Original multi track elements and probably a lot of new foley.

If you don't want to contribute that's fine nothing to get mad about.

I do this for free because I love the movies, it's that simple. I'm certainly not rich. Lol

Again my payment is getting the films done correctly after all these years, with physical media dying off this may be the last chance to get it right for these incredible films.

wishlist

The Hong Kong companies no longer have the original mono tracks in alot of cases.

They probably have access to original audio stems but that would require them to mix a new mono track which was done with Police Story but unfortunately it was mixed very poorly and had to be replaced on the Eureka release.

Even if they do have original audio it's usually bad quality compared to the old laserdiscs.

Sometimes we get lucky and they have a nice original track but it's really the luck of the draw.

In HK people really don't care about original mono audio and like the horrible 5.1 audio tracks that are featured on the blurays.

Ever notice how every single HK bluray only features a 5.1 mix with new sound effects & almost NEVER has original mono?

I am totally fine with mono when called for. Better to go with that than to deal with bad mixes. I sent you a pm irongod2112.

Hi, good to hear from you. That was interesting to read.

So the LPCM Mono track on the Police Story Criterion Blu Ray is of poor quality and you would say that the Eureka release has the audio taken from the Laserdisc and thus is of superior quality, right ?

What about Policy Story 2 on Blu-ray ( Criterion ). It has two mono tracks, one LPCM mono track and one Dolby Digital 1.0 track. What's the source in both cases ?

Yes, I did in fact notice that the new Hong Kong Blu Ray releases have those horrible upmixes but I used to watch a lot of Hong Kong films on Video CD many years ago like 15 years ago that also had mono audio. I really hate those upmixes.

I can also tell you of a US film that I thought I had superior audio on laserdisc than on Blu-ray. It's The Bounty with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. That laserdisc has a fantastic Dolby Surround audio track that is just unbelievable. The Blu Ray has a fantastic video track of very high quality but the audio is considerably worse despite being DTS HD Master Audio 5.1. That is why it sometimes makes sense extracting the audio from a laserdisc remuxing it with the video of a recent Blu Ray release. This way you get the best of both worlds.

Thank you for your efforts.

I guess Western companies cared more about keeping the original mono audio stored somewhere on some magnetic tape or reel.

BTW I just want to say that Criterion has released many many films so far ( we are all alware of that ) on Laserdisc, DVD and Blu Ray. Does anybody seriously think that Criterion is making a lot of money with some of its releases ? I am seriously convinced that they barely make ends meet with the lesser known titles and we should all appreciate the fact that such a fantastic label exists that has brought out so many great releases such as Videodrome on Blu-ray with perfect video and audio and excellent extras.

Both Criterion & Eureka'a releases of Police Story 1 & 2 have nice audio tracks.

Criterion actually has slightly better sounding tracks...

The track Fortune Star originally provided to Eureka was actually created from the original audio stems but was mixed poorly, so they issued a replacement disc and I used an original mono track from an older out of print DVD since there are no laserdiscs of the original HK cut of the film.

Later on when Criterion did their release they got Fortune Star to get them an original audio track from a film print which they checked against the DVD I supplied them.

Criterion did ALOT of work on that track and got it sounding quite good it's better than the Eureka by a hair or two.

Both companies used the LD audio I supplied for Police Story 2.

Criterion again got a slightly better track for I had sourced the newer LD that had digital sound... Eureka's has an older LD that only had analog audio.

Again both releases are quite good and have different extras that make them both worth owning.

It’s totally normal for someone who has something rare to be compensated when it’s needed for another purpose. When you donate an arrowhead or a fossil or a painting to a museum you may be paid, you may be paid a great deal. However Rein-O’s response just sounded like someone who charges his kids interest so I had to rag on him. I bet he catalogs what he pays for everything in his life just so he can make sure it always sells for more. I bet he uses a tip calculator. I bet he has a pair of pants with rubber pockets just so he can steal soup. THE MAN IS CHEAP IS WHAT IM TELLING YOU.

If they weren't making money they wouldn't be releasing films.
Its a business and they are making more money than you and me combined.

If you think differently then you are lying to yourself.

Are you saying the company makes more money than you and I combined or that the people working there do? I can say with confidence that I make more money than at least someone at Criterion, unless it’s down to one guy now or something. Technicians in that field are famously underpaid and usually underpaid by the gig.

Of course Criterion makes money. That's why they charge what they do. They know they are better off charging $30-40 a movie because they are worth it. Plus lowering the price by $15 doesn't make sense because the loss in margin wouldn't be offset by the amount of new buyers coming in at that price point.

We'd call you a Chardonay Socialist in Australia. Someone who's comfortable and so gets all preachy about how when other people want more they're just greedy.

Not everyone has a cushy life and everything paid for, some people have still gotta hustle for it and sounds like Reino is running a small business which can't be easy

What I wanna know though is, suppose I had one of these laserdiscs or whatever that was now the only source of the original audio mix or something and Arrow or Criterion or Eureka or whatever really wanted it, what exactly do they expect me to do? Because getting a free copy of the final release on blu-ray doesn't sound like that much of a bum deal even if you get no financial compensation for it, unless there's a lot of labour involved.

So if I spend as little as 50 bucks in order to get the gear to capture the audio and I get a 40 dollar bluray in exchange just to get my name out there
its not a good deal.

I know we all live in the youtube "LIKE" world where we need to get our names out there for free but its not a good deal when you have a companies that is
worth, Oh wait its privately owned so you don't know how many millions they are worth.

Well I kind of assumed you'd already have said equipment. Owning it would have benefits of it's own, after all.

Would 50 dollars even get you gear high quality enough to do a 1:1 capture of a LPCM track?

That's my point.
This irongod expects us to own gear to make a quality LPCM soundtrack and donate it for free to million dollar companies.

I mean, isn't it illegal just to rip the PCM track off a laserdisc and just add it to a Blu Ray ?

Yes, but this would all depend on who owned the rights to the original soundtrack.

This may be a reason they change all to 5.1 due to who owns the rights to the original audio.
Just like remastering CDs, they aren't doing this for the fans but doing this to keep owning the rights with "enhanced" versions.

Are you kidding me? Recording PCM is extremely trivial. If I had any of the movies he wants I’d make a copy after dinner like it’s nothing because it is nothing. You need good gear to make copies of analog stuff, but even common junk can make perfect copies of LD Digital tracks.

Then once they have it it will require some minor mastering before it goes on the BR. That’s all on them though. If they don’t have someone internal who does it the work will be outsourced to some kid in his bedroom.

I forgot, most people do actually have a digital out on their players...