1982 20th Century Fox LaserDisc [4595-80]: Clean, but very muffled. The worst sounding version of the film on home video, I'd say. It's time-compressed, but oddly by exactly an amount equivalent to PAL speed-up (4.3%, +0.7 semitones).
1984 CBS/Fox Hi-Fi VHS: The first half of the film sounds like the 1988 Japanese LaserDisc, but the second half is heavily noise-gated and sounds terrible.
1988 Japanese Warner LaserDisc [NJEL-99205]: Very good - much clearer and more detailed than the '82 Fox LaserDisc, but less dynamic range than the later releases and more distortion. Like the Fox LD, it's 4.3% too fast and 0.7 semitones too high in pitch.
1988 MGM LaserDisc [ML101403] - Connery Classics: The best sounding version of the film to my ears. It sounds very natural, with no heavy-handed mastering work and no attempts to remove the distortion inherent in the mix (which, I should add, is loudest during the title song, so the later editions with hiss reduction sound the most dead during the opening). The left channel is empty.
1991 Criterion LaserDisc [CC1267L]: Significantly more noise reduction than the Connery Classics LD and EQed to have more bass. Strangely, there's a 19-minute segment about an hour into the film that's free of hiss reduction and sounds more like the Connery Classics LD.
1992 MGM LaserDisc [ML102713] - Connery Collection: The title song is a stereo remix and sticks out in a bad way. The rest of the film has slightly less noise reduction than the Criterion, but this is a generalisation - there are definitely portions that sound marginally better on the Criterion.
1993 MGM LaserDisc [ML102727]: Identical to the Connery Collection LD.
1993 Japanese MGM LaserDisc [NJEL-52727]: The opening song is in mono and the last half hour sounds much worse than it does on the Connery Collection LD, seemingly due to destructive mastering work. The rest of the film is like the Connery Collection LD.
1995 MGM LaserDisc [ML105198] - THX: Some additional high-frequency attenuation relative to the Connery Collection LD. The opening song is still in stereo.
1998 MGM LaserDisc [ML105654] - THX: Like the '95 THX LaserDisc.
2000 MGM Special Edition DVD: Like the THX LaserDiscs but with the opening song back in its original mix.
2006 MGM Ultimate Edition DVD: More noise reduction than the SE DVD - the most of any edition. Very muffled.
2009 MGM Blu-ray: Less noise reduction than the UE DVD but more than the Connery Classics and Criterion LaserDiscs. There's a compensatory treble boost as well that makes everything sound harsh. Not the worst sounding mono track among the MGM Connery blu-rays, but nothing worth praising either.
Thanks a lot for another thorough comparison. It takes great passion for such dedicated work. I really appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteI have a question about a discrepancy between different versions that some knowledgable soul may be able to answer. At the end of the pre-title sequence the '88 MGM LD has the sound of the door closing and then omits the very first note of the song, the PAL VHS that I possess has the first note of the song coinciding with the sound of the door closing and the US SE DVD has the door click followed by the first note of the song. Which of these is correct?
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