This thread might me dated, but it seems I have a good reason to bump it up again: 😄
A few days ago, I searched around at caps-a-holic.com once again and wondered if yet another release of “Léon” had been issued on Blu-ray, probably taken from the same master as usual.
As it turns out, not only there is yet another release, but this time, one where they finally got the job done right (maybe, they hired a professional 😉). When comparing the shots, one can really see how crappy the previous master was. Overblown and even suffering from aliasing, take a look at the wires!
On few “window-scenes”, the DVD still shows slightly more detail. However, the new Blu-ray makes up for it having scenes where the DVD was actually already clipping (white sky instead of a blue one).
So all in all I would say, contrast-wise it’s a draw at least and of course, the new BD features way higher resolution so it’s quite easy what to choose now.
As for this particular shot, I actually tend to prefer the color-timing of the former Blu-ray. However, on the US DVD, Léon’s face was similarly reddish, so … kk650 - your turn now! 😉
More tricky is and probably stays the audio part. Taking the new Dolby Atmos Gizmo aside, unfortunately, the 7.1 track of the new Blu-ray features the same tinny acoustics, clearly hearable in the now for me infamous “Ring Trick” - scene. Whereas the fire after the detonation sounds like burning flames on the old DVD and LaserDisc (presented in matrixed Dolby Surround here), on the newer remixes, it sounds like they converted and recoded the audio multiple times like played through a barrel.
By the way, the “uncut international version” (US RC1 DVD) says “Newly Created English 5.1 (Dolby Digital)” on the back cover, next to the “English 2-Channel (Dolby Surround)”, which makes me wonder what the original source is.
However, and this is where one has to choose one’s poison here - the former mix isn’t flawless either. In Léon’s sentence “Better make it quick, or else you will be here all day listening to his crap”, the “crap” slightly distorts* whereas on the new mix, it surprisingly doesn’t. Also the average level of dialog seems to be higher in general on the LaserDisc, so maybe they mixed that one hotter than it was good, but this is pure speculation.
*the same slight distortions occur on the older mix of Jurassic Park (refer to the corresponding thread if interested) whereas they are gone on the newer mixes they used for the Blu-rays. The question remains if the original recording was clean and messed up before or recorded slightly distorted in the first place and cleaned up later on recent remixes. Without any insider information it will remain a mystery I’m afraid.