[No Longer Available] Flash Gordon Regrade (Universal Widescreen Laserdisc)

[PDB]

And it's gone again. Thanks to everyone who downloaded

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Lovely, lovely release, PDB. Got to experience Flash Gordon for the first time this way (Blu-Ray still sealed on shelf) and it helps what I've heard to be a problematic master.

[PDB]

Very nice of you to say TAF, thank you

[PDB]

Found a bunch of cheap, old DVDs at a Goodwill. Normally, no one wants these DVDs but for fan restorations, they can be gold.

Case in point, I finally have a copy of the 1st gen DVD of Flash Gordon. The one sourced from the LD master. So there might be a updated project in the far off future.

[Hitcher]

Nice find.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Would you use the new master by Arrow?

[PDB]

Good question. I don't know.

Was the Arrow much better? I can't remember but there were reasons to use the Universal.

(Also got to check if I have the Arrow scan kicking around still)

[LucasGodzilla]

Was the Arrow much better? I can't remember but there were reasons to use the Universal.

Supposing Arrow is using the same master as the Studiocanal release, there's a definite upgrade judging from this Caps-A-Holic page alone.

[dvdmike]

The Arrow/Studio Canal is pretty definitive to me, in saying that the LD is one of the best on the format in places.

[captainsolo]

Found a bunch of cheap, old DVDs at a Goodwill. Normally, no one wants these DVDs but for fan restorations, they can be gold.

Case in point, I finally have a copy of the 1st gen DVD of Flash Gordon. The one sourced from the LD master. So there might be a updated project in the far off future.

AWESOME! I've tried to find this at a decent price for ages. It's even harder because there's apparently two runs with the earlier one having a defect of some kind. It is indeed the LD master in component but with lossy audio.

It seems the LD master used a grittier looking US source element or something while the European masters and new 4K scan used original negative etc. thus it looks much brighter and lush. I still like both but enjoy the grittier LD.

The new SC 4K master is gobsmackingly amazing and staggering....until you get to the audio. They used either an optical source with dialog leakages or didn't mix it right and thus the 2.0 original and 5.1 upmix while good have sound leakages into the rears. Compared to the US LD 2.0 they sound good but slightly less detailed. The LD audio has no leakage problems at all and sounds better though it has some light high end distortion in a few spots.

I wrote to Arrow and they passed me to Studio Canal who made the master. SC ignored me entirely. The Arrow release has all the available extras and is the better release as otherwise all discs share the amazing encoding job.