Terminator 2 Pioneer Special Edition

Over the long weekend I finally got my hands on the Pioneer Special Edition of Terminator 2 and I have to say I'm impressed.

To begin with the packaging is really impressive and luxurious, but it's the quantity of special features which really wows me; three CAV sides. I don't think I've ever seen such a comprehensive making of a film on any other laserdisc or DVD (with the possible exception of the Extended Lord of the Rings DVDS). It's going to take me ages to get through it all.

Of course the picture and sound quality are also both excellent.

I'd love to get my hands on some other laserdiscs with this quality of extras. What other discs would people recommend?

I've read of a few other Pioneer Special Editions but they just seem to be the film with no extras. Is T2 a stereotypical Pioneer Special Edition or did they just really push the boat out for this one?

The pioneer special editions that I really like are one flew over the cuckoos nest and platoon both are hard back script books.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A full list of P..S.E releases
PSE92-23 1776: Special Edition: PSE (1972)
PSE91-07 20 Million Miles to Earth: PSE (1957)
PSE92-31 3 Worlds of Gulliver, The: PSE (1960)
PSE92-29 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The: PSE (1958)
PSE95-70 Amadeus: PSE (1984)
PSE96-073 Amadeus: PSE (1984)
PSE97-101 Arrival, The: Special Edition: PSE (1996)
PSE95-60 Ball of Fire/Song Is Born, A: PSE
PSE93-33 Basic Instinct: PSE (1992)
PSE94-55 Best Years of Our Lives, The: PSE (1946)
PSE94-51 Bishop's Wife, The: PSE (1947)
PSE94-49 Bob Hope Double Feature: The Princess and The Pirate/They Got Me Covered: PSE
PSE94-43 Bob Roberts: Special Edition: PSE (1992)
PSE96-079 Boys From Brazil, The: PSE (1978)
PSE91-10 Bye Bye Birdie: PSE (1963)
PSE96-076 Capricorn One: PSE (1978)
PLFFC 31601 Chaplin: Edition spéciale: PSE (1992)
PSE91-17 Chase, The: PSE (1966)
PSE95-56 Cliffhanger: Special Edition: PSE (1993)
PSE94-53 Come and Get It: PSE (1936)
PSE94-50 Dead End: PSE (1937)
PSE91-01 Deep, The: PSE (1977)
PSE96-080 Doors, The: PSE (1991)
PSE91-02 Down to Earth: PSE (1947)
PSE91-03 Eddy Duchin Story, The: PSE (1956)
PSE95-65 Enchantment: PSE (1948)
PSE99-101 Faces: PSE (1968)
PSE91-11 First Men in the Moon: PSE (1964)
PSE95-66 Four Feathers, The: PSE (1939)
PSE91-12 Funny Lady: PSE (1975)
PSE91-04 Gandhi: PSE (1982)
PSE94-36 Gary Cooper Adventure Collection: PSE (1940)
PSE94-42 Glengarry Glen Ross: Special Edition: PSE (1992)
PSE91-20 Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The: PSE (1974)
PSE94-44 Goldwyn Follies, The/They Shall Have Music: PSE
PSE94-35 Goldwyn Novels: Dodsworth/Arrowsmith: PSE
PSE94-52 Hans Christian Andersen: PSE (1952)
PSE95-61 Hurricane, The: PSE (1937)
PSE98-2001 Jacob's Ladder: Special Edition: PSE (1990)
PSE91-05 Jagged Edge: PSE (1985)
PSE94-48 Kid from Brooklyn, The: PSE (1946)
PSE95-68 Kid Millions: PSE (1934)
PSE99-103 Killing of a Chinese Bookie, The: PSE (1976)
PSE95-62 Little Foxes: PSE (1941)
PSE95-63 Look Back in Anger: PSE (1958)
PSE92-25 Lost Horizon: Ross Hunter's: PSE (1973)
PSE91-13 My Sister Eileen (1942 & 1955): PSE
PSE92-26 Mysterious Island: PSE (1961)
PSE96-75 Natural Born Killers: Special Edition: PSE (1994)
PSE91-24 Natural, The: PSE (1984)
PSE91-21 Nicholas & Alexandra: PSE (1971)
PSE91-18 Obsession: PSE (1976)
PSE92-27 Oliver!: PSE (1968)
PSE97-102 On Golden Pond: Special Edition: PSE (1981)
PSE97-100 One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: PSE (1975)
PSE97-103 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Limited Collector's Edition: PSE (1975)
PSE98-166 Opening Night: PSE (1977)
PSE92-28 Picnic: PSE (1956)
PSE95-58 Platoon: Special Edition: PSE (1986)
PSE95-59WS Platoon: Special Edition: PSE (1986)
PSE91-14 Professionals, The: PSE (1966)
PSE92-32 Rambling Rose: Special Edition: PSE (1991)
PSE91-22 Robin and Marian: PSE (1976)
PSE94-54 Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The: PSE (1947)
PSE98-165 Shadows: PSE (1959)
PSE97-104 Sophie's Choice: Special Edition: PSE (1982)
PSE96-72 Spetters: PSE (1980)
PSE91-09 Starman: PSE (1984)
PSE94-47 Stella Dallas: PSE (1937)
PSE92-30 Taming of the Shrew, The: PSE (1967)
PSE82997-6WS Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Special Edition: PSE (1991)
PSE93-34 Texasville: PSE (1990)
PSE95-71 That Hamilton Woman: PSE (1941)
PSE95-67 Thief of Bagdad: PSE (1940)
PSE91-15 Three for the Show: PSE (1955)
PSE96-74 Three Wishes: Special Edition: PSE (1995)
PSE94-45 Up in Arms: PSE (1944)
PSE91-16 Violent Men, The: PSE (1955)
PSE91-19 Way We Were, The: PSE (1973)
PSE91-08 White Nights: PSE (1985)
PSE95-69 Whoopee!: PSE (1930)
PSE98-150 Wishmaster: Special Edition: PSE (1997)
PSE98-167 Woman under the Influence, A : PSE (1974)
PSE94-46 Wonder Man: PSE (1945)
PSE95-64 Wuthering Heights: PSE (1939)

There were some PAL Special Editions from Pioneer, too, that were very impressive. They were issued in the early 1990s, I think, under the collective title of 'Pioneer Cinema' and included some Hitchcock classics. Their release of REBECCA was a triumph: the film was fully in CAV throughout. It also included screen tests, lighting and make up tests, footage from the 1941 Academy Awards, a copy of the cinema poster, some picture postcards, an extensive booklet, loads of audio extras (2 versions of US radio broadcasts of the play, an interview with Francois Truffaut, etc.) and, most intriguingly, Teletext subtitles in 5 languages including English.

I've never seen text subtitles on any other laserdiscs, certainly not in PAL. I know many NTSC releases came with 'closed captions' but I think these were really for hard-of-hearing viewers who had to have special equipment to access them. Obviously, foreign language titles would be subtitled but HOH subtitles would have been a great feature on laserdiscs, as it now is on DVDs, if they'd been able to offer it. These Pioneer Cinema releases prove that technically it was possible.

BTW, not ALL these Pioneer Cinema were wonderful. I remember owning their edition of THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE and it was awful - not the film, the laserdisc transfer. It was a poor quality video transfer and really wasn't presented very well, even with teletext.

One further point: if you're looking for really great LD packages you want to look at some of the releases in Universal's 'Signature Collection'. Admittedly, all titles are from that studio only, but they're really gone to town with presentation, artwork and extras. I'll post a separate thread with details.

Cheers for the info,

Platoon and One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest look fantastic.

Can anyone comment on the quality of the Harryhausen Pioneer Special Editions?

As a follow up to my previous question :

Does anyone here own a copy of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad PSE? I've read on lddb that it is both CLV and CAV, can anyone tell me which bits are in CAV? I imagine the last half of the film is CAV as it contains the most stop frame sequences, if this is the case does anyone know at what point in the film it switches from CLV to CAV?

Thanks for any information : )

side 1 is clv and sides 2 & 3 are cav

Admin wrote:

side 1 is clv and sides 2 & 3 are cav

Thanks. So I assume roughly the first hour of the film is CLV then.

Do you know where the first side break is placed?

If you ask me, the US Terminator 2 Special Edition from Pioneer is pretty lame actually. The Japanese edition is better, it has four discs and a booklet. Why wasn't the US-edition complete?

The only Pioneer Special Collection-edition I own is Amadeus, as a standard gatefold. The picture is a bit unbalanced for being a THX-title, in the dark scenes the picture is quite dark and in the bright scenes the the picture is quite bright. The audio is near reference quality though, thanks to the classical theme with music by Mozart. However, it has a poor side-break between side 2 and 3 that could have been improved.

I'm looking forward to buy One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest someday.

nissling wrote:

If you ask me, the US Terminator 2 Special Edition from Pioneer is pretty lame actually. The Japanese edition is better, it has four discs and a booklet. Why wasn't the US-edition complete?

What extra does the Japanese Edition have? The US one comes with a booklet containing a message from James Cameron, notes on the restoration, notes on THX and chapter points.

Sorry to resurrect a pretty dead thread but I was wondering if any members had any good quality pictures of the insert that came with this release that gave details about the special features? My copy came without it but I'd like to get a picture of it for the wiki. Also if anyone has a picture of the red logo pressing I'd love to get a picture of that too, I've got pictures of the silver, gold and blue pressings but the red is proving elusive. I did see it on ebay a few months before I started the wiki, wish I'd grabbed the picture then.

Here's the current wiki page: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it : )

HippieDalek wrote:

I was wondering if any members had any good quality pictures of the insert that came with this release that gave details about the special features? My copy came without it but I'd like to get a picture of it for the wiki.

Only ever had the PAL 2-disc Special Edition in the past, but was so intrigued by your description and pictures of the NTSC box that I looked on eBay and have just picked up a copy (the gold pressing) that looks immaculate, still with the shrink wrapping on the disc sleeves, for under £28 - and free postage! Don't know if this is bargain, but it seems like one to me!

If it has the insert I'll try to get some decent photos of it for you.

laserkb wrote:

Only ever had the PAL 2-disc Special Edition in the past, but was so intrigued by your description and pictures of the NTSC box that I looked on eBay and have just picked up a copy (the gold pressing) that looks immaculate, still with the shrink wrapping on the disc sleeves, for under £28 - and free postage! Don't know if this is bargain, but it seems like one to me!

If it has the insert I'll try to get some decent photos of it for you.

It is certainly a beautiful box set, you won't be disappointed. I found the extras really interesting, they go into great depth about the making of the film and also film making in general answering loads of questions I'd always had about making films. You get the deleted scenes, trailers and music video too, so it's a really complete package.

I think I got mine for somewhere around £20, but £28 for a copy with shrinkwrap and free postage is certainly a bargain. I have the gold one too (pictured on the wiki) but I kinda wish I'd got the red one when I saw it, it's a really dark, almost brownish red, looks great. I'd heard rumours of the blue one but had never seen one until today (hence the update to the wiki and this post).

Thanks for the offer of the picture : )

HippieDalek wrote:

I was wondering if any members had any good quality pictures of the insert that came with this release that gave details about the special features? My copy came without it but I'd like to get a picture of it for the wiki.

If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it : )

Hi, managed to get a copy WITH the insert. Hope these pics can be of use to you. Sorry about the 'shine' - it couldn't be helped. Text is still readable.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I love the inserts that talk about the Video/Audio transfers. But even better is the Special features on the T2 box set that go in depth on the transfers, colour correction, aspect ratios, etc. I love hearing about that.

Cheers for the pictures but it's actually a different insert that I'm after as I already have pictures of that one on the wiki.

Great detailed pictures though : )

The insert I'm after lists the special features and most likely was originally fixed to the back of the box.
The only picture I've found of it is this low quality one:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Unfortunately most copies are missing this bit as most people just threw it out : (

HippieDalek wrote:

The insert I'm after lists the special features and most likely was originally fixed to the back of the box.(

Hi, is this what you mean? (Your low res image won't come through on my PC - I've just got a box with a red cross in.)

This sheet is affixed to the back of the box, so strictly speaking it's not an insert.

I could get you a high quality image, but you'd have to wait. My son took the images that I posted previously as I only have my low quality webcam, but if you're prepared to wait a week or so I could ask him to do this back cover as well. He lives some distance away so it involves another long journey. (Note to self: MUST get a new digital camera!)

Meanwhile, here's the best I can do with that manky old webcam!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Yeah, that's the one. I wasn't sure if it was an insert or fixed to the back as I could find very little information about it.

No worries, just post the picture whenever you can, or if you like you could upload it to the wiki yourself, anyone can edit it : )

Thanks again for the help, it's really appreciated : )