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Witness (1985)
Witness (1985) poster

Witness (1985)

Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller • 1h 52m

Director: Peter Weir

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago

UHD tiers

Solid
Arrow

Overview

A sheltered Amish child is the sole witness of a brutal murder in a restroom at a Philadelphia train station, and he must be protected. The assignment falls to a taciturn detective who goes undercover in a Pennsylvania Dutch community. On the farm, he slowly assimilates despite his urban grit, and forges a romantic bond with the child's beautiful mother.

Release details

Length
112 mins
Type
Movie

More from Peter Weir

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Director: Peter Weir

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Disney 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Disney 4K Blu-ray has neutered audio compared to OG home video release

Cinema DTS or DVD DTS 5.1 is better and has more bass.

Additional Info:

The 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray lack the bonus features found in the old Collector's Edition DVD release. The France Blu-ray has all extras plus an isolated score.

Director: Peter Weir

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount/Plaion Italy 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> Paramount US. Overall good, superior compression to the US disc

Director: Peter Weir

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Peter Weir

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Theatrical Cut: Second Sight 4K Blu-ray Director's Cut: Second Sight 4K Blu-ray or old master

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

English-Friendly Notes:

(Criterion/Second Sight Blu-ray. Up to preference)

More from Arrow

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Director: Federico Fellini

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Fellini's segment on Spirits of the Dead

The Toby Dammit segment is also available in Criterion boxset but seems to be SD, so Arrow Blu-ray > Plaion Blu-ray > Criterion boxset Blu-ray

Director: John Woo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Disk Kino/WCL China import

review: Disk Kino

better encoding, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono

Director: Lewis Teague

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Disappointing
Upcoming Release:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray disappointing

Best Audio:

R1 DVD

Audio Notes:

R1 DVD sounds best and has the original mono and a Dolby Stereo remix

Director: Ron Shelton

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Arrow Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray disappointing, nice new master, but poor encode, grain completely crippled in some scenes, artifacts abound, etc, makes Kino Lorber look like FiM.

Director: Claude Chabrol

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Arrow DVD

Director: William Friedkin

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Additional Info:

Plaion have also released a BD sourced from Arrow's recent 4K remaster, holds up strongly in comparison https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=19341&d2=19005&c=5415

Director: Preston Sturges

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Arrow Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow Blu-ray slightly better than Criterion Blu-ray, not sure about France Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

(Arrow Blu-ray better than Criterion)

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:
Audio Notes:
  • the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.

Director: Tony Scott

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Director: Rob Reiner

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026

More Crime on Blu-ray

Director: Alan Clarke

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Indicator Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

The 88 Films 4K Blu-ray is disappointing. Indicator Blu-ray > 88 Films Blu-ray. From nicolas:

Fine master, solid HDR but very poorly encoded with strong blocking artifacts in normal areas and clipped highlights that bring Criterion’s Walkabout to mind. Their Blu-ray is slightly better overall but then again still not as good as FiM’s encode for Indicator.

Additional Info:

Indicatorand 88 Films have exclusive extras

Director: Peter Bogdanovich

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Eureka UK are considering doing a 4K and actively exploring the possibility: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264

Video Notes:

Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.

Director: Michael Mann

Best English-Friendly:

88 Films UK Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray  in December

Best Video:

88 Films UK Blu-ray for both cuts 

Best Audio:

88 Films Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

88 Films Blu-ray is missing Michael Mann commentary for the DC found on other BDs

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, new restoration of mono mix which should be better than what was on the WB 4K Blu-ray and 1999 DVD and revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1971.

Best Audio:

WB 4K 5.1: a remix but has higher fidelity

Mono: 4K Blu-ray/1999 DVD

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode

Director: Soi Cheang

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Well Go or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray?

English-Friendly & Video Notes:

UK 4K is SDR only Japan is HDR10 only

Director: Jerry Schatzberg

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Signal One UK Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Gorgeously filmic 2K remaster supervised and approved by Jerry Schatzberg from Fox and flawlessly encoded by FiM.

Director: Leos Carax

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

2025 Discotek US Blu-ray SteelBook

Video Notes:

4K Blu-ray is denoised

The 2025 SteelBook uses the same transfer as the 2014 Japan Studio Ghibli Blu-ray and 2015 Discotek US Blu-ray but with better white balance.

Best Audio:

Japan: 1995 Japan LaserDisc 

English: 2012 UK Blu-ray

Director: Miguel Sapochnik

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

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Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 1 year ago

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