Opera (1987) - Open-Matte version (Released)

Purpose:

To present Opera in open-matte - 1.77:1

Discussion:

As far as I know about, it appears there’s only one DVD transfer of the film used for every DVD release since 2001. But I stumbled across an interesting find. The 2011 84 Entertainment release has an unfinished version of the film.

After being scanned, the transfer was cleaned for scratches and dust (although the raw transfer is pretty clean for the most part). It was cropped to about 2.29:1. For 12 minutes from 1:13:17 - 1:25:03 the image was scanned in reverse, so the image was flipped back the correct way.

The 84 Ent release didn’t incorporate any of these corrections, so they must have used an earlier uncorrected master.

In addition to incorporating the fixes, the Arrow DVD is higher quality because it has less pixels to encode, thus the overall detail is a bit higher (even though the bit-rate is very similar to the EC Ent disc). The Arrow disc has English subtitles that contain numerous spelling errors.

I took this source, flipped the image from 1:13:17 - 1:25:03 to the correct way, and pasted the Arrow DVD image over the top (this took care of most of the scratches in the 2.29:1 area of the frame).

I then filtered the video to reduce the haloing present on the disc, and some other minor issues.

I also used my upscale script, added some film grain, and I’m pleased with the result.

Details:

11.1 GB.

Video:

x264 Encoded to BD Comparability.
1280 x 720
23.976 fps
14.0 Mbps

Audio:

AAC
Track 1: 5.1 English re-dub
Track 2: 2.0 English Cannes dub
Track 3: 2.0 Italian Theatrical
Track 4: 2.0 German Theatrical*

Subtitles*:

English

*Thanks go to faust1103. The German track includes some sections in Italian that require subtitles. I have included download links for the subs in the torrent description.

Availability:

MySpleen

Screenshots (yes I know they don’t fit correctly, just drag them into the tab bar to see the full images):

The Unresized DVD images are below.

The first three show scratches that are on the 84 Ent disc but are corrected on the Arrow disc.

These last two captures are examples from the 12 minutes where the video is the wrong way around on the 84 Ent disc.

It is now!

I posted this thread and then put the torrent up, and then I was seeding too many torrents so it didn't even start seeding! Like a typical noob who has no idea LOL!

Plus I didn't expect anyone to read this thread and want the film so fast... But I guess take advantage of the 41 hours left of freeleech if you can!

I wonder if anyone's seen the Japanese bluray and what it's like?

Ah cool, it'd be great if you could post some screenshots if you have the ability. I don't intend to buy it, I'll wait for a UK or USA release.

Apparently it only has the Cannes audio tack, lol. You'd think with BD's they could at least include all the audios!

Well the film was first shown in English at the Cannes film festival, where it's reported that the audience laughed at the performance of the antagonist's audio dub, and the quality of some of the other supporting actors was also not great. Since the audio track had a poor reception it of course would be changed.

At some point a new dub was done for the upcoming USA theatrical release (which then never happened), and this is what's known as the re-dub.

Oops for some reason I thought there were no subs. Sorry for that.

Thanks a lot for informing me that I missed the German subs!

The download links are in the torrent description for anyone that needs them.

Oh isn't difficult at all since they come from the same scan - this isn't to proper settings, but you get the idea.

Sources:

Yellow outline on the 84 Ent source, Red on the Arrow source, and Cyan on the cropping dimensions:

Then resize 16x9:

That shot is the only one in the entire film where anything from the 84 disc is put back on top of the Arrow, in order to get rid of the floating Terror at the text.

There's no "seam" because it's exactly the same transfer - just before and after post-processing. To be honest I'm amazed the 2011 84 Ent DVD left 12 minutes of the film wrongly mirrored! I have yet to figure out how they ended up with a mirrored scan of that part, but it's clear from the earlier releases they knew it had to be flipped back!