Thursday, 8 September 2016

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

This one is frustrating because between the original mono mix on the R1 Warner DVD and the 5.0 on the Blu-ray, the former is a better mix and the latter has better fidelity.

The mono is extremely hissy and appears to have gone without additional clean-up, and I imagine it was transferred when this restoration was conducted (given that it syncs perfectly with a +1001ms delay). It's severely missing bass, though, which becomes especially evident during the musical sequences, and the high-end is consistently crackly. Anything brass, in particular, distorts like mad.

In contrast, the 'surround' mix is much cleaner and offers a much more immediate and fuller musical experience, but it could clearly be better separated. It was likely derived from the mono, and there's a tonne of bleed among the channels. As a result, everything--especially dialogue--sounds somewhat hollow and murky. It's very significant and anyone should be able to hear it--it absolutely does detract from one's viewing experience. Yet, the poor fidelity of the mono is enough to make the 5.0 worth preferring, flaws and all.

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