Category Archives: Disc details

Slander Sony through jumping to conclusions

Posted on April 3, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Thanks to reader James from Sydney for lending me The Fifth Element on Blu-ray. It arrived in the mail this morning. Thanks also to Theng from Perth, who also offered to make it available. The reason I wanted to examine … Continue reading →

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Is the Australian Blu-ray of The Fifth Element good quality?

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

It has been alleged on a forum that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has dumped its substandard initial Blu-ray encode of The Fifth Element on the Australian market. I find this highly unlikely, but have been unable to get ahold of … Continue reading →

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Serenity re-encode improves quality

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that the Universal Pictures (Australasia) Pty Ltd Blu-ray release of First Blood had an identical video encode to the previous HD DVD release. I have now checked both Total Recall and Serenity, which … Continue reading →

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Wasting Space?

Posted on March 29, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Last night I watched Pale Rider, a Clint Eastwood Western released on Blu-ray by Warner Bros. I strongly suspect it is the same as Warner Bros releases of the movie elsewhere in the world. I find this disc interesting for … Continue reading →

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DTS-HD High Resolution

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve been after a disc — any disc — carrying DTS-HD High Resolution audio. This is, of course, the improved version of DTS. It remains lossy, but can carry more bits of data, so it is less lossy than regular … Continue reading →

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WALL-E Blu-ray vs PAL DVD screenshots

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Here’s my comparison between the two formats for WALL-E. The most startling of the six comparison shots is this one (DVD bottom left, Blu-ray bottom right, full frame top):

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More Blu-ray vs PAL DVD screenshots

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Classics this time: Bonnie and Clyde (1967) (made slightly topical by Faye Dunaway’s meanspirited dismissal of Hilary Duff soon reprising the Bonnie Parker role – we all have our doubts, but perhaps this will be a breakout performance, proving Duff … Continue reading →

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Whacky WALL-E

Posted on February 21, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Well, that has been a struggle. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has sent me both the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the most recent Pixar animation: WALL-E. So I set out to do a Blu-ray vs DVD comparison. There were … Continue reading →

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Alex Proyas’ Dark City on Blu-ray

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Reel DVD has released Dark City on Blu-ray. In addition to providing a ten minute longer Director’s Cut version, the Blu-ray offers amongst the greatest picture quality improvement I’ve seen from the format over DVD. UPDATE (Saturday, 21 February 2009, … Continue reading →

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The oldest comparison yet

Posted on February 15, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

I have just added a Blu-ray vs DVD comparsion of Casablanca, the oldest movie I’ve yet done (1942), here.

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