Kino Lorber

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Live Home Video 1996 remastered letterbox LaserDisc 

The remastered LaserDisc PCM mono sounds the most untouched and natural of any version. In 2006, Universal made a new HD master used on all subsequent DVD and Blu-ray releases. The Universal 2.0 mono mix may be a new transfer, different source or remix made from stems as the music and effects are at different levels throughout the track when compared to older copies featuring the mono mix. Additionally there is extreme noise reduction with dialogue sounding too clean and hiss being almost gone. Comparing with the 1996 LaserDisc mono clearly shows in all of these moments that the original mono was mixed differently and to serve the jokes.

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray > StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

MGM Letterbox LaserDisc

The original mono mix has bad pitch and sound quality issues on the Shout! Factory Blu-ray and is terrible sounding. The LaserDisc PCM mono is very good but sounds a tad muffled in comparison to the MGM 2004 DVD mono at first listen. Yet the DVD mono has the volume of the entire track normalized so that effects and music remain at consistent levels which they don't in the LaserDisc mono-meaning that the jokes and gags hit harder in the LaserDisc mono because the mix varies as it was intended. It may be that the same source was used and then EQ'd and processed for the DVD boxset as all the mono mixes were messed around with. For example, when the hunchback disguise goes off with the explosions, the DVD mono has everything at a mostly consistent level. On the LaserDisc the effects build and fall off in loudness so the intensity is entirely different because they were mixed that way for comedic effect. Another is the piano smashing-on the DVD mono it's at the same level as the rest of the scene. On the LaserDisc it's loud and aggressively so which again makes the gag hit so much harder.
Again, the remixes are existing MGM ones and not good. The 5.1 remix on the Shout! Factory Blu-ray does not have pitch issues but the stereo remix does.

France Carlotta Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 2020 Blu-ray is a newer restoration, but the color grading is very different and seems too bright. Grading aside, the encoding is subpar, hence Carlotta is superior. See DVDBeaver caps

5.1 remix sounds good and likely came from original audio stems.

WB/Paramount Blu-ray has lossy restored mono

MGM letterbox LaserDisc

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray is from a new 4K master with some transfer issues, notably in the title sequence. The mono mix had errors and slight deletions introduced in the 2004 DVD remaster which were corrected on a 2006 DVD repressing. The Shout! Factory Blu-ray uses the 2006 corrected mono but those sections sound added in and in lower quality. The Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray reverts to the defective 2004 mono. All the DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray mono mixes sound poor when compared to the untouched uncut MGM LaserDisc mono PCM mix which is a direct perfect transfer and sounds excellent.

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has terrible encoding, "chock-full of all the usual frozen grain, mushy grain, trailing grain, missing grain,..."

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray's source is provided by Paramount has had DNR applied which affects the inherently soft looking film pretty strongly for at least a third of the running time

The older Universal Blu-ray has a yellow cast (error) especially in the 1912 scenes.

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Kino Lorber Blu-ray uses same old Sony master

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has color space error but otherwise an improvement upon previous Blu-rays. See caps

Maybe the included standard Blu-ray is better?

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray maybe better than StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray?

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray maybe better than StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray?

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray from nicolas:
The restoration is excellent and looks magnificent in 4K HDR. It’s a tasteful grade that comes across very naturally film-like. Couldn’t be much happier about that aspect of the release.Have to be the bearer of bad news though as the encode is bad. We’re almost back in the early 4K era with those terrible, bit-starved StudioCanal encodes that came out of France and brought us Total Recall, Basic Instinct etc. While they’ve done worse, this definitely isn’t FiM or VDMS. Highlights are terrible and essentially devoid of any detail, mushy grain also creeps into normal shots here and there, particularly walls or clothing. Essentially areas that are slightly larger and have similar colors and textures.

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray uses dated master & poor encode

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has excellent master in SDR and a good encode. BD caps here.

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor audio: The 2.0 is fine but unremarkable, the 5.1 is presumably an upmix with a botched, strongly raised LFE channel which makes the entire track unlistenable on well-tuned equipment. Audio graphs here.