Gone With the Wind - another restoration? (1 Viewer)

Gone With the Wind will be re-released in the UK this November (which happens to be Vivien Leigh's centenary month), and the trailer boasts a new restoration.

I guess the likelihood is good that we'll see a new Blu-ray next year for the 75th anniversary...

This new restoration will be screening in 4K at the BFI Southbank in December.

I look forward to seeing GWTW on the big screen again!

Shameless plug here: A close friend of mine, Kendra Bean, has written a book on Vivien Leigh. It's called Vivien Legh: An Intimate Portrait. It's a photo biography and will be published in October, to coincide with the centenary. I've had the pleasure of reading it and seeing the proofs, and it's a elegant tribute from beginning to end. Claire Bloom has written the introduction!

Umm why? It's not like they can improve on the blu ray transfer barring the sudden appearance of the untilted frames which I doubt has occurred.

I wish they would be able to somehow find and digitally stitch together the cropped frames. It's my one cinematic dream. If not, I'm not interested in a new restoration, because the majority of the film looks outstanding. The sound was a bit tinny though....wish it were DTS-MA.

Lord Dalek said:

Umm why? It's not like they can improve on the blu ray transfer barring the sudden appearance of the untilted frames which I doubt has occurred.

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Oh I dunno, they're getting better & better at restoration, I bet they can improve on the last Blu-ray. I only wish I liked the film more, first half really great, but the second half drags for me (but not as bad as Cleopatra!).

I think another go at Gone With The Wind was on Warners list of Blu-ray releases for this year.

Lord Dalek said:

Umm why? It's not like they can improve on the blu ray transfer barring the sudden appearance of the untilted frames which I doubt has occurred.

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Because it's one of the two titles that they continually spend money on for new releases every five years, the other being The Wizard of Oz. Oz has the 3D gimmick this time around, so Wind got a new restoration for its sales hook this time.

It would to be substantially improved for me. Actually, I never have been all that crazy about the current blu, but it's still not that high on my list of flicks that are begging for an upgrade.

At least it's not a 3D conversion.

Ethan Riley said:

It would to be substantially improved for me. Actually, I never have been all that crazy about the current blu, but it's still not that high on my list of flicks that are begging for an upgrade.

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Why are you not crazy about the existing Blu?

moviebuff75 said:

...The sound was a bit tinny though....wish it were DTS-MA.

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Lossless sound is lossless sound. I don't believe that you can hear the difference between Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA.

All of the Dolby TrueHD titles I have sound a lot lower in volume. I honestly have a hard time hearing GWTW on blu-ray, compared to other films.

Mark-P said:

Lossless sound is lossless sound. I don't believe that you can hear the difference between Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA.

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Personally, I like Dolby TrueHD better on my system. It seems to have better channel separation for some reason.

Look up dialog normalization, adjust your receiver accordingly and hey presto everything sounds exactly the same, the only way anything can sound different with these lossless codecs is if they are using a different mix ( unlikely these days ) or if something has been altered in your receiver. ( very likely too )

The last Gone With The Wind release was very good, i can't see there being too much of an improvement, maybe subtle improvements which projector owners can appreciate.

I will be projecting this next year at my outdoor theater in honor of the anniversary.

Andrew Budgell said:

Why are you not crazy about the existing Blu?

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I wasn't crazy about the sound and some of the color looked weak to me, especially in the second half.

Mark-P said:

Lossless sound is lossless sound. I don't believe that you can hear the difference between Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA.

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moviebuff75 said:

All of the Dolby TrueHD titles I have sound a lot lower in volume. I honestly have a hard time hearing GWTW on blu-ray, compared to other films.

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John Hermes said:

Personally, I like Dolby TrueHD better on my system. It seems to have better channel separation for some reason.

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FoxyMulder said:

Look up dialog normalization, adjust your receiver accordingly and hey presto everything sounds exactly the same, the only way anything can sound different with these lossless codecs is if they are using a different mix ( unlikely these days ) or if something has been altered in your receiver. ( very likely too )

The last Gone With The Wind release was very good, i can't see there being too much of an improvement, maybe subtle improvements which projector owners can appreciate.

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Dolby True HD is the only codec that has dialogue normalization built in, but it can be turned off at both ends (encoding or decoding). All reports indicate that those studios using True HD turn off dialnorm. The only other difference between the two is the method of lossless encoding: DTS has a proprietary method, while Dolby bought Meridian and therefore uses MLP.

RE: Lower volume on a True HD mix, all lossless mixes are mixed substantially lower in volume than DVD tracks, in order to exploit the full dynamic range of lossless. If you find True HD tracks too quiet, you can adjust your dynamic range compression level (DRC), or you can dial in a volume offset according to source. Most receivers have one or the other, or both as features (My Onkyo HT-RC460, for example).

Stephen_J_H said:

Dolby True HD is the only codec that has dialogue normalization built in, but it can be turned off at both ends (encoding or decoding). All reports indicate that those studios using True HD turn off dialnorm. The only other difference between the two is the method of lossless encoding: DTS has a proprietary method, while Dolby bought Meridian and therefore uses MLP.

RE: Lower volume on a True HD mix, all lossless mixes are mixed substantially lower in volume than DVD tracks, in order to exploit the full dynamic range of lossless. If you find True HD tracks too quiet, you can adjust your dynamic range compression level (DRC), or you can dial in a volume offset according to source. Most receivers have one or the other, or both as features (My Onkyo HT-RC460, for example).

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I use BDInfo sometimes when taking screencaps, i have seen dial norm on some Dolby soundtracks on blu ray and it has certainly been on, as for dynamic range, unfortunately too many soundtracks on blu ray are being altered and the overall dynamic range lowered, the difference between low and high sounds remain the same so that's something but reference volume is not the same as you get at the cinema, it varies on which movies they do this to but it certainly happens, the film mixer who resides over at AVS forums talked about it a few years back.

Dynamic range is good though and whenever i read a reviewer stating that dialogue is low and action scenes are too loud i am pleased because i know the dynamic range is intact and that the movie will sound fabulous when i listen to it at the proper volume levels. ( even if lowered from the cinema ) Dynamic range compression should never be on unless listening late at night and you are worried about upsetting the neighbours. Calibrate your audio, set it all up and leave alone, everything should then sound good, the only problem is if you like to listen at -30 ( as one example ) and your hearing is starting to go a little ( as mine is ) then yes you may well run into trouble hearing speech in some films.

I listen at -10, all films, no changes are made, you shouldn't be making changes, the neighbours don't like me.

Its a film from the 30s that's been remixed into every single format imaginable. Of course its gonna sound "tinny"!

Lossless only goes so far when dealing with the limitations of the source material.

I'm talking about the volume. It is clear and loud on dvd. On Blu-ray it is harder to hear.