A Robert Harris Bits Extra - Lawrence of Arabia: Superbit (1 Viewer)

[Dan Hitchman]

To pick nits, I also am wondering if the DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks (I usually find DTS compression to sound somewhat better to extremely better than Dolby IMHO, although I'd much rather have lossless or uncompressed high rez. PCM or DSD to the formats we're forced to live with now) will have the original theatrical directionalized dialog and sound effects.

The mono-centrically steered vocals on the older Sony LD, especially, are just all wrong for this grand movie. Mr. Harris, was the intent on the new Superbit LoA 5.1 tracks to be similar to your approach on Spartacus' Criterion DVD where those extreme dialog and sound effects pans were left intact (as they should be IMHO)?

Let me see if I can explain myself clearly enough... For anchoring purposes would you have placed sound effects and dialog originally on the screen center left and screen center right between the discrete center and the discrete left channel, and the discrete center and discrete right for phantom image placement since DTS and Dolby Digital do not have 5 discrete screen channels, only 3?

Today's superwide movies sound very weird to me because no matter where the person is on screen, the dialog is almost always solidly placed in the center channel. The Foley footfalls track the actors' movement, but not the speech. Sort of a disembodied feel.

I liked on Toy Story 1 and 2 how Gary Rydstrom added a bit of directionalized dialog to their mixes. Kind of brought me back to the good old, widescreen epic days!

Your thoughts and comments would be very appreciated, and thank you so much for your efforts on behalf of LoA so far. Hopefully, next up would be to be able to add the 65mm trailer and the rest of the excised footage that Lean wanted placed back in. I just hope the latter can be done before it's too late.

Further supervised tweaking of Bridge On The River Kwai, The Sound of Music (the current DVD is awful!), and Vertigo (to name just three) would be wonderful!

Dan

 

[Robert Harris]

Lawrence was recorded three track stereo with an occasional effects track on channel 4 set off by a tone.

70mm prints filled in screen channels 2 and 4 with a mix of 1 & 3 and 3 & 5. This was only necessary for large screened venues.

The restoration mix as approved by DL kept the original proscenium as we did not modify the panning effects. Channels 2 and 4 were used as LFE or "baby boom" as many theatres by 1989 no longer had full range speakers in place in positions 2 & 4.

 

[frank manrique]

Mr. Harris,

I am thrilled at the prospective of re-visiting LOA on DVD soon, with image and sound correctly done due to your deep personal participation in overseeing color timing, etc.,(which should have been availed by TS/C to begin with) this time around.

While extras and other such goodies are fun to watch, when it comes to film classics such as LOA I soon get the movie looking and sounding the way they suppose to look and sound, so I don't mind dispensing with unnecessary baggage.

Contemplating seeing LOA sans "edge enhancement" and with proper colorimetry is truly an exciting proposition, made even more so by the promise of better sound as well (now I can really look forward to the day when LOA shows up on Hi-Def too!).

Keep up the good work...

-THTS

 

[Dharmesh C]

I've had the original DVD for 2 years, yet to watch it, but I can't resist double dipping for this title especially since it meets the approval of Rob Harris

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

I've had the original DVD for 2 years, yet to watch it, but I can't resist double dipping for this title especially since it meets the approval of Rob Harris

Likewise, on all counts.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

It's very cool indeed.

Though I might pass the super-bit SD-DVD and wait for a BluRay disc in full 1920 x 1080 HD (which might not be too far along after)

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

I never bought LoA on DVD - now the time has come, obviously.

Not that I've seen them all or anything, but this could IMO be the greatest movie ever. It deserves the very best treatment.

 

[Will_B]

FYI, there's a new documentary on TEL coming out I think much later this year on PBS in the US and BBC in the UK, tentatively titled: T.E. Lawrence: The Making of the Modern Middle East (though that title may change). It's either 2 hours or two parts of an hour each...anyhow it is supposedly shaping up to be an excellent special; lots of T.E. experts were flown in for interviews, etc.

But if that's too much for you, there will be a mini sort of capsule documentary on T.E. Lawrence in the multitude of DVD extras for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles...but you'll have to wait for the earth to circle the sun a couple times for that (Oh my, now I may have said too much).

 

[John Alderson]

I am curious: does anyone have a link to a website that explicitly shows the problems with the current 2 disc set? I own that one and love it, but naturally all this talk has me curious.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

No need to be curious John. Robert A. Harris is in the know (he should be as he and his team restored LoA for David Lean). If he thinks this new DVD will be up to snuff, then take his word for it and buy it if you love the film. The previous release was not an accurate representation of Lean's (not to mention Freddie Young's) vision.

Dan

 

[John Alderson]

No need to be curious John. Robert A. Harris is in the know (he should be as he and his team restored LoA for David Lean). If he thinks this new DVD will be up to snuff, then take his word for it and buy it if you love the film. The previous release was not an accurate representation of Lean's (not to mention Freddie Young's) vision.

Well naturally I trust RAH, but I would still like to see some visual comparisons so I know exactly what we're talking about here. The EE I understand already, but never having seen the film any other way, I'd like to see some color timing comparisons if they're available.

I'll probably pick the bloody thing up no matter what

 

[frank manrique]

John,

Think of the dead of winter rather than scorching heat; all desert scenes have a cast that imply more the coldness of a winter season rather than the suffocating heat and dusty conditions that are the bane of Arabian and most other deserts in our world. That is one of the major visual problems with the current LOA DVD...

-THTS

 

[Jens Raethel]

Im a bit confused, what version should I buy?
The 2 disc set or the superbit version?:frowning:
What would you do?

 

[greg_t]

The superbit version will be the one to have. The current 2 disc has issues and would not meet the approval of Director David Lean. That is whey Robert Harris has been personally involved with the superbit version to make sure that it properly represents David Lean and Freddie Young's vision for lawerence of Arabia. If you don't have the film on dvd at all yet, I would wait until next month and get the superbit version for sure. I myself already have the two disc but will definitly be getting the superbit.

 

[Robert Harris]

To be clear, the current redition of LoA on DVD, EE and audio problems aside, is not a situation which will affect the average viewer.

Colors are, for the most part, pretty, and for the average monitor adjusted as the average monitor might be set up, a perfectly viable version of the film -- for the average viewer.

The problems were of accuracy.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

This release comes at a perfect time for me. Obviously, this is my favorite movie of all time. I should be finishing my dedicated HT with a front projector setup using a 9 foot wide screen shortly.

Having Lawrence of Arabia in a SuperBit edition supervised by Mr. Harris will assure that I will get the best picture quality possible out of the DVD....which is very important when projecting an image this big!

September 9 will be very close to the date for the premier showing on the new screen.

Can you guess what the first movie will be?



And thanks again Mr. Harris for your excellent work. I'm sure it will also help when this great film is released in High Definition.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Given all the discussion of how bitrate should be allocated on DVD releases, I was wondering what RAH thought of the DVD release of My Fair Lady, which put all 173 minutes of the film on a single dual-layer disc? Of course, I am looking forward to the Superbit release of Lawrence of Arabia, especially since hearing about the edge enhancement and colour issues with the original release.

 

[Robert Harris]

There is a great amount of credit (thanks) to be spread around as we move towards this release.

Putting a DVD of this caliber together is not an easy task, and certainly nothing that I'm capable of doing on my own.

Credit must go to Jim Ward of CT Home Video and Grover Crisp of Sony and his staff.

Without their input, hard work and expertise, this project would never have moved forward.

Re: MFL, the DVD was fine for the time period in which it was released. I would look forward to a SE in the near future which would be able to take better advantage of the format.

RAH

 

[JeremySt]

Robert Harris, my thanks goes to you and all involved for working on this release. LOA is my all time favorite film, and this is exactly the treatment this title deserves. A a few months ago, CTHV had a poll on their superbit website, asking what titles WE wanted to see in the format. I submitted, as I'm sure many fellow HTF'ers did, that I wanted "Lawrence of Arabia with a Robert Harris supervised transfer". I wonder, was that a factor in getting your involvement on this release?

Also, im sure a little more research on my part could yeild the answer, and it may have been answered already.... but will their be DTS on this DVD? I am an advocate of DTS, but in the case of this title, I would rather see those bits devoted to picture quality.

In any case, its great to see things developing the way they are.

 

[Paul Drake]

DTS would add nothing to a 1962 film.