Ruscico's Stalker DVD Question
 

What is the final verdict on Ruscico's release of Stalker? I heard the soundtrack was incorrect. Was it ever fixed?

I was going to post that same question. Does anyone know about Stalker 2.0?

stalker 2.0 finally appeared in the shops here in Moscow last week. it contains the 'new' 5.1 track and the original mono track. the mono remaster is pretty good. the quivering bed in the opening scenes is still there though.

Please tell me more. Is there a link to a whole review and/or discussion about this disc? If it is on the store shelves can I also order it from their website? Is there a way of telling the difference between the first and second version?

pants,
I think the 2nd version is labeled as such in the top right corner of the front cover.
Take a look here.

Cheers,
Gabe

It looks to me like that means it is "2 disc"

...yup!... that's all it says: "2 discs"...

. . . :o . . .

there is one disk, it says version 2 on it. unless there is a different version for foreign markets as the one on the link has a different cover. the russian market one is in the oversized jewel case with a photo on the front.


in the opening scenes with the bedroom, the bed looks rather like a cutout quivering slightly against the background. other than that the video is pretty good.

The first version was on 2 discs... are you saying that the "new" version 2.0 is only on 1 disc? Strange.

Also, is the 5.1 track a remaster of the original mono... or is it the same 5.1 track (with changed music, missing sounds, etc.) as on the version 1?

To state my question a bit better, does version 2 have the same 5.1 track as version 1, plus the original mono. Or does it have a new 5.1 track and the original mono?

Thanks.

Don't know if this helps, but I just received the PAL R2 Artificial Eye release on Saturday. It is virtually identical content-wise to the original Ruscico R1 release, with the addition of the original mono track. The 5.1 track is the same as the Ruscico, with the changed music and sound effects. It was interesting to flip between the 5.1 and mono tracks.

The back cover of the Artificial Eye release does not mention the mono soundtrack. It is also a 2-disc release (disc one is single layer, disc two is dual layer).

the Russian-market RusCiCo disk is a single disk with the only extras being photos and production notes. It has the 5.1 and the mono tracks.

I'm interested in checking this movie out. Is the R0 Image/Russico still the best version out? Looks pretty spendy.

Chente:

The Russico disc is far from being perfect but it is by far the best version available. In my opinion it is a very good disc considering the current condition of the print available etc. I really believe that unless some major company steps-up (or Mosfilm for that matter finances their own restoration of the existing print) this will be the best version we would get in a long time.

I would also make a prediction that with this being one of the most important Soviet films, sooner or later when the HD format establishes itself in the East Russia will finance a better version....that is however years ahead of us.

Regards,
Pro-B

I see there are korean versions of among others Stalker and Solaris.
Does anyone here know if they're any good? I think I read somewhere that they were Russico 'ports'

I have the 2 disc "korean version". It has the Russian Cinema Council trademark on the discs. 5.1 Russian soundtrack, Russian, English, Korean subs & the same bed "cutout" Gondo mentions above.
4:3 aspect ratio
I don't have another version to compare it to, but it is definitely watchable.

Sounds like the Ruscico, possibly with different compression encoding.

I just watched the Ruscico disc last week, and the video jitter is insane on that thing. That opening scene, with the really high contrast sepia/b-w look, is probably the most obvious (the bed -- everything in that same plane with the bed, really, like the canes leaning against the wall -- seems ready to shake loose and go flying off into space). But it's a problem pretty much throughout. At one point, one of Stalker's cheeks just about crawls off his face. It's a bizarre amount of jitter. I wonder if this is something that better compression encoding could help? Or will it always be an artifact of the original transfer?

I also have the R3 Korean STALKER; It looks good to me, and at $15, I can live without the mono track; 2 discs (disc 2 is R0 for some reason) nicer cover-similar to Artificial Eye, with the dog...

Ive watched the US Image/Ruscico disc and I could spot little, if any difference-other than the mono track.

How is the standard shipping from RusCiCo?

Can someone please tell me which version this is, and if it's out? If it isn't, any idea when?

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/bop/Tarkovsky-Stalker.jpg

Are you sure that's a DVD cover, and not simply a poster?

No, I'm not sure. I actually went out on a hunch (due to the artwork) and searched the BFI site. Turns out they are putting Stalker in theatres currently, so I'm going to assume it'll come to DVD via BFI in the future. I saw the cover on DVDBEAVER so I assumed it was from dvd artwork. Now that you mention it, it could very well be a poster. I guess for now I'll go after the R3.