Terminator 2 Special Edition Audio Mix Comparison: LaserDisc to Blu-ray

[tanch28]

For the 1993 Special Edition LaserDisc and VHS release, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) received a custom home-video mix supervised by original sound designer Gary Rydstrom. Seven years later, for the 2000 Ultimate Edition DVD, the soundtrack was remixed for both the theatrical cut and the Special Edition.
 
I analyzed the various Special Edition audio mixes released across different home-video releases over the years. Here are the spectrograms:

• UE - 2000 Ultimate Edition DVD
  
• Extreme - 2003 Extreme DVD
  
• 2015 BD - 2015 Lionsgate Blu-ray
  

1] 1993 Laserdisc Dolby Surround PCM (Original Special Edition mix) 



2] UE Stereo Surround



3] UE AC-3 5.1 EX



4] UE DTS-ES 6.1



5] Extreme Dolby Headphone Stereo



6] Extreme AC-3 5.1 EX



7] 2015 BD DTS Headphone X Stereo



8] 2015 BD DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1




Observation:  The UE Stereo, Extreme Dolby Headphone and 2015 BD DTS Headphone X are clearly derived from the original 1993 audio master. There is a distinct, unbroken horizontal line running perfectly straight across the entire 153-minute runtime at exactly ~15.7 kHz. This is the classic signature of NTSC Horizontal Sync Pulse bleed (15.734 kHz). This type of high-frequency whine typically leaked into masters via analog video equipment or CRT monitors during the laserdisc mastering/transfer process in the 1990s.