Pre-Order The Old Dark House (1932) (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

I'm surprise that's the only thing considering the age and other issues with this title. If people are expecting perfection then buying optical discs of an 85 year old film is probably not for you.

No, I don't expect perfection, though the visuals look good for a movie of any era, much less 1932. My point is that the background noise level elevates substantially out of nowhere.

Perhaps someone else will have a logical explanation for the spike in noise, but it's weird. It feels like they simply forgot to clean up the audio for that 7-minute segment.

It's a minor issue in the grander scheme, but I wanted to mention it. I can't just ignore the fact that the audio changes radically for 7 minutes of the film.,..

 

[Robert Crawford]

No, I don't expect perfection, though the visuals look good for a movie of any era, much less 1932. My point is that the background noise level elevates substantially out of nowhere.

Perhaps someone else will have a logical explanation for the spike in noise, but it's weird. It feels like they simply forgot to clean up the audio for that 7-minute segment.

It's a minor issue in the grander scheme, but I wanted to mention it. I can't just ignore the fact that the audio changes radically for 7 minutes of the film.,..

Colin,

My perfection comment was made in general and not specify towards you as I expect somebody that does disc reviews fully knows that perfection is not in the cards for most of these very old films released on Blu-ray.

 

[Malcolm R]

Deep Discount has dropped this to $14.99

 

[Robert Crawford]

Deep Discount has dropped this to $14.99

Does anybody know if Deep Discount changes the pricing of your pre-order if the price drops again?

 

[Doug Otte]

Only one "complaint" about the Blu-ray: there's a weird patch late in the film where background noise goes crazy. For most of the film, we get only a light layer of noise, but for about 7 minutes, the noise becomes much more dominant.

I have no idea why this happened - it's a minor blotch on an otherwise stellar release, but it's definitely a distraction...

Maybe that segment of the soundtrack was too damaged to eliminate the noise without eliminating the dialogue. How did you get the disc so soon?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Maybe that segment of the soundtrack was too damaged to eliminate the noise without eliminating the dialogue. How did you get the disc so soon?

He reviews discs!

 

[Malcolm R]

Does anybody know if Deep Discount changes the pricing of your pre-order if the price drops again?

I looked through their policy page, but didn't see anything. I've sent them an email asking about it.

 

[bigshot]

Does anybody know if Deep Discount changes the pricing of your pre-order if the price drops again?

Nope. That's Amazon. But you have to keep an eye on Amazon. They can be sneaky about it. I called them on a $20 price drop that hit a book I ordered within a few hours of me being billed for it. They are making good on the preorder guarantee now that I complained.

 

[bigshot]

Perhaps someone else will have a logical explanation for the spike in noise, but it's weird.

A lot of times they are sourcing multiple prints to find the best copy of all the reels of a film. 7 minutes is a reel. They probably only had a dupe from 16mm for that reel of sound. The original optical soundtrack might have been missing.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

A lot of times they are sourcing multiple prints to find the best copy of all the reels of a film. 7 minutes is a reel. They probably only had a dupe from 16mm for that reel of sound. The original optical soundtrack might have been missing.

Yeah, that makes sense. Still strange to me that they couldn't "de-noise" it better than they do - it really is a jarring shift!

 

[Trancas]

Check out the beautifully crisp screen caps here:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Old-Dark-House-Blu-ray/166695/#Review

 

[Malcolm R]

Yeah, that makes sense. Still strange to me that they couldn't "de-noise" it better than they do - it really is a jarring shift!

If it's that noticeable, you'd think they'd fess up and mention it somewhere on their website or on the disc packaging. Something like: "for a short section of the film, we had to make use of degraded source material which will result in more audio noise for those scenes than the rest of the film."

Twilight Time had a less-than-stellar print of a recent release of theirs, but decided to release it anyway and were very up-front about it. They warned their customers ahead of time so they wouldn't be surprised (or feel duped upon viewing the disc) which, from reviews, wasn't even that bad.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

If it's that noticeable, you'd think they'd fess up and mention it somewhere on their website or on the disc packaging. Something like: "for a short section of the film, we had to make use of degraded source material which will result in more audio noise for those scenes than the rest of the film."

Twilight Time had a less-than-stellar print of a recent release of theirs, but decided to release it anyway and were very up-front about it. They warned their customers ahead of time so they wouldn't be surprised (or feel duped upon viewing the disc) which, from reviews, wasn't even that bad.

Trust me: it's really noticeable. It's not a minor increase in noise - it's a radical difference!

Still an excellent product, though!

 

[aPhil]

Read the review today at blu-ray dot site

 

[Malcolm R]

Does anybody know if Deep Discount changes the pricing of your pre-order if the price drops again?

This was their reply to my email:

"In regards to your concern please be aware that we will charge you the amount that is in the order, however we do price adjustments within 10 days of shipping. If the adjustment is requested during the time frame established by our company we will gladly process the refund. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused."

Haven't decided whether the $1.51 is worth the hassle, or just learn the lesson to never pre-order at DD.

 

[warnerbro]

Bluray dot has a great review. They've had it up for about a week. I'm wondering why this website and Beaver haven't had a review yet.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Bluray dot has a great review. They've had it up for about a week. I'm wondering why this website and Beaver haven't had a review yet.

I believe we didn't receive a review copy.

 

[warnerbro]

I saw a review on Youtube from a man who could barely put two words together and he claimed they sent him a copy to review. This website gives very professional, thoughtful reviews. It doesn't make sense.

 

[aPhil]

Glenn Erickson at www.cineSavant.com has a great review that has been up since Oct 14

 

[warnerbro]

Thanks for the heads up! I never knew about that site before. It is awesome!