Lawrence of Arabia problems?

The audio has some editing "jumps" where some footage was put back into the film. The video has wrong color timing (for example, the shot of the night sky is black on the DVD. It should be more purple.)

Also, Columbia put too many audio tracks and kind of hogged up bandwidth. A Superbit is rumored to be in the works, but likely won't have the color timing problem solved...

It's not a horrible transfer (it looks great), but the color just needed some work.

 

From what I have found, the superbit dvd's give slightly better detail and sharpness on larger displays, such as widescreen sets. In my, and my others opinions, the only way we'll buy the superbit is if the problems are corrected and the release gets the approval of Robert Harris. the superbit is likely to be the same transfer with no corrections, just a higher videobitrate and dts. For more info on the problems, do a search. this topic has been covered many times.

 

Having never seen Lawrence on anything but the small screen, I can't really comment on whether the colours are correct or not. However, the disc does look very nice indeed with lots of texture. Audio is OK, but nothing special. Pretty much what you'd expect from a film of this age.

That said, the DVD itself could have been handled better. When you insert disc 2 (the film is spread over two discs), rather than going straight into the film you're subjected (again) to the animated menu sequence and another FBI notice. It's not a major point, but it's annoying and it begs the question "why did someone get paid money to design it like this?".

It would be nice to see a Superbit edition, hopefully without everything except a high-birate encoding of the film itself. I really hope they don't put a DTS track on though as it would be waste of bandwidth on a soundtrack as old as this.

 

Actually, DTS isn't THAT bad of an idea... I think a new DTS 5.1 mix was made for the 2002 70mm re-release of Lawrence.

The film was meant to have stereo surround sound, so DTS just increases the bitrate and makes the audio a bit more resolved.

 

I have seen the film in 70mm (shortly after the 1980s restoration), and, of course, the DVD can't measure up to that. Another oft-mentioned complaint about the disc is edge enhancement.

Despite the warts, the DVD is essential to any serious collector's library.

 

I am still kicking myself for missing out on the re-release last year in 70mm...I will probably never get to see it on the big screen.