My husband and I attended Capitolfest this past August. Capitolfest is held in Rome, NY and features three days of old movies–many of which are silent. Those are accompanied by the 1928 original installation Moller Organ. In addition to movies, there are always a couple of presentations related to the early days of film making.
In 2016, we heard the Library of Congress film expert George Willeman’s presentation on the Edison Kinetoscope, The presentation included many photographs of Edison’s laboratory and the work being done to make “talkies.” Several kinetoscopes were shown. The video and audio quality of the 1913 productions was amazing. Edison’s people worked very hard on the lip-syncing aspect of mixing sound and visuals. What we saw was spot on. (There was an amusing segment where a group of people were singing the “Star Spangled Banner” but the video was of the group singing “God Save the King”. )
Sometimes, though, watching TV, I don’t think technology has advanced much over the past 100 or so years. Digital TV has a lip-sync problem that makes me crazy when I’m trying to watch news programs.
Maybe modern technology needs a few lessons from Edison.