Trainspotting: Uncensored

[DiogoFer]

A very nice-looking restoration to one of my favorite movies. Given I'm a newbie here, I can't PM you - Can you please PM me? Best regards!

[DeafYakuza]

I want to take the project of Trainspotting to get the uncut version but I have to much to do with other projects so I had to delay this project for undefined time. So I am reading here that you are working for that. It's great that you are here for us. :-)

[pipefan413]

Sounds like a great project!

The film was 5.1 theatrically so don't see why the LD audio would improve matters...

Unless IMDB is wrong, it was Dolby Digital in theaters.

Love this movie, what a trip it was.

... Was it though? This may have been 1996, but it was also low budget as hell. It looks like IMDb has been changed in the intervening years as well: it now lists it as "Dolby SR", which would certainly seem to make sense to me: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/technical. The same spec is listed for SHALLOW GRAVE, the somewhat earlier film made by the same director and much of the same cast and crew: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111149/technical.

I suspect the budget may have meant that they chose to go for Dolby SR (matrixed 4:2:4, I believe) rather than actual 6-track Dolby Digital. Same reason HALLOWEEN and THE TERMINATOR have mono mixes rather than Dolby Stereo despite coming out at a time when Dolby Stereo was very much the in thing: budget meant that they could either compromise something else (e.g. shoot on 16 mm instead of 35 mm) or go with a mono audio mix, and they chose the mono audio mix. But I didn't see this film in a cinema, it was a VHS/DVD job.

In any case, this is currently the best way to watch this film, imo. The UK BD has horrendous judder and lossy audio only (despite the last reissue having "original LPCM 2.0" printed on the back; they've actually screwed up and printed the copyright info for SHALLOW GRAVE as well!) and the US disc is cut as mentioned. I really wish they'd do a proper release in the country it was bloody made rather than just reissuing the same crappy old disc like they just did. Thank you for fixing it!

[zoidberg]

I'll check my LD copy later but I'm pretty certain it says the AC-3 was taken from the 6-track master

[pipefan413]

I'll check my LD copy later but I'm pretty certain it says the AC-3 was taken from the 6-track master

You're correct: https://cdn7.cachefly.net/images/large/T...77L_01.jpg

"The digital tracks were mastered from a Dolby stereo surround print master. The Dolby Digital track was mastered from the original six-track magnetic masters."

Now, whether that means it actually got shown with 5.1 DD in cinemas, I dunno. I guess it might still have been cheaper to master in 6 but release in 2 tracks since it doesn't involved licencing and printing Dolby Digital on the prints. Would pretty much need to see an actual print to see if it's got DD printed on it, but then if it doesn't, that might not mean the same was true of every print!

I suspect this might be the case though. The way the LD packaging talks about the 2.0 makes it sound like that's how it was originally released and the Dolby Digital track is new for home video. N.B. "The original stereo film soundtrack" etc. But even if the 5.1 isn't "original" per se (in terms of what was seen in cinemas), that doesn't necessarily mean it's not potentially the best track available for the film, I don't know. I've probably only heard the 5.1 off the crap Blu-ray, which may or may not be functionally identical; I haven't compared them. Yet, anyway.

[zoidberg]

The soundtracks are 'original' in the sense that they present the original dialogue (some re-dubbing was supposedly undertaken for the US release as the accents were considered unintelligible).

According to this film-tech forum post Trainspotting was indeed released in SR-D (also mentioned here)

[pipefan413]

The soundtracks are 'original' in the sense that they present the original dialogue (some re-dubbing was supposedly undertaken for the US release as the accents were considered unintelligible).

According to this film-tech forum post Trainspotting was indeed released in SR-D (also mentioned here)

Oh aye absolutely, I'm just saying the 5.1 might not necessarily represent the theatrical experience, is all. It's quite likely "better" in terms of sonic performance and you're correct in that it's not been redubbed or anything. I have no idea if they'll have done any remixing though or changed anything / made any mistakes making that mix (I've been dealing with THE SHINING recently and was rather dismayed by the number of errors in the music and so on). EDIT: Hang on, I misunderstood and thought you were saying that it was Dolby SR but I now realise you said SR-D which is 6-track DD, methinks. So yeah, perhaps that 5.1 is theatrically accurate after all!

Chances are probably pretty good though that the 5.1 is basically just a nicer, discrete version of the original 4:2:4 Dolby SR mix. But then I guess you have the choice between lossless 4:2:4 and lossy 5.1 to take into account as well, which depending on your gear and ears, may or may not be a significant factor.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Wow. This is a very old preserve of mine that I revisited recently. The Lionsgate BD has fine detail; it honestly just looks a bit ugly color-wise. I was luckily able to find some 35mm cels via an Etsy listing of all things!

Recolored the master and feel like it looks a lot better without the pinkish/salmon flesh tones.

I know a member on here has been asking me for a copy for awhile, sorry for the delay. But looking at the new results it was certainly worth the wait.

PM me if interested.

[NeonBible]

Funnily enough I was looking at this on the organ just yesterday

Did you ever get a hold of the LD track?

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Yes thanks to @zoidberg , I do have the LD audio now!