Streets of Fire (1984) - Best audio?

[HippieDalek]

The laserdisc arrived this morning. I'll try and get it ripped at the weekend! I bet those Jim Steinman segments are going to sound great in PCM!

[BDgeek]

Thanks just beautiful!

I miss the joy of the days when we could browse for LDs, records (and physial media in general) in music and video stores!

They are almost totally extinct here in Brazil.

Thanks a lot HippieDalek!

[BDgeek]

I'm happy to announce that, having been able to secure this LD, HiippieDalek captured and synced it to the US Shout BD.

I haven't been able to double check the sync yet, but in any case, it's available as is or in raw capture.

ps: The Second Site UK 2.0 PCM track has also been captured courtesy of pipefan413

[pipefan413]

I'm happy to announce that, having been able to secure this LD, HiippieDalek captured and synced it to the US Shout BD.

I haven't been able to double check the sync yet, but in any case, it's available as is or in raw capture.

ps: The Second Site UK 2.0 PCM track has also been captured courtesy of pipefan413

Mostly checking my understanding here but I think a snapshot of the timeline is something like this...


November 2013: DE BD (Koch Media) then UK BD (Second Sight) from an old DVD-era master, probably what was used for the HD-DVD previously

August / September 2015: IT BD & FR BD, which I believe are still from the old master and apparently have some pretty horrid DNR etc.

May 2017: US/CA BD (Shout! Factory, Collector's Edition) from new scan of 2K interpositive

August 2017: AU BD (Cinema Cult), not sure which master would have been used here... my experience of Cinema Cult is not very great and I tend to find they use old masters, so the fact Shout! Factory made a new one doesn't necessarily convince me that they will have used it for this

December 2017: JP BD possibly from new master though I didn't find much evidence beyond the release timing and the fact that the Japanese market tends to get good releases for the most part

November 2018: US/CA Steelbook BD (Shout! Factory again) which appears to be much the same as before except this time they've added a 4.1 mix from the 70 mm Six Track Dolby Stereo which is apparently sh*t hot

December 2019: DE Mediabook BD (Koch Media again) which appears to use the Shout! Factory scan but with a different encode (although weirdly they also seem to have cropped it differently, slightly more aggressively). Does not include the 4.1 70 mm audio but apparently does include a repaired version of the Dolby Stereo 2.0 which had dropouts on the Shout! Factory version. I'm seeing people praise this encode over the Shout! one but I kinda don't see it myself and it looks like they've cropped it excessively, which I don't get (compare it to the HD-DVD and the Shout! framing looks more correct, but then the HD-DVD might have been wrong as well).


Is it perhaps possible that the dropouts in the 2.0 on the Shout! Factory release(s) are caused by them porting the existing 2.0 audio (previously used on the UK BD etc., though only 16-bit on that) across from a master with more missing frames than their new scan, or something? If so, I expect my 2.0 track won't be of much use, being from the older master (with, I'd assume, the missing frames). I'll try lining them up in AviSynth when I get a chance to compare the frames. The LaserDisc quite possibly also has the same or similar missing frames as other releases off older master(s) but it might not be straightforward to confirm that without capturing the video as well; is that an option or not really, @HippieDalek? It's probably possible to attempt a re-sync just looking at waveforms but it'd be much easier to confirm accuracy by comparing the video frames.

I don't currently have access to the 4.1 mix from the Shout! Factory Steelbook to compare it with any of the stereo mixes (off this LaserDisc or any of the Blu-ray Discs or HD-DVD) but if it's off a 70 mm master it might not necessarily render the 35 mm Dolby Stereo meaningless because my understanding is that 70 mm prints were generally done first and as such were often missing elements that were later mixed into the 35 mm Dolby Stereo versions (I understand The Empire Strikes Back actually has some different editing even in the video, not just the audio). That might not be the case for Streets of Fire, but it would be interesting to compare the 4.1 and the 2.0 stuff in some detail.

[spaceboy710]

Thank you so much @pipefan413 for putting so much effort into this. I've been meaning to watch STREETS OF FIRE for a long time now and I look forward to anything you choose to release.

I tried to track down the 4.1 mix online but couldn't find anything. I'm considering buying an external Blu-ray drive sometime in the near future. If I do, I will snatch up that Steelbook.

[HippieDalek]

The LaserDisc quite possibly also has the same or similar missing frames as other releases off older master(s) but it might not be straightforward to confirm that without capturing the video as well; is that an option or not really, @HippieDalek? It's probably possible to attempt a re-sync just looking at waveforms but it'd be much easier to confirm accuracy by comparing the video frames.

I don't currently have a way to capture laserdisc video. I used to have a cheap and nasty RCA to USB cable that got the job done but I lost it in a house move a few years back. I keep my eye out for a decent capture card every now and then though.

If I was able to capture the disc then comparing sources and looking for missing frames would be very easy, I've been doing just that for my Highlander projects.

If I ever get a setup that allows me to capture laserdisc video then I'll let you guys know.

[pipefan413]

Thank you so much @pipefan413 for putting so much effort into this. I've been meaning to watch STREETS OF FIRE for a long time now and I look forward to anything you choose to release.

I tried to track down the 4.1 mix online but couldn't find anything. I'm considering buying an external Blu-ray drive sometime in the near future. If I do, I will snatch up that Steelbook.

Maybe I should point out I haven't actually done anything with this yet, just trying to clarify info. @HippieDalek captured the LaserDisc; I'm just keen to compare the result of that against other mixes.

Seems to me like that Steelbook arguably has the best video and audio (the 4.1 at least) although others disagree and put the video from the German Mediabook above it. I haven't watched either in motion but the framing of the German one looks wrong to me. For the 2.0 Dolby Stereo, I wouldn't be surprised if this LaserDisc is the best source available, but it's tricky syncing it accurately without being able to analyse the video.

I'm extremely tempted to try to set up my own LaserDisc capture setup but it feels like an expensive and complicated thing to do from scratch and my home is already crammed with electronics I only use occasionally so there's really nowhere for that stuff to go...

[BDgeek]

WOW, great information summary!

I'm with you in regards to PQ. For now, Shout's seems best to me.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

@BDgeek, I just sent you the Shout 4.1 track so you can have a listen to see how it compares to the other audio tracks floating around.

If anyone else is curious about the steelbook 4.1 track and wants to share their observations how it compares, PM me.

[BDgeek]

Thanks a lot Falcon, just returned the favor with the LD and Second Site UK.

Hopefully, I guess now SoF is preserved with all the relevant soundtracks!