msycamore said:
There was a lengthy discussion on the the Alien soundtracks here:
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Dolby-Digital-41-Surround-Alien-Anthology/topic/13986/
Where msycamore (is he here anymore?) was nice enough to put together the differences (he is referencing Jonno's 2.0 capture):
I'm here, PDM, but not as often as I used to lately... I was referencing my own capture. I only did a quick and dirty capture of the 2.0 pcm track which Jonno beautifully synced. The way I understand it someone later did manage to make bitperfect caps of both the PCM and AC-3 track.
I love your idea of a color graded Blu. About your color grading, your screencaps which should represent the 20th anniversary DVD timing doesn't match that timing that well, I see weird hues all over the place. What's your way of trying to replicate those colors?
Yes, Andrea has a rip and sync of the AC-3 track from the laserdisc and was nice enough to provide me with a copy.
Actually the color grading is based on the 1995 laserdisc and not the 1999 DVD, that accounts for the weird hues you are seeing. On first page I presented those two possible regrades. Initially, everyone seemed to like the 1995 LD better for a variety of reasons, like warmer skin tones, more 70s era look, etc. A little later Jonno posted pics he had from the Alien Movie Novel which featured scans from an original release print. Those scans seemed to more or less match the 95 laserdisc (if not color, in spirit at least). Its a bunch of circumstantial evidence that points to the 1995 LD being closest to an original 79 release print.
The Mother scenes, Ash head, the shuttle craft, any of those weird pics are the exceptions not the rule. A lot of the 1995 LD is similar to other version of Alien. Sometimes its a matter of making the transfer darker, making the skin tones warmer or removing the green tint (see the last pic). I posted those pics since they are exceptions. Compared to the Blu-ray some scene are almost exactly the same, like these first two:
BD/BD graded to the LD
Since this is a regrade I don't post those pics since no one wants to see where the two match up.
After watching several versions of Alien, it seems to me the 1999 DVD is way too bright and seems to have almost no color timing. The Blu-ray seems to have odd color timing that changes at random and for no particular reason. In the end its all a matter of preference and this version may not be for everyone but I do hope many people will like it.