Be fair. Audio-wise, the pre-1932 shorts are always going to come off second-best simply because of the inherent limitations of the Cinephone recording process. Cinephone had a limited frequency response, and the results are often harsh and shrill. Couple that with the fact that Cinephone was a variable density process, which is more prone to optical noise, and you're on a hiding to nothing before you've started. (See Egyptian Melodies or The China Plate on the first SS Treasure for some good examples of just how nasty Cinephone can get at times.)Class316 wrote:Seems like they cheapened out againLuke wrote:As for quality concerns, I'm done with Disc 1 of Silly Symphonies, and a lot of it is pretty rough-looking and sounding.
And I remain to be convinced that Disney had a consisant film archiving policy in the early 30s, or indeed that requisite care was taken of the stored materials in the intervening years. Even on the previous waves where most of the Technicolor films have been restored to pristine shinyness, the b/w shorts often look a shade shabby.
For that matter, compare and contrast the print of Plane Crazy used on MMBW1, which has a prominent tramline scratch at one point, with the print used for the Gold Edition VHS release 15 years earlier, which does not have the same damage.
But if the colour films are looking as tatty as the shorts on Chronological Donald 2 were, I may concede that you have a point. But I don't think it's fair to judge from the monochrome films.
