Originally posted by: Belbucus I would suggest that if there is any way to audition the AC3 audio and the new audio side by side, that it could easily be arrived at by ear.
Womble MPEG Video Wizard is great for this. It's my tool of choice. If you rip the GOUT AC3 file, and place it in audio track one, then place the PCM preservation in audio track two, you can shift the PCM track left/right (you may need to trim a few frames from the start) until it matches the AC3 perfectly. When it does, delete or mute the AC3 file and re-export the WAV. It will be unmodified except for the trimmed/added space at the beginning.
A trick if you have several wav files (e.g. one from each side of the laser disc) ... synchronize each PCM file to the AC3, knowing you may be trimming frames from the start of each file. Then, when they're all in sync, delete the AC3 file and move every other one of the PCM files into track one. Expand each clip to their maximum size and this should essentially handle all your crossfades for you.
Once again, export the new PCM file you've modified and voila, you've got a perfectly synchronized single PCM file for the whole film.
It's all speculation, but over at Superman Cinema, they have the most inside information, and it's currently not all that hot.
"New ending" meaning "new when compared to the original version of SII."
Plus, Lex and Miss Tessmacher's extra scenes are not being restored. Nor the Arctic Patrol scene not being restored, which could leave the SR sequels open to Zod, powerless but certainly still alive on Earth, waiting to be restored.
I'm gonna be in the editing room on this, I can tell already. Sheesh.
It's all about alphebetizing on the storeroom shelves.
Meanwhile, I keep looking both under "I" and under "Y" for "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" but nothing. Lucas is sitting on 22 more Indy films (or 45 TV episodes for the purists) and I for one want to see them for the first time. The way I see it, the IJ boxed set is FAR from complete.
Meanwhile, we're twiddling our thumbs waiting for a screenplay for a new Harrison Ford Action Film: Indiana Jones and the Magical Hand of Plot Device.
Edit: Oh, and to actually answer your question, I think the release is stellar. Lowry did a much better job on IJ than on SW. The only bone of contention with some fans that I'm aware of is the digital removal of the cobra's reflection. It doesn't bother me in the slightest. Greedo shooting first, it ain't.
I can hear Comic Book Guy now ... "Worst ... Ending ... Ever!"
You know, since they didn't have the "new" ending worked out after moving it to S:TM, I would have liked to see them tie into SR better ... especially given how much Donner loves SR.
Instead, by turning back time we're going to have Lois somehow de-pregnated, and some bully at Rocky's Diner not know why the hell this four-eyed nerd came from out of nowhere to beat him up. Blowing up the fortress will serve no point as it would have been re-built. And, whatever, the villains will have their powers back.
I'm excited as hell about this release, but turning back time at the end of SII to help Lois forget is not a good resolution to the plot.
Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father Smoking illegal substances is illegal but bongs themselves are not.
Tell that to Tommy Chong, recently arrested for selling bongs. Drug paraphernalia is certainly illegal in the U.S. Visit the DEA Web Site for details on what is and what isn't illegal.
There was a great quote on Studio 60 the other night that's somewhat germane to the conversation. "Living where there's free speech means sometimes you get offended." Brilliant writing. I'm glad Aaron Sorkin is back on TV doing what he does best ... writing good stuff like that.
Originally posted by: THX-1977 Wow, I didn't think it was possible to be more confused than I was, but I was wrong.
Anyway, the outer box says it's widescreen and letterbox 2:35:1 ratio
The 2.35 confuses the issue futher. The anamorphic image continues to be letterboxed, because the actual film was wider than 16x9. 2.35's fractional equivalent is 47x20. Of course, displays are not made in this aspect ratio, so the image is matted and reduced to fit either the anamorphic 16x9 or "full screen" 4x3 displays. There is less letterboxing to make a 16:9 image anamorphic than is required to make a 4:3 image anamorphic, but the end result on a 4:3 display is the same. The desire for anamorphic encoding is to ensure the maximum resolution for a 16x9 display is offered.
If such a 47x20 display did exist, it would look like this (again, for comparison's sake, I've kept the same height of 480):
Escape to Witch Mountain. I remember it being cool as all get out when I was a kid.
Rented it last year. It wasn't as good as I remember. In fact, it was pretty bad. Then I rented its sequel. It's so bad it's not even so bad it's good -- it's just bad. (If that sentence confused you, I succeeded.)
The only thing that annoys me about the Pope is the backpedaling in the name of Political Correctness. While I pretty much disagree with the entire role of the Pope going back to the Great Schism, he's perhaps the one person on earth who doesn't need to apologize for being a Christian to a bunch of muslim hotheads. Apologize for the Inquisition before you apologize for stating the truth about Islam. Cause guess what... Islam and Catholicism have a nasty, nasty history of bloodshed. Just ask the Irish. Or the Slavs.
But that doesn't mean he wasn't right. When your solution to a visual depiction of your prophet results in taking 130 innocent people hostage, clearly your religion is fucked up. When your solution to national independence for your muslim state is to shoot up a school full of children, clearly your religion is fucked up. And when your solution to eradicating the influence of western culture in your geographical area is to sucker-punch 3000 innocent civilians (with the hope of ten times that number) who are just trying to get through their day, clearly your religion is fucked up.
Personally, I've known many muslims over the years. They were all good people in my judgment. But I never heard one of them actually denounce terrorism. Until more muslims start speaking out against the violent extremism with a loud enough microphone that they're heard all the way to Mecca, then they are just being part of the problem and not the solution. When the same kind of violent terror was tearing apart Ireland, at least the Irish people were bold enough to do something about it. And at least the Irish leaders were willing to compromise with the British. We aren't seeing the same thing in the Middle East.
The people who used to be in charge of airport security before they federalized it are now in charge of manning the shoplifting beepers in stores, I swear. I have NEVER had a package checked when I've beeped it. Granted, I've never stolen, but the anti-theft technology has become little more than white noise. Meanwhile, I just want to open a package with ease.
I'm surprised they haven't started packaging DVD cases inside those annoying plastic bubbles that you have to use a box-cutter to get into. You know, the stuff they use to package $5 cables and whatnot ... I'm going to slice my hand opening one of those things one day and then I'll have my day in court.
Those fades were always there. I assume they weren't intended to be there, but it's how they dealt with cutting out those 2-3 paragraphs in-between. Fade, cut, fade back in. Rather than giving us the full take, they just faded her lines in. Weird, for sure.
Play the film in PowerDVD without maximizing the screen width to full screen mode. If the dimensions look 4:3 then so is the source. If the dimensions look 16:9, then so is the source. Sometimes menus are encoded differently than the film and you'll even see the player window change its dimensions.