Hmm...I've listened to some of the early DVD with this mix and LOVE how they the Dolby Surround PCM on the extended CLV LD sounds. I'm interested to see what we turn up.
Anybody?
Welcome back! (to the fight...or forum obsession...not to mention off topic madness.)
AntcuFaalb said:
News just came in that a close friend of mine, Ty (disclord@LDDb), has died.
He's the reason I have the Runco LJR-II.
This project will be dedicated to his memory.
Fuck. :-(
Son of a...
This is really unexpected. He was easily one of the most knowledgeable Film/AV people I have ever encountered online or in person (and I've met/known a LOT, including Oscar winners)
This is what I posted over there:
This is...really unexpected and very sad. I feel as if there are already conversations about our favorite topics I will never have.
We are a very small tight knit community on here, and I cannot even count the number of times Disclord revealed valuable and very detailed information on topics that even myself as a lifelong film devotee and film school grad had no clue about. (Such as the RAIDERS mix originally being in the abandoned VistaSonic format or all the varied usages of Sensurround)
His posts were always warm and friendly and down to earth which is not always a paramount on the Internet.
He will be sorely missed and even though most of us only knew him through the lddb, will always be the Disc Lord.
...
Getting back to the topic at hand, I've been looking at a Canopus ADVC box (recommended by Vidiot over on SHTV) but there are various editions, I lack Firewire, and I have no idea about it having a comb filter.
I would say to do the LD PCM as it is, since we've had no copy done losslessly and the LD is very expensive/hard to come by.
Got a great deal on an M-audio 24-6 card only to find that my PC only has PCIe x1 slots. Are there any recommended cards with this newer connector?
Full analysis coming later.
I finally did it.
All five, in order. Item off of childhood to-do list finally!! Prior to this I had only seen the original and Conquest all the way through and bits and pieces of the others.
POTA-A groundbreaking sci-fi classic that is surprising in its effectiveness to this date. Most important is that it is a small movie, a film that was very risky and yet was able to overcome the negative connotations of sci-fi being B-material by utilizing great performers, layering different writer's opinions through numerous story drafts and most importantly by having a hand at the helm who was totally involved with setting the audience on a foreign territory. It is director Schaffner's insistence upon alienating the audience with Col. Taylor and reliance on new wave techniques in key scenes that keeps the film fresh after all this time.
4/4. In the same year as 2001, a small lesser budgeted film with vastly inferior ape makeup captured the hearts and minds of countless individuals with definite societal criticism. And of course...of freaking course you see Mr. Serling's name involved in the writing. It fits entirely with the way his wonderful mind worked.
Beneath-A strange one. It really feels like the leftover 20-30% they couldn't fit in the first film plus a complete rehash of the original entry in a hour microcosm or so. The feeling is rushed and almost TV-ish in places, due to the studio's insistence for saving money. Franciscus is actually one of the best parts of the film as Brent, who is NOT a Taylor clone but actually a man struggling to grasp this new world being played by a man desperately struggling to make his character mean something in a lifeless script. If you could simply remove the POTA rehash and get right to the final act with the mutants, it would work much better. Overall one cannot escape the rushed quality, especially those awful pull over ape masks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But the ending is a killer, though handled a bit amateurishly thus preventing the full effect of chilling darkness.
I struggle with this because it has many flaws, but still despite all of them is at least a solid 3/4.
Escape-A return to forthright thinking man's sci-fi, featuring arguably the single greatest moment of screenwriting story innovation. (Topping even Goldfinger's change of the novel's Fort Knox robbery to its irradiation. Oh wait, Paul Dehn also co-wrote that!) It is a brilliant way to continue the ending of the previous film and reenter a parable akin to Boulle's original novel albeit reversed. Of course the reduced budget meant we don't leave L.A. but once you get past that, Escape is a genuinely warm film that takes on even more significance in the the final third when the apes must go on the run from Victor Newman. (Sorry! I just couldn't help it!!)
I just wish it didn't feel so constrained due to budget. 3.5/4
Conquest was the first Apes adventure I ever saw. Even at age 8 the revised ending felt a touch weakened after the events that had gone on through the course of the story. But in it's uncut form the original intent is fully restored, and makes for a small but biting picture.
Soapbox time: Sure it may be short, very low budget, and the third sequel BUT the levels of commentary are so deep, the direct parallels to the rising tensions in the late 60's/early 70's so blatant, and the story so well focused despite a short runtime that the effectiveness of Conquest is never diluted. In fact, it is not only my favorite but arguably as good as if not even better the original.
It is Roddy McDowall's picture. In a tour-de-force performance, he runs the gamut from innocence to enslavement to outrage to conspiring and leading the ape rebellion-all as the son of his original character and in full Ape makeup. And people think these pictures don't mean anything! Good grief, if anyone else did this sans makeup they'd win dozens of awards.
The Blu-ray finally presents this forgotten film in it's intended form. I'd love to see a lossless mono track made, or a print struck of this for theatrical release as a pipe dream.
4/4. This is one of my favorite sci-fi films. When you're older the rebellion is unmistakably presented to mirror the race riots and newsreel coverage of Vietnam.
Battle-Not anywhere near as bad as many claim, but I did see the fully extended BD version. It's very low budget and underdeveloped, but on the whole never downright bad. The series could have easily ended with the previous entry but it was nice to see at least an attempt at closing the story.
Because they really had to work hard with no money, I felt appreciative and enjoyed the film far more than had the problems simply been due to laziness.
3/4. There were at least references made to continue the story cycle and connect the films. Plus more Caesar which is always good, and the return of the lovely Culp from Conquest who I just always found intriguingly creepy for some reason.
The slipcase BD box is a must for around $15. Transfers finally up to snuff all around and (lossy) original mono finally for all five!
Tack said:
I'm going to take a minute to talk about one of my favorite films and my uncanny habit of finding REALLY good showings of it; Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
First, my personal history with the film. One night, I came across the last half of it on AMC, and was totally mesmerized by it. I eventually caught the whole thing, and fell almost hopelessly in love with it.
A couple of years ago, I actually went to Devil's Tower itself. And, albeit on a 20 inch CRT monitor, I and fifteen others actually WATCHED the film itself at the foot of the mountain. It was one of my favorite film experiences ever.
Then, last night, I went to a showing at the Alama Drafthouse. Oh. My. God!
OK, first of all, we were shown the Duck Dodgers in the 24th1/2 Century cartoon right before. Awesome. Second, the print was... a print! And it was gorgeous, and epic, and had character. And, third... I ought to explain.
A couple months ago I went to a similar showing of Jaws, and there there was a guy who had brought a large collection of Jaws related memorabilia. It inspired me to do the same here, especially since I actually own a couple Starlog issues with Close Encounters-related stories and the Marvel comic. So, I brought them. This got me way farther than I expected.
Apparently word got around the ushers, and eventually... I got to look at the print myself! Not to mention, I had a great conversation with the projectionist about the art of real film being in decline and the replacing of it by digital prints.
And, if you're wondering what I think of the film after all this... It's still one of my favorite films.
Sometimes, it all just somehow inexplicably comes together.
I'd probably end up living in the Drafthouse if I ever get the chance to go. ;)
It'd be nice to see the original CEot3K on the big screen. Like this: (from the annual German 70mm festival last year. I want to cry every time I see photos of each year's event.)
Doing head to head comparisons between lossy and lossless sources can at times be confusing, but even when the difference is relatively indistinguishable keep in mind the the mp3 format by it's design will eliminate parts of the the original source. That's one of the reasons I went lossless years ago and never looked back.
Of course you have to take loudness compression, source used, fidelity and a whole other host of factors into account-but at least you don't have to worry about losing anything.
Headphones are easier for critical listening, and in the case of doing any video work can b a godsend, provided you have some decent phones to work with. After years of film school and seeing everyone on-set (and even famous people now) with crappy pairs that have no detail whatsoever, I got fed up and tried to get something for both work and music.
The Sonys you have now Harmy are the upgrade for the old Sony MDR-150s. They have a decent bit of bass to them but overall are severely lacking in detail. The MDR V6 CatBus mentioned (also a similar model the 7506) are Sony's gold standard and have been favored by many in the A/V world for general work since the 70's. The design has never changed all that much, and they still hold up well today. (I auditioned the new model when getting some new phones last year).
What I currently use is good for both A/V and music, the Sennheiser HD380-pro, an upgrade to the old 280pro workhorse I used in college radio. These are very flat in response and much more comfortable than many monitoring headphones, combined with a very good range for highs and especially a clear defined low end. Thus you have little to no coloring of sound. The coiled cable is ideal for working, and they really don't require an amp so plugging straight to onboard audio works fine.
Didn't know that about mpc-hc. Does it not do the full HD codec?
My PC speakers are old Logitech 5.1s and like most PC speakers, you're never going to get very much out of them. Headphones for working and then home theater/music setup for the full effect.
I do need to upgrade my simple sound card, but overall if you configure everything right and have decent components, it should be fine.
BTW, the simplest way to listen to audio on a PC is the magical little program foobar2000.
The bit about the sources is suspect for me. But then again anything regarding the OT gets taken by me with many grains of salt.
Here's hoping, but in the meantime no blue milk is being spilled.
SilverWook said:
Coppola did have the Apocalypse Now neg cut to make Redux though?
I don't think so, but he then had the new prints made with a digital soundtrack and printed in Tech IB's limited revival. Then for all successive video masters, one was generated from this 2001 project and for seamless branching merely conformed to the 1979 original cut.
I don't mind the 2001 process, but I do mind the subsequent ignoring of the original film that is a masterpiece both with it's original look, feel and innovative split surround Dolby mix.
And also, I find it interesting about the reports of OOT prints still being circulated in 1993 or so and then being pulled, with the same people complaining of the SE prints being very contrasty and disappointing in comparison to the prints that had still been in circulation a few years prior.
I still don't believe the "originals are destroyed" mantra, and if worse came to worse the materials prepared for the SE would have been the best available elements in 1995 or so, and be the most suitable for a new presentation of the OOT.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing you can't fix."
No one will ever have that kind of fearless insolence again.
Why does this only get tougher?
deusxanime said:
I created an xdelta patch for going from the pre-fix version to the final fixed version (with correct audio labels, etc.). If you have the old version and don't want to redownload ~20GB or muck about with mkv editors, you can use this. Just extract it to the same folder as the mkv video file and run the .bat file. You need to make sure to have the same name as originally downloaded or to edit the .bat file if you've changed it. And be sure to have another ~20 GB available before starting as it will create a whole new file!
Dropbox link, hopefully will work here
I tested and verified, the fixed version should match the official md5 of 1e34878403b05924f71354e961016fce after completion.
Thanks for this!!!
The sheer increase in overall detail and recovering the backgrounds, fine detail and skin tones from the botched (again) BD is alone reason for looking at the Despecialized, but here with the new color timing ESB finally begins to look again like a 1980 motion picture as it should and not some modern video with no life to it.
And having both the 1980 stereo AND the 16mm mono track in lossless just seals the deal. Harmy, you have seriously mined for everything out of Bespin here, another stellar job to match SW 2.5.
Raiders and Temple are masterpieces and like SW-ESB I alternate between which I like better.
1. Raiders
2. Temple
3. Tired Crusade
4. The MacGregor novels I've read, and I'd really like to read more.
5. Fate of Atlantis
6. Young Indy
7. Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (A better Indy film in the same year of that other film THAT NEVER HAPPENED)
Negative Infinity. That piece of garbage that never happened, that in a parallel universe was easily one of the worst things ever unleashed on paying audiences.
DominicCobb said:
And Then There Were None (1945) - I haven't posted my LMS in awhile, thought I'd pick it back up. Has anyone else seen this film? It is great. A
The ONLY good version of Christie's best novel. And even it makes some changes.
From my own list, all star ratings out of 4 and "C" indicating all-time classic:
Moonrise Kingdom* (WTF?)
The Great Escape (Criterion LD 2nd issue corrected PCM mono)****
King Kong (Criterion CLV)****C
Patriot Games (DVD DTS)**
Clear and Present Danger (DVD DTS)**1/2
Batman (1989-June 23rd-25th anniversary, LD Dolby Stereo, CRT set extra dark to match prints)****
Robin and Marian**
The Sum of All Fears**1/2
Veronica Mars***
Son of Kong****
The Matrix (DVD)****
The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)***
Escape From New York (sporv preservation)***
Mighty Joe Young***1/2/****
Raiders of the Lost Ark (LD Dolby Stereo)****C
X-Men Days of Future Past**1/2
Broken Arrow (1950)***1/2
Goldfinger (Criterion print sourced banned CAV LD)****C
Garden State**1/2
The Good The Bad and the Ugly (1998 LD US cut)****C
Superman: The Movie (1978 theatrical LD WS with Dolby stereo original mix, CRT with black masking bars)****
Our Man in Havana****
A Few Good Men (LD Dolby Stereo)**1/2
Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace (Ady’s theatrical with LD 5.1 Dolby EX and masking bars)***
The Greatest Show on Earth 1/2 (TERRIBLE)
Attack of the Clones (DVD Dolby EX CRT with matte)**1/2
Holiday****C
Holiday (1938) is a forgotten classic and my favorite Grant-Hepburn vehicle.
Fantastic news, I'm finally grabbing the HB re-timed version and can't wait to really dig into it.
Regarding Supercop, I've only seen the original HK version and a few minutes of my Criterion US LD. I assume it would only be possible to make a hybrid HD-SD upscale to recreate the HK cut with improved visuals. I like both this and the uncut fourth film despite them falling short of the first two films in the series, and hate what was done over here in the States, making them goofy and less like the silent classics Chan adores.
Thanks for the mkv, hoping to enjoy this experience tonight.
Harmy said:
OK, I just received a few raw ESB shots from Puggo and they really confirmed for me, that releasing these projects as DVD, especially DVD5, is a really bad idea - if the raw files were upscaled to 720p and then encoded using some non-prehistoric codec, they could look great! For me, the PG and PSB DVDs are pretty much unwatchable, but what makes them unwatchable, isn't the fact, that they are grainy 16mm transfers with a lot of dirt in them - all that actually adds to the cool factor of this project - it's the ever-present super-ugly mpeg2 compression. See for yourselves:
http://postimg.org/image/4bngio7pn/full/
(Top: The PSB DVD Bottom: The raw file)
Holy...it never occurred to me that the simple DVD-5 size compression could do so much, but it makes sense. I agree with Puggo that it's an easy way to send it out but at the same time I would love a simple mkv or similar version without the mpeg2.
Despite this, these are my favorite versions and I eagerly await ROTP.
I've been looking at various options, may just have to trade off to a local specialty shop etc. After digging through some boxes I found roughly 150 unopened figures, playsets, special editions and others which would mean some massive shipping on ebay.
Really need to get a bunch of this gone. No one here is interested in a bunch of 1995 and onward Hasbro material are they?
BR should be pretty easy. For the US theatrical simply remove the additional bits from the Criterion International PCM, and insert them into the Director's Cut PCM to reestablish Dolby Surround PCM for both the US 1982 and a customized DC.
I too agree that the DC with reinserted violent bits is best overall in feeling with the 1982 release before going to the fully spiffed up and blue/teal Final Cut.
BTW, how do you guys go about your LD audio captures? Here's my query thread in how-to's: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Simple-and-cheap-capture-method-for-LD-with-bit-perfect-digital-audio-on-PC/topic/16892/
How does one do this and not break the bank? I've got a big number of LDs (good grief I have nearly 150 LDs!) I'd like to capture the audio from and re-sync to DVD etc., and both a small budget and a small decent desktop to work with.
For video how well does this work?: http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-TVW750USB-ATI-Theater-Tuner/dp/B002UOUQ08/ref=pd_cp_e_1
Primarily I'm interested in the audio side for right now, but have no idea how to proceed as far as either external unit or new soundcard. (It'd would be nice to have something for doing my own needledrops later on.)
It has to be the old work, and the samples likely from the higher generation of files closer to the straight '97 scan with some revision. The alluded to 20 Bond films at 4K is also wrong (only 10 were 4K, the rest scrubbed video masters) and the shot of Goldfinger is not from the Lowry edition.
Glad to see one of us got to Atlanta for the screening (haven't been to that theater in ages), sad to hear the BD has hit the DCP rounds.
False alarm folks...I'm out of it for a little while and everybody starts getting delusions of grandeur... ;)
I have both DYS discs and will happily help out with the mono. You need the earlier Image disc for the last line, and the new BD or some other source for the correct uncut flashback cue.
TFC is one of my big mono wishes, and I've never been able to find it. (like Bullitt) The LDs are stereoized, and the new remastered BD includes a "mono" track but I haven't gotten to sample it yet. The one LD I've wanted to check is the I and II double feature but I've never been able to confirm the track is indeed mono.
Hi all, after doing some digging I realized I have far more SW toys than I ever realized. Sometime when I was a kid in the 90’s I got the collecting bug and wound up boxing up more unopened figures, sets and vehicles than I ever played with.
My question is how do you sell/trade this stuff properly? There doesn’t seem to be a huge value for POTFII and beyond merchandise, and I’m not about to dump my collection on craigslist. I’d really like to do something other than sell one by one on ebay, because there’s actually quite a bit.
Any ideas? I’ve been looking some items up online and in my old 2005 collector’s guide, but don’t think there’s really that much value. Some listings are insane that some people come up with. It’d be nice to have this in a good home of a collector, so that it would all be appreciated.
Checking through, my old collection ranges through POTFII through the end of AOTC/saga eras. 90% is unopened in box in largely perfect condition. Some things are opened but with all pieces and in original box.
Any help would be appreciated.
I have the extracted m2v, ac3 from the DVD and theater dts file but am not sure how to go about recombining them.
I have no idea how to do this on my small home PC. What I'm looking to do is to remux the theatrical DTS of The Matrix with the original 1999 DVD and have both it and the old Dolby 5.1 to compare to on my home system. I have the wonderful sporv version but no BD burner currently, so went back to my old disc and thought it would be nice to crank the DTS on my old rig.
SilverWook said:
Are you sure the VHS isn't open matte? I did an A/B with the LD the first time Batman was shown on broadcast tv, and there was more picture information top and bottom.
Also worth mentioning Batman was one of the first movies to hit video only a few months after it was in theaters, (and priced to sell) so they might have rushed the video transfer to crank out enough cassettes in time to meet holiday demand. The LD didn't come out until well into 1990, IIRC. I recall being frustrated it wasn't out by Christmas '89, as the VHS was being sold everywhere you looked. It even came out on Betamax.
Not the first time a studio made us poor Laserdisc fans wait longer for a blockbuster movie. ;)
Crap-you're right! Just checked the LD against the VHS, you gain a bit of room on top and bottom and lose a ton on the sides. For example in the shot of Joker staring at Vicki's picture, in the open VHS you can see the table with photograph pieces and a lot of empty headroom. In the matted LD the frame is balanced with the missing side information and framed headroom.
The VHS is really brightened. Even with my custom dark Batman settings, it's night and day with the LD.