The Wizard of Oz (1939) MGM DVD Mono

[SpookyDollhouse]

Hey all! With WB's release of Wizard of Oz on UHD I and others were disappointed they've completely dropped the original mono audio with no plans to make it available again. I did some digging and discovered the very first 1998 MGM DVD was the last release to have it in unaltered form. I would have went with the Laserdisc but I don't have the means to capture the audio, so this was the next best thing.



I've ripped the track encoded as a lossless 24-bit FLAC file and synced it to the 4k UHD. All it needed was lining-up and appropriate extra silence added to beginning and end. Thankfully it was that easy!

Upped to Dropbox, PM me for links.

[bendermac]

If there was no editing required, why transcode? eac3to can add silence at the beginning/end of the file without encoding. Also 24bit is overkill on a 16bit source
Last, but not least: The mono mix is on the Blu-ray. So the DVD wasn't the last time it was included.

Anyway, what was the initial delay to sync it to the UHD?

[SpookyDollhouse]

If there was no editing required, why transcode? eac3to can add silence at the beginning/end of the file without encoding. Also 24bit is overkill on a 16bit source
Last, but not least: The mono mix is on the Blu-ray. So the DVD wasn't the last time it was included.

Anyway, what was the initial delay to sync it to the UHD?

Ok, for each of your points:

#1: This is my first time. Thanks for the tip. If you're curious as to exactly what I did, I simply manually synced it in Audacity and added silence at the very beginning and end, then exported. If "encode" is the wrong word to use I apologize. lol

#2: Starting with the first WB DVD there was a missing line, either intentional or unintentional. That's never been fixed including on the Bluray. IIRC there are other mixing differences as well. Only the Laserdiscs and MGM DVD have the true original mono. One can correct me if I'm wrong.

#3: I didn't have the DVD and had to wait for it to arrive in the mail, that's obviously what the delay was for. It was tough finding one too, the internet is filled with listings of the 1999 WB disc.

[Chewtobacca]

Also 24bit is overkill on a 16bit source

Lossy audio doesn't have bit-depth, so the OP did the right thing when decoding (matching eac3to's default behavior).  The decision to decode is, of course, another matter.

@SpookyDollhouse
Thanks for contributing!  You're off to a good start with The Wizard of Oz.

[bendermac]

If there was no editing required, why transcode? eac3to can add silence at the beginning/end of the file without encoding. Also 24bit is overkill on a 16bit source
Last, but not least: The mono mix is on the Blu-ray. So the DVD wasn't the last time it was included.

Anyway, what was the initial delay to sync it to the UHD?

Ok, for each of your points:

#1: This is my first time. Thanks for the tip. If you're curious as to exactly what I did, I simply manually synced it in Audacity and added silence at the very beginning and end, then exported. If "encode" is the wrong word to use I apologize. lol


#3: I didn't have the DVD and had to wait for it to arrive in the mail, that's obviously what the delay was for. It was tough finding one too, the internet is filled with listings of the 1999 WB disc.

With initial delay I mean the added silence, hence delay

Can you please share the untouched AC3 too?

And it's not wrong to encode to FLAC. I just pointed out, that you didn't have too, since you only added a bit of silence. So no need to apologise

[SpookyDollhouse]

If there was no editing required, why transcode? eac3to can add silence at the beginning/end of the file without encoding. Also 24bit is overkill on a 16bit source
Last, but not least: The mono mix is on the Blu-ray. So the DVD wasn't the last time it was included.

Anyway, what was the initial delay to sync it to the UHD?

Ok, for each of your points:

#1: This is my first time. Thanks for the tip. If you're curious as to exactly what I did, I simply manually synced it in Audacity and added silence at the very beginning and end, then exported. If "encode" is the wrong word to use I apologize. lol


#3: I didn't have the DVD and had to wait for it to arrive in the mail, that's obviously what the delay was for. It was tough finding one too, the internet is filled with listings of the 1999 WB disc.

With initial delay I mean the added silence, hence delay

Can you please share the untouched AC3 too?

And it's not wrong to encode to FLAC. I just pointed out, that you didn't have too, since you only added a bit of silence. So no need to apologise

I'm sorry, I misunderstood your question. I believe the UHD had an extra 1 to 2 seconds of silence before the MGM logo. It had about the same at the end. I didn't keep track of an exact number because I worked mostly visually.

I used MKVtoolnix to demux the audio and it came out as an MKA. I can share that unsynced if you'd like!

The UHD had extra silence but otherwise was the same. To sync it I had to add silence to mirror the UHD. There were otherwise no other alterations that needed to be made.

[NeonBible]

#2: Starting with the first WB DVD there was a missing line, either intentional or unintentional. That's never been fixed including on the Bluray. IIRC there are other mixing differences as well. Only the Laserdiscs and MGM DVD have the true original mono. One can correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks @SpookyDollhouse.

Do you know where the missing line is exactly?

[segashack]

Thanks so much for posting this!

[captainsolo]

As far as I can tell Criterion used a 50's preserved IB Tech print, MGM did new work for the Ultimate LD box and both should have the best available mono. The MGM DVD seems to be last appearance of the Ultimate box LD mono and the last mono track to not be overly noise filtered and such.

[Stamper]

I bought this DVD for like 3 bucks shipped. It also has the french dub and spanish dub undoctored.

It's a legacy of the times when DVD was about doing it right.