The Warner LaserDisc, DVD, and blu-ray all sound fine to me.
The DVD and blu-ray are nearly the same and a bit brighter than the LD. The difference is at its greatest at about 15 kHz (3-4 dB brighter), which falls within the realm of personal preference and variance between setups.
12/12/2023: The 2.0 track on the Warner UHD is not the same mix that appeared on the blu-ray, DVD, and LaserDisc. It's not a reduction of the 5.1 either; it has slightly different effects positioning and the relative levels of the dialogue/music/effects are different. Compared to the original 2.0 mix, it's narrower and more centred. It also has some limiting and, strangely, a hard 14.5 kHz cut off. It's a bit brighter than the original mix, too. But all things considered, there's not anything obviously bad about its fidelity.
The 5.1 sounds fine too, fidelity-wise. I haven't looked too closely to differences in its mixing, but the effects seem the same and the mix as a whole is perhaps a bit more subdued than the original mix, with quieter surrounds relative to the dialogue.
Dang I guess I should’ve looked more closely at more than just the UHD tracks this time. I thought the 2.0 here was just a tweaked version of the WAC BD mix. It still seems like that when played back to back. When played back decoded the UHD 2.0 is much better than the 5.1. The 5.1 is much louder to the point of clipping in a few spots and they really pushed the low end and threw stuff in the LFE channel. Indeed there’s a feeling of effects being subdued in the surrounds but the whole track is louder.
ReplyDeleteThe UHD 2.0 sounds similar to the WAC BD when played back so I thought it was just somewhat tweaked. It is a relief to switch to from the overdone 5.1 so I assumed it was merely reworked-guess I shouldn’t have done that…haha.
Ultimately the best audio is still the LD which has a cavernous feeling sense of warmth and is the best presentation of the original mix there is. Interestingly one of the Phantasm directors recently professed his love for the LD’s audio in an interview.
There is no outright clipping in the 5.1, just some mild limiting (certainly less than the 2.0) in the centre and right channels.
DeleteSorry I meant to write near clipping on a few spots in some channels.
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