Eureka MoC 4K Blu-ray/Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

MoC 4K Blu-ray and Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are similar

Eureka MoC 4K Blu-ray

Eureka MoC 4K Blu-ray, probably. No comparison with French Factoris Films 4K Blu-ray, but former has Dolby Vision and higher bitrate.

For standard Blu-ray, the MoC/Cohen are a 4k transfer https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=112722&page=5

Eureka MoC 4K Blu-ray

Fox Lorber DVD

Eureka MoC Blu-ray

MoC better encode than 2016 Olive Films Signature

2018 Kino Lorber Blu-ray/2025 Germany Plaion Blu-ray

2018 Kino Lorber Blu-ray/2025 Germany Plaion Blu-ray. Eureka Blu-ray has worse encoding.

1985 Key Video Hi-Fi VHS

Eureka MoC Blu-ray

MoC > Kino Lorber (see slowpics for comparison). No information on Potemkine.

MoC has higher bitrate than Kino Lorber, also the contrast is increased. But there is no noticeable reduction in visible film damage presented between the two offerings.

Eureka MoC Blu-ray

MoC > Kino Lorber, former has correct aspect ratio (and higher bitrate and looks better/less compressed) while the latter has a squished aspect ratio, see DVDBeaver for comparison

MoC 4K Blu-ray

MoC 4K Blu-ray, both Kino Lorber and Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray have poor encode. See nicolas review on Eureka Blu-ray. It seems the 4K restoration on that disc and the Olive Films Signature US release served as the basis for the HDR master Kino Lorber commissioned. There are the same traces of grain management in the opticals and the small number of shots from a lower quality source that were spliced in between the Original Camera Negative footage. The SDR grayscale looks great though and after having compared everything, I would’ve preferred a 4K SDR release. The Eureka Blu-ray release wasn’t encoded by FiM and it shows. For those with the Blu-ray and an appreciation for optimal encoding, consider an upgrade.

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray: It seems that Kino Lorber commissioned the HDR/DV grade and some additional cosmetic work on the master. They used to mention "… brand new master by studio X" on their back covers when they were supplied with ready-made materials. This isn’t the case here but maybe someone’s in the know and things are different. The HDR grade is darker than the SDR one and flattened the grayscale quite significantly. I mentioned this in the Sabrina and Sunset Boulevard thread as well but I’m not really a fan of these grades and doubt that they’re enhancing the grayscales to make them appear more film-like. I’ve seen worse and it’s not the end of the world when the film is viewed in a dark environment but don’t expect anything as luminous and sparkly as The Big Heat. Kino Lorber’s encoding can be seen here via ko8ebryant’s caps.

Eureka 4K Blu-ray (BD-100): Same 4K master and same HDR grade as on the Kino Lorber 4K but now expertly encoded. Thanks to no compression anomalies standing in the way, we can now scrutinize the master much better. In comparison with the SDR master, I noticed that there are opticals that got hit with further noise reduction and sometimes egregiously so, such as in the scene with Grace Kelly at the train station at roughly 18 minutes into the film. Parts of that scene were sourced from a lower-quality source. In the HDR master, grain was practically erased altogether whereas in the 4K SDR master on the Eureka Blu-ray, grain is visible in the same shot despite the iffy encoding.

I’d still recommend the Eureka 4K Blu-ray as the Original Camera Negative shots and scenes are frequently gorgeous, beautifully detailed and at most only minimally tampered with. The imperfect HDR grade bugs me but I’ll still use Eureka’s 4K Blu-ray for my future viewings due to the FiM encode.

Eureka 4K UHD image is frequently stunning and far better than the Kino UHD using the same master. (no surprise) However there is frozen grain throughout baked into the Paramount master, some shots are soft due to management (some are inherently soft) and the HDR is questionable in areas. In some areas the old Eureka BD using the same scan in SDR is preferable. As usual, the issues are Paramount's doing and the only way to escape them would be starting from scratch.

1992 Republic LaserDisc

Kino and Eureka UHDs have a mix of new and legacy extras. To have every supplement you will need both UHDs and the original Criterion Laserdisc for the exclusive commentary.

MoC and BFI differing restorations and scores

2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray that some may prefer

Eureka with Murnau institute restoration featuring score based on original score, BFI uses Photoplay restoration with James Bernard score

Both Eureka and BFI BDs are worthy of owning. Each restoration has unique positives and extras. The James Bernard score on the BFI is outstanding and the image tinting is different to how the Murnau institute official restoration was done. The Eureka MOC BD is stuffed with extras and remains one of the best made BDs of all time. Whatever you do: AVOID THE KINO BD!!! It uses the same Murnau institute restoration but drops frames for the whole feature-thus it loses a significant portion of the film! This was never acknowledged or addressed. The Kino BD remains one of the worst BDs of all time for this reason.