I was reading through the Ghostbusters page on Wikipedia and found a quote on the Laserdisc release about Director Ivan Reitman's comments on the then-upcoming DVD release of the film.

[Ivan Reitman is finally satisfied with Ghostbusters. For the June 29 DVD release of his 1984 hit starring Bill Murray, the director saw to it that everything looks just right, which wasn't the case with the first, supposedly definitive laserdisc edition. ''I don't know what happened,'' he says, ''but it pumped up the light level so much you saw all the matte lines. I was embarrassed about it all these years.'' Not only are the blacks back for DVD, all the effects shots are complete. ''When we went out into release, about half a dozen shots were unfinished,'' recalls Reitman, who had to rush his $30 million production. ''It mostly had to do with the marshmallow man. The amazing thing is, people didn't care.'']

You can find it on under Releases section of the Wiki page and a direct link to the article here: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,273772,00.html

I don't personally have a copy of this title on LD. Anyone want to add any personal reviews of the LD version? Did you notice the light levels increased?

I have the Ghostbusters: Special Edition #75 (1984) [CC1181L] version. I haven't watched it though.. Its been a while since i've seen the movie so i'll have to watch it soon to see what he's talking about.

I have Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters 2 (1989) [LD 13119], Ghostbusters looks just fine but the aspect ratio of Ghostbusters 2 has been changed. Also from Wikipedia:


Regarding the quote you mentioned:


That makes it sound like he's gone a bit Lucas on this DVD and added a load of new effects.

I have Criterion's Ghostbusters #75A. It's not the Special Edition, but I'm sure it has the same transfer as that disc. It looks fine, as far as I can tell. Reitman must be referring to a different Ghostbusters LD -- maybe one from Columbia?