frame for widescreen TVs, which although not as bad as pan-and-scan is still a horrible idea. I'm wondering if this original DVD did as well on its widescreen side.

SilverWook said:

FanFiltration said:

SilverWook said:

Hey FanFiltration, Sony had a line of external Dolby Digital surround processors in the early days of DVD that had an unadvertised extra feature, an AC3 RF demodulator built in. Might these be in your price range?

http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-SDP-EP9ES-ES-SURROUND-PROCESSOR-PREAMP-NICE-/350393597777?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519515ff51

http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-SDP-E800-Dig-Surround-Processor-EXC-Fr-Shipping-/130428969359?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e5e2c218f

 

 

Thanks so much for this info. I was lucky to be able to get my hands on an RF Demodulator this weekend.  It will be put to good use on this and a few other projects I want to do in the next few months.

UPDATE: All of my future James Bond Laserdisc preservations will now feature lossless DTS Digital Surround (if film had an available surround ac3 track on the laser), and / or a PCM audio track.

FF

 

You're welcome!

If it's not a silly question, would the first DVD's of the first three Bond's be of any use to you? They were all THX and came in the snapper cases. They went out of print pretty early on, and I don't think Lowry had anything to do with these transfers...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dr-No-THX-Edition-DVD-1962-1997-Sean-Connery-OOP-/110544607313?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item19bcf8d851

http://cgi.ebay.com/Russia-Love-DVD-1997-/300460494319?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item45f4d74def

http://cgi.ebay.com/Goldfinger-DVD-James-Bond-Pussy-Galore-Spy-007-VG-NM-/290457907607?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item43a0a3f197

Thanks for asking! I'm not sure if this was the same print as used for the SE or not. The SE was not THX certified, and I am not sure if the technical details changed when these films had been re-released and repackage as part of the SE wave. But anyways, I am going to be sticking with only doing laserdisc preservation for now. Yet to be honest, I am still very intrigued by those THX releases.  I seem to remember that Moonraker (a guilty pleasure  of mine) was amongst the first released Bond titles on DVD. More information on their history and technical specifications is desired for sure! These disks came out in the mid 1990's. I clearly remember drooling over them in the bins at the Virgin Mega-store back in the day. I was a late bloomer, and I did not get into the DVD game until late 1999 or early 2000. That was around the time when the SE sets came out. Now that I come to think of it, I got my first DVD player specifically for the Bond set release.

FF

I've heard that the THX version of TSWLM doesn't have all of the edge enhancement that the SE does.

Man, I can't wait for this.

I am surprised there has never been a preservation of Goldeneye or tomorrow never dies DTS laserdiscs, the dts tracks on the UE were a new mix and not the theatrical track.

I am sure Fanfiltration is only doing the classic bond stuff though, i suspect he hates the Brosnan Bond films.

skyjedi2005 said:

I am surprised there has never been a preservation of Goldeneye or tomorrow never dies DTS laserdiscs, the dts tracks on the UE were a new mix and not the theatrical track.

I am sure Fanfiltration is only doing the classic bond stuff though, i suspect he hates the Brosnan Bond films.

Who is this Brosnan guy? *wink*

You are 100% correct on all your assumptions, but "hate" is a rather strong word for how I feel about the 1995-2002 films. I don't have any plans to do anything except the 62-71 films, but you never know.  

Wait, they were new mixes? Why?

The AC-3 RF demodulator for lasserdisc players that I had won on Ebay came in the post today! Now let's see (hear) what I can do with this Digital THX Surround mix on the "Thunderball" 30th Anniversary box set. I'll try to post some DTS conversion examples as this project moves forward. I have all the equipment and software I should need now, so wish me luck.

FF

captainsolo said:

Wait, they were new mixes? Why?

Because DTS digital at the time thought creating new dts mixes for all the films was the way to go.  I guess they created new lossless ones that they would have used on the blu ray's had they been released.

The higher bitrate on the laserdiscs is supposed to blow the UE audio away. But with the new tech of blu ray that would obviously be no contest were they released.

I would love if films would have both the theatrical dolby and dts mixes.  It pissed me off when they released the star wars special edition on laserdisc without the DTS version, or the dts version of Star Trek first contact.

Then the Blu rays did not even have the stereo mixes for the original star trek films with the old crew, they were all like 5.1 or something.  Also they did not preserve the 70mm mixes either, the 5.1 was based on them but not identical.

When i watch star trek the motion picture i have to watch the laserdisc because the dvd mix for the theatrical version sucks.

Just like i was recently listening to the theatrical stereo mix for the wrath of khan in analog on the first laserdisc pressing and it sounded great, while the digital mix on the dvd sounds too clean, digital and lifeless.

I'm starting to believe that is the case for most every older film. Don't want to because that would mean more money towards LDs...oh well ;)

captainsolo said:

I'm starting to believe that is the case for most every older film. Don't want to because that would mean more money towards LDs...oh well ;)

I'll get to a Star Trek audio preservation in DTS, but only after the Bond films. That is, if no one else has made these tracks available by then.  I have the Star Trek LDs, so it would be no extra cost or searching for me to do it.  Has anyone ever done a preservation of ST: VI?

Looks like I'm going shopping for a Pioneer Elite model player for my projects. The CLD-504 is just the bare minimum in requirements, and it looks as if I might have a faulty AC-3 out jack. Still trying to work that problem out. But having a better player seems the only way to do justice to these films.

FF

Edit: Found this on the net about what type of player are best, and thought I should pass it along.

http://www.jemsite.com/av/ld/

The player that will be used for this Bond preservation series has just been upgraded.

Pioneer CLD-D704

Specs =http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laserdisc_archive/pioneer/pioneer_cld-d704/pioneer_cld-d704.htm

SilverWook said:

As a fellow 704 owner, a bit of advice. Do not use the auto reverse if you can possibly help it. (You can disable it by programming auto repeat of side A.) The unit is like a Rube Goldberg invention on the inside, and the turn mechanism relies on a cheap little spring to get the laser pickup aligned when it turns upward to read side B. My player self destructed because of that cheap little spring wearing out!

You will also have to contend with slippage of the disc clamping mechanism as the rubber degrades over time, (the player might not be able to slow the disc spinning down when "stop" is pressed) but it's not as traumatic as hearing the awful sound of the laser pickup flying off it's little rails.

Did you solve your demodulator problem?

Thanks for all that great info on that player SilverWook. I'll be sure to be careful with it. The picture is so much better on this unit then on the CLD-D504. 

Yes, I did get the RF Demodulator to work with my Denon Home Theater System. I've seen some info on the web that says that the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum has a problem with the AC-3 RF signal from laserdiscs, but there is a home made work around driver out there that will allow me to do this project with that sound card. It's just going to take some modifications to the drivers.  I'll start doing that on Wednesday.

FF

SilverWook said:

Did you solve your demodulator problem?

Yes I did, thanks! It was my sound card settings.

Here is the complete Laserdisc Surround to PC proses that I am using for my projects. So to have everything in this one post, I'm going to re-list a few things posted earlier in this thread.

The laserdisc player I use is :

Pioneer CLD-D704

This unit has RCA AC-3 RF and Optical Digital Out

Specs =http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laserdisc_archive/pioneer/pioneer_cld-d704/pioneer_cld-d704.htm

The AC-3 RF Demodulator is a

Kenwood DEM-9991d

The computer I use for my projects is a modified

HP media PC m7760n

The PCI card I use for video capture is

Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600 NTSC/ATSC Combo

(using S-video input)

My sound card is a 

Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum.

Now here is where my problem was.

The problem was with how I had (or did not have) my settings for my sound card configured in the Device Controls menu. I had to select the SPDIF in option, Set the card to use Bit Accurate Mode, And set the decoder to installed DTS/DD.

Seems that having a "Bit Accurate Mode" option for the sound card is essential to decoding 5.1 AC-3 RF signal from the RF demodulator.

Next, I will use Adobe Audition 3.0 to record the 5.1 mix straight off the laser. After that, I split each channel (Front Right, Front Left, Center, Sub, Rear Right, Rear Left) into six individual mono PCM wav files (one for each channel), and open the SurCode DVD-DTS encoder program.

The DTS encoder will re-combine the six mono files back into a new single 5.1 lossless DTS surround digital audio file. This lossless DTS surround mix file will then be re-synced to the film's video, and placed onto my preservation DVD for Bond fans to enjoy.

FF

Wow. Great news on the updated equipment. Who says we need Lowry Digital to make our favorite films "better"?

Got my hands on yet another version!

This is the original CBS/FOX VIDEO release in pan&scan.

The soundtrack may be of use.