Jonno

You've already helped plenty, msycamore - it was your rip of the Alien 70mm track (over a year ago) that got me started on this whole business!

I too keep the original rips safely archived - along with the Audition edit projects - but for the time being I'm not in a position to do anything else with them... my upload speeds just about enable me to share the finished products once in a while.

I'm just getting started on Moonraker this weekend, hope to have a result before too long because the analogue Black Hole disc is on its way to me...

LeadZero said:

I also thought some music would've helped to fill the silence.

Oh dear, you're really not doing yourself any favours here are you?

In fairness it doesn't help your cause that you're looking to replace the high point of an already faultless score, which has a history of being dicked about with (see the hamfisted re-editing of this sequence in the SE).

By all means put together your own version as a proof of concept... I'm sure it will prove an interesting alternate view. But first watch and listen to the 1980 version again - from Luke losing his hand to the Falcon rescue - and realise how mesmerisingly brilliant it already is.

Here's an amendment for Ghostbusters, or possible an addition (the original sync might have its uses if the earlier BD and the 4K aren't frame-matched - I haven't taken the time to check).

Movie: Ghostbusters

Format: Laserdisc CC1182L

Input Soundtrack: PCM 2.0 Dolby Stereo Surround 44.1 khz, 16-bit, Bit Perfect

Output Soundtrack: PCM 2.0 Dolby Stereo Surround 48 khz, 16-bit

Synced To: 2013 Blu-ray Release Region A (4K Remaster)

Ripped/Synced by: Jonno

Notes: From the Criterion laserdisc. Contains the original Dolby Stereo soundtrack.

PDB said:

Does anyone have the LD's PCM soundtracks (synced or not synced) for Jaws and Escape from New York? They were mentioned heavily in the remix thread and I wanted to see if anyone had already worked on them. I don't have either of the laserdiscs and would love to hear them.

Bigrob sent me his Jaws signature edition disc to work on. I've captured it but not synced it yet - happy to pass it on to someone else if they'll have the time to do it before I will. It's another rather quiet track, by the way, but very clean sounding (in dual mono).

Frustrating, isn't it? Pity it's coming from a label (Anchor Bay) that we simply can't trust, audio-wise (they have a history of downmixing their stereo-ised tracks to mono and calling it 'original', presumably to save the time of going back and re-syncing). Even if it is accurate it's only ever been presented in 192 kB/s DD.

The best course of action would probably be a rip and sync of the Criterion laserdisc's digital mono, but I can't see any of those for sale right now. Anyone got a copy?

skywalker89 said:

I'm from Germany and have no time to read all old post here

Yes, that follows.

Hmmm... just received and captured Moonraker. Another disc mastered in 1990, another digital track with a -9dB ceiling. Why were these folks so reluctant to use the full range of the digital signal?

For now I'll resist the urge to normalise and edit it as-is - it's actually a very clear and clean track, and I guess folks' amps can fight it out with the limited volume.

Handbrake automatically crops any letterboxing/windowboxing unless you specify otherwise, but the option is fairly clear on the first 'Picture' tab - set Cropping (on the right hand side) to Custom 0, 0, 0, 0.

If that's what you're already doing... are you doing any resizing? I guess that might be overriding your crop settings (even though it shouldn't be).

I'll upload the files for you (zeropc) - perhaps I'm being unduly harsh, but I don't think there's much to be gained from spending the time on this.

I might have a crack at the analogue Black Hole if I can get a nice copy. Another alternative would be a stereo VHS, I suppose...

In the meantime I'm awaiting delivery of Moonraker - there's another Barry score that always delivers!

Oh, and in other disappointment news it appears that there's no release of The Black Hole post 1985, so no digital PCM available. A pity - it seems there's a 720p version on US iTunes now, so that would have made for a good combo.

I just did a rip of Superman the Movie using this disc. The current Blu has a lossy presentation of the Dolby Stereo mix, which sounds rather feeble - I thought laserdisc PCM would improve on it. I was wrong...

That's the bitperfect rip of side A in Audition - not only is it extremely quiet (peaking at around -9dB) but the fidelity is really very poor. I'm not inclined to take the time to sync this, but I won't delete the files just yet in case they're of use to someone.

More Superman mix info here, btw: http://andyfilm.com/mboard/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4192

Just to clarify the audio mixes, the original theatrical version of Alien had a pattern that somewhat reflects that of Star Wars - a 6-track 70mm mix for initial engagements, and a more refined Dolby Stereo track for the 35mm prints (I've also read claims that it was screened in mono, but since I can't find any evidence that it was ever mixed that way I presume it was just a case of the stereo track playing in mono-equipped screens).

The 70mm track has only ever been released on home video once - on the 1995 THX laserdisc (the possibility that it might have been included on the Blu-ray as a 4.1 track was under heavy discussion, but in fact its split surrounds would have necessitated a 5.1 encode so that was never going to be the case). We've been able to listen to this track via PCM captures for a while, but Andrea has finally captured the 5.1 AC-3 (and it does indeed sound magnificent).

The Dolby Stereo is much better known, and it's this that is present on the Blu-ray as a discrete 4.1 upmix (actually Fox have a welcome tendency to do this - see also Predator - but sadly they always opt for a lossy Dolby Digital encode). The preferred source for this mix is an earlier generation laserdisc (since aside from lossy compression the track has also had some 'improvements' made since 1999). I favour the 1992 collector's edition but there are others.

When the director's cut was put together in 2003 it was given a theatrical release, so the studio took the time to do a proper remix. The DC had a DTS mix in theatres and subsequent home video releases (DVD, D-Theater and Blu-ray) have more-or-less preserved it, though access to the theatrical mix is very welcome for a reconstruction project.

This seems to be the appropriate place to say RIP Ray Dolby...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24075429

FremenDar007 said:

Did MAD MAX have an original track on Laserdisc in PCM? Glad it mentions which Blu-ray release to use, since I do have quite a lot. I'd rather use the original MGM release instead of the 2013 WB one.

Depends on your definition of 'original'. There are plenty of discs containing the original mono mix from the 1980 US release - some in digital PCM - but that was the American-accented dub.

Indeed the only DVD and BD releases containing the Australian English mono mix - the true 'original' - use lossy Dolby Digital. AFAIK the track included on the BD (both MGM and WB, which are essentially the same release) is as good as it currently gets for that film.

Reason.

The Living Daylights was ripped by singhcr. I hope to have a fair few updates for your list shortly!

Just received my Sainsburys discs - it was no more expensive than any basic Blu-ray release so I didn't begrudge the purchase. The extras disc is indeed just a DVD, but if SD versions of these clips are of any use to the project I'll be happy to share them.

There were Dolby SR prints for less well-equipped theatres - this was only 3 years after the arrival of Dolby Digital and 2 after DTS.

The laserdisc Dolby Surround should have that covered...

That's just the EPK stuff from the standard release.

Hmmm - re. the theatrical DTS, three possibilities here;

1 - Waterworld had 5.1 DTS theatrically (as suggested in the other thread by the guy who actually did the mix) and the 4.0 information is incorrect

2 - Shawn's 4.0 rip had to be remapped within 5.1 because the decoder dictated it, but it still only consists of four discrete channels of information - have you checked that the LFE has content and the surrounds are split?

3 - The encoder actually processed the channels to derive a full 5.1 spread (including frequency filtering for the LFE). Obviously this is an undesirable outcome if we're after preservation

Anyway, I'm sure Shawn can quickly clear this up. Taking a long view on the choice of tracks, I'd suggest the following:

Theatrical DTS
Theatrical Dolby SR stereo (as represented by the LD PCM)
Blu-ray DTS-HD MA (a modern home theatre mix in lossless format)

Plus any foreign language dubs, subtitles that people request? That should cover all the generations of this soundtrack, unless folks know something else about intermediate versions (e.g. laserdisc and DVD DTS).

After seeing the fantastic results of this project, I'd be totally on board for a spoRved Mad Max 2. I've just bought the 1994 letterboxed laserdisc, so I can make a comparison with my existing 1991 capture and remake the audio if appropriate (it's tempting to do it over anyway, now that I have bitperfect facilities).

Not only would the original colours and audio be restored, but this would also be an ideal opportunity to fix the pesky WB logo in a more permanent way than my quick fix.

Yep, just grab your copy of that and get logging.

ESB was a great deal more dynamic in general (some might even say 'showy') - a lot more moving camera and close-up work, often with longer lenses.

As you say, it's a different story and it makes sense to shoot in a different style - I like the visual evolution (at least as far as the first two films go - RotJ heads back towards the wide and static approach). Of course Lucas wasn't overly enamoured with the rushes...

In case it's any help there's a good discussion on the sound mixes here:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Waterworld-DTS-40-original-mix/post/646192/

Sounds like Jetrell Fo has the theatrical DTS, which would be a terrific addition.

Only Alfred Newman composed the Fox fanfare...