Jason and the Argonauts (1963) LD PCM

[bronan]

Title: Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
LD Catalog #: 76966
Hardware: Pioneer CLD-3030 to ESI U24XL
Format: 16-bit, 44.1khz, Mono (bit perfect)
Synced: US/UK BD

I'm proud to present the original theatrical mono soundtrack of Jason and the Argonauts. It was captured bit perfect and then synced to the Blu-ray release. The syncing was truly a battle with the gods, as it required well over 200 edits. There were lots of frames included on the Laserdisc that were not on the BD, plus some drifting in spots. With Zeus' help, however, I have prevailed!

[alexpeden2000]

Sounds like this was a real labour of love! I haven't watched it since I was a kid (we used to have a VHS with this and Bill & Ted recorded off the TV which I'm pretty sure got worn out) - seems like the perfect reason to revist it.

[PDB]

Fantastic!

[dwalkerdon]

was the Mono track on the Blu-ray version a remix?

[bronan]

There wasn't a Mono track available on my copy. I see blu-ray.com lists it as having a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 track, but I'm pretty sure that's referring to one of the two commentary tracks included. Can anyone with a US copy confirm its the same?

[Chewtobacca]

I have the US disc.  It does have the mono, and AFAIK, it is the original. It is lossy, so an upgrade to PCM is most welcome.  If you throw me a link, I'll try to check that your track syncs; but from what I've read, all BD releases use the same master, so it should be fine.

[bronan]

Oh damn, OK I wasn't aware of that. Sent you a PM to check out the sync. Please let me know how it stacks up versus the lossy one as well

[Chewtobacca]

Sent you a PM to check out the sync. Please let me know how it stacks up versus the lossy one as well

I'll definitely try to check the sync. When it comes to assessing the merits of the two tracks,  I'll do my best, but you might be better off asking the real experts.  I appreciate good audio, but I can't approach Moshrom or hairy_hen's level of analysis.

EDIT:  Screenshots on DVD Beaver seem to confirm that the various BDs use the same master.

[bronan]

Sweet, that's a good sign. My disc also reports 27.92mbps for the Video, so I'd say good chance they're all the same. And that's fine, I wasn't expecting anything nuanced, just interested if it sounds drastically different.

[Chewtobacca]

Your PCM syncs to the US BD.  I have confirmed that the US BD and the UK one that is part of The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen collection are in sync all the way through.  The video streams are exactly the same size, so it appears that it's the same disc worldwide.

Here are the spectograms.

Top: LD 1.0
Bottom: BD 2.0 mono




It appears to me that someone has cleaned up the mono track on the BD, whereas the LD PCM remains unmolested.  My money's on the latter.  Many thanks for providing the PCM for this awesome film!  It's an old Sunday-afternoon favorite of mine.