Casino Royale (2006)
Adventure, Action, Thriller • 2h 24m
Director: Martin Campbell
Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, Isaach de Bankolé, Jesper Christensen, Ivana Miličević, Tobias Menzies, Claudio Santamaria, Sébastien Foucan, Malcolm Sinclair, Richard Sammel, Ludger Pistor, Joseph Millson, Darwin Shaw, Clemens Schick, Emmanuel Avena, Tom Chadbon, Ade, Urbano Barberini, Tsai Chin, Charlie Levi Leroy, Lazar Ristovski, Tom So, Veruschka von Lehndorff, Andreas Daniel, Carlos Leal, Christina Cole, Jürgen Tarrach, John Gold, Jerry Inzerillo, Diane Hartford, Jessica Miller, Leo Stransky, Paul Bhattacharjee, Crispin Bonham-Carter, Simon Cox, Rebecca Gethings, Peter Notley, John Chancer, Peter Brooke, Jason Durran, Robert Jezek, Robert G. Slade, Félicité Du Jeu, Michaela Ochotská, Michael Offei, Makhoudia Diaw, Michael G. Wilson, Martina Duravolá, Marcela Martincáková, Vladimír Kulhavý, Valentine Nonyela, Dušan Pelech, Phil Meheux, Alessandra Ambrosio, Veronika Hladikova, Regina Gabajová, Olutunji Ebun-Cole, Martin Učík, Vlastina Svátková, Miroslav Šimůnek, Ivan G'Vera, Jirí Lenc, Jaroslav Jankovsky, Richard Branson, Martin Campbell, Tara Cardinal, Ben Cooke, Simona Roman, Greg Bennett, Alexander Hathaway
MGM 4K Blu-ray
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 6 months ago
UHD tiers
Overview
Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's terrorists, is scheduled to participate in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro, where he intends to use his winnings to establish his financial grip on the terrorist market. M sends Bond—on his maiden mission as a 00 Agent—to attend this game and prevent Le Chiffre from winning. With the help of Vesper Lynd and Felix Leiter, Bond enters the most important poker game in his already dangerous career.
Director: Guy Hamilton
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Terence Young
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
WB 4K Blu-ray despite frozen grain
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
US Universal 4K Blu-ray (for original forced subtitles font)
IMAX sequences have not been released on home video to date
Directors: Val Guest & Ken Hughes & John Huston & Joseph McGrath & Robert Parrish
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Best format: 4K Streaming
4K Streaming
Sources: 007homemedia.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
4K Streaming
Warner Bros Blu-ray is the best Blu-ray even though it has color and major contrast issues
4K SDR master on streaming seems to be from the same scan and looks like it has less tinkering than the Blu-ray
Caps of 4K SDR master: 007 on Home Media: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Director: Martin Campbell
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2023 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook
2023 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook edition added Dolby Vision, previous editions are HDR10 only.
Director: Martin Campbell
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray (native 4K sourced) is better than Turbine Germany 4K Blu-ray which is an upscale, not a true 4k source see caps
Director: James Cameron
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
2013 MGM Blu-ray, or 4K Blu-ray if you MUST have the mono mix, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix
Sources: vimeo.com (opens in a new tab) · facebook.com (opens in a new tab)
2013 MGM Blu-ray for non AI transfer, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix
1991 Image Entertainment LaserDisc for the US mono mix, 2001 MGM DVD for the International mono mix
Comparison between the US and International mixes: https://vimeo.com/246332731
The 4K Blu-Ray and the 2001 MGM DVD have exclusive extras.
Director: David Lynch
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray - subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Martin Scorsese
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab) · facebook.com (opens in a new tab)
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.
The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review
1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:
I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.
Director: John Badham
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray in November
Directors: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Amazon MGM 4K Blu-ray SteelBook with mixed aspect ratio 1.43:1/2.39:1
Director: Billy Wilder
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Capelight/Kino Lorber which has heavy noise reduction and opening snare hit is missing, Capelight is slightly better encoded than Kino Lorber
Directors: Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
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