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I recently got hold of the Roan Group's LD of Phenomena, it's the International Cut with 'Chace' surround. As far as I can tell it was released roughly at the same time as the Anchor Bay non-anamorphic DVD, does anyone here know if the master was the same for both releases? The LD has nice colours particularly in the night scenes but the most striking difference is in the sleepwalking 'vision' shots, they are very overexposed on the LD, including an extra shot of the 'window' victim during Jennifer's first sleepwalk which looks completely normal on the blu rays.
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Cool buy. Out of curiosity is the palette overall blue in tone?
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LucasGodzilla, I'll check out the screenshots you posted when I'm on my PC next as the mobile site makes it insufferable. Interesting that the overexposed look is present on the Synapse, I've only got access to the 2 Arrow blu releases, I'll check the alternate versions on the later Arrow boxset.
The alternate audio track I think refers to the first Japanese LD from 1985 (of the International cut), which was CX analogue only. If I can find a copy cheaply I will get it. There is also a Japanese 'hard integrale' LD which is the Italian cut (with Italian dialogue), which is a bit pricey when it does come up. The disc I have has a Chace digital mix with 5.1 AC-3 and 2.0 PCM, if the International was Dolby Stereo as the credits suggest then I guess Chace made it into a discrete 5.1 mix for the LD. I imagine it's the same mix that subsequent DVDs and blus have used, but you never know with these films. The 5.1 is mixed quite low and has what I would call a very slight echo on some of the dialogue, but it's not unlistenable (as some have described the blu ray audio). I need to check out the PCM track to see how it fares
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OK so now that pictures work on mobile I can see the DVD screenshots, they seem to be in the ballpark of the LD but I want to say there was more blue highlight on the inspector behind Donald Pleasance in the second shot, the others it's hard to say. Without directly comparing the two releases on the same display it's hard to say. I will most likely cap the LD at the next opportunity but also keep an eye out for the 1999 DVD, and the 1985 JPN LD (and the hard integrale)