[Released] RoboCop (1987) - 1.66:1 Director's Cut Preservation

[izzybell]

The Criterion Collection releases (DVD & LD) of RoboCop are the only releases of the film to be in a "Director-Approved" aspect ratio of 1.66:1. While this claim is dubious as the Arrow's 4K transfer is in 1.85:1 and is also labeled as "Director-Approved", this still marks an interesting release for RoboCop. I used the Criterion DVD video and simply cropped and linearly upscaled the video to 1080p without AI use as the master has a lot of grain already that would get destroyed in an average upscale environment and because my PC is simply not that powerful to do so. While the image is still in standard definition essentially, it no longer exhibits letterboxing. I also decided to sync the Criterion Laserdisc PCM track, the commentary is left as is from the DVD. I may revist this project in the future for a more fully featured update.

Video
1080p up-converted Criterion DVD

Audio
English LPCM 2.0 Surround
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (Director's Commentary)

Subtitles
English SDH

Available in a BD-50 compatible MKV, for all forum members new and old.

Screenshots:

[Beber]

I quite like the 1.66:1 AR. In general, I mean. I enjoy watching old French classics in such format. It’s a good middle ground for verticality and horizontality at the same time, and it looks good on projection. I've never seen "RoboCop" this way, though. Makes me wonder what @random.next could come up with with such a source and the Arrow remaster for a 1.66:1 hybrid open matte.