Grease LD PCM preservation

[IcePrick]

A thought about the PAL LD; since this is a musical, isn't it a possibility that the audio is pitch-corrected?

For the record, I'm able to capture digital PAL LD audio. If the Japanese digital LD doesn't turn up, I'm willing to capture the audio from the Dutch disc if someone ships it to me.

[SilverWook]

I had not thought of that. AntcuFaalb knows a dealer in Japanese LD's, but hasn't heard back yet.

Do you have any experience with analog audio on older PAL LD's? I have a technical question unrelated to Grease.

[IcePrick]

No, not really. However, I have captured audio from PAL VHS tapes.

[SilverWook]

Ok. No problem!

A thought about the PAL LD; since this is a musical, isn't it a possibility that the audio is pitch-corrected?

It will be, but it's a straight analog speedup (i.e. they just played the film at 25fps instead of 24fps) and not digital so just slowing the audio down again will fix it. Technically with the slowdown you're also slowing down the sample rate, so a 44.1kHz PAL LD soundtrack ends up at 42.3kHz, but in practice it's unnoticeable. Just make sure to use high quality sample rate conversion.

[IcePrick]

It will be, but it's a straight analog speedup (i.e. they just played the film at 25fps instead of 24fps) and not digital so just slowing the audio down again will fix it. Technically with the slowdown you're also slowing down the sample rate, so a 44.1kHz PAL LD soundtrack ends up at 42.3kHz, but in practice it's unnoticeable. Just make sure to use high quality sample rate conversion.

What I meant was, the film is sped up to 25fps, then the pitch is electronically lowered to its original pitch. I think this is a common practice with musicals as the higher pitch would be more noticeable in the songs. If that's the case, it's a bit more difficult than just slowing it down (then the pitch would be too low). But then again, I've seen PAL DVDs of musicals with just the regular PAL speedup, so it may not necessarily be the case with this LD.

What I meant was, the film is sped up to 25fps, then the pitch is electronically lowered to its original pitch. I think this is a common practice with musicals as the higher pitch would be more noticeable in the songs. If that's the case, it's a bit more difficult than just slowing it down (then the pitch would be too low). But then again, I've seen PAL DVDs of musicals with just the regular PAL speedup, so it may not necessarily be the case with this LD.

Truthfully I'd be surprised if they did that (especially since this would be a pre-remastered version), but there's no way to know for sure without buying and transferring the disc.

Speaking of, is there any reason to _not_ get the Dutch LD? With shipping to Europe it's less than $40 total

[IcePrick]

Speaking of, is there any reason to _not_ get the Dutch LD? With shipping to Europe it's less than $40 total

Like I say, I'm willing to capture the audio, but I'm not really keen on spending 40$ on it (I just had a fairly pricey operation + I don't have a full time job). If someone's willing to pay for it (at least partially), let me know. Then I can capture the audio and then ship the LD to the person that paid for it.

[SilverWook]

I can throw a few bucks in to help buy the Dutch LD if you want to take a shot at capturing it.