StarThoughts

I suggest preserving the chronological order approach.

fmalover said:

I don't see how an isolated score is possible in the first place Harmy, as the film uses versions that are vastly different from the ones available on music albums, i.e. The Ice Planet Hoth is very different in the movie to the album track, plus there are music cues that can only be heard within the movie that aren't available anywhere else, such as when we are introduced to the Hoth Base we hear horn section that is heard there and there.

Those cues have all been released. Most of the music from the first three films has been released, albeit in varying quality. The Special Edition soundtracks are the most complete, but the sound quality on Empire and Jedi is awful, so there have been several projects to improve the sonics of those, of which ABC's is one of the most prominent.

Okay, really excited about the isolated score track!

It sounds like the cut was physically made to the original in the 80s, after the first home video incarnations, and every subsequent rendering of the film has reflected it.

Octorox said:

To those that have these, how do the V3 DVD versions upscaled by a good Blu-Ray player compare to the 720p Blu-Ray versions?

 They don't.

The colors. For example, the new version has warmer golden hue in the landing leg room, which is much bluer in all previous versions I've seen (including the '99 DVD).

You've already mentioned the biggest one; the director's cut has the cocoon sequence.

There are a few other moments, such as a different edit when Kane is in the egg chamber (in the director's cut the Space Jockey sequence and Kane's descent is cut differently, there is a shot where he puts his tether gun down),  the alien hitting Jones' box, but mostly the director's cut has a subplot about the tensions between Ripley and Lambert that wasn't part of the 1979 theatrical version — Lambert attacks Ripley outside of the medlab for attempting to quarantine the away team on Acheron (LV-426), and later Ripley calms Lambert after Dallas' death.

I think that the theatrical version is Ridley Scott's preferred cut of the film. Both versions are included on the Blu-ray (the Blu-rays have two versions for each of the four original Alien pictures).

That's always been a weird sequence in the film. However, when you see Frank and Jill in bed, aren't they at his hideout?

Also — there is foley throughout the end title in the clip posted above.

As much as I love “Farewell To Cheyenne,” that clip seemed like a more natural end to the film than the version I'm familiar with (it's also not a reprise of the exact same cue that you just heard three minutes ago).

Is there a decent audio source for the German version? There's no dialogue in the end credits, but there is foley throughout, so you couldn't just track in “Jill's America” from the album to recreate it — it's a very different mix from what appears in the film anyway.

Did “Farewell To Cheyenne” indeed reprise as exit music?

I know that I'm late to the party on this discussion, but I was curious about the end title music as well. What was supposed to be there?

I've only ever seen the current American cut of the movie, but I've always felt that the film would work a lot better without that shot. Especially given the lighting and music in Harmonica's second introduction in the tavern scene.

Was the Dolby Digital track in stereo? If the movie-only LD track was sharing the analog channels with the AC-3 track, it would only be in mono (but still might be worth having if the fidelity is better than the DVD's track).

Was the commentary track on the Director's Cut based on the one from the PSE but with new material recorded for the extended footage, or is it a completely separate commentary with the same people, à la Robocop?

I will add my voice to the multitudes chiming in: this is a really exciting project. While I have lamented the replacement of the theatrical with the Director's Cut, I didn't realize how much I missed this version until this thread.

It was, after all, the 1984 cut which won all o' them there awards.

jimbotron235 said:

I assume it would be PCM, yes?  It never hurts to include a lossless track of the original mix.  I'll listen to that and the 1997 mix to see if there are any differences besides the surround.

Supplementary audio on laserdiscs was recorded on the stereo FM analog tracks, which, while not PCM, might be a better sounding source than a lossy Dolby Digital track.

The PSE (which was in CLV as well) couldn't fit an isolated track because it had the commentary on one analog channel and the Dolby AC-3 audio on the other.

The original PG rated version would also be more family-friendly than the R rated director's cut. The original cut of this movie had a better balance of comedy and drama, and introduced a lot of people young and old to the music of Mozart, it's a shame the only way to watch it in anything close to state-of-the-art is in its overlong, more adult version.

I would suggest, if possible, including the Pioneer Special Edition laserdisc's PCM Dolby Surround track and commentary? I don't know if anybody has already ripped these, but the LD's PCM track is really nice, especially for the music. That LD also had a Dolby AC-3 track that I assume is the same as what appeared on the DVD.

Let me see if I can find the ones that stuck out to me.

While ideally the filmed footage would be shown at full width, there are a few moments where the compositions are severely vertically cramped, implying that something else might be going on there.

It is possible that while much of the filmed footage was indeed widescreen safe, every once and a while they may have had to zoom in to filmed footage to account for missing sets, boom mics and other anomalies that might not have been noticed when shown in 4:3.

To be fair, most of this happens in the first season.

I do hope that a Blu-ray release of B5 would do something about the effects sequences and offered as an alternative, but I expect such an undertaking would be cost prohibitive without a Star Trek-like franchise juggernaut behind it.

The blu-ray release of Farscape has standard definition video from the 576i PAL video master tapes, so it presents only a marginal (but noticeable) improvement over the DVD (the sound, however is in DTS-MA and is a distinct improvement over anything else). There was no real restoration involved, only a good mastering of the best available source of the completed episodes, as all of the visual effects were rendered in standard def.

Babylon 5 presents another problem entirely. Ever since the DVDs, the shows have been cropped to 16:9, supposedly the way the series was “always intended” (sound familiar?). This not only makes all the zoomed in special effects shots look godawful, it compromises the compositions of the filmed portions as well. There are several episodes where it is clear that there is supposed to be more picture information above and below the frame.

A blu-ray release would either have to involve re-rendering all of the special effects sequences for high def (which would most likely be cost prohibitive), or they'd have to go the Farscape route, and present the shows in standard def in the aspect ratio they were originally aired in. I would love it if they did the latter, but I don't really think it would ever happen.

Feallan said:

Harmy's prints?

 I believe he was admiring the whorls on Harmy's fingertips. To each their own…

worov said:

Harmy, I just watched 2.5 for the first time last night (downloaded from the spleen) and I want to thank you for the update. Until now I sticked to 2.1. The improvement is indeed amazing.

I noticed that at some point during the credits the music repeats over and over. It happens after the original credits, when the despecialization credits start, when you thank the members of this forum.

 This did not happen on my MKV.

Yeah, SW '77 looks much better than it has any right to. I can't believe you got that much out of that little. Fantastic job!

I donated this morning… very happy to see the progress!

The limitations of a 192 kb/s Dolby Digital track as compared to the LPCM stereo track are pretty apparent to me whenever I hear the music. It is true that how important this will be is up to the tastes of the individual. In my case, the music is one of the main things I watch Star Wars for, so it is very important.

But objectively speaking, it is a fact that the LPCM track is of better quality than the lossy version derived from it.

YES!!!

msycamore said:

Well, we don't even need someone like Kurtz explaining it to us, the scene as it plays out in the original film is very simple and speaks for itself. You need to be a brainless toddler if you don't understand what's going on in that scene.

Ultimately that's why this particular change is so indicative of the problems with the Special Editions… unlike some of the other sequences, it was an alteration that was clearly NOT what was originally intended in '77, and it was poorly executed in all versions… and all arguments to the contrary just end up sounding condescending because Lucas is making it about us not being able to suss out what happened in this extremely straightforward scene.

Knightmessenger said:

But I maintain the best official retail version you can get is the 2006 dvd. (or 2008 box set, it's the same discs from 2006 into thinner cases.) It is by far the best single pre 1997 source you can find and is way better than the 1993-95 laserdiscs or vhs can output.

 …except for the sound. The LPCM soundtracks on the laserdiscs sound much, much better than the anemic Dolby Digital track on the DVDs.

I was kind of wondering if at that conference, they all learned how to counter Vader's Force choke and were all taught to just play along when he tried to kill them, apply fake facial hair, and effect a diffuse transgalactic accent to avoid being recognized after resuming their posts.