digiboy

Long time coming and it's great to have the full length 2 DVD set. But I have to say that the audio quality is a bit of a let-down. It's certainly OK. I'm no authority on what it takes to restore and produce a good soundtrack for DVD, but considering what they had to work with, I think it could be a lot better. For example , I recall very distinctly seeing this film in the theater and being practically jarred out of my seat by the sound of the phone ringing loudly off screen during the opening sequence. On this DVD there is very little or no separation in the dialogue and effects and the low end is thin. The beautiful Morricone score does play in full stereo but even there the separation, though better, is not as well defined as it could be.

I'm guessing but perhaps in restoring the film, the sources for some sections had lesser quality audio. So they compromised on the sound in order to at least make the audio consistent .

I suppose this will be the definitive version at least for a while...still great to see the full length version. at last.

too much

Much better than the mono laserdisc. I actually thought it was pretty good (especially hearing the excellent Ennio Morricone score in 5.1). About as good as I expect from a 1984 movie. If the Once Upon a Time in the West sounds this good I'll be in heaven!

Frank S

You mention the music score being in Stereo. Did you listen to the DD 5.1 audio or the lesser audio (or DD 5.1 downcoverted to a stereo audio system)? I watched it in DD 5.1 and also thought it was fine. No dialog or seperation problems encountered. Maybe the non 5.1 audio is flawed if that is what you listened to.

Your remark about how is sounded in a theater really is not what you should go by as to how a film should sound. Theaters for the most part are so badly out of calibration that they don't come anywhere near what it should sound or look like!

ETILIM19

too much is right - when watching this film on dvd my mom mentioned about 10 times how the music was beautiful and she had never heard it sound so full and clear before it certinally the best I've ever heard this film sound - would have loved to have had a audio only track.

leemik

I watched this last night and the DD5.1 soundtrack noticibly lacked some dynamic range... It was a little compressed sounding but acceptable for a movie that's ~20 years old.

I have some LEDs to tell me which speaker is active and the surrounds barely blipped at all.. even the front L-R were rarely used...

--mike

Josh Z

The movie's original sound mix was mono. The DVD stays true to that for the most part.