Blues Brothers movie Blu-Ray

[winopener]

First, the quirk: i can''t post to the BR section, do't know why...

Second, BB seems to be arrived on Bluray: the soundtrack is in lossless in some form, or is still lossy Dolby?

 

[Disclord]

The soundtrack is lossy DTS and Dolby. There's no lossless option - I can't believe Universal would be so dumb as to exclude lossless audio on a title like this.

 

[cupboy]

It's 768 dts, which is twice as lossy as regular lossy dts. If they put Dolby on there anyway, they should have upped that to 640 which would have beat the dts. But then Universal likes using dts. I wouldn't be surprised if they just wanted the dts logo on the back of the case to fool anyone who didn't check it carefully.

 

[winopener]

Can't believe such a stooooopid move!

 

[Disclord]

It's 768 dts, which is twice as lossy as regular lossy dts. If they put Dolby on there anyway, they should have upped that to 640 which would have beat the dts. But then Universal likes using dts. I wouldn't be surprised if they just wanted the dts logo on the back of the case to fool anyone who didn't check it carefully.

DTS at 768 also starts rolling off the frequency response at 15kHz and is down by 3 to 5 db at 20kHz - roughly the same high end as RCA's CED VideoDisc format. It's fine if that's the only option (like on DVD), but with all the room on Blu-ray and the fact that 16-bit/48kHz DTS-HD Master tracks aren't all that large anyway, it unimaginable why Universal released Blues Brothers the way it did. Especially since the film relies so much on its music. It has a horrid sound mix - by that I mean dialog and sound effects - but the 4-track music mix is wonderful (it was a mag 4-track film, not stereo optical). I think the movie was mixed that way intentionally, so that when the music started, it was like going from black and white to blazing technicolor. When it was first released to home video, via MCA DiscoVision LaserDisc, they realized then how much the music mattered and didn't use the audio tracks from the IVC-9000 video tape master for the discs sound - instead, MCA made a special stereo downmix from the 4-track master (thus, it's not surround encoded) and transferred it to disc from interlocked full-coat mag with Dolby A noise reduction. (The Wiz got that treatment too as did Jesus Christ Superstar)

I hope enough people complain to Universal that they re-issue the Blu-ray with lossless audio.

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

I ran the film in 6 track 70MM magnetic. The soundtrack was wall shaking!!

 

[Quad Linda]

Laziness and/or stupidity are the usual culprits. Nobody will ever notice the difference. Wanna bet?? WE WILL!

How about Capitol releasing the original Magical Mystery Tour LP in faux Stereo on side 2? They had to get it out in time for Christmas 1967. Even more absurd was the Mofi LP box/individual MMT, which also features side 2 in duophonic dual-channel slop. Pre-CD, I bought a German LP of MMT. It's all stereo. The bass at the beginning of Baby You're a Rich Man is a revelation! It's tight in real stereo. It's even pretty tight on the mono CD's/LP's.

Linda
All you need is to be on a mission from God

 

[Disclord]

I ran the film in 6 track 70MM magnetic. The soundtrack was wall shaking!!

I never saw it in 70mm, but have always been told that the 6-Track mag (Dolby Format 42, 4-track with 2 'baby-boom' sub tracks) was fantastic on Blues Brothers. That it was a film that was a truly different experience in 70mm. I don't know why, but I don't think today's IMAX w/digital sound versions of films have the kind of impact that 70mm w/6-track mag had. Maybe it's nostalgia, but 70mm was truly something special back then.

I saw Sgt. Pepper in 70mm and own a 35mm Dolby Stereo print - for some reason, Sgt. Pepper had a large number of different format prints;
* - Format 01 35mm mono
* - Format 04 Dolby stereo optical
* - Format 24 35mm 4-Track mag stereo w/Dolby A
* - Format 42 70mm 6-track baby boom w/Dolby A
* - Format 40 70mm 6-track Todd-AO style '5 channels behind screen' with no Dolby

The Dolby Stereo on my Sgt. Pepper print is amazing - it has HUGE dynamic range at some points - a dynamic range I wouldn't think was possible with optical stereo until Dolby SR came along. I've always wanted to own a 70mm print of it but have never even seen one come up for sale.

 

[Disclord]

Laziness and/or stupidity are the usual culprits. Nobody will ever notice the difference. Wanna bet?? WE WILL!

How about Capitol releasing the original Magical Mystery Tour LP in faux Stereo on side 2? They had to get it out in time for Christmas 1967. Even more absurd was the Mofi LP box/individual MMT, which also features side 2 in duophonic dual-channel slop. Pre-CD, I bought a German LP of MMT. It's all stereo. The bass at the beginning of Baby You're a Rich Man is a revelation! It's tight in real stereo. It's even pretty tight on the mono CD's/LP's.

Linda
All you need is to be on a mission from God

Sickening that MoFi would use the US "Duophonic" re-channel - all their releases are supposed to be from the "original master recordings", which, for MMT, it obviously was not. The home THX program lost all credibility when they allowed LD's to go out that had obvious mastering/pressing errors - errors that even the barest of quality control would have caught. And now, because of that kind of mistake, the "THX" mark on a DVD or Blu-ray means nothing to the vast majority of the public, especially the more audio/video perfectionist types. Tom Holman actually left the THX company because they decided to "THX Approve" prerecorded VHS tapes - proving to the public once and for all that THX was only about licensing fees, not quality as they claim.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

I thought the THX thing was a bit bewildering from the beginning. When trying to buy an AMP all I noticed is that by the same AMP manufacturer a THX AMP was more expensive than another AMP made by same company with similar looks that had more or less same specs and seemed to be the same thing. Just some 3 letters that said it was OK to buy it. That was my feelings and understanding at the time, 20-25 years ago. Living here in the Bay Area I did know it was created by George Lucas and his company, Lucasfilm. But it was like your AMP is crap without the "THX" logo no matter how much you spend.

Too Bad about the Blue's Brothers movie. No reason not to own a BR player now, but many reasons to be careful when buying BR movie titles so it would seem.

 

[ChristopherLees]

Sickening that MoFi would use the US "Duophonic" re-channel - all their releases are supposed to be from the "original master recordings", which, for MMT, it obviously was not. .

well actually it was from the original capitol master tape sent to them from EMI...which on the stereo stuff has better midrange than the german version just a shame about the last three tracks, which hadn't been mixed to stereo at that time..

MFSL got it right for the MFSL cassette tape of Magical Mystery Tour..from the British vaults...but not for the box set when they used the wrong tape again...but they have a good excuse for the box set because they were only allowed to have all the tapes for 2 weeks

should I mention that they nearly lost all of the box set master tapes at Heathrow Airport when some fool tried to mug the guy from MFSL when he was carrying them all..

 

[salsdali]

just saw this tonight on tv thru my receiver in 5.1 DD and it sounded better than I've ever heard (seen it many times over the years in many incarnations)

I think I should get the BD and really give it a workout.

 

[Ranasakawa]

This is one of the best BluRay movies in my collection. The bonus scenes actually enhance the movie.