The Little Mermaid - help needed with LD PCM...

[jerryshadoe]

interesting stuff

here's part two of my earlier post, which actually addresses some of the audio issues:


This is a comparison between the 2006/2013 editions, which shows the f*ck up of the beginning (the intro credits issues) along with a few other things (at least they fixed the coloring of the shell to blue in the 2013 edition, LOL)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXpk-YHH03o


THEN, there is the issue of the AUDIO!!! The audio on the VHS and FIRST DVD issue in 1998 (still by many regarded as a great 5.1 mix, even though slightly front heavy, that was "truest" to the original) was very decent and represented (at least to me with what I remember from the theater) the "original" audio. Then in 2006, for the second DVD, the Platinum edition, they came out with a new DEHT mix which was complete garbage. Now, ALL music vocals/dialog were panned across ALL front channels and the mix was greatly altered, changing many musical aspects of the movie. For the Diamond Edition release (bluray) they re-did the audio yet again to make a f*cking 7.1 mix out of it and it sounds like sh*t. Has a very metallic, crystal-y and VERY unnatural effect and they changed the emphasis of some of the sfx. There are two GREAT comparisons that I have found for this, also on youtube:

this one is of ariel's voice and urusla's laugh-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1SRYvgqn8Y

this one is of ariel's voice returning-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaGMDTbuCpw


As you can see, there is some debate about which video looks "best," and I'll see what results I can achieve. This will be a project I will be slowly working on, while I am working on a few other (some rather massive) projects. But there really should be NO debate about the audio; the bluray audio is highly inferior even though it's lossless. In fact, just to see how much the "experience" of the bluray can be "improved" I synced the 1998 audio to the bluray and it INSTANTLY helped. It's weird, because even though I only changed the audio, all of a sudden the video colors didn't bother me as much BUT the lack of grain still did. I just miss the "filmic" aspect which is probably due to all the times I saw it in the theater and hence why I like the HDTV copy so much.

[titanic]

But as I see from Bluray screenshots, the release does have grain.
At least it's not completely removed like Beauty and the Beast or others..

[Image: 8802_17_1080p.jpg]

[jolennon]

Review regarding the audio quality comparing every home video version until platinum
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.c...Post327078

[jerryshadoe]

Overall, I agree with the assessment made in that review

[nirbateman]

I'm sure about it being an Itunes rip.
I saw it.

I'll look around for it, perhaps I'll find it again.

[jerryshadoe]

Well, that's strange...

there was a post here by someone asking about the old 5.1 mix from the OOP first-edition, 1998 non-anamorphic R1 DVD release and I just wanted to say, ANYONE that would like me to send them JUST the AUDIO from that DVD is welcome to PM me. It is the best 5.1 mix available (short of the LD maybe and even this has been disputed for the 5.1 mix)

EDIT: Again, if there's someone that has the LD PCM or the limited-edition R1 DTS DVD, then please let me know.

[jerryshadoe]

OK, so a HUGE THANX to zeropc (for capturing the LD PCM) and to Chewtobacca (for sharing the audio) !!!

Greatly appreciate this one guys!

This thread has mainly been about the audio (namely the LD PCM audio) but the topic of the video has been brought up too. Although I agree with people that, for the most part, the most recent BD release is relatively decent in terms on colors and hasn't been scrubbed (DNR'ed) too much (as is evident by some, but just some, grain remaining) HOWEVER, it is NOT OAR (original aspect ratio is 1.66 and this is cropped to 1.78 to fit nicely on 16x9 displays) even though not much is cropped (but still, point remains) the HDTV transfer has more grain (even taking into account the compression, which in the case of the "best" [read: highest bitrate] transfer in actually not bad and there are a couple different 1080i sources floating around which is evident by different placement of disney-cinemagic logo) AND the HDTV transfers have the original intro logo AND original intro credits which HAVE been modified for the BD transfer, while the HDTV retains the original which makes me think that it's from an older transfer before Disney "botched" it (similar to SitS which I used for my project)

I intend on doing a custom release on TLM using the HDTV elements (similar to what I did with SitS which came out fantastic) and syncing the LD PCM to it.

[jolennon]

I made the post, but found it like 5 minutes later (in obscure and forgotten folders hahaha)
I'd share the audio with you, but it seems that someone already did.

[jerryshadoe]

I appreciate that jolennon (although if you are in mood to share and have the LD PCM for TLK, that would be awesome)

Either way, as far as TLM is concerned, I now have every single audio mix released except for the OOP 1997 DTS DVD which would be good to have because (presumably) it is the same 5.1 mix as the OOP 1998 R1 DVD but instead of having a bitrate of 384kbps, has a bitrate of 1536kbps so I could see the benefit of locating it.

Also, for those locating the 1998 5.1 DVD mix, there is a really easy way to figure out if you have the right one:

the 1998 5.1 DVD mix has a bitrate of 384kbps, while ALL other 5.1 remixes have a bitrate of 448kbps.

[jolennon]

I'd share the TLK audio, but unfortunally I don't have it.
In fact, someone posted a better LDRip (compared to the older one)on spleen, which was deleted because it's Disney...
but I don't remember which audio format it had annnnnd I lost the file because two of my three HDD broke down and I lost lots of movies