[QUOTE=guachi;22133415]
Originally Posted by
vane171
I abandoned my radioamateuring days when first transistors and then integrated chips pushed out the tubes
Well, the vacuum tubes had a soul and the same goes for LP vinyl records.
Many still watch those old movies from 1930s, 40s with poor picture, never mind the sound and if those were somehow re-mastered to look and sound up to date, they would lose most of the appeal they have. /QUOTE]
As a cinephile and physical media collector I doubt this is actually true. When the movies were new, they looked fine as the film was still new and unscratched. Though a lot depends on what you mean by "up-to-date". Wizard of Oz (Warner) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Sony) have both been rescanned and released in 4k HDR and look amazing. Same with the releases last month of My Fair Lady (Warner) and the four Indiana Jones movies (Paramount). My word, do they look good. Many older movies that are released in 1080p on blu-ray (by Criterion or Warner Archive) are cleaned up audio and video-wise and released with original mono PCM tracks.
Cinephiles, who lay down actual money for these releases, are ecstatic for good releases.
There's been a whole lot of restored film noir movies that were either considered lost or existed only in such bad prints as to render watching them painful. When you see them restored, you really can appreciate the impact of the black and white visuals. To paraphrase myself from above, none of the charm of watching old movies had anything to do with bad splices, scratched images and soundtracks or, for that matter, faded color. Seeing these films in as close to their original presentation as is possible is often a revelation, kind of like seeing the Sistine Chapel ceiling after that was restored. It totally gives you a different impression of the art.
By the way, two kinds of old movies I find need to be watched in a theater to really work--musical/dance movies really need the very big screen, and Marx Brothers movies, because the lack of a laughing audience really screws with the comedic timing.