Twilight Time Says Goodbye; $4-$11 Price Reductions

[John Johnson]

My package should arrive today, fourteen films in total.

The Admirable Crichton.
The Adventures of Hajji Baba.
Bandolero!
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef.
Broken Lance.
Captain From Castile
The Chairman.
Cinderella Liberty
Garden of Evil.
Genghis Khan.
The Quiller Memorandum.
The Tall Men.
Three Coins in the Fountain.
Yanks. (I may opt for the UK version as well, as there are more extras)

[Paul MacLean]

But what many may not ave picked up on, is that the isolated score is in 24bit 96khs uncompressed audio.

Do you know if The Bounty was remastered at that quality level?

If so, I'm going to be P.O.ed, because when I made my own playlist for the isolated track, I dubbed the music to minidisc to edit (yeah, I still use those for certain things!).

[AndyDursin]

THE RUSSIA HOUSE was probably mastered at that level because Quartet was going to do the CD so the elements were pulled/available at the same time.

I don't think that's typical for the TT isolated score tracks. According to the Youtube dub of it, THE BOUNTY is 24bit/48kHz, also sounds mono, I think (??)

[Paul MacLean]

I don't think that's typical for the TT isolated score tracks. According to the Youtube dub of it, THE BOUNTY is 24bit/48kHz, also sounds mono, I think (??)

Yeah definitely mono. Though 24/48 is higher than CD quality. CDs are 16 bit (I think!).

[Edmund Kattak]

THE RUSSIA HOUSE was probably mastered at that level because Quartet was going to do the CD so the elements were pulled/available at the same time.

I don't think that's typical for the TT isolated score tracks. According to the Youtube dub of it, THE BOUNTY is 24bit/48kHz, also sounds mono, I think (??)

For what it's worth, to my ears, the TT isolated sounds better than the Quartet. It makes sense, when you consider that the BD audio spec is not limited to the same mastering standards as the 16-bit/44khz CD. If you transferred at 24/96, then there's no conversion of the bit rates, roll-off of certain frequencies, or compression needed. Why would there need to be with the audio specs of BD?

Totally unrelated, but the Logitech 5.1 THX computer speaker system that I have from 14 years ago was truly ahead of it's time. The head unit that ties the speakers and the input sources is essentially a DAC. It has native capability to handle 24/96 in, as well as analog. I set the computer output to 24/96 and the head unit automatically switches. It also has 5.1 analog input that I also have connected to the PC. This is the baseline and I listen to every new CD and music source on this system first. The Signal processing is turned off and the response is set to flat.

So when I compared the original MCA, the Quartet release (I now have the CD), and the TT, the TT is by far the better sounding for its spatial separation, fidelity, and music mix. I have not yet found any of the other isolated scores from Twilight Time to be like this. RUSSIA HOUSE isolated score track is labeled as 3.0, but there's only R/L channel information in the stream. I did not need to fold the center channel into the R/L channels. By comparison, THE VANISHING is 5.0, but is not at that high bit-rate. It only clocks in at 24/48.1 on the isolated score track. The problem there is when I record the stream, it only taking the R/L channels - and there are instruments and electronics missing from the final mix. Once I saw that it was 24/48.1, I gave up as it was not really worth the effort. I am not about to invest in a full Adobe Create Suite subscription to get the newer Premiere Pro and Audition, which will allow me to map the 5.0 channels from the stream and do a proper mix-down. Again, not worth the effort for the 4khz of extra bandwidth.

It's a real shame about UNDER FIRE though, as the sound quality of the music on the isolated Music/FX track is really good. I still have 3 more TT titles that I'm waiting for from SAE, but it looks like they're not going to sship it until THE ROCKETEER is back in stock.

[AndyDursin]

I just remember before Lukas stopped releasing FSM CDs, I spent nearly an entire weekend going through the assets of MGM's catalog (UA, Orion, post-1985 MGM) in a spreadsheet, trying to designate titles he might want to release. So many scores were tagged as being either mono only or mono with effects, it was difficult to recommend a whole lot of them. Eventually he passed on that licensing possibility and decided to call it quits, leaving it to Intrada and others to handle them (and in most cases those labels had to make sure the LP program was included since those were the only stereo tracks they'd have available of the respective movie).

My guess is the bulk of the MGM licensed titles TT handled (and released isolated scores of) are in that group, especially the older the film is. That's unfortunately the nature of UA's catalog -- it wasn't taken care of, they certainly didn't handle their assets with the same care as Fox, Warner, Columbia/Sony, etc.

[Eric Paddon]

Didn't think I was going to get any more TT titles but I made an order for three that should arrive Monday.

Antony And Cleopatra (I've read about Heston's troubles with this film enough that it's time to give it a look)
Zelig (Haven't seen an Allen directed film in 25 years but I do remember this and figured what the heck)
Three Coins In The Fountain

Also, for the first time in nearly four months I went to the local Barnes and Noble to see if maybe they had the Criterion WOTW (they didn't so I had to order that from Amazon which has lowered the price). I did get six Criterion titles at not just 50% off but the extra discount as a BN member meant they were all $19 each.

Stagecoach
Destry Rides Again
The Lady Eve
Leave Her To Heaven
Mildred Pierce
The Black Stallion

[Edmund Kattak]

Didn't think I was going to get any more TT titles but I made an order for three that should arrive Monday.

Antony And Cleopatra (I've read about Heston's troubles with this film enough that it's time to give it a look)
Zelig (Haven't seen an Allen directed film in 25 years but I do remember this and figured what the heck)
Three Coins In The Fountain

Also, for the first time in nearly four months I went to the local Barnes and Noble to see if maybe they had the Criterion WOTW (they didn't so I had to order that from Amazon which has lowered the price). I did get six Criterion titles at not just 50% off but the extra discount as a BN member meant they were all $19 each.

Stagecoach
Destry Rides Again
The Lady Eve
Leave Her To Heaven
Mildred Pierce
The Black Stallion

Livingston B&N has WOTW. I may have to take a gander up there tomorrow.

[Eric Paddon]

It wasn't at Livingston when I was there today. I looked pretty hard for it. I also went to the Route 10 one.

[AndyDursin]

Speaking of Barnes & Noble, I ordered the new BRUCE LEE set when the sale started and it already shipped. Not one Criterion would send me for review (these days I'm lucky to get 1 title a month), and it's already out of stock. Amazon has yet to price match it also (paid $62 versus the $125 list and $98 Amazon price).

[Edmund Kattak]

It wasn't at Livingston when I was there today. I looked pretty hard for it. I also went to the Route 10 one.

Yeah, i found that out after I wrote that yesterday. In fact, it appears that inventories for many stores were reporting it as "in-stock" when they weren't. I tried finalizing the order at about 9 different stores that said it was in-stock, but reported as out-of-stock once I got to the payment screen.. These stores were mostly a long drive for me (Palisades Center, Menlo Park mall) so i gave up.

Anyway, the B&N in Clifton near me has THE BLACK STALLION for $19.99, which is better than Amazon's price. I already placed the order and will pick it up today.

[AndyDursin]

You all know my fondness for THE BLACK STALLION -- that's a great disc!

Good TT pick-ups on Eric's part also. Sadly ANTONY & CLEOPATRA is severely let down because it's from an awful, noise-reduction riddled master. One of TT's worst looking discs, though that's all that was available to them.

[Edmund Kattak]

So Clifton B&N near me cancelled my BLACK STALLION order because they magically were out of stock 2 days after they said the had it. However, Livingston did have it. I took a surprise Monday drive out of isolation and picked it up. Alas, no WoTW to be found. I asked one of the employees and she told me that they didn't receive the inventory last week. It is expected either tomorrow or next week. I guess we'll see. Amazon sent me an update saying that it wont ship until the end of next week.

[Eric Paddon]

Odd because I didn't see "Black Stallion" at Livingston on Saturday. I picked up my copy at Route 10 Hanover.

I watched it last night. I think I hadn't seen it since the theatrical release. I had actually read Walter Farley's book first so I remember being surprised the father was killed because he wasn't accompanying Alec on the ship (they never do explain what Alec's father is doing on a ship in the Mediterranean!) and he was always a recurring character in the books. I have to admit I am not a fan of "art" type films that eschew dialogue for pure visual stuff. But I will concede that unlike "2001: A Space Odyssey", the visual devices do manage to tell the story effectively.

I also saw this just after I had watched a fan-edit of "Titanic" that removed all the Jack-Rose crap and gave us the 71 minutes that was pure history (The only way I could handle any reintroduction to that film after all these years). I was struck by how Ballard's handling of the chaos of the ship sinking scene was in some respects even more effective than what Cameron did. I also, when seeing Alec so easily get a fire started by himself on the island couldn't help but think how he was more instinctively resourceful than Tom Hanks in "Cast Away!"