Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by mamboni (A) on February 03, 2008 at 16:57:39

In Reply to: RE: Scorcese remastered "El Cid" coming next week posted by DWPC on January 23, 2008 at 11:51:30

Well I purchased the DVD "El Cid" and watched the first half (disk 1) on my BenQ projector (XGA) and my dedicated sound system running in Dolby Digital (I use just 4 loudspeaker in the front (Walsh 5 Series #) and a pair of custom-built Walsh bending wave true-omni loudspeakers in the rear, thus a phantom center channel) and the news is good and bad. The good news is the picture is quite good - nice transfer. The bad news is the sound: it is dated and one can hear all the upper midrange and treble distortion, sounds like some microphone resonances and overload. The dynamics are compressed. But, it you can get past the dated sound I would recommend this DVD addition to your movie collection.

I remember attending the movies to see this when it came out (late 1960s?). In those days, the theatres were big and beautiful, the audiences civilized and silent, and movies ran for several weeks and that was it till they reappeared on TV a few years later. Today, a movie runs and two weeks later you can buy the DVD in Walmart's!!! The movie theatre business must be hurting big time. I know I rarely go out to the movies anymore. I wait to buy or rent the DVD and watch it on my front projection (72") screen at home: no talikg rude patrons, no overpriced popcorn and as many breaks as I want!