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William Sommerwerck
October 7th 09, 12:33 PM
I got the Blu-ray "Snow White" for ten bucks yesterday (cheap little slut!),
and traded in a stack of duplicate DVDs to get the Blu-ray of "Wizard of
Oz". (No, I do not worship at Saint Gumm's martyred feet.) The difference in
sound quality is amazing. I'd appreciate comments from anyone familiar with
the process(es) of film-sound restoration.

The "Snow White" sound is a near-miracle, the cleanest and least-colored
I've yet heard from Disney. It is just damned beautiful.

The "Wizard of Oz" sound is not very good. It started going downhill a few
editions back. It currently sounds rather dark -- as if there isn't much
above 5kHz -- and it lacks "life". I remember it sounding better over a 4"
speaker in my parents' TV.

It also isn't stereo. The last DVD edition made use of the multi-track
masters to produce panpotted stereo for the musical numbers. The restorers
say they created a "5.1" mix from the cleaned-up soundtrack.

Thoughts? Comments?