I posted this against another topic, but it doesn’t appear to be listed in the replies.
The Criterion Dersu Uzala and Dodes’ka-den laserdiscs I bought have arrived. I only have had time to quickly scan them in the player. I haven’t hooked up audio to the laserdisc player yet, so I am making an initial judgment just on the picture & sub-titles.
The Dersu is probably as good as the Kino (they say it is “under license from Kino International Corp”) and better than the Artificial Eye and other releases based on the Ruscico version. The sub-titles are in a different colour to the Kino though. I haven’t compared the translation. The cover states:
“Dersu Uzala was transferred from a 35mm anamorphic color reversal internegative in the Cinemascope aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Both the English and Russian soundtracks were created from separate 35mm optical soundtrack negatives. The intermittent film scratch on the left side of the screen is inherent in the source materials, which were the best available elements. The new English subtitles were created from an updated Russian-to-English translation”
The Dodes’ka-den is a big improvement in colour richness & sub-titles. It is also in the original aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Both the Mei Ah and French versions I have are 4:3. I don’t know why they haven’t released this on DVD. On the cover it says:
“Dodes’ka-den is presented in the aspect ration of 1.66:1. This new digital film-to-tape transfer was created from a new 35mm composite print.”
When I find the time I will transfer both to DVD and then post some screen shots. I have a Canopus capture box and I can connect the laserdisc player direct to this via an s-video cable. It might be some time though as life is always too busy to just do the things you want.
I posted this against another topic, but it doesn’t appear to be listed in the replies.
The Criterion Dersu Uzala and Dodes’ka-den laserdiscs I bought have arrived. I only have had time to quickly scan them in the player. I haven’t hooked up audio to the laserdisc player yet, so I am making an initial judgment just on the picture & sub-titles.
The Dersu is probably as good as the Kino (they say it is “under license from Kino International Corp”) and better than the Artificial Eye and other releases based on the Ruscico version. The sub-titles are in a different colour to the Kino though. I haven’t compared the translation. The cover states:
“Dersu Uzala was transferred from a 35mm anamorphic color reversal internegative in the Cinemascope aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Both the English and Russian soundtracks were created from separate 35mm optical soundtrack negatives. The intermittent film scratch on the left side of the screen is inherent in the source materials, which were the best available elements. The new English subtitles were created from an updated Russian-to-English translation”
The Dodes’ka-den is a big improvement in colour richness & sub-titles. It is also in the original aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Both the Mei Ah and French versions I have are 4:3. I don’t know why they haven’t released this on DVD. On the cover it says:
“Dodes’ka-den is presented in the aspect ration of 1.66:1. This new digital film-to-tape transfer was created from a new 35mm composite print.”
It is copywrited 1995 The Voyager Company.
When I find the time I will transfer both to DVD and then post some screen shots. I have a Canopus capture box and I can connect the laserdisc player direct to this via an s-video cable. It might be some time though as life is always too busy to just do the things you want.