Saturday 24 July 2021

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

1989 Turner Hi-Fi VHS: Disappointing. I doubt this comes from higher generation elements than the later non-IVC editions; it sounds mediocre due to some form of primitive noise management. There's less hiss here than on the 1998 Image LD, yet still occasionally more high-frequency extension - so perhaps a noise gate.

1998 Image LaserDisc [ID3219TU]: Quite muffled, rolling off above 6-7 kHz. One 3-minute segment ~50 minutes in is free of noise reduction and sounds much better than the rest. This track appears to be the same mastering that the DVD and Amazon download were taken from. I'm curious if the 1991 Image LaserDisc is different.

2005 R1 Warner DVD: Some additional hiss reduction and hum removal atop the 1998 mastering.

2016 IVC Blu-ray: This sounds the worst (dupiest) of these, by far. Included for completeness' sake.

~2017 Amazon Video Download: Like the 1998 Image LD.

2021 Criterion Blu-ray: An enormous improvement, having a much less rolled-off high end. If every old Hollywood movie sounded like this, this blog wouldn't exist.







10/18/2021: Added the 1998 Image Entertainment LaserDisc

9/8/2022: Added the 1989 Turner tape and a comparison clip

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