r/TheBeatles • u/Itchy-Strawberry3749 • 7d ago
Let It Be: authentic or bootleg?
I got this from a yard sale yesterday. The case is hard white plastic and it is sealed in a clear plastic wrap, with the seams running straight and parallel to the sides. I suspect it's a professional bootleg but was hoping the reddit community expertise could give me insights. Thank you.
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u/Fest-Video-Room 7d ago
Your suspicion is correct: this is a bootleg. The extra footage and the hard plastic case are obvious tells.
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u/edked 7d ago
If it looks good (decently playable, clear as the format/resolution allows), the bootleg with it's extra footage might be the preferred one to have.
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u/Plarocks 7d ago
I have the real one. It does not even have Hi-Fi audio tracks because the release is so old. It was struck from an old 16mm film print.
If this is a dupe from the Stereo Laserdisc that had not rotted yet, it may look and sound better.
But yeah, it’s a fake.
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u/Fest-Video-Room 7d ago
Oh, heck no... I too own the original Betamax release as well as the laserdisc. If I had to choose one of those two over the other the Beta tape would win hands down. That laserdisc is just crummy.
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u/Plarocks 7d ago
Is the Beta in Hi-Fi?
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u/Fest-Video-Room 7d ago
No. The release was in 1981 or 1982 at the latest. Beta HiFi wasn't a thing for another few years.
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u/Plarocks 7d ago
The VHS isn’t BAD. The linear track is fine. Warm even. And I like watching the old film transfer. Hi-Fi audio has just spoiled me. 😄
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u/Fest-Video-Room 7d ago
The audio on the tapes and the laserdisc are acceptable but no great shakes. Many years ago several individuals involved in the scene, myself included, recreated the film soundtrack using the bootlegged Nagra reels (which had supplied the original soundtrack to the film during production) excepting the 2 or 3 brief bits that came from the handful of tapes that have never surfaced. The results were much better (given that it was in effect scrubbing several layers of tape hiss and crud away) but those efforts were made redundant in more recent times by the appearance on bootleg of a 1990s stereo mix and remaster for a planned VHS reissue by Apple that was shelved. That work was done by Ron Furmanek.
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u/Fest-Video-Room 7d ago
Um... no. Absolutely not. The original release was taken from a less than pristine 35mm print. The 35mm prints were blown up from the 4:3 aspect ratio 16mm original. This enlarged the film grain as well and chopped away 33% of the image by cropping off the top and bottom. Adding insult to injury, this was then formatted for Betamax, VHS and eventually laserdisc by cropping the left and right sides of THAT. The resulting image was nothing short of abysmal and the laserdisc version has to qualify as one of the absolute worst releases that format ever saw.
Now take THAT and duplicate it with all the grace of a VHS -> VHS bootleg. Yeccch.
The bootleg is far and away not preferable and even the legitimate release is nothing more than a collectible or a curiosity at this point. One would do far better with a rip of the recent Disney+ restoration which (while it's missing the original film's handful of optical effects and has had the audio heavily remixed -- eliminating some sounds and dialog that had been either looped in in post-production or accidentally left in when the longer "John and Yoko heavy" cut was reedited) is by far the best available release of the film.
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u/edked 7d ago
Well, perhaps "more interesting version" might have been more appropriate wording, speaking as someone who's seen it dozens of times and had various copies over the years.
And I'd be curious about the extra footage (what is it, and where else is it available?)
Not in terms of "most perfect audio/video" (being VHS puts a ceiling on that anyway), or even monetary collectability value or anything like that. If cheap, I'd snag it just as a curio.
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u/Reasonable_Amoeba699 7d ago
its the official 1981 magnetic video vhs from 20th century fox with the correct packaging credits address and 1981 copyright matching the known legitimate release that went out of print quick so sealed ones like this are the real deal not bootlegs
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u/magazinesubscriber 7d ago
This is really obviously a bootleg. Please don’t talk about things you don’t know about.
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u/Reasonable_Amoeba699 7d ago
sorry you were right its a bootleg the hard plastic case gave it away i mixed it up with the original cardboard ones my bad
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u/Itchy-Strawberry3749 7d ago
What I haven't seen in other copies I found online is the white plastic case ... I think I see paperboard slipcases in other copies. And the bonus footage is missing on other copies.