Wednesday 8 September 2021

Casablanca (1942)

1984 CBS/Fox Hi-Fi VHS: Completely free of any hiss or bass reduction. The first 48 minutes sound marvellous, and the rest of the film sounds as if it was sourced from elements that are a generation higher (though every later edition shares the same problem). The scene from 46:31 to 47:54 (equivalent UHD timecodes) has audible high-frequency damage, which has been attenuated (but not removed entirely) in later editions.

1985 CBS/Fox LaserDisc [4514-80]: Probably sourced from the same base transfer as the CBS/Fox VHS, but it's anaemic and lacks detail--a consequence, surely, of it being an analogue LD track.

1989 Criterion LaserDisc [CC1179L]: The transfer notes state this was sourced from a 'sweetened 35mm magnetic track, made from an optical original'. It's very muffled, weirdly bassy, and just sounds dead.

1992 MGM LaserDisc [ML102671]: This track preserves some high-frequency details better than the Criterion LD, but it still sounds basically the same.

2003 R1 Warner SE DVD: Like the MGM LaserDisc but with additional hiss and bass reduction.

2008 Warner Blu-ray: Like the SE DVD.

2012 Warner Blu-ray: Identical to the first blu-ray but lossless.

2021 BBC iPlayer Stream: Like the DVD and blu-rays but (strangely) with less high-frequency filtering and an additional noise gate.

2022 Warner UHD Blu-ray: Finally, a new mastering. It's generally preferable to every post-CBS/Fox release (a bit more high-frequency detail and no bass attenuation à la the DVD/BDs), but it's a lot more similar to those than the VHS. The opening music sounds awful.










10/3/2023: Added the CBS/Fox VHS, Criterion LaserDisc, and Warner UHD

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