Something that has been quite annoying, is I have noted that the German audio tracks tend to have better audio quality than the VHS of the same title, in the U.S. A great example I found was the 1981 German release of "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams" 1974. Though it has German narrative, the songs are in English, and they are by far, much sharper sound, though mono. However, I have also noticed that even the video or film elements from this show are much better, color wise. These are not the only cases, however. Why is that? Does Germany just have better actual elements, than the parent company, at times?
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Germany ... Better audio?
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Osi. I would so love to have helped you with this as I know you have a long standing devotion to the movie.
Been working professionally with sound and video for a long time now 2 long But most of the old tapes if looked after have held up well. Heavens we were still lifting 1" low density up until a couple of years ago.
Much of the quality loss will be degrading oxide and head alignment.
Some of the Phillips 1500 tapes we had to adjust the sound head by hand for each tape but even then the tolerances were that low few tapes would play never mind the sound.
Hope you find the answer. God blesd
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Well, I do have a BETA copy of the film. I have the early 80's VHS as well, but the audio sounds like it was taken straight off the film source, which looks no better than a 16mm, hence, 16mm optical sound. Not terrible, but certainly not good. I don't know if the Beta is taken from the same source material, audio or otherwise, but I have heard that Beta audio tends to be better than VHS audio. What struck me on that YouTube video of the German VHS copy, of those two main songs, was how crisp and clear the mono audio is, where every US VHS copy, sounds like it is coming out of an AM Transistor radio! Thanks for the interest.
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