I've only barely skimmed the surface of the preservation world, but the irreverent attitude taken by the industry towards audiovisual media releases frustrates me greatly. That more accurate older releases are made unobtainable in favor of newer botched versions just adds insult to injury.
I'm grateful that diminishing returns were hit earlier with audio, though, which limits the blast radius for music releases. Most classic albums have a range of different masterings available on audio CD, many of which are available cheaply secondhand, which makes getting ahold of a good/accurate release considerably less daunting.
Movies and especially TV shows on the other hand are a mess. It shouldn't be a miracle to get a high-quality, faithful official remaster like the one Star Trek: TNG got.
> Movies and especially TV shows on the other hand are a mess. It shouldn't be a miracle to get a high-quality, faithful official remaster like the one Star Trek: TNG got.
TV shows are even worse because of the soundtrack.
Oh you watched this show with the iconic soundtrack? Too bad it's only available on the VHS release from 1995, they couldn't get the rights anymore so here is the same show but worse with different music
Even video games are not exempt from that. GTA games has tons of music removed from the radios with later digital re-releases so currently the original console disc versions are the only way to play the games as they were released back then <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/GTATrilogy/comments/1gsqdc5/what_songs_been_removed/lxgbwgg/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/GTATrilogy/comments/1gsqdc5/what_so...
This isn't even the worst outcome. There are hundreds of video games that are never re-released at all and have never been available for sale digitally, entirely because of soundtrack licensing.
GoldenEye was re-released for Xbox One and is available to purchase right now: <a href="https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/goldeneye-007/9n6639h7vgh4" rel="nofollow">https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/goldeneye-007/9n6639h...
There is a similar case with Top Gear. Aside from the popularity of Clarkson/May/Hammond and the fantastic cinematography, the show had great editors with an ear for soundtracks. Unfortunately it seems a lot of the tracks were only licensed for broadcast TV and the DVDs have some stock music where the rights were no longer available. There are also some gags which don't work any more because the audio doesn't make sense.
I believe the only place you can watch them as originally produced is iPlayer, but at least the BBC has copies somewhere.
I think it’s true for a lot of BBC shows, many had great music, but the BBC also ran hugely popular radio stations and i think it was through that they were able to license a large amount of music.
It's a shame they never released the full series on DVD (or blu-ray). Most of it is available if you consult a chart of all the releases, but they've been cut and rearranged to fit on discs, and the soundtrack is as you say. I imagine they didn't due to problems like this at the time, but after the scandal and with how much time has passed, they'll never actually bother, unless someone straight up steals/copies the broadcast tapes from the archives and do us all a favour.
And TV shows too. If they don't have the soundtrack-free version available, they have to do surgery to remove the music in postproduction somehow, or just not re-release at all.
That might actually be a better outcome though as then those interested in those games will be funneled towards authentic pirate preservations whereas if there is a butchered re-release then some buyers will not even be aware that they are not getting the real deal.
In the end the situation around sound track licensing in different media seems so counter productive to even the interests of the rights holders. Essentially shows and games that incorporate songs are free advertisements for those songs and in no way compete with direct sales / streaming of that music on its own.
cosmic_cheese · · focus · HN ↗
I'm grateful that diminishing returns were hit earlier with audio, though, which limits the blast radius for music releases. Most classic albums have a range of different masterings available on audio CD, many of which are available cheaply secondhand, which makes getting ahold of a good/accurate release considerably less daunting.
Movies and especially TV shows on the other hand are a mess. It shouldn't be a miracle to get a high-quality, faithful official remaster like the one Star Trek: TNG got.
haunter · · focus · HN ↗
TV shows are even worse because of the soundtrack.
Oh you watched this show with the iconic soundtrack? Too bad it's only available on the VHS release from 1995, they couldn't get the rights anymore so here is the same show but worse with different music
Even video games are not exempt from that. GTA games has tons of music removed from the radios with later digital re-releases so currently the original console disc versions are the only way to play the games as they were released back then <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/GTATrilogy/comments/1gsqdc5/what_songs_been_removed/lxgbwgg/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/GTATrilogy/comments/1gsqdc5/what_so...
Xirdus · · focus · HN ↗
mahboi · · focus · HN ↗
WorldMaker · · focus · HN ↗
mahboi · · focus · HN ↗
RunSet · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniracers#Lawsuit" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniracers#Lawsuit
throwaway219450 · · focus · HN ↗
I believe the only place you can watch them as originally produced is iPlayer, but at least the BBC has copies somewhere.
secretsatan · · focus · HN ↗
Telaneo · · focus · HN ↗
someonebaggy · · focus · HN ↗
miki123211 · · focus · HN ↗
account42 · · focus · HN ↗
In the end the situation around sound track licensing in different media seems so counter productive to even the interests of the rights holders. Essentially shows and games that incorporate songs are free advertisements for those songs and in no way compete with direct sales / streaming of that music on its own.