DJ, I believe you have it right, but it should be noted that this is pretty much a moot point anyway. Regardless of what Columbia used for their old LD, the 5.1 tracks on the DVD were surely mastered from the same 6-channel source as the Criterion LD anyway.

I would have to agree, but it might be worth the time to give the DVD's 5.1 tracks a spot check on the sound effect that WSR points out in the opening scene. There's always the off-chance that Zoetrope and/or Columbia actually went back even further to the D/M/E stems to create an entirely new 5.1 track for DVD, but this seems unlikely. That being said, I hope that digitalfreaknyc (or anyone else who has either or both DVD releases, for that matter) actually does check for that sound effect just to satisfy my curiosity.

FWIW, I got in touch with the producer of the Criterion LD, Morgan Holly (now of Blink Digital). He could not remember any details specific to that soundtrack, including whether it had any manner of differing sound effects (I originally dropped him a line before I found the WSR review text), due to how long ago it was, but he noted that a lot of care was generally put into the downmixing process by Criterion.

DJ

From some previous posts, it sounds like a lot of piracy being openly discussed. Is this allowed here?

Uhh...no piracy. This is for me. Not for YOU