Info: James Bond - Laserdisc Preservations: 1962-1971 — Page 20

I figured as much. I wish I had bought a bunch of LDs when I was 8 or 9 when DVD had started moving in. ;)

I do think the PCM is worth preserving and it is a goal of mine once I can get a good equipment chain together to utilize these and the necessary video to combine with SE footage. Ideally for something like a fully cleaned up DJ-U2 GOUT project. The 5.1 tracks are all from the late LD releases or the canceled ones (FYEO for example). I have no idea how the THX LDs compare to the earlier issues besides cleaner video perhaps. (Spy and Moonraker need it.)

Yes LALD has a few minutes of audio dropout but the digital track is supposedly errored and actually has the film's complete isolated score and the mono complete soundtrack switched to the analog tracks.

Golden Gun is the rarest of the series and looks quite good. TLD is the best mastered for picture and sound and AVTAK has killer audio.

I was always holding out for all three SE boxes since the few errors were supposedly fixed, but did we ever confirm that that was actually true? If not I can start getting the 18 I need. And I already have 71! different Bond video issues.

Not obsessed.

Did you ever collect any of the pan and scan versions? I'm curious to see the recomposed "HBO version" title sequences Maurice Binder did for the later Moore era. (And presumably the Dalton films, but the title sequences might have been letterboxed when I saw them on VHS.)

I ended up with a pan and scan copy of Die Another Day in a batch of other DVD's I won last year, and the title sequence was recomposed for 1:33.  I don't think any of the other Brosnan films had full frame editions though.

The ebay auction of GoldFinger on Super8 is legit, it is a Derann release and is great quality.

Other complete bond films on super8 are Thunderball also by Derann, The World is not enough by CHC and You Only Live Twice by CHC.

Derann also had a 1200ft digest version of Never say Never again.

Looking at my Laserdiscs I have the Criterion of Goldfinger, Warners NSNA in widescreen and GoldenEye, but that's all.

captainsolo said:

Request: FF or Anybody else who has the Criterion CAV or CLV issues, if there are cue marks present anywhere in the transfer, what do they look like?

If they are regular white circles or something similar than these are probably Eastmancolor show prints. However, if they have any type of "sunburst" design to them, they are Technicolor IB.

Like this: http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s22changecue.html

This is the cue-dot from the Criterion CLV release.

And for Reel2

Yep, I'm thinking Criterion got a print from MGM's loaning department, then MGM turned around and struck a new video master from their archival stored copies of the first three films and premiered them in the Connery Collection box. I don't think those are Technicolor IB. Thanks for those shots poita.

Is there any reason to collect the full frame older editions?

The full frame DAD has a sliver of extra info on top or bottom IIRC. The transfer for the WS version is better than the UE and has the theatrical 6.1 matrixed DTS track. Plus they have extras that were never duplicated.

Several of the older editions use original poster art elements. I'd go after some of the RCA CED's just for the cover art if I had the space.

There was a youtube video showing the differences in the AVTAK title sequence, (the full frame coming from a VHS) but it seems to be gone now.

I could kick myself for letting an old CBS/Fox Beta of FYEO go without checking it. I ended up with a lot of tapes chasing down that HBO Star Wars recording a while back.

Jumped on a factory sealed MWTGG only to realize too late it's full frame. Doh! At least it has digital sound. Not obsessed!

Octopussy

The LD starts off right, with the original 1983 logos of MGM and the plain white text UA logo. Oddly both shift down into framing which recalls slightly what happens intermittently throughout Sides 1 and 2. If you look very carefully, the letterbox bar edges on the top and bottom of the frame will dance up and down ever so slightly, revealing and concealing a thin sliver of picture information. It's really easy to see in still frames. It's not on the CAV Side 3.

Picture is far improved over Moonraker, though they were made around the same time. The element utilized is cleaner and has little to no damage whatsoever. The final CAV side is clearer and more stable. Color is perfect, and it's nice to see even the ending escape of Kamal form the Monsoon Palace now properly timed again for sunrise.

The sound isn't as immediately impressive as Moonraker, but you quickly hear things you haven't before. Soundstage gets the biggest improvement with improved clarity in the mid and low range. The mono surround channel is very discretely used and tastefully done. There is some slight sound and dialogue panning. This definitely would have played well in 70mm like Moonraker. Another in the bests the 5.1 remixes category.

However, like my FYEO LD there is some slight crackling distortion that arises in the higher frequencies at various points. I don't know why this happens, as I've tried both discs on two different players and amps with the same result.

Picture: 7/10

Sound: 8/10

I suspect in the good old days they just ported a theatrical mix straight over without tweaking it for home use. One reason LD soundtracks can still shake windows with the right setup.

Mine does actually, even with an old receiver and old Klipsch bookshelf speakers on improvised speaker stands. I found it kinda funny to have OP blasting in Dolby Surround and not only hear new things but announce to the neighbors that it's an all time high.

I think these are original mixes, done off of master tapes. I guess just recorded straight to the video master at 16/44.1 PCM.  You hear things you wouldn't even theatrically. Like all of the background sound design. I realized just how detailed LD got when I heard Galaxian in TLD.

We probably have better speakers than most movie theaters had 20-30 years ago.

I'll have to listen for that Galaxian game when the LD arrives. ;)

It's somewhere in the Vienna funfair. Some shots of a 16mm OP print:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/16mm-Film-83-OCTOPUSSY-James-Bond-LPP-SCOPE-/310622748901?pt=US_Film&hash=item48528f00e5

This reflects the LD exactly. Though LD can't ever get all of the natural blacks.

The first time i saw Octopussy was on HBO, but i think it was pan and scanned.  Not sure if that was one of the ones where they created special credits for the tv broadcast.

Wish i had the Bonds and Star Wars series captured off HBO on vhs never did i do so since we did not have a good vcr at the time.

Anyone know what the VHD releases were like?

Never actually seen a VHD of a Bond film, but I imagine they were identical to the other CBS/FOX releases at the time.

Some of the early RCA Videodisc releases might be different masters, (RCA did many of their film transfers in house) but no widescreen on any of them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Super-8-Sound-PINEWOOD-STUDIOS-James-Bond-007-And-Much-More-Derann-/370714749951?pt=UK_Vintage_Film&hash=item5650522bff&nma=true&si=Iezbdu9c3y8VIxfR1mHyW7b3F3o%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Has 007 finally met his match? ;)

SilverWook said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Super-8-Sound-PINEWOOD-STUDIOS-James-Bond-007-And-Much-More-Derann-/370714749951?pt=UK_Vintage_Film&hash=item5650522bff&nma=true&si=Iezbdu9c3y8VIxfR1mHyW7b3F3o%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Has 007 finally met his match? ;)

Does anybody have this? I'd love to see it.

The Shade said:

captainsolo said:

I think these are original mixes, done off of master tapes. I guess just recorded straight to the video master at 16/44.1 PCM.  You hear things you wouldn't even theatrically. Like all of the background sound design.

Can you elaborate on that a little? My brain has a bit of difficulty grasping that my home setup could pick up sounds that would not have been heard in a theater.

It's very simple really. These discs were created by transferring the original magnetic tracks with the master audio untouched. Usually for film prints the mix would be tweaked, EQ'd and fit onto the format. Then each individual theater had their own standards or lack of standards for proper audio presentation. It's still this way today, in fact IMO even more so. Despite having lossless audio, I can't find a theater with decent sound anymore. There's more quality at an art house with a horribly battered print of For a Few Dollars More that had the mono track going nuts with uncontrollable volume spikes!

I'll have to dig up a VCR and look at all my tapes for the titles. IIRC for most of the series waves from the '93 set on  they were all letterboxed.

The 80's VHS releases are more likely to have the modified titles. Going to try for some of the full frame LD's if I can get them cheap enough.

I found the Binder interview on Archive.org of all places. Someone typed out an entire issue of Starlog by hand???

http://archive.org/stream/starlog_magazine-074/074_djvu.txt

Here's the relevant passage...

"The Bond films started with a normal sized screen," Binder remembers, less emotional now that he is past the personal horrors of un-skilled mechanics tinkering with his work.

"With Thunderball, we went to Cinemascope. Then with Live and Let Die, they went back to the small-size screen. Now, I didn't have to worry about the proportions of Live and Let Die or The Man With The Golden Gun - or what some TV lab technician might do to them. The screen ratio fits on television."

"But! With The Spy Who Loved Me, we returned to Cinemascope and we had trouble. So, now, I do a tv or Home Box Office version -whatever you want to call it - for each title. That means keeping the same design, but redesigning the proportions and the format so it fits. When you see it on TV, it looks like the same title, but it isn't. I know what I'm cutting off, and, I know if I left it to some add at the lab to do the damn TV thing - on For Your Eyes Only, for example -he would have cut out Sheena Easton on one side, or the behind of the girl dancing on the other side of the screen."

OMG! They have entire issues scanned in you can go page by page through! This could be a valuable resource around here!

I have most of the Starlog issues that feature articles about James Bond and I'm slowly scanning them onto my blog. This Maurice Binder article is now available in what I hope is a friendlier format than the one in the internet archive. You can even download it as a PDF.

http://www.the007dossier.com/007dossier/post/2013/03/13/Maurice-Binder-Starlog-Interview-1.aspx

Part 2 of this interview from the next issue of Starlog is now available too.

http://www.the007dossier.com/007dossier/post/2013/03/14/Maurice-Binder-Starlog-Interview-2.aspx

Is it true that the man with the golden gun and Live and Let die were not shot in Cinemascope because the director hated it or the cinematographer?

I mean Diamond's was shot in scope and that was Guy Hamilton.  And All three films were shot by Ted Moore.

For some reason I thought it was for budgetary reasons? There seem to have been fewer scope films made around that period. (There might have been an financial inclination to shoot a film more "tv friendly" as well.) When Spy was made, scope films were coming back in a big way post Jaws.

Got burned on a Bond SE DVD that wasn't original factory seal for the second time. Hope this isn't a trend, as I still need a couple for the original 5.1 mixes.