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Star Wars DVD Music Mix Botched!!

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As reported at JWFan.

It really is that bad for the music and annoying throughout.

Neil

Well at least the reversed surround channels have been addressed.

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Fixed the link for you. FuseTalk code is unfortunately different from the vBulletin code a lot of people are familiar with.

I've been reading your clashes with the fanboys over at HTF in the big Star Wars thread. For all their talk, I don't think any of those morons cares a bit about the quality of the presentation. They go on and on about the improvements in image quality, but have no problems overlooking the many obvious screwups, both audio and video. I've pretty much stopped posting at HTF because the membership there has become dominated by a bunch of posers who pretend to be movie and home theater enthusiasts.

I listened to the audio clips you posted comparing the laserdisc mix to the new DVD mix, and it's true--the background score really is butchered. I've seen the screen grabs of Luke's green lightsaber on the Millennium Falcon, and I can't help but wonder what moron let that go through.

Where's the quality control?
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MTFBWY…A

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Originally posted by: Jay
Where's the quality control?


From what I can tell, to the same place that artistic integrity went.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
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Originally posted by: Jay
Fixed the link for you. FuseTalk code is unfortunately different from the vBulletin code a lot of people are familiar with.

Thanks!

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Originally posted by: Jay
I've been reading your clashes with the fanboys over at HTF in the big Star Wars thread. For all their talk, I don't think any of those morons cares a bit about the quality of the presentation. They go on and on about the improvements in image quality, but have no problems overlooking the many obvious screwups, both audio and video. I've pretty much stopped posting at HTF because the membership there has become dominated by a bunch of posers who pretend to be movie and home theater enthusiasts.

Jay, I found out about this site because of your posts there.

I never realized it was that bad there until I found a really obvious mistake (the reversed music in the surround channels cannot be an artistic decision) and I was grilled there. Wild accusations were thrown, that I was watching a bootleg, that I just had an axe to grind. Anything was said and done to discredit me. The truth is tomorrow they are going to get this disc and if they care to check (it's not tough, I provided timings for everything) they'll see that the music track is mixed all wrong during the movie.

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Originally posted by: Jay
I listened to the audio clips you posted comparing the laserdisc mix to the new DVD mix, and it's true--the background score really is butchered.

Yeah, and that was a really old laser disc mix at that. BTW, did you ever notice that side three of that set is much louder than the rest and one of the channels (the left I think it is) is even louder than the right? It's only on side three of the pan and scan CAV LD. I made a 2 CD recording of the sound (someday I'll put it on DVD with the 1993 picture transfer) and I had to do some work to get that to match the rest of the sides.


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Originally posted by: Jay
Where's the quality control?

It amazes me that this disc made it all the way to retail and no one caught the messed up surround channels. What scares me even more is that future versions of the movie will probably use this mix. While I really have no interest in re-re-re-re done Star Wars it's sad to think that not only will the original Oscar winning mix never be heard again, but that the music will never be heard properly again either.

Neil

Well at least the reversed surround channels have been addressed.

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That's disturbing.

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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What aspect of this entire DVD release hasn't been disturbing? This is just another cog in the machine fueling my ire for LFL.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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Originally posted by: Bossk
What aspect of this entire DVD release hasn't been disturbing? This is just another cog in the machine fueling my ire for LFL.

I think a complete and total recall is required for this. Lucasfilm should have caught onto this problem sooner and stopped it then and there.

Neil

Well at least the reversed surround channels have been addressed.

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Isn't there a way we can contact Lucasfilm and alert them about this problem. George Lucas is a perfectionist, I'm sure he still would want the soundtrack to play correctly in his films...even if his vison of star wars is entirely different than our own.
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Originally posted by: justlnluck
Isn't there a way we can contact Lucasfilm and alert them about this problem. George Lucas is a perfectionist, I'm sure he still would want the soundtrack to play correctly in his films...even if his vison of star wars is entirely different than our own.

The Digital Bits is now reporting these errors and will be contacting Lucasfilm about it!

Neil

Well at least the reversed surround channels have been addressed.

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I hope Lucasfilm gets so much flak for misinforming the public about this supposed "original trilogy" and its numerous errors that it turns into a total clusterfuck for them--a PR nightmare that not even Jim Ward can spin.

Thanks for continuing to push these issues Neil, despite the overwhelming resistance from the HTF membership and moderators.
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MTFBWY…A

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They're saying that, at the very least, a repressing of ANH should occur. I wonder what their "worst case scenario" is. Total recall?
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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Originally posted by: Jay
Thanks for continuing to push these issues Neil, despite the overwhelming resistance from the HTF membership and moderators.

I've suddenly noticed an almost complete turn around there.

One person is giving me static still, saying the music mix in the surrounds is intended to be that way. If I posted in that thread, my reply might be, "Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"

Neil

Well at least the reversed surround channels have been addressed.

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THIS IS ONE ISSUE I DIDN'T POST IN MY REVIEW THREAD AS NIEL HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. GREAT JOB, NIEL.


THIS SET COULD TURN INTO THE BACK TO THE FUTURE SET RELEASE. THERE WERE SO MANY PROBLEMS WITH THAT SET. MY COUSIN IS STILL WAITING ON HIS REPLACEMENT DISKS.

"I'VE GROWN TIRED OF ASKING, SO THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME..."
The Mangler Bros. Psycho Dayv Armchaireviews Notes on Suicide

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Sounds like your publishers are the problem, took all of about 2 weeks complete turnover time for me to have my BTTF discs replaced.
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So digital bits wants Lucasfilm to do something about the discs...interesting. They'll probably come back with some lame-ass attempt at an excuse like, "The age of the film's audio led to several limitations in the conversion to digital home video. As a result, some of the films' soundtrack may not sound right."

I'm contacting Lucasfilm because my DVDs seem messed up as well: there is a strange glitch where Han Solo shoots Greedo...
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Ah yes, the Back to the Future DVD release.

The widescreen was messed up. Misframed, it was.

They offered a service where you could send in your purchased DVDs, and they'd send you corrected ones.
And being the BTTF nut that I am, I did right away. I love BTTF.

And... that doesn't really tie into the subject, but I just had to mention it.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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What did I tell you? I knew they'd have some stupid excuse

Statement by Lucasfilm from theforce.net:

"We are always impressed with how closely fans listen to the many different sound mixes we have made for the Star Wars movies over the years. It is flattering to know that, indeed, the audience is listening. Consequently, each mix comes out differently and any changes that you hear on the all-new Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX tracks on the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set are deliberate creative decisions. We can confirm that there are no technical glitches as has been reported."
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digitalbits is now saying that Lucasfilm says that the botched soundtrack isn't botched at all, it's supposed to sound like that. Will the madness ever end?


Justin beat me by a minute!
40,000 million notches away
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LOL look at Lucasfilm's reply:

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"We are always impressed with how closely fans listen to the many different sound mixes we have made for the Star Wars movies over the years. It is flattering to know that, indeed, the audience is listening. Consequently, each mix comes out differently and any changes that you hear on the all-new Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX tracks on the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set are deliberate creative decisions. We can confirm that there are no technical glitches as reported."
- taken from DigitalBits


RATLSNAKE
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Woah, I've not heard about this. What is with the BTTF discs? I bought them the week of release, and I admit, I haven't watched them much. Is something messed up? Are they still replacing them? Fill me in, fellow geeky dudes.
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Originally posted by: Cetera
Woah, I've not heard about this. What is with the BTTF discs? I bought them the week of release, and I admit, I haven't watched them much. Is something messed up? Are they still replacing them? Fill me in, fellow geeky dudes.


There are several improperly framed shots in parts II and III. Out of laziness I have not even gotten them replaced.
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For reasons too complicated to explain I cannot open that url right now, and I am not familiar with sound technicalaties (I know what sounds good and what dosent), so I'd like someone to explain me what exactly happened to the soundtrack... How was it butchered?
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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The music is drowned out when the rebels begin their attack on the Death Star and when Tarkin is talking to Leia before blowing up Alderaan, the audio sounds messed up (the quality changes drastically). Finally, the music has been reversed in the rear channels so it sounds kinda screwy.
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So, those are bad artistic decisions, are due to the fact that the audio on those scenes could not be completly restored, or just incompetence?
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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Do a search on The Home Theater's DVDFile's Forums concerning Back To The Future's problem and how you can have them exchanged for corrected versions. I'm not trying to be short with you, but that is the fastest way I can think of for you to see what the problem is and getting replacements. Basically, the Widescreen versions of Parts II and III are misframed so that you cannot see all of the verticle image that you should be able to see. I don't have the exchange information myself, but they have it on those forums. I also heard most people got their corrected discs in two weeks. Unfortunately, I don't think they ever sold corrected versions to stores. That's why I haven't been in a hurry to pick the set up, but I may soon because I have wanted it for some time.

As far as Star Wars and the Lucasfilm excuse ahem response. Are ESB and ROTJ affected in the same way? I think this is all karma. Lucas' and the fanboys' bashing of us who love the Original Versions and not releasing the Original Versions probably caused this. I'm sorry for the nice people who prefer those versions. However, I have little sympathy for those obnoxious Lucas fanboys on other sites who have constantly attacked us over the years for preferring the Original Versions. It serves and their god Lucas right. I would love to see the look on that idiot, Jim Ward's face when a lot of people start bitching to Lucasfilm and want their heads.

Patrick
"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk." - Tuco from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly