Phenomena US LD

[zoidberg]

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.

[PDB]

Cool buy. Out of curiosity is the palette overall blue in tone?

[zoidberg]

Cool buy. Out of curiosity is the palette overall blue in tone?

Thanks PDB, even if it turns out to be no use as a project source it's a nice collector's item. I wouldn't say the colour scheme is blue overall, not in a 'blanket' sense, the EEG scene is very neutral grey/white and some of the indoor scenes can be quite warm depending on the light source but the night scenes almost always have an element of blue to them, lots of blue coming in through windows etc.
I'm happy to cap this LD, obviously if the DVD uses the same master then ripping that is far easier (if anyone here has it). But the audio may also be of interest

[LucasGodzilla]

I recently got hold of the Roan Group's LD of Phenomena, it's the International Cut with 'Chace' surround.

Interesting.

I wonder if this track may be the source to the "rare alternate 2.0 stereo mix on the international version, featuring different sound effects and music cues" on the Synapse blu-ray and UHD, but I have no idea frankly.

The easiest way to check is the shot when they unveil the rotting head close to the beginning as there's a loud guitar cue that plays over it.

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?

Unfortunately, I can't find my Anchor Bay copy for the life of me right now, but I did find these screengrabs from the web...

[Image: phenomena%20argento%20PDVD_008.jpg][Image: phenomena%20argento%20PDVD_009.jpg][Image: phenomena%20argento%20PDVD_011.jpg][Image: phenomena%20argento%20PDVD_012.jpg][Image: 2ndlast.jpg]
There are supposed to be 5 screenshots here, but it seems to not display for some reason on my end.

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.

Actually, Synapse did have the overexposed look on some shots including the window bit on the Creepers and International cut on their older blu-ray (and is also in the newest UHD release), though I'm not a huge fan of how they look as they also altered the black levels to retain contrast rather than a naturally overexposed look.



I think the International trailer scan by Synapse achieved the look better (and is probably how that shot actually looked to some degree theatrically).

[zoidberg]

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

[zoidberg]

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)