Idea & Info: Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' PAL complete/preservation edition

As many of you may know there are three versions of The Shining:

146 min (original version)

142 min (cut)

119 min (cut) (European version)
 

The 146 minute was cut after initial test screenings so is most likely completely unavailable.

Now, commercially, the 142 minute version is only available in the US as a R1 NTSC

The 119 minute version is only available outside of the US as R2 PAL
 

However…

…back in the 1980s  the longer (probably 142 minute version) was broadcast on UK television, therefore  PAL 720x576.

I want to try to track down copies of that broadcast to recreate the best possible edition of the longer version of The Shining in PAL.
 

Can anyone help?

Why does it have to be PAL? If you're thinking that a UK TV release from the 80s will automatically be superior to an NTSC DVD purely by virtue of being PAL, that simply isn't the case (particularly considering that any extant recording will be analogue VHS, thus falling significantly short of the 720x576 digital standard).

The 'best possible edition' would be the US Blu-ray release. If your PAL preference is because you're limited in terms of playback equipment (and can't play NTSC, let alone Blu-ray) you could - hypothetically - downscale an HD rip to PAL DVD.

In any event you can do much better than an old VHS recording of a fairly common film...

MrBrown said:

If Warner did some DNR to the BD which maybe wasn't done to the HD-DVD. But I don't know if thats the case...

I don't think this was the case, but I do agree that the best idea for a complete PAL version is downconverting a BDRip.

Yes, I agree. I hadn't thought this through, had I?

I will probably downconvert a BDrip.

As an aside, something else I want to preserve about this movie is the soundtrack, which has long been out-of-print and never even made it to CD. It'd be nice to have a lossless version with high-res scans, etc

Does anyone know if anyone else has tried this?

raphael said:

As an aside, something else I want to preserve about this movie is the soundtrack, which has long been out-of-print and never even made it to CD. It'd be nice to have a lossless version with high-res scans, etc

Does anyone know if anyone else has tried this?

No one's tried this as far as I know. However, you can hear some of the soundtrack on Youtube. The video I listened to sounded as if it had been ripped from a record with the quiet hiss and the warm analogue sound. Of course, I can understand these being too low quality for you.

EDIT: Wait a second! I just found it. Someone already has it preserved to lossless FLAC. It's on tehparadox. It has some extra sound clips from the movie in it, but you could probably take them out before burning it.

I'll PM you the links...

Interesting! The George Eastman House seems to be shitting all over Kubrick's intentions recently. Everything from planning to release Fear and Desire on home video to screening versions of his movies that he didn't want to be seen.

Not that I mind, of course. :) Too bad Warner probably won't release the coda on video.

I'm on the west coast as well Silverwook :-(

Can someone record and share? I'm not sure if that is illegal or not if it's just the coda. I'm a big Shining fan and a recording of those final few minutes would be stinning.