Thanks to this database I found the original English dubbed version of Lina Wertmuller's masterpiece
Swept Away (1974) [VLD 5568]

Sadly, this English language version-performed by the superb voice actress Cynthia Adler
https://cynthiaadlersatire.com/ -was never released on a digital LC, much less on DVD or BD.

I have two copies of the above LD though as of yet no (Pioneer) LD player. But as this analog LD is even more prone to rot or other damage over time than DVDs, how do I rip and keep intact the picture and sound? And what audio and video A/D converter and Windows software is best for doing this?

Holy crap. There’s a dubbed version of this? How strange. Like a V12 Ferrari with an automatic transmission…

Anyway…I wouldn’t buy a player and a bunch of stuff to capture one movie just because it was for some reason dubbed. LDs are not especially prone to rot if made correctly. This disc isn’t rare or expensive. The dub is also on the HK LD. This dub will be around longer than us even if nobody ever captures it.

Also your first player will break in the mail. Players are worth more this movie. Nobody will ever want Swept Away dubbed except the world’s biggest Cynthia Adler fan, which is presumably you. Everyone else will want to want a normal version such as the Criterion.

For the best results you need a Domesday Duplicator. With that you could stack the two copies for the best result even if there is some rot.

But it is a complicated process, much more work than a simple capture card.

The Domesday Duplicator is pure overkill, especially if the only thing you want to preserve is the english dub. I'd just feed the players audio RCA output into the line-in of a standard PC, and record it that way. Then try to mux it together with the video of some more easily available source (ie. DVD, BD, etc). As long as the movie is the same cut, the only worries you'll have is any extra copyright notices / company logos at the start, and oh the laserdisc is NTSC so you'd need to retime the audio but there are plenty of tools for that.

But yeah, getting a player just for this? I'm not sure.

IMHO, the quality of the English script and delivery by the dubbing actors easily trumps the fact that the movie is dubbed. Why put your biases aside and see the dubbed version in its entirety? https://archive.org/details/swept-away-1975-eng-dub

the english dub on the 4k restoration is different?

There is no unfair “bias”. It doesn’t matter how good the dubbing and script are. It can be 10x better than the original, it still isn’t the original. Two Italians are trapped on an island bickering at each other…in English. Why? In other actors voices even…

Dubs of Italian movies are for people who don’t want to watch Italian movies. I love Italian movies which is why I already own this in Italian. I don’t need it in English any more then I need it in Korean.

Fellini's Satyricon in English is mindblowing, a must to watch in English.

Aren't a lot of Italian films shot basically soundless with many foreign actors speaking their native language (English, French, Spanish, German & Italian) and then dubbed over depending where it's being distributed?

First, it was the intention of Lina Wertmuller-the writer and director of "Swept Away"-for the American release to have an English language track. Like her other works-all of which also had original English language tracks-this is a dialogue heavy movie, and Wertmuller was obviously aware that some words or phrasing in one language won't carry the same weight when forced into another. And so, Paulette Rubinstein was hired to script the US version, and she certainly made a splendid job of it.

As for whether Italian films were initially shot soundless I wouldn't know. But another example of a superbly written English language track was for the Poe trilogy "Spirits of the Dead" (1968). While not credited, I like to think that my persistent requests were chiefly responsible for the Arrow BD release being the first to include the original English language track, complete with the Vincent Price intro/outro.

About Fellini Satyricon, I think I did once enjoy it with the original English track on PBS or elsewhere on free TV, a very long time ago, of course. While Kino and Criterion are lost causes, I wonder if CultFilms might do a BD release of it with the original English track. Their release of "A Special Day" (1977) was simply perfect!

This is changing the topic, but yes, up to a certain time Italian films were shot without audio and all voices were dubbed in by different people.

I'm not sure if this was all, but as poker said, they would have had actors in different languages and then dubbed them.
Look at Fellini's Casanova, you have Donald Sutherland in English for the American market and dubbed in Italian for their market.
Most of those Spaghetti Westerns were like this also.

Forgot about "Casanova"; saw it in a cinema some years after its debut. Didn't recall the English track.

Bingo! https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Fellini- ... ay/119453/