Help Wanted: Does anyone have The Good, Bad & Ugly laserdisc audio? — Page 2

Sorry but I'm a bit confused what's happening here. How many projects are going on exactly? I count:

1) Chewtobacca's Script Restoring the US Cut

2) bavaleone's audio (Bit-Perfect rip courtesy of PDB) synced to the Italian Cut Mondo BD

3) eurospec19's hybrid cut with mono LD PCM audio (not Bit-Perfect or PDB's), emulating the US version (complete with English titles but with the added fort scene)

4) Lil Brutto's similar project to eurospec19's- sorry but are these two the same?

Anyway, just to add some more info, there's a new BD coming out in Italy from a publisher other than Mondo on December 5th. Word is that it won't have English audio again, but it remains to be seen whether it could have a new encode. Perhaps it is a brand new transfer. It's likely, though, that the restoration is the same.

Thanks for pointing it out, I didn't realize I had 2 accounts (eurospec19 and Lil Brutto) on this forum. (Lil Brutto is my username on the Sergio Leone Web Board.) Therefore, project 3 IS 4...or vice versa ;)

My LD PCM audio captures are bit perfect by the way. I captured the audio myself.

Less than a week to go before the new Italian BD is released. I bet it's the same as the Mondo BD. We'll see though.

Thanks eurospec19 for the clarification! Is the final form going to be a 1080p BD25 or a 1080p BD50? Also, you're keeping the restoration's English audio for the fort scene right? Ironically, the Lee Van Cleef impersonator sounded better, to my ears, than the heavily aged Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach.

You're probably right. The VC1 encode of the Mondo looks good to me, to be perfectly honest. The fact that it's a new company gives me a hint of hope. A new AVC version might not be too much of an improvement. A new encode of FFDM would be very much appreciated, though, if it had less DNR.

I'm more intrigued by the Once Upon a Time in the West (about which no details have been released other than the street-date). It could be the Extended 177-min Italian cut (though that would only be in Italian) or hopefully an even higher quality version of the 165-min cut with correct closing music and no Harmonica rising sequence. Duck You Sucker sounds fantastic. It's not a favorite Leone of mine but 2K restoration with English mono in DTS-HD sounds so exciting.

Definitely intend to minimize compression so 1080p BD50 is the goal.

As for the The Fort scene, I'm using the MGM BD's English DTS-MA track as the source, which I converted to a mono 2.0 track using only the front left, right and center channels. There is sound information in the L and R (e.g. the confederate soldier greeting AE, "Welcome, my friend!") that is not included in the center channel so that's why I used all 3 channels. The next step will be to adjust the volume/gain to match the LD PCM audio.

I'm in complete agreement with you about the voice actor sounding better than aged CE and EW. If The Fort scene sounded as crappy as the other "bonus" scenes I wouldn't have included it.

I'm looking forward to all the new releases next week, as well as the German release of GBU in 2014.

Supposedly there is a new US version coming next year, I have the mondo synced with English audio but I'm not sure who did it.  It's my go to version because I can't stand the mess MGM gave us.  This project looks amazing though!  For a few dollars more I went with the German uncut release even though the print was in bad shape, and the Italian version of Fistful.  Tomorrow, Duck you sucker drops in Italy, someone please sync English audio lol.  Although not popular, it's still a favorite of mine.  I plan on picking it up regardless!

http://www.amazon.it/gp/aw/d/B00G2UUUM0/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?tag=bluraycom0c-21

DYS is longer in the italian DVD, there's about 37 seconds more than the US disc.

I'm sure the US Blu will be the same cut version.

Pardon my ignorance regarding the subject, but where would I be able to find copies of the restorations you guys or someone else has done? Or at least a combination of the high quality audio and video?

New blu-ray screencaps

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/74866/picture:0

DoomBot said:

New blu-ray screencaps

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/74866/picture:0

Damn, that's one hell of a yellow tint that new blu-ray has got all over it, never seen anything anywhere near that strong before.

The detail is very nice though, massive improvement on the previous US blu-ray. I'll have to check how it compares to the italian release which also has a great transfer.

I love this film, its in my top three, so i'll definately be looking into fixing this when it comes out.

EDIT: Luckily it seems it can be fixed without too much difficulty to look similar to the previous US release colourwise. It works for all three screencaps so it looks like a blanket yellow tint has been applied.

Here's a very quick regrade I just did to remove the yellow tint, the screen comparison between the 2014 blu-ray and the regrade can be seen below:

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/74870

Nice job kk650, not sure why they put this strong yellow over it. Doesn't look right to me either but the detail is damn good for sure.

Here's the Italian BD vs new:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/74877

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/74972

Seriously what is up with the yellow/green? That is bizarre. I have never seen a copy of this film look like that. This is my favorite film and MGM just can't seem to get it right. At least the detail is improved enough on the new BD that hopefully someone can finally recreate the international/American cut. 

DoomBot said:

Here's the Italian BD vs new:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/74877

Thanks for that comparison. I was about to ask for one when you posted it. I have all three Italian versions with English audio synched to them and in my opinion they blow all other releases away by far. Not only does the color timing feel way more suiting for the films but they also have a pretty clear picture quality.

This new US BD of TGTBTU is horrible beyond words. At least from what those screenshots show. Check screenshot 2 in the other comparison. Cyan sky...

I wonder how the other two films will compare. Either way, I'm glad we have the Italian BDs.

Some more pics:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/74909

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/74908

You_Too said:

DoomBot said:

Here's the Italian BD vs new:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/74877

Thanks for that comparison. I was about to ask for one when you posted it. I have all three Italian versions with English audio synched to them and in my opinion they blow all other releases away by far. Not only does the color timing feel way more suiting for the films but they also have a pretty clear picture quality.

This new US BD of TGTBTU is horrible beyond words. At least from what those screenshots show. Check screenshot 2 in the other comparison. Cyan sky...

I wonder how the other two films will compare. Either way, I'm glad we have the Italian BDs.

 I believe The Good, Bad & Ugly is the only one getting the new transfer.

DoomBot said:

I believe The Good, Bad & Ugly is the only one getting the new transfer.

I wonder what they thought was wrong with the Italian one. Thanks for the new screenshots. Just as horribly bad as the rest.

That's a good question, i suppose when the reviews start popping up we will find out.

screw pavtube... i highly recommend using adobe media encoder if your bd-video is mpeg2 or avc. results are far better. you'll also use the proper prores codecs and not the ffmpeg stuff, which can result in shitty playback within final cut (7 & x).

Speaking of The Good The Bad and The Ugly, apparently there is a new restoration of A Fistful of Dollars premiering at Cannes:

http://www.slashfilm.com/fistful-of-dollars-outtakes/

Check out the outakes.

I find that the new BD, other than the Yellow tint, doesn't have as much detail and image information as the Italian BD.

The only fault of the Mondo release, is the lack of English subtitles and soundtrack, but that can be very easily fixed.

I see no reason to work on the new one.

nirbateman said:

I find that the new BD, other than the Yellow tint, doesn't have as much detail and image information as the Italian BD.

The only fault of the Mondo release, is the lack of English subtitles and soundtrack, but that can be very easily fixed.

I see no reason to work on the new one.

I've just compared the mondo blu-ray to a sample from a 1080p encode of the new remastered the good, the bad and the ugly and the encode is actually superior to the mondo blu-ray in terms of fine grain and detail.

In motion it has that look of a 4k remaster which the mondo blu-ray does not have and this is just an encode, so the blu-ray transfer itself will be even better.

Its definately worth regrading IMHO.

I just wish the new transfer was the theatrical and not the extended.

It's weird - MGM did a lot of HD transfers which seem to have minimal tinkering (like the many ones that still only show up on MGM HD), but then we get stuff like this, or the teal/orange nightmare of The Great Escape, or Heaven's Gate (though wasn't that one actually due to Michael Cimino pulling a Cameron and mandating a completely anachronistic regrade?)

According to Criterion, Cimino supervised the new transfer.