Heat 1995 - Materials Required

[Evit]

German and Spanish 5.1 Audio - must be sourced from DVDs not blu ray - German DVD for example had both
English 5.1 DTS - Appeared on both Japanese DVDs and the South Korean DVD

There is a good chance that the Italian 5.1 DTS audio track from Italian Blu-Ray is unaltered from its theatrical form because the rights to distribution of this film are still in the hand of the same local distributor, Cecchigori, (didn't revert to Warner or whoever) and, a part from the odd case, they are known to NOT alter their tracks. I was planning to get a copy eventually, but might be too late to include in this project perhaps?

[dvdmike]

So it seems the LD 5.1 track has issues. The right surround channel has no actual audio content; it only contains low frequency effects where the audio should be almost like a second LFE channel. I can't say whether this is down to the ripping process or is inherent to the LD source.

Comparing the waveforms of the LD 5.1 track to audio from other releases I would say (aforementioned error aside) that it doesn't look great. The LD is least dynamic of the bunch with peaks rolled off.

The DVD looks far better and is essentially a more dynamic version of the LD track with the peaks intact.

The JP BD looks similar to the DVD but louder with peaks rolled off to avoid clipping and spectrograms show some noise reduction.

The US BD and DDE BD are the same and are even more boosted than the JP BD with dynamic range compressed. Surround and LFE channels are also pumped way up on these.

As things stand the DVD looks to be the best available 5.1 audio option.

It's not about dynamics, it's about originality I thought.

I wish I still had the R0 1.78:1 DTS version

[Turisu]

I've compared a lot of original theatrical 5.1 tracks to their home video counterparts and only once have I ever seen a theatrical track be less dynamic than its home video mix.

We can only guess but my guess is that the LD 5.1 is not a direct port of the theatrical mix. The DVD is a far more likely contender IMO with the JP BD a close second and the LD a distant third.

[alleycat]

German and Spanish 5.1 Audio - must be sourced from DVDs not blu ray - German DVD for example had both
English 5.1 DTS - Appeared on both Japanese DVDs and the South Korean DVD

There is a good chance that the Italian 5.1 DTS audio track from Italian Blu-Ray is unaltered from its theatrical form because the rights to distribution of this film are still in the hand of the same local distributor, Cecchigori, (didn't revert to Warner or whoever) and, a part from the odd case, they are known to NOT alter their tracks. I was planning to get a copy eventually, but might be too late to include in this project perhaps?

@Evit No there is still plenty of time to include it. I did find an Italian DVD rip online with AC3 audio but I don't trust it, the frame count similar to the UK DVD until about half way through, then there is a repeat scene and a scene that's got roughly double the number of frames, everything starts going wrong at that point. I expect this file I found has some kind of botched encode. 

The main problem with using audio sourced from the Blu Ray is every Blu Ray has a shot removed from it (well I haven't checked the Italian disc so I don't know that 100% but that's what DVD Rewind says, but the JP, UK and US are definitely all cut). So syncing it will be an issue, I'd have to patch in dialogue from somewhere else and the cuts are during dialogue so I'd need another Italian audio source to take the cut parts from. 

The DVD should sync straight up with a few frames removed like the UK DVD so if you are able to get hold of an Italian DVD I'd be happy to include it.

[Evit]

The Italian Blu-Ray would be from the newer master so yeah, it won't have scenes that were removed for the Blu-Ray version. I've read it was just one removed shot and one missing line from Pacino? I expect the missing line to still be there in the Italian track, unless Mann actually cut that shot entirely.

Anyway, I'll probably get the DVD very soon, those are quite cheap anyway, and it is a 5.1 DTS audio track. Unrelated but still related, I do have the Italian VHS of this film.

[zoidberg]

The AC-3 track sounds like it is has been captured or processed incorrectly. captainsolo reviewed the AC-3 in a previous thread and said there was a certain 'noise' that was part of the original sound design which has been missing from all subsequent releases.

[dvdmike]

Solo would know

[Turisu]

I found captainsolo's post. Thanks for pointing me to that. The hiss is also present on the DVD mix as far as I can tell. That is to say I listened to some of the quieter scenes very closely with headphones and didn't detect any difference in background noise between the LD and DVD. The dialogue does sound somewhat more distinct on the DVD. 

DVD


LD


I also picked up an error that's present in all the 5.1 mixes. At around 1:30:40 just after DeNiro says "...in thirty second flats if you feel the heat comin' around the corner" a piece of background music begins and then cuts off abruptly in the middle of his next line. A few seconds later that same piece of music begins again and this time continues with the scene. You have to crank up the sound to hear it but this error is on every 5.1 mix from the LD to the DDE but interestingly not on the LD PCM track.

[dvdmike]

It was the early days of discrete mixing, like 70mm mixes of old there were the odd difference

[Evit]

I confirm that the Italian 5.1 track from the Italian DVD contains the original mix. Check your PMs