Info: James Bond - Laserdisc Preservations: 1962-1971 — Page 14

Also, if you watch the John Cork produced Inside documentaries, all the film footage is from the LDs, even with frame freezes that have LD noise.

Maybe its a matter of choice but i really like the colors on the criterion Bond's but especially DR No.  There is no way to say if the colors are correct.  When ever a transfer from film to video is done the operator makes the color decisions or tweaks if any.  At least as far as i know the way they did it in the old days.

The restored CAV boxset of Thunderball i really like the color on too.  But if i had to wager a guess they timed it with a IB tech print for reference as it kind of has that sort of look.  Not sure about the DVD as i don't have the older one.

Live and let die clv letterbox in the US was pressed twice.  The earlier had the defective audio.  When buying it on ebay or lddb the sellers wont usually help you in finding out which version they are selling so you could end up with a ruined bad disc.  This title had the isolated score so that was the only reason i tried to find an unaffected copy to no avail.

I am led to understand that the older bond catalog pre Brosnan had only 3 ac3 releases i wonder if captain solo has those.  He said he had the rarest ones and those were the rarest and last pressed ones in the USA.  Though the world is not enough japan laser is so rare that it sells for thousands in comparison. 

Little to no difference between TWINE and the DVD except having it on laser to brag about.  Unlike say X-men which had a different cropping of the picture on the laserdisc than the DVD. 

There was no DTS flavor separate release for that either.  Unlike Goldeneye and tomorrow never dies which both got dts and dolby ac3 in japan and the states.  The USA even got a pan and scan laserdisc release of goldeneye i still laugh about that why in gods name would you get that instead of the letterbox release,lol.

I don't have the early foxvideo releases of the catalog titles with the mono mixes of the earlier films retracked into stereo and usually bad laser rot, and time compressed and made pan and scanned and i don't know anyone who has those laserdiscs.  They seem to be avoided for having legendarily bad transfers or something.  I always wondered if those were the same as the ones hbo showed in the early to mid 80's.

What's the word on Lowry's Dr. No from those in the know? I thought it looked really good color-wise, though it might be a bit scrubbed of detail.

Yowza, popped in The Spy Who Loved Me UE DVD last night for a minute (had the title song stuck in my head), Zeta Minor's website hadn't mentioned how much of a grainless DVNR nightmare it is @_@

Looked like there was some edge enhancement haloing going on too, and everything was so stable that it looked unnatural...but as soon as the title sequence ended, the frame started wobbling and bouncing all over the place...very strange.

I'll just have to sit at a normal distance from the screen next time, and not straight in front of it.

This looks like the cheapest copy of an early Fox pressing of FRWL at the moment. Doesn't come with the jacket though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Laserdisc-No-Jacket-James-Bond-007-From-Russia-With-Love-EP-Connery-/230840128906?pt=US_Laserdisc&hash=item35bf24d58a

skyjedi2005, I remember HBO running the Bond movies circa 1980 or so. Was a big deal at the time, and they hyped the heck out of it. Beat the heck out of ABC's "edited for television" versions.

skyjedi2005 said:

Maybe its a matter of choice but i really like the colors on the criterion Bond's but especially DR No.  There is no way to say if the colors are correct.  When ever a transfer from film to video is done the operator makes the color decisions or tweaks if any.  At least as far as i know the way they did it in the old days.

Like Al.F mentioned Criterion primarily seem to have used studio supplied prints in their earlier LD days. Their North by Northwest looks different to any other video version I've seen and is my preferred version, lacking the over-processed feeling of the 50th anniv. DVD/BD and the pink tint added during Lowry's harsh over-scrubbing. (Plus it has the incredible original mono!)

The restored CAV boxset of Thunderball i really like the color on too.  But if i had to wager a guess they timed it with a IB tech print for reference as it kind of has that sort of look.  Not sure about the DVD as i don't have the older one.

Despite what has been claimed by different sources, the CAV box is really just a better pressing of the video master with a newly created ProLogic surround track that was an attempt to correct some audio errors and utilize the alternate dialogue. The SE DVD seems to simply be the same but in 480p with the 5.1 audio remix of that ProLogic that first debuted on the THX CLV LD repressing of the CAV box.

Live and let die clv letterbox in the US was pressed twice.  The earlier had the defective audio.  When buying it on ebay or lddb the sellers wont usually help you in finding out which version they are selling so you could end up with a ruined bad disc.  This title had the isolated score so that was the only reason i tried to find an unaffected copy to no avail.

Have done the exact same thing myself, and is the reason why I'm still without LALD. What was the error-just audio dropouts? At one point I had heard that they had accidentally placed the isolated score on the digital tracks.

I am led to understand that the older bond catalog pre Brosnan had only 3 ac3 releases i wonder if captain solo has those.  He said he had the rarest ones and those were the rarest and last pressed ones in the USA.  Though the world is not enough japan laser is so rare that it sells for thousands in comparison. 

TB, TSWLM, MR. All of these are identical to their first THX DVD and SE releases except that you lose the PCM original audio. I was saying earlier that I had some of the rarest of the original letterbox series, being TLD and TMWTGG which was the last film to pressed in widescreen. (even uses the different rear cover style of GE!)

Little to no difference between TWINE and the DVD except having it on laser to brag about.  Unlike say X-men which had a different cropping of the picture on the laserdisc than the DVD. 

The only thing you'd get extra is a Dolby Surround mix in PCM. And the DVD 5.1 may be different as the LD has the original 5.1 EX matrix.

There was no DTS flavor separate release for that either.  Unlike Goldeneye and tomorrow never dies which both got dts and dolby ac3 in japan and the states.  The USA even got a pan and scan laserdisc release of goldeneye i still laugh about that why in gods name would you get that instead of the letterbox release,lol.

I love the GE LD, but some have said the deep bass was accidentally tweaked and increased by 10 db on the SE DVD. I'll have to get the DTS LD to check it's bass levels.

I don't have the early foxvideo releases of the catalog titles with the mono mixes of the earlier films retracked into stereo and usually bad laser rot, and time compressed and made pan and scanned and i don't know anyone who has those laserdiscs.  They seem to be avoided for having legendarily bad transfers or something.  I always wondered if those were the same as the ones hbo showed in the early to mid 80's.

All the fun stuff!

bkev said:

What's the word on Lowry's Dr. No from those in the know? I thought it looked really good color-wise, though it might be a bit scrubbed of detail.

Over on the AVS thread they mentioned something that answered some of the nagging problems I had with the Lowry transfers despite their detail. Apparently they have a practice of wiping all grain and detail away and then simply adding in fake grain to cover their dastardly processing. What. The. Fuuuuuuu.

Asaki said:

Yowza, popped in The Spy Who Loved Me UE DVD last night for a minute (had the title song stuck in my head), Zeta Minor's website hadn't mentioned how much of a grainless DVNR nightmare it is @_@

Looked like there was some edge enhancement haloing going on too, and everything was so stable that it looked unnatural...but as soon as the title sequence ended, the frame started wobbling and bouncing all over the place...very strange.

I'll just have to sit at a normal distance from the screen next time, and not straight in front of it.

Yep it's pretty bad. The THX/SE disc had lots of EE but at least it looked like the original film. Even riddled with compression artifacts it bests the UE which has those awful color changes and looks terrible. The new BD actually presents the film fairly well for the first time on home video, but is a bit hazy and the black level is off somewhere.

And don't forget the UEs nasty habit of window-boxing the scope title sequences!!

captainsolo said:

And don't forget the UEs nasty habit of window-boxing the scope title sequences!!

Weren't those titles shot on 65mm or 70mm, with gave an aspect ratio of about 2.20:1? Hence windowboxing preserves their OAR without cropping the sides slightly.

My personal experience with CBS/Fox is they used really horrible tape stock back then. And look how many different video masters for Star Wars have been documented, all sporting similar packaging.

captainsolo said:

The new BD actually presents the film fairly well for the first time on home video, but is a bit hazy and the black level is off somewhere.

Yeah, I looked at those comparison shots that were linked to in this thread, it looks miles better.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

SilverWook said:

This looks like the cheapest copy of an early Fox pressing of FRWL at the moment. Doesn't come with the jacket though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Laserdisc-No-Jacket-James-Bond-007-From-Russia-With-Love-EP-Connery-/230840128906?pt=US_Laserdisc&hash=item35bf24d58a

On that note, here is the VHS captainsolo initially mentioned. It's dirt cheap. Any takers?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/From-Russia-With-Love-VHS-1963-Sean-Connery-Daniela-Bianchi-LIKE-NEW-/271005361632?pt=VHS&hash=item3f192da5e0

Did somebody here get it? I was just about to pounce on it.

Not me. The LD listing is still active though.

It might only be a minor historical curiosity, but I recall Maurice Binder saying in a 80's Starlog magazine interview how he would do an "HBO version" of the main title sequences, after seeing how some of his earlier widescreen compositions got mangled on tv. Presumably, this was only done for the later Moore films onward.

I once saw a splitscreen youtube clip showing how different the title placement was on "A View to A Kill" between pan and scan and lettterbox versions, but can't find it now.

To ask a noob question, what are the best laserdisc versions of the original connery Bonds?

captainsolo said:

Also, if you watch the John Cork produced Inside documentaries, all the film footage is from the LDs, even with frame freezes that have LD noise.

I picked up Live and Let Die from the first batch of Blu Rays when Borders was going out of business a year or two back. I only got around to watching it this weekend. The Inside documentary has been completely reconstructed in HD and 16:9. (The SD video interviews have been pillarboxed with graphics resembling the menus.)  I presume the others have been redone for Blu Ray as well, but I don't have any of the others.

The film looked okay to me visually. At least the overcooked title sequence has been fixed, and there's a mono track.

Shame about that VHS. I too am used to the older video version of the credits, but I don't think anything videowise would use the original unaltered credits with wrong return tags since they weren't released or were quickly recalled and junked.

EyeShotFirst said:

To ask a noob question, what are the best laserdisc versions of the original connery Bonds?

Sorry for missing this one earlier, but here's a quick rundown:

Dr. No, FRWL: MGM for best wither single release or Connery Collection Vol. 1, Criterion edition from show print with different color and framing.

Goldfinger: MGM single or Connery Collection overall though title song in stereo. Criterion uses a show print with different color and framing. THX box has some DVNR but is full CAV. Later THX CLV repress is same.

Thunderball: MGM single or Connery Collection Vol. 2. THX CAV box great but features some DVNR and new surround sound mix with alternate dialog/effects/score cues. Later THX CLV repress is same.

YOLT: 1989 MGM single or CC Vol. 2. Almost exactly similar, with perhaps the CC version being slightly better because it was made 3 years later.

DAF: same as YOLT.

So for the easiest choice, I'd say you couldn't go wrong with both Connery boxes.

captainsolo said:

Shame about that VHS. I too am used to the older video version of the credits, but I don't think anything videowise would use the original unaltered credits with wrong return tags since they weren't released or were quickly recalled and junked.

Sorry for this noob question, too, but what are the differences in title scenes and end credits? Is there a site with pics to compare?

Big Lots really needs to stop selling all the Bond DVDs...all I need now is the rest of the Connery films (sans Dr. No and Thunderball) and I'll be set.

...and maybe the movies they did after Goldeneye that weren't Die Another Day (though I did like Casino Royale a lot)...

Still haven't seen Quantum of Solace (I was told I wouldn't be able to watch it with all the "MTV editing" going on), but the one they have comes with what must be a super awesome James Bond calendar for 2009 B)