The Sad State of Terminator 2 on Home Video (plus T1)

#Terminator #Bluray #Laserdisc

The status of T2 and the original film are still a bit of a mess on home video. Transfers vary wildly and having the original audio presentation is apparently not desired by those in charge. The discussions are endless in forums yet it remains another part of James Cameron films that have a complete lack of care to theatrical fidelity on disc. The 4K UHD of T2 is not just appalling but easily the worst disc ever released on the format to this day. It is so bad the previous 1080p Blu-ray is far superior. It is for this reason along with attempting to best recreate the original audio experience that I decided to make this general overview video. Keep in mind this pertains only to the US editions as they formed the basis of most other foreign editions and I simply can't afford the rare Japanese squeeze Laserdisc and MUSE versions.

Intro and why to avoid the 4K UHD: 00:00
The Theatrical Cut Laserdiscs: 03:20
The Special Edition Laserdiscs: 09:16
Mention of other versions, Japanese squeeze LD and MUSE discs: 19:25
The late release ac3 LD/First release 1998 ac3 DVD with CDS theatrical audio 5.1 mix: 20:51
2000 ultimate Edition DVD: 27:01
2003 Extreme Edition DVD: 29:43
Blu-ray releases and the Best overall 2015 BD: 31:29
T2 video editions summary: 36:24
The Terminator video editions:
T1 HBO Video LD: 39:08
T1 Hemdale first letterbox LD: 40:07
T1 THX remastered LD: 41:12
T1 THX first DVD (LD port): 41:54
T1 MGM Special Edition DVD: 42:38
T1 MGM Blu-ray: 44:32
T1 MGM 4K mastered Blu-ray: 45:30
T1 video editions summary: 46:36

Final comments: 48:27

[paul]

This guy: “I’m not much of a James Cameron fan.”

Also this guy: “Here are my 11 million copies of T1 and T2.”

[SpaceHunterM]

It's such a sadness how much garbage a novice must plow through to get a single decent release of a popular studio film these days.

[Clamcakes]

If you don't hear the metal-scraping sound in the T1 title sequence, shut it off.

[MattHrman-Cutis]

I like the original mono audio version of the terminator because it sounds more intimidating and scary and it feels more like a horror as the remixed audio is good but it lacks the horror and intimidation and it feels over done

[gamerx]

The HD version of T2 from the 2003 DVD is an interesting oddity. The files can be found on the DVD if you know where to look, but they are protected by old 2003 DRM that relies on servers that aren't up anymore. There are programs that can remove the DRM, so that version can still be seen, just not easily. It's an odd resolution, like 1440x816, and the movie is split into 4 parts. So you can't watch it directly from DVD 2, but if you copy the files over and "fix" them, you can see it that way. I imagine it's on par or slightly worse than the D-Theater release, probably worse due to 2003 compression. Still a neat piece of history.

[pepsiforbread]

The 1997 DVD release of T2 is on the Internet Archive for some reason, so if you want HD and the CDS mix together, you could synchronize it with a rip of the 2015 Blu Ray with something like mkvtoolnix. It's sad to see T2 and T1 in such a state, at least Star Wars has a crap ton of fan restorations.

[CophinRuinzrKestra]

So I tracked down the DVD release with the theatrical 5.1 CDS audio track and I was blown away. It's such a punchy mix. Very well balanced and put together and I do not know why later releases exclude this sound mix in favor of newer, heavily altered ones.

[ChaseMC]

The Extreme DVD version also has the original theatrical version of the film on Disc 1 as some sort of easter egg. To get the theatrical version you have to select the middle option in the main menu, but don't go into that option. The press right 5 times until you seenred text saying The Futire Is Not Set, select that, and the "Play Special Edition" button will change into the "Theatrifal Version" button.

[deckofcards]

There's a high quality 35mm print of T2 floating around on MySpleen, with original theatrical mono mix, and it's beautiful albeit a little faded. It becomes instantly clear that the 4k scan shares almost zero resemblance to the warm flesh tone/ against "steel blue" contrast that the original had.

[bertrand]

I already own the 2015 blu ray, but after watching your video I decided to track down the 2007 DVD for that CDS mix. Not only does it sound amazing, but given that it’s in anamorphic widescreen and not a bad transfer, I have no problem making this my de facto way of viewing this film. I do occasionally miss the HD, but my player upscales well enough. It also pairs well with my MGM Terminator DVD which I also picked up for the mono mix and is now my main version. Your channel has made me focus on audio presentation just as much as visual.

[island]

Thank you for the informative discussion. Though George Lucas is often blamed for starting all this "Director's Cut"/"Special Edition" stuff (though it might actually have been Steven Spielberg with "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), James Cameron has clearly taken it way past outrageous. Choice is a good thing but films should be respected as a product of their time and the property of their audience. I particularly love the example of a resurrected da Vinci arriving at the Louvre and re-painting the Mona Lisa as a blonde because he "didn't get it right" the first time. Sadly, I don't think the tinkering with these films will cease anytime soon.

[purringc]

The ultimate edition actually has 3 cuts of the film. For each edition, one or the other of the terminator eyes would light up. If you enter a code on that screen with the remote, both eyes will light up indicating the third cut.

Really loved when time was taken for the menus. Watching a movie was an experience from the time you put the disc in. T2 Ultimate had one, if not the best, interactive menus.

[PixarMan]

The 1998 LaserDisc is also the only release to retain the film's original TriStar Pictures logo. TriStar distributed Carolco's films in theaters for about 10 years, but Carolco had retained home video rights due to being the sole copyright holder (even though StudioCanal has owned Carolco's library since 1996, Live, later renamed Artisan, which was bought by and folded into Lionsgate, have retained home video distribution). Television & digital distribution rights to Carolco films are owned by Paramount, due to buying out Spelling Entertainment, who had those rights before.

[obscuracrimepodcast]

I've watched this video three times. It's nice to find someone who knows what they're talking about.

[Eva-jyqupur]

Its sad that the best Cameron releases are the Laserdiscs and the older DVD's of his catalogue. His HD releases are some of the worst ever made and it's only getting more aggregious

[mattymcfabb]

I’m glad there are others who care about this so much

[artkingofwholefoods]

I’m not a genuine physical media collector. I probably have a couple hundred disk. But…. After watching this I CANNOT wait to see what version of T-2 I have…

[stujoker]

Great stuff! As a Cameron fan it's unforgivable they can't get it right and still waiting on his other films to come out in 4k

[robmontoya]

I Wish... ARROW VIDEO would release a Big Box Set of TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2 INCLUDING all Cuts of both film on 4K ULTRA HD.

[Riddler]

When it comes to The Terminator I have got the Special Edition DVD because it has the original Mono mix and it's exclusive extras and then I have got the remastered edition on Blu-Ray from 2013.

I know that lots of fans are mixed on the remastered Blu-Ray because of the colour timing but I honestly think that MGM did a superb job with that video presentation. For a long time I didn't think that The Terminator could ever look perfect on home video but I think it really does on there. I am however disappointed that the original Mono mix was not included. I actually don't mind the new 5.1 mix but I think that the original sound mix for a movie should always be included if a newer mix is going to be made and included.

Now I have never seen or owned The Terminator on LaserDisc but the THX Mastered Edition is one that I would like to own.