[Soundbox]

My local charity shops always offer a good range of Disney films and at 20p each I am enjoying some that I had forgotten and also enjoying some new ones too. What I am wondering though is when (or if) Disney offered Hi-Fi sound on their movies?

All the ones I have so far (around 10) all have a white case and a long label that comes down off of the tape recess onto the body of the tape (looks like a re-used Beta label). All offer linear sound only which is not really optimal.

I watched 'Splash' yesterday and even that was linear sound only - as was The Black Hole and The Love Bug. I want to get some more Disney films but is there a point (or way of telling) when they offered Hi-Fi sound?

They seem very behind to me!

Thanks, Ian

[Chris Frost]

The case will have the "HiFi Stereo" logo if it has better sound.

Incidentally, The Love Bug was made in 1968 so you aren't going to get great sound from that. The original film audio track was mono.

[AidanLunn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundbox

My local charity shops always offer a good range of Disney films and at 20p each I am enjoying some that I had forgotten and also enjoying some new ones too. What I am wondering though is when (or if) Disney offered Hi-Fi sound on their movies?

All the ones I have so far (around 10) all have a white case and a long label that comes down off of the tape recess onto the body of the tape (looks like a re-used Beta label). All offer linear sound only which is not really optimal.

I watched 'Splash' yesterday and even that was linear sound only - as was The Black Hole and The Love Bug. I want to get some more Disney films but is there a point (or way of telling) when they offered Hi-Fi sound?

They seem very behind to me!

Thanks, Ian

That's nothing - I have a Beta film of "the Incredible Voyage of Stingray" - the case is literally an enlargened version of an audio cassette case!!!

[Soundbox]

Thanks - so it will say on the case - that is a help.

I can safely say that none of the Disney tapes thay have for sale have this on the case so thats that then.

[Chris Frost]

For curiosities sake I've just had a look at a couple of VHS tapes we have here. The logos are "Dolby Surround" and a couple that have just "Stereo" on them. You might meed a magnifying glass because the print is tiny!

[Peter the Great]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

The case will have the "HiFi Stereo" logo if it has better sound.

Incidentally, The Love Bug was made in 1968 so you aren't going to get great sound from that. The original film audio track was mono.

You will still get a big improvement in sound with "Hi Fi" encoded on the tape even with a Mono sounding film. Without "Hi Fi" you can get a lot of hiss and humming. This is the reason why most video tapes at a certain point had "Hi Fi" sound even old black and white films. To not have "Hi Fi" sound on a video tape especially one made by a major studio normally means the tape must be very old. I have tapes from about 1983/4 and they all have "Hi Fi" sound.

[Soundbox]

Thanks. I do aim to get the best sound where possible but I am not having much luck with Disney. Splash was made in 1984 (so home video late '84 I would imagine at the earliest) and that is plain old mono. It says 'checked by Dale Laboratory' on a sticker - not sure what they did.

I thought all the old copies would be worn out and gone by now but still they come!

[Chris Frost]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundbox

I thought all the old copies would be worn out and gone by now but still they come!

Just remember though, there would have been several re-releases with popular films. There's a chance that there would be pre-Hi-Fi and post-Hi-Fi sound copies if the film was old enough to straddle both generations.

[AidanLunn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundbox

Thanks. I do aim to get the best sound where possible but I am not having much luck with Disney. Splash was made in 1984 (so home video late '84 I would imagine at the earliest) and that is plain old mono. It says 'checked by Dale Laboratory' on a sticker - not sure what they did.

I thought all the old copies would be worn out and gone by now but still they come!

I'd hang on to them if I were you, you may have a small slice of history with those professionally-published mono tapes

[jaspergutbucket]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

The case will have the "HiFi Stereo" logo if it has better sound.

.

Not all the time it won't

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundbox

Thanks - so it will say on the case - that is a help.

I can safely say that none of the Disney tapes thay have for sale have this on the case so thats that then.

Hi-Fi sound started being used on tapes before the mid 80's but it was a while before it was emblazoned on the covers .
I had stacks of early tapes which had a HiFi track but no mention of it on the case anywhere.

Most of the time they seemed to save it for films in stereo and didn't bother if the film was mono , although that did also get a mention later on .

Early tapes were hit and miss and you'd find that the same release could have some copies with Hi-Fi sound and others not - assume that was during the introduction of the system so they could check there were no faults .

The white box Disney were early rental tapes so unlikely to have HF sound on m/any of them.
If you are searching for Disney in HF try and ensure they are retail tapes and not rental as I think that HF was standard by the time Disney tried using sell through.

The white box tapes are quite collectible though as some did feature movies created from 2 part editions of Wonderful World of Disney and Wonderful World of Color , and I don't think most have appeared on dvd - not in the UK at least.

If sound quality is starting to bother you time to change to dvd where you'll get Hifi sound all the time

[Soundbox]

Thanks. I have DVD of course but having a huge range of Disney films (some of which I have never heard of) is a nice way to spend £1. For that I get a weeks worth of movies and soem have been very good.

[PowerJC]

On older vhs tapes the hifi track seems to be the first thing to wear out, I have some older tapes where it comes on and off throughout the film.

[Soundbox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PowerJC

On older vhs tapes the hifi track seems to be the first thing to wear out, I have some older tapes where it comes on and off throughout the film.

I don't think it wears out - more 'fades away' due to the magnetic particles losing their magnetism over time. I have the 1980's 'Upstairs Downstairs' Hi-Fi set (around 1985 I guess) and the sound is just an occasional crackle.