MARY POPPINS 40th Anniversary Edition DVD is sure to please (1 Viewer)

[RobertSiegel]

Doug, I am in agreement I will never sell my laserdisc either, to have that music track minus the vocals is a rarity. Too bad they needed the other track for Dolby Digital (ac-3) because then it would have been in stereo.

 

[Joe Caps]

Robert and I made contact last evening aboutthe Japanese Mary Poppins laserdiscs. there seem to be t2wo different ones with different covers and different aspect ratios !! Mine is definitely a 1.85 transfer.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

MP review posted:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...postid=2483748

-dave

 

[Adam*M]

There are also at least three Japanese DVD versions, including the new 40th anniversary edition. I wonder if any of those have the proper aspect ratio in anamorphic. Anyone have any of those releases?

I might buy this new one for the extra features, but I'd like the film to be presented properly.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I heard that one of the previous Japanese releases (not the latest 40th anniversary) was also 16x9 and had *better* picture quality than the new cleaned-up version (maybe 16x9 1.85:1??)....and that this version also had the definitive audio presentation. Out of the two earlier Japanese versions, one of them is out-of-print and the other doesn't even mention widescreen on the Japanese Amazon website...so I'm hesitent to risk a $30 USD purchase without knowing more.

Anyone else got a clue as to the "mystery" definitive Japanese version?

Doug explained that in other PAL regions the new 40th anniversary disc has 5.1 auido for the "original mix" as opposed to the 2.0 matrixed mix on the R1 DVD...that *really* ticks me off, because the bit-rate afforded the 2.0 DD encoding is always pitifully poor and reduces sound quality...not to mention you lose the discrete encoding of the front mains...



-dave

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

It seems likely to me that the 5.1 "original mix" track would be the same 5.1 track that appeared on the previous two DVDs, and is nothing to write home about, IMHO. I wouldn't mind being wrong, though.

Regards,

 

[DaViD Boulet]

He addressed this issue and said specifically that it sounded much better than the too-bright sound of the previous R1 DVD's 5.1 DD track...

 

[Doug Bull]

Guys as I no longer have either the previous released region 1 and region 4 DVDs I can not do a comparison of the sound.
I have to rely on memory in this case, but I do seem to remember that the 5.1 sound was really brittle on them.
The sound on the new DVD while still lacking a little Bass and allowing for PAL speedup, still sounds much better to my ears.
But you know how dangerous it is to rely on memory, especially when you belong to the gray set as I do.


I just did a comparison sound test on the NTSC AC3 Laserdisc and the new Pal Dolby 5.0 DVD.
The DVD, while not all that different to the Laserdisc, does sound more defined and the overall quality of the sound does seem better.
It's quite hard though comparing speeded up PAL Sound alongside NTSC.

 

[Joe Caps]

I have been told by others that the last laserdisc (40th aniversary) is also a remix and NOT the original three channel mix at all. Hardly fair to use that as a comparison for sound. the Archive laserdisc is the one to go for.