Try audacity. It's a freeware audio editor and combined with the ffmpeg plugins it should export flac as mp3 with little difficulty.
The final stage of Yavin runs at about 30% speed on my PC and the 1st Hoth stage runs about 25% faster than normal. Everything else works ok with some errors here and there. The last stages of endor on foot are so-so.
The more I dig into this and the more transfers I revisit, I think MGM simply used one master per film from 1989 onwards through the SE DVD.
The damage marks on each film I've seen are identical on every version. With each new release things got clearer and more detailed, but when the SEs were rolled out, they unfortunately were riddled with edge enhancement, some were cropped incorrectly (Dr. No, FRWL, Goldfinger, LALD, TMWTGG all cropped to 1.78:1) and then some of these issues had video/audio errors. (OHMSS, LALD, TLD, LTK and some others I think.) LALD even has the audio dropouts that were present on the first defective LD pressing.
But the colors were still spot on. I've played around with some of the UEs and both the color and detail are just gone. There's a definite softness that has crept in especially on the 70's era films. I don't really think that these can be improved all that much, especially since the Blu-ray 1080p images reveal much more and highlight definite differences from their SD counterparts. But although stronger, the Blus don't look the way they should.
Only some of the films were scanned at 4K. Dr. No-LALD and Moonraker. everything else came from a video master provded from MGM save for Goldeneye which was print sourced. This was likely a version prepared for a pan and scan due to the excessive cropping on the reissue.
The inherent softness in these really get me. Aside from losing the original color timing, Lowry just scrubbed out too much grain and detail.
And the Technicolor is completely gone. Gone!
And don't even get me started on the audio! The 5.1 remixes (both Dolby and DTS) are horrendous. Tinny audio, replaced music with remastered score, and full of unnecessary new elements and foleys. The uncompressed PCM on the Laserdiscs aside from being original has an unbelievable amount of extended dynamic range compared to everything else.
I just got it to run with their recommended settings. Some levels were really laggy and full of glitches, others were fine, and others ran on hyperspeed.
The lightsaber combat does not work well at all. I might try with a joystick.
Colonel rank. hmm...not bad for emulation.
I'm going to try and get this going. I haven't found a machine in ages.
I think I've accidentally shot the sign off before without realizing it. Good to know.
On Yavin and all other space levels, you have to hit the TIEs as soon as they come onscreen. As soon as they appear they will be in tight formation, and hitting one will usually get some damage to others nearby thus allowing you to take them down quicker. Plus you avoid their blasts this way and are able to maintain your shields for a better end bonus.
On this game, always the quicker the better. The accuracy can be saved for the on foot levels.
Straight to Hell-The Clash
1st side of Combat Rock.
Originally from Nashville TN, college in FL, now back in TN.
Wow, I thought I'd be the only OT'er in TN.
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/hardwarereviews/momitsu_bdp-899.htm
This is what DVDbeaver used but it looks like it had a firmware upgrade that removed the region free option. There was a US clone player but that's out of stock as well.
theprequelsrule said:
I think all the Hammer Dracula films are quite terrible. In fact, there were no good Dracula films between 1922 and 1977.
The later ones are really bad. Brides and Prince of Darkness are okay. Has Risen and Taste the blood have a few good elements but these are far outweighed by the bad. I think there are really only three Dracula films ever worth mentioning: the '31 Lugosi film, Nosferatu, and Horror of Dracula.
Here's everything since the Hammer Dracs: out of 4 stars
Dracula (1931) **** Problem riddled, but still classic. Watch with the sound turned way up for a different experience.
Dracula (Spanish version 1931) *** after hearing for years that this was the superior film, I finally sat down and watched through it. Technically it is superior, and some of the actors are a bit more vivid. But it is actually inferior to the English version because it lacks any charm. The Spanish Count Dracula is laughable. Running 20 minutes longer than its counterpart it becomes even tedious.
The Mummy (1932) **** Dracula in Egypt. Unforgettable.
The Mummy’s Hand **1/2 Enjoyable B-serial that features a Mummy.
The Mummy’s Tomb ** The Mummy goes to New England.
The Mummy’s Ghost *1/2
The Mummy’s Curse * Godawful. Incoherent. Mess. Gets one star only for the resurrection of the Princess from the swamps.
The Invisible Man **** A masterpiece of whimsical fantasy.
The Invisible Man Returns *** Vincent Price is the Invisible Man. Enough said.
Frankenstein **** Grows the Universal sound horror by leaps and bounds.
Bride of Frankenstein **** The greatest horror film of all time.
Son of Frankenstein **** Underrated classic.
The Ghost of Frankenstein ** Stupid.
The Old Dark House (1932) **** Another timeless Whale gem.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein **1/2 The final nail in the coffin for the monsters.
Submarine ** Silly pointless quasi-indie British film from Redbox. Don't you love family selections?
Mystery of the Wax Museum **1/2 A snappier version of House of Wax that has such a haunting use of two-strip Technicolor. Superior in every way to the remake. Fun.
House of Wax **1/2 Other than Vincent Price this is a highly forgettable piece of 50's schlock. Low budget, rushed shooting schedule and a 3D film made by a director who couldn't see it.
The Mad Magician **1/2 A better version of HoW with Price as a magician in 3D B&W. Out of print but available online.
House of Usher *** The first of the Corman Poes is a bit stagey but effective.
The Pit and the Pendulum ***1/2 Diverging from straight Poe adaptation gives this story new life. Delicious.
The Premature Burial **1/2 Ray Milland steps in for Price well, but the film is rather asleep at the wheel.
Tales of Terror **1/2 3 Poes in one leaves each feeling rather unfulfilled. The Black Cat is the only worthwhile segment. Humorous Price vs. Peter Lorre.
The Haunted Palace ** Cheesy, ineffective story from Lovecraft dressed to seem like another Poe film. Silly, but the Price performance is great as always.
The Masque of the Red Death ***1/2 The best of the Poes, shot by Nic Roeg in England on a greater budget and schedule.
The Tomb of Ligeia *** The most intricate Poe film, but lacks in dramatic punch by the end.
Crossplot *** Essentially like an extended episode of The Saint. ;)
Dr. No (Connery Collection LD) **** print sourced with cue marks visible.
From Russia With Love (Connery Collection LD)**** this edition is directly print sourced with lots of noise (hiss, pops, crackle, reel changes) on the soundtrack.
Goldfinger (Connery Collection LD-from a print!!!)**** print sourced.
Thunderball (1989 LD with British mono)**** Has the British mono with different dialogue and alternate Thunderball end title music.
Darth Mallwalker said:
captainsolo said:
So to find a LD copy, is the only way to tell on the cover if the disc is the Technidisc pressing is if it says "Made in the USA"?
No, "Made in U.S.A." on the cover isn't enough. Such a cover might also contain shrinking-ratio discs from Pioneer's California factory.
I've seen a couple copies here and there. Is there a specific mint marking to look for?
The new transfer has a colder look with much better coloring. It looks like how I always envision the film, and the SE DVD just looks more unfinished.
I don't think the 5.1 on the SE discs were remixed, but I've only seen the Goldeneye SE disc years ago. Image is indeed uncropped, but the color palette leaves something to be desired.
I actually like the UE tighter framing for most of the shots because it makes things seem tense and more focused.
I'm looking to get a new PC for a job but would like to have something so that I can eventually do video capturing/processing/editing. My budget now is $250-300 so I realize that I can't jump straight into higher end components yet. Is it possible to build a base machine in my budget to get me through things now, and add a new component piece by piece?
(video card/Sound card/capture cards/extra HDs/etc.)
I've never built a PC before. I've had friends who built theirs and gave me some recommendations but I feel like I'm kinda jumping off the deep end a bit.
Should I simply buy a new desktop? If so, what would be the most important thing to get in a new machine so that I can do editing later?
Any suggestions would be very welcome.
As soon as I build my new PC, this project was something I had wanted to do with Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies. But then my LD player went on the fritz too...
I've only heard one DTS LD, but boy was it something! (DTS of The Shadow) The sound is quite good, and these are all supposedly original theatrical mixes.
I did all the Hammer Draculas...finally seeing all of them in consecutive order. WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF??
The Brides of Dracula-No Dracula, odd vampire substitute but is still classic Hammer. Peter Cushing is brilliant but doesn't return until the last three sadly. 3 vampire bites seared by a hot iron out of 4 rubber bats.
Dracula: Prince of Darkness-Lee returns for this very classy sequel that unfortunately is the first of the series to suffer from acute boredom. I saw this as a kid and it certainly doesn't play as well now. Aside from Dracula getting resurrected, the only other memorable moment is the death scene (which really is great.) 2.5 icy balls out of 4.
Dracula Has Risen From the Grave-Change in directors made this one have a different feel-mostly in the visuals. The major overtone is religion so we have a priest, atheist, and Monsignor for Dracula to play with. Dracula goes on the first of his wonderfully boring "revenge" plots and people get knocked off one by one. 2 holy balls out of 4.
Taste the Blood of Dracula-Brilliant first act that was all psycholgical...and it all suddenly grids to a screeching halt to become yet another Dracula getting revenge movie. Then it also lifts untold amounts from Has Risen. And to add insult to injury the ending is confusing, stupid, and absolutely incomprehensible. 2 balls out of 4.
Scars of Dracula-intended as a reboot for the series. Essentially a whole new Drac film, but all of the budget and interest has gone completely. This is really terrible. Terrible rubber bats, a scene where Dracula randomly stabs the living hell out of a girl vampire for NO APPARENT REASON!, the most gore of any Hammer film, more cardboard stock characters that are even worse this time around, and a stupid death for the Count. At least the first 10 minutes are ok. Dracula is resurrected, girl found dead with marks in neck, villagers storm castle and burn it down, and they return to their homes to find all of the women and children slaughtered. But afterwards it's terrible. Even Lee isn't any good. And when he is awful you know it's BAD. 1 gory ball out of 4.
Dracula A.D. 1972-The one I swore I'd never watch again. It's Dracula for a few minutes and he is killed as always. Then he arises again in 1972 with yet another revenge plot! (cue funky Blaxploitation music.) Awful, but at least there is a plot and budget. Peter Cushing returns and is the only reason to watch this terrible mess. 1 groovy ball out of 4.
The Satanic Rites of Dracula-I'd never seen this one before and had wondered why it had lapsed into the public domain. Somehow this is simultaneously better and worse than A.D. 1972. Part espionage movie, part cultists movie, part Dracula movie. The budget looks to have been two sticks of used chewing gum. Truly god-awful yet it has an ingeniously clever and diabolical plot. (Drac reinvents himself as a Howard Hughes type reclusive millionaire and recruits top government officials to aid his scheme of releasing a new deadly strain of plague that will decimate all populations. He does this because he wants to die and take the whole world with him.) Once again, only Peter rescues this dreadful mess. And Dracula gets hurt by a tree. No, I'm not kidding. 1 satanic ball out of 4.
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires-the last of the cycle, a co-production with the Shaw Brothers. That's right, Kung-fu vampires! But even without Dracula and being so obviously bad, it works much better than the three previous films. Good ridiculous fun. Cushing is again a joy. 1.5 kung-fu balls out of 4.
And for some odd reason, I started writing reviews of these on my blog...
The Blu was the uncut Australian version (Hence the MM2 title card) in remarkably clear video. The only big problem with the disc was the fact that the color timing was completely lost and the desert became clear with big blue skies instead of the dark browns of a wasteland. The original US DVD has the proper color.
Image comparison: (US DVD vs. Blu)
http://www.blu-ray.com/images/reviews/upload/cc1.png
http://www.blu-ray.com/images/reviews/upload/cc2,jpg.jpg
http://www.blu-ray.com/images/reviews/upload/cc3.jpg
The 5.1 remix is only 640 kbp/s and there is no theatrical audio. The commentary was a nice touch though.
Hound of the Baskervilles (1958)-this is always how I start my Halloween viewing. Classic fun.
3 Hammer balls out of 4.
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)-great film that hasn't lost any impact, but is in need of restoration work. Hate the imposed bookends and narration.
4 seed pods out of 4.
The War of the Worlds (1953)-surprisingly effective version of the book, completely transplanted into 50's Americana. Brilliant Technicolor and I don't think anyone could ever forget the sound of the heat ray or skeleton beam.
3.5 balls out of 4.
Horror of Dracula- Ah...the big one. This is the film that truly made Hammer a force to be reckoned with and is one of the most important horror films ever made. I love it. I've loved it's peculiar blend of subtlety, drama and action ever since I saw a highly edited TV version as a kid on a late night feature. Just brilliant.
What I would like to see is the 2007 BFI restoration. I've really had it with the old bare bones WB DVD. Not only is it cropped, but cropped pretty badly, losing much of the top of every frame. This is especially noticeable during those dramatic shots of the Count, where his head will be half cut off. It's a small single layer, low bitrate and most awfully drained of color. These were famous for their dripping Technicolor.
I remembered Zombie playing around with the VLC player controls and so did a little bit of tinkering with just saturation and contrast. This was done in about two seconds.
Original:
Saturation and Contrast barely increased:
See what I mean?
In any case, this is the best Hammer horror alongside Curse of Frankenstein (which also has a similar fate on DVD sadly.) and IMO is the finest Dracula film excepting the 1931 film and Nosferatu.
4 badass Peter Cushings out of 4 libraries needing indexing...
Also, I'm finally going to go through every Hammer Dracula in order...why exactly I don't know...I didn't think A.D. 1972 needed to ever be watched by anyone...
http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/film-fading-to-black
It had to come someday. Well, I'd already been scouring classifieds for a good 16mm rig anyway...so this doesn't change much for me but it still really stings. There is no art or life to cinematography any more. And there likely never will be again.
It's cold. Technical. Processed. Fluorescent. Harsh. Mechanical. Bad.
Data.
Goddamn it, do we absolutely have to destroy every art form we have at some point just because of a better technology?
George Harrison: Living In The Material World.
Don't start this if you decide you want to do anything else all day...not only is it long, but it sure as hell makes you think a lot. The problem is, I just never felt like Marty was getting at everything that should've been there. For something that was over 200 minutes you'd think there would be a bit more focus and detail, but I still can't help feeling like there was some skipping over done.
All in all, a really great tribute to a visionary.
"God, it's like Barbara ****ing Walters in here isn't it?"'-Ringo
At least a 3/4, it's on HBO and also found it on OnDemand services currently in two parts.
Holy crap! I finally got around to looking through this and simply could not turn it off!! This is now my personal favorite SW behind the Puggo.
The colors look brilliant and saturated. The sound mix is clear. AND THERE IS NO SMEARING!!
So to find a LD copy, is the only way to tell on the cover if the disc is the Technidisc pressing is if it says "Made in the USA"?
Also, does this use the 85 Stereo remix?
Around the Sun-R.E.M.
I think this is a great record. I must be the only one.
The Conversation.
Better every time. Genius performance, brilliant direction and sound design, paranoid, and features a highly fashionable raincoat.. ;)
4 creepy Harrisons out of 4 secret recording balls
Is it just me or does anyone else agree that this is a better film than Godfather II?
Alfie (1966)
Michael Caine at his charming best. Simple, straightforward, fourth wall shattering, bird watching!, Techniscope, 60's London classic.
4 "did you know"s out of 4 odd birds.
FanFiltration said:
captainsolo said:
I'm still in mourning. ;)
I've gone from Chronic Town and gotten up to Out of Time. I've played each album repeatedly. Ugh. Trying not to break down.....Last song: an alcohol-fueled King of the Road on Dead Letter Office.
I have been re-listening to a lot of my old dusty R.E.M. CD's for a few months now. Started to get back into them around May of this year after about a 10 year break. I found it ironic that the break up happened when it did. I like Out of Time a lot and Automatic for the people, oh and Monster too... One set I like very much is "The Automatic Box". It is made up of non album B sides and EP tracks, live numbers, cover versions etc.
I've started collecting all the different singles on CD and LP for all the B-sides. Not obsessed...;) Have made it to Up so far on the album repeat marathon.
DuracellEnergizer said:
"A Girl Like You" by the Smithereens.
A really great underrated band. Their first record is one of my all time favorites.
R.E.M.-Music from Tourfilm (Live tracks from the Green tour on a CD Video) Get Up/World Leader Pretend/Its the End of the World...
I think they themselves were stunned to find out that they couldn't work with/preserve at least some version of the OOT. At least now they're in the protected section.