Speaking only of the mono track included on each of these -
1985 Thorn EMI Hi-Fi VHS: Natural and unmanipulated, but less detailed than the 1991 US LaserDisc and with some additional (additive) noise. Probably sourced from higher generation elements.
1989 Image Entertainment/HBO LaserDisc [ID6677HB]: Sort of similar to the 1985 VHS, but still a bit different. It's missing some high-frequency detail compared to the 1991 US LaserDisc, likely due to source issues. This is definitely mono. The capture I have has some speed issues at the end of side one, hence the 'missing' segment in the spectrals below (not present on the actual disc).
1991 Hemdale Home Video Hi-Fi VHS: Largely similar to the 1991 US LaserDisc, but less high-end detail and an unnaturally V-shaped sound signature.
1991 Image Entertainment LaserDisc [ID8316HD]: Natural and the most detailed. My preferred version.
1991 Orion LaserDisc [PILF-1297]: Sourced from a print. It has a fair amount of distortion during loud passages and it lacks dynamic range.
1995 Image Entertainment LaserDisc [ID2940NSB]: This has undeniable signs of noise management - missing high-frequency detail that can't be recovered by EQ alone, and bass attenuation. It's likely to have been sourced from the same base transfer as the 1991 Image track.
1997 Image Entertainment DVD: The 2.1 track I've listened to has identical left and right channels that sound like the 1995 LD track with a treble boost. The artificial LFE is derived from those channels and has information extending up to 1 kHz.
2001 R1 MGM DVD - Special Edition: The mono track on this disc has fidelity comparable to that of the 1991 Image LD, but also has additional sound effects (highlighted here). These effects are seamlessly integrated with no obvious edits visible in the spectrals, so this is probably a new mix. A 3:38-long segment starting at 1:31:52 (blu-ray timecode) is much brighter than the rest of the film.
6/4/2022: Added the 1991 Hemdale Hi-Fi VHS tape
6/6/2022: Added the 1985 Thorn EMI Hi-Fi VHS tape
6/9/2022: Added the 1989 Image/HBO LaserDisc
I actually did hear an explanation as to why the MGM mono track has a few additional sounds
ReplyDeletethe previous US laserdisc/initial DVD used the US mono track and for whatever reason the MGM DVD used the international mono track, so it likely isn't a new mix, it was just one that wasn't made available in the US prior
ok so based on fidelity alone, discounting all of the many many changes, how does the remix sound compared to the MGM DVD/1991 laserdisc?
ReplyDelete