Hitchcock original audio thread

[The Aluminum Falcon]

@captainsolo and @Moshrom As the resident Hitchcock audio experts, do you happen to know how the Japanese LDs compare to the new 4K discs of Marnie, Trouble with Harry, and Shadow of a Doubt?

Hoping that if they’re new image harvests, they may also be new audio (but they could also just be the same track noise-reduced!) ?

[Stamper]

I was watching a feature on a UK series restoration from Network on YT, and was surprised to find that though they went back to the negatives, the audio was the one they had from the 20 years old DVD release.
So I think this practice of using the available audio and just tweak it, is very common.
Probably a good way to guess is if there are some extra frames or not in the remaster. If it's a complete sync with just a delay, chances are that old audio is used.

[Moshrom]

I don't think captainsolo has a Japanese LaserDisc of any of those - just the standard US analogue Shadow of a Doubt, which I already have a capture of done by someone else. I recall a large section of the film sounding worse than the blu-ray and everything else sounding better.

Stamper, almost all older films that have had multiple home video releases never had their audio retransferred after that was done once digitally. But few of them remain in perfect sync with their older releases even after accounting for missing/new segments of footage.

You see the same thing with older CDs of albums. Some country-variant discs (e.g. Japan) are derived from the same base transfer as their US/West German counterpart and yet still don't sync perfectly with them. Any two tracks that remain perfect sync are definitely the same transfer, but two that don't may or may not be the same transfer.

To further complicate things, even some of those LaserDiscs with PCM tracks that had new video and audio transfers done for that release still have their A/V sync slightly off.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

@Moshrom gotcha about Shadow of a Doubt's LD being a bit crap... Just like Vertigo, I guess. I wonder if there's a DVD with better audio, I'll have to look into that.

Interesting about the shifting sync stuff...

[captainsolo]

I only have a couple of the Japanese LDs as they’re very tricky to find. 99% of the time it’s the analog pressing and I still don’t know how many or which ones got pcm reissues. They also have noisier video transfers than the US originals.
There’s also vhs hifi to check since Universal never spiffed anything up for the longest time. I need to capture the mix of old tapes I still have.

My assumption is that UHD V2 is new picture masters and the same BD audio.

[James76]

According to Blah-ray, the Criterion LaserDisc (CC1108L) of The Lady Vanishes sounds fantastic (I'm guessing that's where the version of the movie on the 2003 bootleg Brentwood/BCI Eclipse DVD comes from, even if the 2003 bootleg has its audio "stereoized").

[jolennon]

the new UHD of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956) will feature the original Perspecta soundtrack!

[captainsolo]

I’m flabbergasted about that. I cannot wait to see and hear that disc.

[Yarp]

i've ripped a couple hitchcock vhs movies with no luck finding better audio tracks.

i do have a great sounding track for Charade (1963) which is kinda hitchcock...adjacent. it's from the 1990 hi-fi VHS (MCA) and doesn't have the heavy noise reduction applied like the Criterion blu-ray.

[axeyou]

I'm hoping to find Vertigo's mono track from the Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection DVD set. Blah-ray.

Before I drop $60 on eBay, does anyone happen to have that track, either synced to the UHD, or unsynced with a video reference? Thanks!

Edit: Got it!