captainsolo

I started trials of some of those programs but DVD ae just locks up.

This may be a simple enough question but I’m trying to extract audio tracks from BDs via BD drive and my usual method won’t work. I like to rip commentary tracks to listen to on the go and use DVD audio extractor for DVDs. It will work for blu-rays but will not work on any discs with BD+ encoding which most have.

Is there an easy solution to do this? I’m not looking to do anything else but simply extract the commentaries to add to my folder of DVD ones I regularly listen to.

The trouble is that there are no official high quality sources for the theatrical mixes for us to experience. Everything is a recreation, conversion, optical capture or early LD release and is the best we can manage.

If you could playback a direct version of the original 4 track master nothing would surpass it. This is the source sound negative mix that the 70mm and stereo would have been made from. Going to the printmasters for each would be the best option for the specific mixes if the actual source was unavailable. It has been alluded to that LFL has every mix perfectly archived and is how so many mono mix elements made it into the 97SE mix.

The 93 mix was an attempt to beef up the tracks for home audio but it must always be understood that they were made with the home cinema format limitations of 1993 in mind.

ray_afraid said:

The worst thing about the Nolan Batman movies is Batman.
The world here is so realistic that when he shows up in that costume it makes me laugh out loud.

Nolan doesn’t seem to like Batman and the films really have a different sort of character at the center.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Perhaps I’d like those movies more if they weren’t disguised as Batman films.

Yep.

TDKR is by far and large the worst Batman film ever made in terms of characterization alone. One thing you can say about Batman and Robin is that it does have Batman’s character nailed down properly.

To thumb my nose at modern critics:

The Tod Browning directed 1931 English language Dracula is better than the overly praised Spanish language version.
In every way save one which I will mention below.

The Spanish version is miraculously still with us and amazing to see for the differences. Yes the camerawork is more inventive and staged more impressively-but they had the benefit of a scorned producer who wanted to best the regular production and the ability to screen the rushes every day of what the English language crew had shot. What the English language version has is atmosphere and potency even though no matter what the story is based around the stage play story and not the original novel.

The benefit the Spanish version has is that it didn’t have to face the heavy censoring board and maintains scenes cut from the English language version. Outside of the wonderfully vivid Lupita Tovar and the film’s version of Renfield the rest of the cast is really no very good and it becomes a chore to sit through this version most of the time because it doesn’t have the spark of the English version. And Dracula in the Spanish version is pretty terrible as his appearance induces laughter no matter how hard I fight it.

This is a great thread. I have a shirt or two of modern stuff but still hung onto my one remaining vintage shirt which is a tye dye battle of endor. Unfortunately its too small but I still love it.

canofhumdingers said:

I know many more versions have been made since, but this was the original “han shot first” t-shirt, sold by pvponline. I had this one for many years and it’s now part of a quilt made from some of my favorite worn out t shirts.

In fact, I just remembered I had an old photo of me wearing this available. I don’t mean to sound boastful but I am kinda proud of this one. It’s me in the LoC holding the copyright deposit print of my favorite single reel of film ever made (reel 6 of ESB if its too small to read).

But wait a minute how did you get into the LoC?

A few years ago I started trying to keep up by adding books to my Goodreads account under an “owned” bookshelf. It’s a bit clunky to use that site but works decently enough for a rough cataloguing. This doesn’t have all of my multiple editions for certain things like James Bond novels and Hardy Boys collections.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/7572960-spencer?order=d&shelf=owned&sort=date_added

…I can’t say no to cheap books…it’s a weakness of sorts…

Jefferson put it best: “I cannot live without books.”

Thanks very much guys!!

I’m hoping to get some more things finished and uploaded very soon. And of course I’ve got to do some classic horror material for October.

Thank you!!!

I do it all the time without warning usually to nonfans who think I’m crazy. My favorite to pull and annoy people is when something is done and people ask why hem? Then I start with “he doesn’t like you” heavily accented and do the whole cantina confrontation where I exaggerate every character. I usually do my wacky versions of everyone including super whiny/angsty/superfast talking Luke.

What an incredible smell you’ve discovered is a favorite go-to. My best in the moment reference though was likely when I was working outside in the super cold when the wind started blowing and I got called for a status update over the walkie talkie. So of course I responded without missing a beat: “Echo 3 to Echo 7 Han ol buddy do you read me?-- Loud and clear kid what’s up. --I finished my circle I don’t pick up any life readings. --There isn’t enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser sensors are placed I’m going back. --Right I’ll be with you shortly there’s a meteorite that hit the ground near I want to check out won’t take long. (Make Tauntaun noises) Hey steady girl what’s the matter you smell something? (Make wampa roars)”

The response…priceless. They all thought I was mad. Soooo of course I kept doing more ESB dialogue to fill up the afternoon.

Wait you can hook a joystick to a ps4?

So if I’m seeing this correctly Squadrons plays like a mix of modern aerial dogfight deathmatches such as in certain COD titles, the space battles of Battlefront 2 2005 with maybe a dash of Rogue Squadron and the X-wing series?

I still like the ANH title and yes it’s totally to match the Flash Gordon serial chapters. But years ago I went back to just saying, writing and referring to the original film as Star Wars to differentiate the original 1977 release version.

Oh cool! Happy to see Zombie pop up somewhere. I still wish he hadn’t disappeared from the site.

Never use imdb for tech specs. They are notoriously wrong or inaccurate especially for sound.

Most of the time you have to go by era produced and credits on end titles or original posters and the like.

Generally mono for most films before the late 70’s. Stereo and multichannel mixes existed for large format films and roadshow engagements.
Dolby Stereo matrix would get used Post Star Wars on most standard releases unless they cheaped out and stayed mono.

thatguyakira123 said:

Where did you get a picture of that 1935 TCF Logo Positive?

Glad someone noticed!! That’s actually a photo I asked a projectionist buddy of mine to snap when he last ran a print of Grapes of Wrath. This was right around the time of the Disney buyout.

JadedSkywalker said:

I added The Spy Who loved me Laserdisc, Dr No Laserdisc, and Goldfinger Laserdisc from the Japan remastered series to my collection. I also had recently purchased from russia with love from the same series. Only Spy who loved me has its Obi and original seal.

Not sure if you did a video on those Captain Solo.

I also picked up the Man with the Golden Gun first issue for the double gatefold, its beautiful.

I’m working on a video for the letterbox Japanese series. Just trying to finish making all the comparisons first.

The original Johnston McCulley Zorro stories. I’m on Volume 5 of the bold venture press reprints and need to get the last one volume 6. Absolutely magical and the birth of all superhero storytelling. I never thought these would ever be fully collected like this.

I’m also making my through all the Batman novels and am currently reading Inferno.

Well that being said it does look amazing and is the best release on home video so far. It was actually the first Blu-ray I ever purchased long before I even had a Blu-ray player. The criterion LD also has an excellent transfer with the lovely exclusive extras but the modern restoration techniques on the Blu-ray really vaults ahead on vintage Technicolor. I cannot wait to see what this would look like in 4K!

Oh gosh yes the Flynn films are all time greats and the more you dig into his filmography the more you find unheralded gems outside the action swashbucklers and films with Curtiz.

Arguably his films with Walsh and Keighley are as rewarding and films like They Died With Their Boots On and Rocky Mountain are essential.

If I’m going official physical releases it’s usually the Fox SWE Laserdiscs-standard for ESB and ROTJ and the very hard to find Technidisc for SW. The latter is still sadly the best physical release of Star Wars in something resembling its original form period.
Sometimes I watch my JSC copy of SW and sometimes I get nostalgic and put on the Definitive Collection or SE boxsets. I grew up with the Faces and SE VHS tapes so seeing those in their best form on LD plus in the boxsets it took me years to acquire somewhat balances out that they’re not exactly the best way to watch the OT.

If I go to our wonderful Jedi utility belt of magic and am not looking at the modern achievements I watch the Puggo Grande Trilogy series of 16mm captures with mono audio.

There’s no reason. Really there isn’t. So many cult and genre films have special editions and new scans from boutique and even studio labels now that it’s ridiculous when classic titles cannot get the same treatment.

Almost any label would give anything to do a release. I’m sure if Arrow, Indicator, MOC or even Criterion made a deal for a limited print run that was only the theatrical editions it would sell out in a nanosecond and prove us right after all these years.

It’s just simply getting the powers that be convinced.

It could be as simple as this, particularly if the licensee wasn’t allowed to make new extras:

1. Brand new 4K or higher res scans without any monkey business and proper color grading. Now with 4K UHD there would also have to be a proper HDR grading pass as well.
2. Include all original theatrical audio mixes (35mm Dolby Stereo, Mono, 70mm Dolby Stereo. LFL has them all archived.) and the 85 and 93 home mixes most are used to. Leave the audio alone and do not subject the tracks to overzealous manipulation like remixing effects, de-noiseing, re-equalizing and nearfield remixing.
3. Properly encode the discs and max out the bitrate. This is important as a lot of discs usually don’t have good encodes.

That’s it. That’s all it takes. So really all it needs is the right person to say yes or care to even hear the pitch.

If it was Arrow or Indicator the boxset would have original art, every scrap of extras they could possibly get and be packed in a handsome slipbox like most of their sets at an affordable price. Arrow is now stepping into UHD so they could do it for both formats.

For example, the 1980 Flash Gordon (which I adore) is finally getting a new 4K restored transfer after years of the curummy old Blu-ray which made me always watch my Laserdisc copy instead. The full UK boxset release is 5 discs loaded with extras and a UHD version. All releases will have the original 2.0 Dolby Stereo and the 5.1 remix losslessly encoded. Arrow is doing a big SE release in the USA also in 4K UHD. This is because Studio Canal is doing catalog 4K restorations and actually releasing them to disc consistently unlike most. So now the film made because of SW’s success will have a better and more feature laden big release than the film that inspired it.

You know I ever could finish the old X-wing games due to the extreme difficulty and trying to learn the controls. Back in the day as a kid we didn’t have a super high end pc and in years since they were a pain to try and get running. Now that they’re workable again I may try to finish all of them but must confess I’ll probably go back to Rogue Squadron.

It’d be nice if they could make a proper fun flight combat game again.

As for the Arcade1Up cab it’s amazing they got the atari controller pretty close to original. But if I’m going to put money into a replica I’d rather just build a muticade and buy an Atari controller to somehow hook up for those games.

I did just before COVID get to try out a sitdown original machine for the first time in years…and to be honest despite the immersion aspect and stereo sound vastly prefer the standup for playing. The screen is more clearly visible and you can get a better score on the standup. However the dark plastic enclosure and stereo sound of the sitdown really still block off the outside world until you release the seat isn’t quite comfy and you’ve had to get down in the the seat and will have to get back up out of it again.

I’ve only gotten to play ESB in person like once. You don’t see them around so I never get to practice outside of MAME. Sometimes you see the accursedly hard ROTJ machine though.

I can’t remember how the idea first got in my head but it may have been the ROTJ novelization.
When young Obi-Wan is getting trying to resist the memory wipe in The Hidden Past he tries to hold onto specific memories one of which is his brother’s name being Owen.

Very true…but of course…Yesterday Was a Lie…Coming Soon to DVD!

ZkinandBonez said:

This is an interesting photo. I can see Lucas and Kurtz center-right, and someone’s fiddling with a projector in the back, so maybe they’re showing some dailies or a version of the cut or something like that?

People at projector: George said he wanted to show everyone the old Flash Gordon serials to go over something.
Other person realized that mistakenly they were given not Flash Gordon but Flesh Gordon…

Once again this thread and all these photos really warm my heart. One can almost feel the lips curling of all the British crew in the candids who didn’t believe in the film they were working on.

If not dealing with ebay scalpers:

US SWE trilogy should go for $15-30. JSCs are typically $25 and up per film. The definitive box can go for crazy money these days and is hard to find complete rot free. The Faces single film discs are the same master but on much better pressings-however they are CLV and have all the problems of the DC master.

Unfortunately SW LD prices are crazy these days. Most sellers jack up the price no matter which copy. In fact recently someone posted the original pan n scan time compressed LD for like $1,500 or something!