Rambo trilogy original mixes & color timing

[Kameraposti]

At least they asked for the LD audio files for Robocop 2.
” Site user and "Blu-ray Guru" Brett C wrote on the forum for this title that he originally supplied Shout! Factory with an audio file from his 1991 LD for the 2017 CE.”
But would not be surprised if some studios kept these things ”in the dark”.

[Stamper]

Yeah, in France, some publishers are guilty of that. One even took a sync where the fan added a bleep at the end (to recognise when someone would steal is sync) and it ended up on Blu-ray complete with the bleep LOL

[Kameraposti]

So, anyone lucky enough to have seen these new Lionsgate versions? Are they more faithful to the original color timing? From Bluray.com I have red that the LD audios are very good but Rambo III has some serious compression issues(?)

[Beber]

https://youtu.be/aN-7Q1VKj_w?is=HeFc5mB2j7RCu2rM

Apparently, II and III have had their black levels fixed and the image pops more than before. Otherwise it’s the exact same masters and grading basis. The guy couldn’t answer me regarding the off-centered shots being fixed or not, nor answer other people regarding the subs in III. First Blood looks basically the exact same. Regarding audio, he's not too exhaustive but the PCMs and 70mm 6-track for II as a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track are real.
It's also a very limited boxset already sold out and I haven't seen any of these in the wild...

[titanic]

So, anyone lucky enough to have seen these new Lionsgate versions? Are they more faithful to the original color timing? From Bluray.com I have red that the LD audios are very good but Rambo III has some serious compression issues(?)

Yeah, I was disappointed to hear of the encoding issues.
I wouldn't buy the box anyway, I'm waiting for individual releases, since I'm interested only in the original trilogy.
I wonder if I should upgrade now, from my German blu-rays:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&...09&i=0&l=0

[Beber]

I managed to get I and II: they did fix the off-center shots I noticed before in II, and the grading is much less L'Immagine Ritrovata yellow-green. So for II, this is the one to get for sure since it also includes the 70mm 6-track in Dolby TrueHD 5.1.

BEFORE / NOW

[Beber]

Still, when I see the framing of the 2012 remaster and compare it to the 4K remaster, it makes me wonder what the complete framing could be aspect ratio-wise: 2.55:1 ? 2.76:1? Look at all the extra, left or right, depending on the master.

[Stamper]

Yeah it's weird, it seems to me they just cropped the original cinemascope framing (zoomed in it) to avoid maybe some border damage.

[Beber]

And here's for III. They at least fixed the off-centered Sly name and movie title. For the rest, it seems to be the same shift towards left compared to the 2012 remaster. As for Crenna's name, I'm not sure it should be centered anyway as the other actors' names appear left and right as the credits progress. Maybe Crenna had the honor to be centered originally, I don't know. He was not totally centered in 2012 either even if not as much pushed towards left at the time compared to the 4K remaster:

BEFORE / NOW

[Beber]

I forgot about the subs. They are NOT burnt in the picture.

Not even this location for which they didn't put too much effort in trying to mimick the original font as seen on the 2012 remaster:




Obviously the same look for the Russian parts:



And yet the final dedication is burnt in the picture. Go figure: