Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Science Fiction, Adventure, Action • 2h 15m
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Joonas Suotamo, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandiwe Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau, Erin Kellyman, Linda Hunt, Ian Kenny, John Tui, Anna Francolini, Andrew Woodall, Warwick Davis, Shaquille Ali-Yebuah, Eben Figueiredo, Aaron Heffernan, Hal Fowler, Damian Farrell, Charlotte Louise, Sema-Tawi Smart, Clint Howard, Dee Tails, Attila Vajda, Anthony Daniels, Kiran Shah, Fraser Kelly, Lily Newmark, Jason Wong, Alice Hewkin, Samantha Colley, Robert Morgan, Miles Richardson, Sammy Hayman, Rona Morison, Dempsey Bovell, Joseph Charles, Dave Chapman, Katy Kartwheel, Harley Durst, Andrew Jack, Sam Witwer, Ray Park, Toby Hefferman, Jon Kasdan, Richard Dixon, Deepak Anand, Samantha Alleyne, Juan Alonso, Derek Arnold, Belinda Chapple, Kristianne-Kaith Domingo, John Duggan, Jordan Dumaurier, Vikki Edwards, Marc Esse, Kristine Fernandez, James Filanowski, David Guerrero, Juke Hardy, Sarah Sayuri Hare, Ian Harrod, Philip Harvey, Robin Harvey, Marina Hayter, Brian Herring, Robert Hladik, Van-Tien Hoang, Kevin Hudson, Ty Hurley, Sean James, Tobias James-Samuels, Jackson Kai, John Kamau, Kamil Lemieszewski, Jorge Leon, Chelsea Li, Chelsea Mather, Obie Matthew, Kenny-Lee Mbanefo, Ashley McGuire, Jacqueline Ramnarine, Christina Richards, Belal Sabir, Sarah-Stephanie Skjoldevik, Atul Sharma, Stephanie Silva, Neil Alexander Smith, Clem So, Karol Steele, A.k. Steppa, Fran Targ, Steven F. Thompson, Klemens Niklaus Trenkle, Jo Wheatley, Ray Whelan, Angela Yeoh, Mark Ryder, Paul Davis, Richard Stanley, Sarah-Jane De Crespigny
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian.
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
High seas for the recreated Theatrical Cut
Disney 4K Blu-ray is disappointing
OG: "4K80" or "D+80" on the high seas. If not, Disney 4K Blu-ray
Special Edition: "4K97_V" or "D+97_V" on high seas.
2027 Original Trilogy restoration/50th anniversary rerelease clips leaked plus release confirmed
OG: "4K80" or "D+80" on the high seas
Special Edition: "4K97_V" or "D_97_VI" on the high seas.
If not, the 4K Blu-rays are generally considered an improvement over the 2011 Blu-rays. (although both restorations are DNR'ed and have issues).
OG: LaserDisc audio is the best option for the Dolby Stereo mixes. 70mm six-track mix is included in 4K80 (taken from an actual 70mm print). There are 16mm rips of the mono mix.
Special Edition: Cinema DTS or 1997 LaserDisc for the Special Edition.
2D version: Disney 4K Blu-ray
3D version: Disney 3D Blu-ray or Disney+/Apple TV Vision Pro Streaming
Director: George Lucas
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
OG: "4K77" or "D+77" on high seas.
Special Edition: "4K97_IV" or "D+97_IV" on high seas.
2027 Original Trilogy restoration/50th anniversary rerelease clips leaked plus release confirmed
OG: LaserDisc audio is the best option for the Dolby Stereo mixes (and usually included in fan restorations). There are 16mm/TV rips of the mono mixes.
Special Edition: Cinema DTS or 1997 LaserDisc for the Special Edition.
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
OG: "4K83" or "OTD83" on the high seas
Special Edition: "4K97_VI" or "D+97_VI" on the high seas
2027 Original Trilogy restoration/50th anniversary rerelease clips leaked plus release confirmed
OG: LaserDisc audio is the best option for the Dolby Stereo mixes (and usually included in fan restorations). There are 16mm/TV rips of the mono mixes.
Special Edition: Cinema DTS or 1997 LaserDisc for the Special Edition.
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
High seas for recreated Theatrical Cut or HDTV rip
Disney 4K Blu-ray is a mediocre upscale.
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
High seas for recreated Theatrical Cut or HDTV rip
Disney 4K Blu-ray is a mediocre upscale.
Director: Ron Howard
Theatrical: Universal 4K Blu-ray
IMAX Cut: 2005 DVD
Theatrical: Cinema DTS
Director: Ron Howard
2026 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook
2026 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook added Dolby Vision
Director: Ron Howard
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Universal 4K Blu-ray - caps. Looks stunning against the horribly neutralized old master. Very glad Deakins supervised the new grade and had Universal restore his color filters.
Universal Blu-ray (included in the 4K edition) has the original 5.1 mix not on the 4K disc
The original 5.1 surround mix from the 2011 USA BD was included alongside the new Atmos upmix. The compatibility track is a downmix of the Atmos. The Atmos is overall lightly remixed with noticeably more high frequencies rolled-off relative to the old 5.1. I think the 5.1 sounds better. The 5.1 mix from the USA BD was used as it sounds essentially the same as the EUR BD (with some minor loudness differences) while not featuring the dither noise and low frequency noise that the EUR has. Commentaries between the USA UHD and USA BD are the same, with both featuring Dolby Surround metadata
Audio comparison: 5.1 surround
Director: Ron Howard
Theatrical Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Extended Cut: The 30th Anniversary Extended Cut on fanedit.org
Sources: fanedit.org (opens in a new tab)
Theatrical Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Extended Cut: The 30th Anniversary Extended Cut on fanedit.org has the additional TV footage and is also uncut.
The TV version is extended but is censored. The Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray is restored from an interpositive, no release so far is confirmed to be from the Original Camera Negative.
Director: Ron Howard
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
OOP British Eureka Blu-Ray
Director: Ron Howard
Director: Ron Howard
Theatrical: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Extended: Old Sony Blu-ray
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
BD LPCM 5.1
The DTS-HD on the UHD has been dynamically compressed, has had its center channel boosted, and surrounds lowered (typical modern nearfield mix for soundbars). Very different from the BD and DVD tracks. The BD LPCM is basically just a lossless version of the DTS and AC3 from the original DVD (the AC3 actually being the superior mix on that particular release).
Video format: 4K Streaming
Director: Michael Bay
Video format: HD Streaming
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
4K possibly teased?
Directors: Bill Roberts & Paul Satterfield & Wilfred Jackson & Ben Sharpsteen & James Algar & T. Hee & Hamilton Luske & Samuel Armstrong & Jim Handley & Norman Ferguson & David Hand & Ford Beebe Jr.
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
1991 CAV LaserDisc includes an approximation of the original Fantasound mix in Dolby Surround using the surviving magnetic mixdown, using Stokowski's original mixing notes as a reference. Original aggressive pans and dynamic range are left in tact.
The 2000 DVD uses this same mix in discrete 5.0, but with some unnecessary dynamic range compression + a redub of all Deems Taylor audio with Corey Burton.
The 7.1 mix on the 2010 Blu-ray sounds poor, having been hit with excessive noise reduction, dynamic range compression, original aggressive pans no longer in tact, and the channel usage no longer resembles Stokowski's original intended sound design.
2014 Japan "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Blu-ray
Japan Studio Ghibli 4K Blu-ray announced for a November 25, 2026 release
Japanese audio: 2014 Japan "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Blu-ray/US GKIDS Blu-ray
English dub (Disney): 1998 US Disney VHS has better sounding vocals despite altered music and sound effects, the US Disney LaserDisc has limited audio
Releases from 2010 onward have the original music and sound effects, but distorted vocals
English dub (Streamline): 1996 Japan LaserDisc, available in Ghibli Aa Ippai Collection boxset
Director: Chris Columbus
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Disney 4K Blu-ray has encoding issues with bitrates dipping into 40mbps, and Kaleidescape has better encoding than Disney see caps
Old Fox Blu-ray master is stretched and sharpened
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
2014 "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Japan Blu-ray or US Disney Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · lddb.com (opens in a new tab)
2014 "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Japan Blu-ray
2014 "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Japan Blu-ray
Comparisons: https://slow.pics/c/6JWnlfit
All sources are within margin of error. Comparisons: Japanese, English
Alternate Streamline English dub is available only on 1994 Fox LD.
Video format: 4K Streaming
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Video format: 4K Streaming
Director: Simon West
Video format: 4K Streaming
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