Here are some comparisons between the Australian PAL DVD and the Australia Blu-ray version of this movie. The Blu-ray was supplied to me by Icon. I purchased the PAL DVD, distributed by Magna Pacific, some years ago.

At the top of each is the full frame (suitably shrunk down) used in the comparison, with a 250 pixel wide detail from the frame underneath. The left side is from the PAL DVD. The image was captured digitally from the disc, scaled up from its native 720 by 576 pixel resolution to 1,024 by 576 (to present in the correct aspect ratio) by the application. I then scaled it, in order for it to be comparable to the Blu-ray version, to 1,920 by 1,080 pixels.

The detail is from that last scaled version, and has not been rescaled again. The right side is from the Australian Blu-ray. This has not been scaled at all. Different applications were used to capture the two frames, so some caution should be exercised in judging colour and brightness.

For visitors from NTSC lands, generally the PAL DVD is just a touch sharper than the NTSC DVD.

While not super sharp, the Blu-ray seems nicely naturalistic, with a slight dusting of grain:

The detail is enough to help make out distinct details, such as the individual people on the crowded footpath:

Reading text becomes far easier, too, on the Blu-ray:

Where's the lacy wrought iron on the DVD:

This Blu-ray will win no prizes for the sharpness of its image, but even so it provides far more natural detail than the DVD:

DVD presents, Mottled Surf Man: