While it is true that a few British TV productions (The Avengers, The Prisoner) from this era were filmed at 24 frames per second, this was unusual. No evidence exists to support that The World at War is one of these anomalies, and, frankly, this lack of evidence alone should be sufficient to end any debate over its original frame rate.
But to be completely sure...
Carl Davis' original recording of the score hasn't ever been issued digitally, so we can't simply use it as a pitch reference. What other pitch references are available? Lawrence Olivier's voice, for one. I'm not sufficiently familiar with his late-period work to say whether he sounds 'more correct' at 25 fps or 24 fps, but someone who is could easily do so.
The best pitch reference is the opening Thames Television ident. TVARK has a wonderfully thorough archive of Thames idents dating from 1968 to 1992. The one used for all 1971-1976 broadcasts matches the pitch of the Network blu-ray perfectly. And to be completely sure, I compared a few other copies of this rendition of Johnny Hawksworth's Salute to Thames theme: The 2001 'Music of the Sweeny' compilation CD, released by Sanctuary Records; the Network DVD of the 1972 Thames Television-produced Alcock and Gander, a series that we can safely assume with near certainty was never intended for overseas (24 fps) broadcasting; and a few vintage broadcast captures I was abke to find with the ident intact. All replicate the pitch on the new (25 fps) 4:3 Network blu-rays and previous PAL DVDs, but not the (24 fps) 16:9 A&E/Fremantle blu-rays.
2. Fidelity
The 2.0 tracks on the FremantleMedia blu-ray have some additional noise reduction applied relative to the 2.0 tracks on the Network blu-ray.
Good? It looks like it. But there is a much bigger problem, unfortunately. The EQ on the restored tracks--the 2.0 and 5.1 tracks on both the Network and FremantleMedia blu-ray sets)--stinks.
It's terrible. The treble frequencies have been emphasised considerably and the lower midrange slightly attenuated, making everything (Lawrence Olivier's narration, especially) sound edgy and artificial. The DVD tracks sound warm and almost veiled at times, but everything on it sounds much more natural. And I am also convinced that they aren't any less detailed than the restored blu-ray tracks. Every bit of perceived clarity present on the blu-rays is solely the result of EQ. And I've proven this - applying the EQ curve of the restored 2.0 Network tracks to the DVD tracks makes the DVD tracks sound basically identical.
Here are the EQ differences, quantified:
I think the only exception might be episode 25, which sounds legitimately more detailed on the 2.0 Network track. However, I would never listen to the Network track without re-EQing it first, and without doing so I much prefer the less detailed but infinitely more natural-sounding DVD track.
It's important, also, to note that the fidelity of the 2003 R2 DVD tracks varies significantly from episode to episode. Generally, the hissier episodes sound much more detailed, although it doesn't sound like the less hissy ones have been subjected to any noise reduction at all. Some episodes simply sound dupier and more muffled than others, as if each of the final master mixes were somehow created differently. This is a global discrepancy that affects every episode in its entirety -- narration, sound effects, and music.
These discrepancies exist on the restored BD tracks too, but they've mostly been filtered away -- so the most detailed and vibrant-sounding episodes on the DVDs have received further NR on the blu-rays. A good example is episode 23, which is easily the best sounding of them all. Listen to the closing theme and compare both tracks - the restored one sounds like it's being played underwater. (Yes, the 2.0 Network tracks do have NR applied to varying degrees, albeit always less than the 2.0 FremantleMedia tracks.)
Every special/additional episode has significant NR applied on the blu-rays. They sound excellent on the DVDs.
To briefly summarise the differences in noise reduction (this can generally be equated with 'overall sound quality' for this series):
- None of the DVD mono tracks contain any noise reduction
- All the FremantleMedia BD tracks do, both 2.0 and 5.1
- Most of the Network 2.0 tracks don't have any, but some episodes (the better-sounding episodes on the DVDs) do, as do most of the specials
- All the 5.1 Network tracks contain heavy NR (equal to the FremantleMedia ones)
And, again, the EQ on all the BD tracks is terrible.
3. Mono versus 5.1
It's important, also, to note that the fidelity of the 2003 R2 DVD tracks varies significantly from episode to episode. Generally, the hissier episodes sound much more detailed, although it doesn't sound like the less hissy ones have been subjected to any noise reduction at all. Some episodes simply sound dupier and more muffled than others, as if each of the final master mixes were somehow created differently. This is a global discrepancy that affects every episode in its entirety -- narration, sound effects, and music.
These discrepancies exist on the restored BD tracks too, but they've mostly been filtered away -- so the most detailed and vibrant-sounding episodes on the DVDs have received further NR on the blu-rays. A good example is episode 23, which is easily the best sounding of them all. Listen to the closing theme and compare both tracks - the restored one sounds like it's being played underwater. (Yes, the 2.0 Network tracks do have NR applied to varying degrees, albeit always less than the 2.0 FremantleMedia tracks.)
Every special/additional episode has significant NR applied on the blu-rays. They sound excellent on the DVDs.
To briefly summarise the differences in noise reduction (this can generally be equated with 'overall sound quality' for this series):
- None of the DVD mono tracks contain any noise reduction
- All the FremantleMedia BD tracks do, both 2.0 and 5.1
- Most of the Network 2.0 tracks don't have any, but some episodes (the better-sounding episodes on the DVDs) do, as do most of the specials
- All the 5.1 Network tracks contain heavy NR (equal to the FremantleMedia ones)
And, again, the EQ on all the BD tracks is terrible.
The World at War differs from your average WWII documentary in many, many ways, but one of the less commonly talked about differences is its use of original, recorded 'on-the-battlefield' sound wherever possible. Excessive modern Foley is never used, and any newsreel footage that was originally recorded without sound was dubbed conservatively with period-appropriate effects.
How often do people watching those horrible History Channel programmes stop to consider that the pinging bullets and earth-tremoring explosions weren't captured alongside the video? Not very often, I'd wager.
Obviously, the aim of recreating documentary sound in-studio is to establish a verisimilitude that allows the viewer to simply forget that he or she is viewing an aged artefact rather than something that actually happened... But is this sort of immersion ever actually achieved? Every use of multichannel Foley I've personally heard in Vietnam-and-earlier war documentaries has been downright tacky.
Update:
There's something very odd going on with the 5.1 mixes on the FremantleMedia blu-rays.
FremantleMedia 5.1 | Network 5.1
Zoomed in along the Y-axis:
But moving on from the FremantleMedia discs...:
'Mix' differences between the Network 5.1, the Network 2.0, and the 30th Anniversary DVD mono:
Episode 1:
00:20.000 - A new car-passing sound has been added. It doesn't sound like a new effect but rather a splice-in from somewhere else. It's ironically timed to the man on the bicycle passing instead of the car (which is already off-screen), so it doesn't even make sense. The sound is absent from the 2.0 track.00:24.000 to 01:45.000 - Atmospheric 'air' sounds added to the footage of Oradour-sur-Glan, specifically to the C/SR/SL channels. It's quite loud and sounds almost like aircraft noise, so the aerial footage (originally silent, with just Olivier's voice accompanying it) sounds very different. This sound isn't present on the 2.0.
38:11.883 - As the truck carrying soldiers passes, the track pans from right to left. It's not a new effect, but just a panning of the mono. The panning is also present on the 2.0.
Episode 2:
02:55.172 - Truck passes from right to left, 5.1 pans. Pan is also present in the 2.0, but not in the DVD mono.11:10.633 - Leftward train whistle sound; also present in the 2.0. Centered in the DVD mono.
22:28.300 - Right-to-left pan of water wave sound; also present in the 2.0. Centered in the DVD mono.
27:35.298 - Camouflaged Finnish ski troops pass from right to left, sound pans; 2.0 also pans. DVD mono does not.
28:55.440 - Kids on toboggans pass from right to left, sound pans; 2.0 also pans. DVD mono does not.
29:21.671 - Train passes, sound panned to right channel in 5.1 and 2.0. Centered in the DVD mono.
It's very possible that I missed a few, but you get the gist: any 'surround' activity is extremely minor, and is always (with the exception of the Episode 1 Oradour-sur-Glan sounds) achieved via primitive pans of the original mono mixes. There doesn't seem to be any new Foley, but the mixes aren't discrete remixes either. There's plenty of channel bleed, which results in a reduction of clarity. The panning is not necessarily intrusive, but it is gimmicky and it doesn't 'improve' on the original mixes in any way. And yes, the 2.0 tracks on the Network blu-rays are not actually the original mono mixes.
Here's what I hypothesise happened:
For each episode, the original mono track was digitised, processed to remove any clicks/pops/etc., and was then EQed terribly. This authentically 1.0 track was then subjected to scene-specific L/R panning to create a sort of faux-stereo field. These 2.0 tracks are present on the Network blu-ray.
The 2.0 tracks were then taken and used for the L and R channels of the 5.1 track. The LFE appears to have been derived from the L/R channels, as there is no evidence to suggest it contains any new or unique content. The handful of 'new' sounds mentioned above were added to the rear and center channels, and dialogue-less audio was added to the rears -- the source of which probably being the mono music/effects tracks that survive, as mentioned in the restoration documentary on the FremantleMedia blu-rays.
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