Monday, 1 January 2018

Sunset Blvd. (1950)

The most recent restoration that's on the Paramount blu-ray recycles its audio from the previous restoration used for the DVDs, but has slightly different equalisation. This is pretty minor and not all that audible.

There isn't much real information above 8 kHz on either.
Restoration of Sunset Boulevard's original mono soundtrack was accomplished by expanding upon the previous cleanup/restoration work performed by Audio Mechanics in 2001/2002. As with the picture, no original sound materials have survived. A variety of source elements were analyzed, transferred, digitally cleaned and incorporated into the final restoration including Optical Soundtrack Negatives, Music & Effects tracks and partial Music Master materials. - Paramount
I haven't compared the first Paramount DVD (from 2002), but I reckon its transfer is identical to that of the Centennial Collection DVD. Apply a -918 ms delay to sync the Centennial DVD to the blu-ray.

Update (8/30/2021): Added the Paramount LaserDisc and first DVD. The (analogue) track on the LaserDisc is disappointing - it's mainly just a lot more compressed than the DVDs/blu-ray and sounds harsh. The first Paramount DVD's audio track is identical to the later Centennial one.


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