John McIntire

The Amazon Streaming release is the only HD release so far, and looks to be a faithful, non-upscaled copy of the film, so preferable to the old DVD.

The Streaming release also has a 2.0 mix which is likely the original mix and preferable to the 5.1 mix on the old DVD. 

Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray poor encoding and questionable HDR application in some scenes

The Arrow Video Blu-ray is the best iteration so far coming from a new restoration complete with great supplements and package. The original limited edition version included a second disc with the alternate 2.0:1 framed version. The primary disc is 1.85:1. Older releases pre-2008 were all in Academy ratio. 1.85 is the best compromise ratio for the visuals. As good as this release is, the master is showing its age and sadly has a number of frozen grain artifacts.

Arrow's deluxe presentation is a fantastic package with great supplements, art and printed materials. Sadly the master is a heavily processed Paramount affair. It has seemingly been severely grain managed and the mono audio is horribly thin when it shouldn't be. Stereo and 5.1 options are also given but they seem to be more of home video remixes. They do not have the fidelity issue of the compromised mono but also show marked differences as if they were remixed from stem sources. This seems to have suffered lesser degrees of the problems that plagued The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance's 4K master. This is the best version to date but one wishes Paramount could leave scans alone.

The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin. 

The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.

4K restoration from safety preservation elements