SpacemanDoug

Basically what I’ve been doing is restoring the show’s original music that originally aired on FOX to HD/DVD versions of the episodes that was omitted in syndicated and home media versions. I decided to move this project to this site to see if I can get even more episodes that I currently don’t have. Also if anyone wants links to a lot of the episodes I restored just PM me if you want a link. The entire series was able to be located and the project is now completed. Season 2 was definitely the hardest season to locate though.

The thing I hate is American Werewolf in London, Blues Brothers, and Animal House all had alterations on their 5.1 remixes (re-recorded sound effects) on the blu ray releases, yet it was kept extremely quiet. I listened to some portions with the foreign language tracks that replicated the original mono mixes with the exception of the English dialog being overdubbed, and they were so much better that way. American Werewolf had it the worst by having the pitch tuned down slightly as well, which resulted in the actors and music sounding slightly lower than normal.

kchrules said:

SpacemanDoug said:

crissrudd4554 said:

Jaws
Terminator
Halloween
Psycho
Mad Max

There’s also been examples such as Grease and Scarface where although the original mixes were not mono they still were given 5.1 remixes later on that completely revised everything.

though fortunately for at least most of these movies the original mono/dolby mix was provided alongside the 5.1 version on their blu ray releases (Terminator being the only exception), though for Grease the original Dolby mix finally resurfaced in 5.1 form on the recent 40th anniversary release

Ah good, I hope the 40th Anniversary Grease has the original “Hopelessly Devoted” without background vocals. I have the laserdisc and VHS with the original Dolby.

I can confirm the 40th anniversary version gets rid of every single issue regarding the previous 5.1 remix made back in 1998. (replaced sound effects, song revisions, etc.)

ChainsawAsh said:

Actually, the Atmos mix is a remix of the 2000 remix, it has all the same shitty new aspects of the remix - BUT the 5.1 AC3 included on the same disc is the original 1978 70mm six-track mix, not the 2000 remix!

yea I was a little suspicious about the Atmos mix being from the 2000 remix, but at least the original 1978 mix is included as well on that disk

ChainsawAsh said:

crissrudd4554 said:

Additionally some BD releases of Halloween and Mad Max have mono tracks that are actually downmixes of the surround track. The recent UHD release of Halloween sadly is one of them.

Yeah, don’t be fooled by studios simply claiming that the original tracks are included. Superman: The Movie is one of those where the first few BR releases claimed to have the theatrical stereo when it was really a fold-down of the modern remix.

Then there’s also the fact that a lot of times, when original mixes are provided, they’re in much lower quality (say, 192kbps AC3) compared to the modern remix (often lossless). Older laserdisc releases’ uncompressed PCM audio will often be superior, even if it’s the same mix.

I actually did do some deep research into this topic and here’s what I’ve figured out. The 2000 DVD release that only has the extended version is where the 5.1 remix first surfaced, then finally an anthology DVD set in 2006 included both versions and the theatrical version disk was supposed to also include the original 2.0 mix but was a down fold like you said earlier, so this led to Warner Home Video issuing corrected disks with the right 2.0 mix. The 2006 Blu-ray release once again only contains the extended version with only a 5.1 remix provided. In 2011 an Anthology Blu-ray was issued that once again brings all the movies together and both versions of Superman 1 and 2 were included. The disk for the theatrical version of the original Superman includes both a 5.1 remix and a 2.0 mix (both encoded in a lossless DTS-HD form). Warner Home Video swore that the 2.0 mix was the original theatrical mix and even says “English 2.0 (original theatrical)” if you go to the audio choices on the main menu of the theatrical version disk. Finally when the recent 4K release happened, Warner went back to the original elements by scanning the original negative in 4K, and making a new Dolby Atmos soundtrack that Warner took from the original sound elements which supposedly ignores the 5.1 remix from 2000.

crissrudd4554 said:

Jaws
Terminator
Halloween
Psycho
Mad Max

There’s also been examples such as Grease and Scarface where although the original mixes were not mono they still were given 5.1 remixes later on that completely revised everything.

though fortunately for at least most of these movies the original mono/dolby mix was provided alongside the 5.1 version on their blu ray releases (Terminator being the only exception), though for Grease the original Dolby mix finally resurfaced in 5.1 form on the recent 40th anniversary release

I started this thread to get into light at how audio preservation just matters as much as video. So in this thread I think that some movies you think that were originally released in mono that were destroyed in later video releases can be listed here as to get them into light.

Examples I would include are: Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers, and Animal House.