Hello kk650,
so great to have you here contributing to the thread I started. Since I hadn't thanked you on "the other" forum yet, the least I can do, is to do it here now - fantastic work you did and the result is as good as it was possible in this case.
Maybe it would be theoretically possible to somehow combine the details contained in the dark and bright scenes from the DVD with the BD version, but I guess this would be an insane effort so I still cannot understand how people, genius enough to create such a great movie, care so little about how their own hard work is presented on home video. If I would be a filmmaker, I'd be in direct contact with every part of the distribution chain to ensure that my movie would be presented in the highest quality possible on any given medium.
However, I discovered something else and hence I'm afraid that my thread title I chose in the first place, is insufficient and should rather have been "Léon - The Professional: in search of a theatrical HD master *without* contrast boost AND theatrical audio mix".
Refer to my post here.
I wasn't sure whether or not to create another thread and since it's somehow related to those DTS-preservations, I posted it there but now I think this topic is 'bigger'.
I dig into this a bit further and found out that the DTS file which is contained in your customized "16GB-release", seems to be the core of the - probably US - Blu-ray's DTS-HD MA 7.1 - track. Whereas the core "only" has 5.1 channels of course, it will be hardly based on the theatrical mix, but the 7.1 upmix because I strongly doubt that Léon had been produced in 7.1 at its time.
I also checked out the Japanese Blu-ray version of Léon which comes with a TrueHD-track. As if this was supposed to be the perfect proof that audio codecs don't really matter at all, but the mix is virtually the only thing which counts, this release seems to be the weakest audio-wise: The levels on all channels are not only significanly much lower, but they seriously lack dynamics and the LFE-track, compared to "your" DTS file and mine from the JP DVD, consists of nothing but pure silence, so it's in fact a "5.0" mix - totally weird.
So far, I counted 4 quite different mixes of Léon (including the theatrical version, but this one is not that interesting for me). Unfortunately, neither of them is able to enthuse me:
1. "International Blu-ray" / kk650 custom version [DTS(*-HD MA)]: Highest dynamic range of all, higher LFE level, but weird "tinny" acoustics, especially during the "ring trick scene" at around 01h22m-01h23m.
2. "Japanese Blu-ray" [TrueHD/AC3 equal]: Low levels, low dynamics and completely empty LFE track, thus actually 5.0.
3. "US-DVD (theatrical cut)" [AC3]: Low levels, low dynamics and not very interesting in general since not the DC
4. "Japanese 2-Disc DVD SE" [DTS/AC3 equal]: appears to be the most theatrical mix to me as far as I can tell and without the weird "tinny" acoustics, but dynamic range could be higher for my taste.
The question is if the dynamic range has been artificially boosted on the BD or lowered for the DVD. Hence I'm keen on comparing some LaserDisc or - even better - the original DTS discs which had been used in the cinema in 1994.
kk650, if you're interested and can spare some time for it, I'd appreciate if you could give the files I provide via FTP a listen. It's a downmix to Dolby Stereo Pro Logic (including the LFE) done via eac3to, but still it is quite abvious to me. If you like, I can also provide the separate tracks (C, L, R, LFE, SL, SR) as well as the preserved 'untouched' DTS-track from my DVD.
Maybe we could make a project out of this - to preserve Léon in it's director's cut length in the highest video and audio - quality possible.