Demons: The Official Announcement

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by bgart13

Unless the image transfer contains different footage or is a different cut, there's really no reason why the different audio tracks shouldn't match up. What was supplied by the rightsholder? This doesn't sound right, honestly. Not doing any bashing, but something isn't kosher here.

Harrumph! So what you're saying is Arrow are lying? You can't say you're not bashing, then say it's not kosher.

[PaulD]

Armchair dvd authorers

I don't see why it's so hard to believe it couldn't be matched up - could be all sorts of issues with the audio like pitch, speed etc which would be problematic I suspect.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by PaulD

Armchair dvd authorers

I don't see why it's so hard to believe it couldn't be matched up - could be all sorts of issues with the audio like pitch, speed etc which would be problematic I suspect.

Very true. I've done some authoring myself, and to be blunt, it's really not that easy. Why? Because things that work out on paper (same format, same length, etc.) cause unexpected and unpredictable problems.

Companies like Arrow are subject to the same imponderables, only on a larger scale.

Greetings!

[bgart13]

It can be difficult to match up audio to video, true, but there are ways to do it. I've done it a number of times, matching up an audio source of one version and format to another. It takes time to edit this stuff, but it should be able to be done. I've spent weeks/months working out the editing of the audio for some movies, as a hobby (and for my own films at one point) not professionally, and trying different sources. I've even given up on some projects because I could not figure out what the differences were (that's with free- and shareware, not professionally available software). If the other tracks aren't matching, then Arrow should check with the rightsholder to find out why. It isn't hard to research this kind of info, especially for a professional dvd/bd distribution company.

And I'm not saying Arrow is lying, but the situation isn't kosher. Something's a bit fishy. That means things aren't adding up and it doesn't mean Arrow is behind it. Chill out a little, eh? I think it's worth recognizing that something's up between what Arrow has been given for the video and audio, but it doesn't mean Arrow is getting attacked. It means the rightsholder could be holding out some proper materials. What's wrong with questioning a situation like this? I know Arrow has been working on getting DEMONS released for quite a while (almost two years, right?) so I'm sure they've looked into it but I'd like to know what the differences are other than the tracks just don't match up. Were the tracks prepped for different cuts, etc?

[Sarah@Cult Labs]

Spoke to Arrow about this earlier (seriously, I'm sure they're getting sick of me) and they had been reading the comments on here since I posted yesterday. Here's what they had to say:

Indeed, synching dialogue is ‘easy’ (within reason obviously) but as our version of Demons is from the original camera negative is does contains a few seconds which prevented audio from other sources, which all derive from versions released through the years without those seconds which has prevented the audio from synching. The result would have meant audio holes and points where the audio wavers, way past the standards of Italian post-synch dubbing.

We could not, unfortunately, restore the original magnetic track because of budget constraints which only stretched to restoring picture. This was a huge undertaking for us – one we normally wouldn’t do. Like most distributors we depend on licensors and producers to do their own remastering which we buy into at a fraction of the cost since it is shared over the world. Going back to the negative is very expensive, especially, for an independent label. As such, we sadly couldn't stretch to adding in the very expensive audio costs.

Had we known this from the start that we wouldn’t be able to get our existing stereo track to synch, we would have had a re-think about our options but then hindsight is always 20/20!

Hope this clears up the idea that anything 'fishy' is going on. Nothing suspicious, no conspiracies and Arrow haven't been ripped off. It's just the way it goes sometimes when dealing with these licensors.

[PaulD]

The whole thing sounds like a right bloody nightmare, down from buying the rights at the start and finding it difficult to find suitable masters for the release, down to wanting to use the best audio possible and not being able to due to the aforementioned errors.


Really looking forward to this release though!

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by PaulD

The whole thing sounds like a right bloody nightmare, down from buying the rights at the start and finding it difficult to find suitable masters for the release, down to wanting to use the best audio possible and not being able to due to the aforementioned errors.


Really looking forward to this release though!

Same here.

Demons and Demons 2 finally on Blu-ray, in cool-looking editions, with lots of special features... and some people's only thought is "nag, nag, nag"...

We all should be deeply grateful, and thank Arrow for letting us participate in the whole process till the final release.

Greetings!

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by Prince_Vajda

Same here.

Demons and Demons 2 finally on Blu-ray, in cool-looking editions, with lots of special features... and some people's only thought is "nag, nag, nag"...

We all should be deeply grateful, and thank Arrow for letting us participate in the whole process till the final release.

Greetings!

I've just realised I only had the sequel pre-ordered too - about to rectify that now.

edit: no I didn't. I have them both pre-ordered! Must take more note of this sort of thing - already about to end up with 2 copies of The Devils.

[Steel76]

Originally Posted by Sarah@Cult Labs

Hope this clears up the idea that anything 'fishy' is going on. Nothing suspicious, no conspiracies and Arrow haven't been ripped off. It's just the way it goes sometimes when dealing with these licensors.

Thanks for sharing their comment.
Now we know Arrow did all they could within their budget.
As a die-hard fan of these movies, it´s easy to get a bit carried away and forget that they don´t have the same budget to work with as the big labels.
Guess this have been one of their hardest titles to put together so far.

[Mark F]

Wait, I'm confused.

So, what audio version are we getting with the film? The US version or the European version?