This is the master thread for a series of projects that aim to more accurately recreate how old 6/4 channel mixes were intended to be heard. I'm not a huge fan on how modern theater equipment handles 4.0 tracks (on the rare case where one is available) and the way it handles matrixed audio is far from accurate. I correct this by combining various releases for the highest quality and accuracy, de-matrixing when necessary, and putting them in a 7.1 container with 4 discrete mono surrounds.

#1 Predator (1987)



Movie Predator (1987)
Sources DTS:HD 4.0 (4k) - DTS:HD 5.1 (4k)
Synced To US 4k Blu-ray

PM me for a link. Any feedback is appreciated.

Also there's many of these I'd like to do, but currently don't have a good way to de-matrix Dolby Stereo myself. If anyone knows of any good software solutions, or has the hardware and is willing to help, please let me know.

I believe the 4.0 track on the Predator BD/UHD is a folddown of the 5.1 remix. In the original Dolby Surround mix when Hawkins is killed there is a momentary drop in the audio volume. This can be heard on the LD and VHS releases but was corrected for the DVD 5.1 mix. The 4.0 track is the corrected version.

(2021-08-30, 04:54 PM)Turisu Wrote: I believe the 4.0 track on the Predator BD/UHD is a folddown of the 5.1 remix. In the original Dolby Surround mix when Hawkins is killed there is a momentary drop in the audio volume. This can be heard on the LD and VHS releases but was corrected for the DVD 5.1 mix. The 4.0 track is the corrected version.

I didn't know this, I always thought the 4.0 on the BD was original. Are there any other changes to confirm it's a folddown, or could it be the original 4.0 with that one scene corrected?

I don't know of any other changes. The old DVD 2.0 track is also the corrected version. So it's likely that when the DVD 5.1 mix was created it was downmixed to a 2.0 matrixed surround track for compatibility purposes then when the 5.1 mix was carried over to the BD Fox just created a discrete 4.0 version of that same track without much thought as to whether it was "original" or not.

All speculation on my part of course.

Regardless of the 4.0, congrats on you first audio sync

(2021-08-30, 04:54 PM)Turisu Wrote: I believe the 4.0 track on the Predator BD/UHD is a folddown of the 5.1 remix. In the original Dolby Surround mix when Hawkins is killed there is a momentary drop in the audio volume. This can be heard on the LD and VHS releases but was corrected for the DVD 5.1 mix. The 4.0 track is the corrected version.

Couldn't they correct this drop when doing a descrete 4.0 lay out out of the original matrixed 2.0 surround for the DVD? I remember Fox used to provide original surround mixes for a lot of their DVD releases in a 4.0 container, so why would it be different for Predator? 

It is kind of a bit of tinkering, but it still IS the original mix (except for that fixed drop).

At the end after the big explosion the scene transitions into the helicopter and the pilot exclaims "Holy shit!". This line is there in the original 2.0 LD track but it's virtually inaudible to the point where I had to raise my volume to even hear it. In the 5.1 remix and 4.0 tracks it is much louder and as clear as day. Also during the explosion as the screen whites out there is a noticeable jump in volume on the LD track which sounds like a second explosion; this seems to have been smoothed out on the 5.1 and 4.0 tracks to sound less jarring.

(2021-08-31, 05:05 PM)Turisu Wrote: At the end after the big explosion the scene transitions into the helicopter and the pilot exclaims "Holy shit!". This line is there in the original 2.0 LD track but it's virtually inaudible to the point where I had to raise my volume to even hear it. In the 5.1 remix and 4.0 tracks it is much louder and as clear as day. Also during the explosion as the screen whites out there is a noticeable jump in volume on the LD track which sounds like a second explosion; this seems to have been smoothed out on the 5.1 and 4.0 tracks to sound less jarring.

Interesting. Do you have the LD track? I might just bite the bullet and buy an SDU4 in which case I'll re-do this one with the LD track.

*edit* right after posting this I went on ebay and found one for ~$50. The seller said he didn't have the equipment/know-how to test it, but I think there's a solid chance it will either work out of the box or I could fix it.

It would be awesome to have some LD matrixed surround tracks converted to discrete tracks. What made you choose 7.1? Wouldn't 5.1 with the mono surround split into 2 and a blank LFE be sufficient?

(2021-08-31, 07:24 PM)Turisu Wrote: It would be awesome to have some LD matrixed surround tracks converted to discrete tracks. What made you choose 7.1? Wouldn't 5.1 with the mono surround split into 2 and a blank LFE be sufficient?

I wanted to avoid Dolby/Neural-X doing anything to the surrounds, while still utilizing all available speakers.

I used the LFE from the 5.1 mix because I analyzed the audio in audiacity and noticed it hit lower frequencies then just the 4 channel. And it's the closest thing we have to the baby-booms that would of been on the 70mm release.