[Released] La Strada (1954) StudioCanal BD Mono Synced to Criterion BD

[axeyou]

Thanks to @xwmario for sourcing the SC BD! This is now synced (with tremendous effort) to the Criterion BD which has superior PQ. Please see the quoted post for AQ comparisons.

Input: PCM, 2.0 mono, 1536 kbps, 48 kHz, 16 bits
Output: FLAC, 2.0 mono, 339 kbps, 48 kHz, 16 bits

Notes on the sync:

• Italian cinema at the time frequently had dialog dubbed in post. La Strada is no exception. Additionally, AFAIK some of the actors weren't Italian and spoke their native language on set. Their lines were then dubbed to Italian, so there is no "lipsync" to speak of. This affords us some wiggle room in A/V sync, but since most of us need subtitles, it's still necessary to sync to Criterion's audio somewhat closely to align with subtitle timing.
  
• Criterion BD is 23.976 fps; StudioCanal is 24 fps. Speed adjusted with SoX.
  
• The two BDs are not frame accurate at all (different restorations). They keep drifting apart throughout the film, which greatly impeded syncing.
  
• There are also two or three instances where the SC BD somehow misses a word or two in the middle of a line.
  
• Considering all these factors, I synced this by waveform instead of by editing around where frames diverged. I must have made hundreds of small edits in order to align the two tracks. A vast majority of these edits are simple trims and duplication of silence, but I had to use Izotope RX a few times to interpolate gaps (Spectral Repair) where the SC BD missed more than a couple hundred ms and there was no easy way to duplicate a nearby clip without introducing artifacts. Luckily this worked remarkably well.
  
• I suspect the two audios may be different mixes. Maybe one or both of the restorations reconstructed the mono mix from discrete dialog, sound effect, and music stems?
  
• For example, during a line of dialog between 01:03:11 and 01:03:14, there is a constant bird chirping in the background, but three words are absent on the SC track.
  
• Another oddity: between 01:08:18 and 01:08:26, there's a line of dialog over background music. The SC track started being behind Criterion, but ended ahead. Either there is speed adjustment baked in in the master, or the two tracks are different mixes.
  

PM me for a link. I hope you enjoy Fellini's masterpiece, now in the best PQ and AQ to-date!

Moshrom/Blah-ray previously compared Criterion DVD, Optimum DVD, and StudioCanal BD. The SC BD was the winner. https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/03/la...-1954.html

I've just ripped my Criterion BD from the Essential Fellini boxset. Here's its spectrogram matching Moshrom's settings (not level-matched to previous BD/DVD but likely doesn't matter given how obviously filtered it is):


Moshrom's spectrogram of the SC BD:


Four-way comparison: https://slow.pics/c/2ABxGJwi

As usual, the Criterion BD features additional filtering in both the high and low frequencies.

Does anyone have the SC BD's mono track (preferably with video for an easier sync)? If not, I can grab a used copy and attempt syncing, but it may be a long time before it gets to me.

Thanks!