MGM

But still a bit overly noise-managed.

1984 CBS/Fox Hi-Fi VHS maybe better?

> Capelight/Kino Lorber which has heavy noise reduction and opening snare hit is missing, Capelight is slightly better encoded than Kino Lorber

> Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray see caps

Not sure about France

The 4K Blu-ray 5.0 is the original mix, but more muffled than LaserDisc and even the previous Blu-ray's gentle remix. The Atmos mix is revisionist.

The 50th Anniversary box set has some exclusive extras.

1991 LaserDisc is Dolby Stereo matrix encoded from the original six track master and this was later upgraded to a 5.1 Dolby Digital version prepared for the first DVD. The 5.1 version may have had some slight tweaking in the process. This was reused for the DVD CE boxset and then the 5.1 on Blu-ray seems like a slight upgrade of the DVD track. (The first pressing from the UCE boxset had audio defects rampant on the Blu-ray. These were corrected for standalone pressings.) All 5.1s sound roughly the same as the LaserDisc 2.0 in terms of the mix, but the LaserDisc PCM mastering seems like the only one that is direct without any major processing.

1987 VHS probably even better

All Blu-ray have the same old MGM transfer. Likely 2025 88 Films Blu-ray has the best encoding

4k restoration not approved for home release even for the 2025 88 Films release

No dip around 10 kHz, wider dynamic range, more natural EQ; BFI & Carlotta BDs are identically worse; HMAX Streaming is similar to the BDs but has worse dynamics

FiM encode; BFI shows noticeable macroblocking

(caveat: "there's" in first "there's no place like home" utterance in final Kansas scene truncated)

Criterion 4K Blu-ray; caps

1994 MGM LaserDisc with its caveat being audio errors that were present on every home video release until the 4K Blu-ray. See here.

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Twilight Time Blu-ray or MGM NTSC DVD for the original mono mix

• Shout! Factory 4K only has a stereo downmix (which sounds muffled, as do the surround tracks)

• Twilight Time Blu-ray has the mono track with seemingly the best fidelity, but its dynamic range has been heavily compressed

• MoC UK Blu-ray has a proper dynamics and good fidelity, but bizzarely, everything is repeated after a few miliseconds, rendering echoey and metallic

• MGM NTSC DVD has been denoised and has had a strong EQ applied and sounds muffled as a result, but it retains proper dynamics

• Koch Media DE BD had poor dynamics and wrong pitch

• Analog 1986 US LaserDisc sounds poor
  

Perhaps the digital JP LD would be better.

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray introduces pitch issues on the mono mix. LaserDisc mono is from worn element but sounds mostly natural with possibly some attempts at noise reduction. MGM 2004 DVD mono transfer is higher quality without the wear but may have some processing applied. Shout! Factory Blu-ray is the same MGM mono now in lossless but seems to be EQ'd a bit differently. LaserDisc, DVD or Blu-ray is a toss up but those are your three options. The Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray is useless due to the pitch issues. The remixes are very poor.

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

The 5.1 track sounds very good and is said to be sourced from the original 6-track mix used for 70mm blow-up releases, but there is no conclusive proof of that.

> US Shout! Factory - caps

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.

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray fixes ratio issue due to new scan but has no original audio, only remixes. The MGM and Shout! Factory Blu-ray use the same HD master with stretched image and horrible muffled processed to death mono. The PCM mono on the MGM letterbox LaserDisc reissue is the only untouched original mix audio and sounds incredible.

Arrow fixed the audio glitches found on Kino Lorber's disc.
The 5.1 remix on Arrow's disc sounds terribly tinny.

> US Kino Lorber

> Vinegar Syndrome

88 Films and Vinegar Syndrome have different extras

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.

Shout! Factory uses MGM's HD master and mono mix which sounds similar to their 2004 DVD mono. They sound nearly identical aside from volume differences-except that the sound effects seem a bit flattened again on the DVD and this Blu-ray mono mastering seems to be EQ'd a bit differently.

The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are low-passed even though encoded by FiM and has better contrast and highlights compared to Kino Lorber.

The Criterion Complete Kubrick and Imprint 1953-1957 sets include remastered BDs. All standalone releases are from an earlier master.

Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering; WB 4K early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed. Comparison between Criterion and WB.

Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110

Subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking

1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:

I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.

The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review

Warner Bros Blu-ray is the best Blu-ray even though it has color and major contrast issues
4K SDR master on streaming seems to be from the same scan and looks like it has less tinkering than the Blu-ray
Caps of 4K SDR master: 007 on Home Media: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

Official Bundersarchiv 720p HD Streaming which given its release in 2025, likely to be the same new restoration by MoMA https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/11559

The audio on the Warner Archive Blu-ray is appalling. It starts to cutoff at around 6kHz to have nothing above 10kHz. The LaserDisc is much more full-frequency.

Germany Century³ Cinedition - Director's Cut Blu-ray has exclusive extras

MGM's 7.1 track is a remix with a few flaws and much worse fidelity. Capelight's stereo and 7.1 track are both from the remix.

Better encoded than MGM Blu-ray

The movie was originally premiered as a roadshow release, with a a 70mm 6-Track Stereo mix. This mix, unfortunately has not been released on home video.

The closest thing to that mix, is the stereo track included on the 2010 Blu-ray. It sounds great, with high fidelity and little filtering. It's lossy, but that doesn't matter very much.

Both the DVD 5.1 and the Blu-ray 7.1 tracks (identical on both discs) are a new remix, rather than a repackaging of the original mix. The 7.1 track sounds quite muffled, though not evenly so. The Capelight Blu-ray's lossless stereo track uses the same remix, but with higher fidelity than the surround tracks, sounding significantly less muffled. Compared to the original, this remix sounds wider and more "cleaned up". The remix contains a handful of errors, for example the intermission cue fades out, rather than ending correctly.

Comparison samples

• MGM Blu-ray is the best Blu-ray release

• 4K SDR master on streaming seems to be from the same scan and looks like it has less tinkering than the Blu-ray

• Screencaps of the 4K SDR master: 007 on Home Media: Live and Let Die (1973)

1988 MGM/Turner Hi-Fi VHS: Detailed and natural.

2008 R1 Warner Bros DVD - Frank Sinatra Collection: More muffled due to noise reduction.

2015 Warner Bros Blu-ray: Like the DVD but with a treble boost. Also a lossy transcode.

Full review from blah-ray