PAL "Fellowship of the Ring" audio distortion. (1 Viewer)

[Mark Sidebotham]

My last few viewings of the PAL DVD of Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition have been spoiled by some slight audio distortion. I notice it most in the dialog, especially when the letter "s" is spoken. There are also some small 'blips' in the audio tracks at times. I hear these both on the Dolby and the DTS tracks.

My other DVDs are all fine, including the non-extended Fellowship DVD and The Two Towers Extended Edition, both which I both possess the code 1 versions of.

Has anyone else experienced this? Can I assume that I happen to have a faulty one-off DVD? In which case I'll go out and buy a new one (NTSC this time).

Any helpful comments would be much appreciated.

 

[Hendrik]

...could/would the "blips" you mention be a result of the PAL DVD having been pitch-corrected
(as it reportedly was)...?...

. . . . . .

 

[david stark]

I've got the PAL version of the fellowship extended DVD. I haven't noticed it happening anywhere, is there any specific scene where it is very noticable so I could have a quick listen?

 

[Mark Sidebotham]

One place I notice the 'blips' is in the moments after Gandalf's fall when there's a very pure vocal line hitting those hight notes. It's not hugely noticable and I didn't notice it until I got my home theatre system, but now it really spoils that beautiful moment.

I notice it also at scene no.20 where Gandalf whispers to the moth atop the Tower of Orthanc.

I didn't know the PAL veresion was reportedly "pitch-corrected". I'm not sure what that means, but you could be onto something...

Thanks for you responses.

 

[Iain Jackson]

I have the region 2 copy of the theatrical version, and I also noticed these blips, in pretty much the same scenes. The pitch correction was applied to try to account for the 4% PAL speed-up (which I never notice anyway), and unfortunately introduced sound artifacts in the process.

 

[Mark Sidebotham]

Thanks for the info Iain. I'm comforted to know it's not just me.

Well I remedied the situation today by buying the code 1 Extended Edition and it sounds fine. (It was also a good excuse for me to get the Argonath sculptures too!)

I'd never heard of this pitch-correction thing, but I'll have to buy the code 1 version of The Return of the King when it comes out to be on the safe side.