Yes the 1999 DVD has a very unique mix but was a bit problematic. For the most part it’s mixed very low. I don’t think I’ve been able to watch that DVD without the need of turning the volume up. However there’s points where certain things get louder in the mix so overall it’s not very well balanced. From a quality standpoint it’s pretty good. Very clean with much of the audio crackle removed. If Universal has been able to properly balance it out and not make it so quiet for the most part it could have been a lot better.
Speaking of the VHS’, the 1999 VHS has an uncensored track.
I actually made a comparison video of the 1999 DVD mono and the Blu-ray mono
https://vimeo.com/348112133
Though I’ll admit I did turn up the DVD audio a bit to make it more consistent with the BD mono volume. I used three different clips and especially in the last one the BD mono sounded very muffled yet was the noisiest of the two.Nice. Yeah I had the same issue when I made my LD vs BD comparison video. I initially posted it without any alterations to either track but when I played it back on my TV through our Roku box I realized the LD audio had noticeably lower volume than the BD. Because I didn’t want that aspect to affect people’s opinions on the comparison since I was comparing quality not volume I went back and increased the volume on the LD track. Not by much. Just enough that it was more on par with the BD track.
I’ve also liked Criterion less and less over time because of their mediocre compression methods and they’re very very hiss reduction happy. Some of their releases sound worse than DVD audio. The truth is lossless/lossy encodings won’t mean shit if the remastering isn’t done right in the first place for the audio. People just refuse to accept their issues because of how biased they are about Criterion.