Army of Darkness UPDATED

[Brent_Reid]

The comparison states the Oz ViaVision 5-disc set has the TV cut in mono - are you sure? My Shout! Factory has it in stereo...

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Sent an email to Michael Thomason who submitted the original specs.

[M_C_Thomason]

Apologies for the delay! Chronic incurable illness does that...

Anyway, in answer to the question...yes, I can 100% confirm that Via Vision's "TV version" is Dolby 2.0 MONO.
Did a double-check on headphones, just to be absolutely sure, and there's no stereo separation whatsoever.
As I stated originally when I first submitted the specs of the Australian set...

[Brent_Reid]

Thanks for replying; hope you're better now.

You're likely right but generally speaking, checking on headphones is far from reliable as many soundtracks have little to no stereo separation. The surest, simplest test is to apply a surround processor like Dolby Pro Logic or DTS Neo during playback. If it 'forces' the audio into the centre speaker only, it's definitely mono. It's surprising how often online reviewers clearly don't know this.

[M_C_Thomason]

Hey Brent,

Did that (surround) first, then decided to double check on headphones just to be sure. Sadly, 100% monaural. And a hideous, blocky, pixelated encode to boot...

Mike

NB: Thanks for the well-wishes. While I'll never "get better", I do have "better" periods (than others). In a tolerable place at present...

[Brent_Reid]

Aww, that's a shame, Mike: I know it doesn't look great but at least it's better than Shout's. The screenshots are from this useful blog.
Shout! beat every other BD on the three HD cuts, but fall down on that one. That just leaves the stereo TV cut on Koch's Ultimate Edition set; can anyone supply a similar screenshot for comparison?

Best wishes.

PS
Mods: the TV cut/television cut/television version is referred to by all three names on the BD page; is it possible to rename them all to one, for ease of reference?

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

I will update it later unless someone else beats me to it. Very busy for the next 15 hours or so.

[Brent_Reid]

That'd be cool; there's certainly no rush! For the DVDs, I reckon referring to the 4:3/1.33:1 AR version as "full screen" is now a bit of a misnomer as these days that would imply a 16:9 image. In fact, I actually bought one of the "full screen" DVDs listed in order to get what I thought was the TV cut! Senior moment maybe, but it is confusing. I know many listings are knocking on a bit now and need updating, but that really is a term that should be abandoned in future.

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Blu-ray page has been updated. Next is the DVD page...

And now the DVD page is updated, plus corrected some additional info with the US Scream Factory Blu-ray.

[Brent_Reid]

Nice job, James. There are still examples of all three TV names on the BD page though. Also, I see you've changed Shout's TV cut to mono, but it's definitely stereo. I checked it again just yesterday!

On a related note and without wishing to start a new thread, there are still some un-amended Robin Hardy/Christopher Lee interview notes in the US Wicker Man DVDs...

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Nice job, James. There are still examples of all three TV names on the BD page though. Also, I see you've changed Shout's TV cut to mono, but it's definitely stereo. I checked it again just yesterday!

I did not change the Shout TV cut to mono. It was already written as mono. I did change it Dolby Digital as it was listed incorrectly as DTS-HD MA.

On a related note and without wishing to start a new thread, there are still some un-amended Robin Hardy/Christopher Lee interview notes in the US Wicker Man DVDs...

That's because I believe I did not touch the DVD page. Or may I have started and not finished. Seeing some other issues with that page to fix... getting behind schedule this weekend...

[Brent_Reid]

Ah, sorry about Shout. I only just noticed it for the first time and made the assumption...

Re Wicker Man: you (or someone else) must have started it, because straight away all but the US DVDs were corrected.

Gotta say this: love how you and others admins often excuse or almost apologise for not getting onto stuff sooner but you really don't need to. Everyone here does an incredible job and it's very much appreciated. So keep up the good work - but take your time!