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New Conan the Barbarian DVD coming? (1 Viewer)

TheBat

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I have the region 4 of conan the barbarian.. the 5.1 is amazing on it.. however the extras were the same as region 1.

JACOB
 

Haden

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"Lots of Extras"?? That specs list is identical to the extras on the existing R1 Conan DVD that was released 3 yrs ago. The only difference is the 5.1 sound.
 

Ed St. Clair

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Your treading on THIN ice here!
5.1 MIGHT be aceptable to this forum, IF the release also has the original soundtrack.
HOPE, it does.
 

Terry St

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The 5.1 mix has been out in other regions for years. I haven't heard anything about a new R1 release so I wouldn't hold my breath. I have the R2 version which has, I believe, the same 5.1 mix as this one. It's got problems. The foley artists went completely out of control and added sounds everywhere without any respect for the original film. In one scene, Subotai and Conan are running across a field as a majestic swell of Poledouris' wonderful score climaxes. In the 5.1 mix we're treated to the sound of coconut-clomping over top of that music. In another scene, Conan meets the children of doom, however, in the original score we hear nothing but the narrator and music. In the 5.1 mix you hear Conan's armour jingling and his horse's foot clomping (more coconuts) but can't hear a word of the singing/conversation that *should* be much louder. It sticks out like a sore thumb! There's nothing subtle or competent about this mix at all.

The only benefit is that Poledouris' score is no longer confined to mono. Unfortunately, it's still not that good. They mixed it to all channels instead of the front mains alone. This, coupled with the not-so-hot bitrate of the Dobly Digital used on the DVD results in the fact that poledouris' score sounds noticably worse than the soundtrack on CD.

If they ever do another DVD release for R1 I really hope they do a proper remix. I don't give a damn if they leave all the dialogue and sound effects in the center channel, just get poledouris' glorious score into the mains without and surround gimmicks and encode it at a high bitrate, or better yet, in straight-up PCM. (And include the original mono track of course)

P.S. One nice perk of ordering the R2 version from Japan is the japanese dub of Conan. Words cannot express the hilarity of watching the gubinator dubbed in japanese!
 

Jon Smith

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also the R2 is cut for animal cruelty.

get the R4 instead. I have that, although the changes made in the 5.1 doesnt sound good at all !
 

Tony Whalen

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Gotta admit it... I'm now curious to hear "the lamentations of the women!" in Japanese. :D
 

Gruson

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Thanks for all the information. I think I will stick with my region 1 release until something better is out.

I hate chessy 5.1 mixes.
 

Steve Christou

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The sound is not chessy, whatever that is, it's a huge improvement over the feeble mono, especially in regards to Basil Poledouris incredible score which sounded thin and tinny in mono. The 5.1 sound is more muscular, although I would opt for the region 4, the UK region 2 is cut, horse-tripping is a no-no over here.:)
 

Ernest Rister

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Any reason as to why Mr. Poledouris would want his score to be heard in mono in theaters and in stereo on the soundtrack album? It drives me nuts how the score heard during the menu screens of the DVD sounds 1000 times better than the audio heard in the actual film.
 

Steve Christou

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I have no idea why Conan was produced in mono, I think it's the only Milius film in mono (or used to be in mono). But after hearing Poledouris score in 5.1 stereo, no way I'll ever go back to the weak mono.

Some films are far more effective in surround stereo, Casablanca no, Terminator yes.

People don't mind if the picture quality is remastered looking better than it ever did before, but enhance the sound and the moaning begins. Just listen to the film thru your tv speakers, simple solution.:)
 

Steve Christou

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Oh dear.. any examples of alleged practice? I've never heard anyone complain bitterly of a remastered film looking too good. Besides you have the option not to buy, although I have no idea what the alternative is, buy the remastered or keep the old wonky copy, or simply never own the film at all.
 

Ernest Rister

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"Oh dear.. any examples of alleged practice?"

Yeah, the 1997 Laserdisc release of Bambi, which "informed" Disney fans consider unwatchable, and the worst attempted "restoration" of a classic Disney animated film ever. From the lame-brained attempt to fix the inking errors in the film, to the cropping of in-camera mattes in the opening titles, to the attempt to re-paint characters in certain shots, to the low-budget attempt to remove grain resulting in a flat and lifeless image, to the overly-brightened visuals resulting in a white contrast balance completely off the charts...it was a disaster.

I actually watch the old laserdisc release when I want to watch the film, because the 1997 "remastered" transfer is so bad, it makes baby Jesus cry.
 

Dan Rudolph

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The Lion King and E.T. Heck, some people complained about Indiana Jones. We're not talking about cleaning up an audio track here: we're talking about re-doing it and adding new elements that weren't present in the original.
 

Chris Stainton

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I strongly disagree with you about the Terminator. I cannot even listen to the new mix. It makes it a completely different movie.
 

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