The Avengers (2012)
Science Fiction, Action, Adventure • 2h 23m
Director: Joss Whedon
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Alexis Denisof, Tina Benko, Jerzy Skolimowski, Kirill Nikiforov, Jeff Wolfe, M'laah Kaur Singh, Rashmi Rustagi, Powers Boothe, Jenny Agutter, Arthur Darbinyan, Donald Li, Warren Kole, Alicia Sixtos, Jesse García, Maximiliano Hernández, Dieter Riesle, Kenneth Tigar, Walter Perez, Harry Dean Stanton, Josh Cowdery, Ashley Johnson, Katsumi Komatsu, Yumiko Komatsu, Momoko Komatsu, Robert Clohessy, Enver Gjokaj, Fernanda Toker, Andrea Vecchio, Robin Swoboda, Brent McGee, Jamie McShane, Michael Zhang, William-Christopher Stephens, Kelley Robins Hicks, Romy Rosemont, James Eckhouse, Stan Lee, Thomas Roberts, Pat Kiernan, Damion Poitier, Lou Ferrigno, Jillian Morgese, Catherine Anderson, Ricardo Andres, Logan Bennett, Mayank Bhatter, Sharita Bone, Jason Botsford, Mary Kate Campbell, Gene N. Chavez, Layla Cushman, Robert Dean, Rick Dremann, Rod Fielder, Eric Frank, Israel Hall, Carmen Dee Harris, Alexander Christopher Jones, Mike Karban, Demoine Kinney, Andrew Knode, Annette Lawless, Kimberly J. Mahoney, Todd Manes, Jorge Mardel, Michael McMillan, Sean Meehan, Holly Neelie, Caleb Daniel Noal, Jeremy Orr, Nate Paige, Martin Palmer, Maria Perossa, Caleb Pieplow, Alexander Daniel Pimentel, Frank Powers, Jaime Powers, Brent Reichert, Kelly Ruble, Gina Sarno, Robert B. Schneider IV, Jeff Seich, Christina Shaffer, Douglas Slygh, Colin Strause, Robert P. Thitoff, George Thomas, Shane Thompson, Jerry Lee Tucker, Tai Urban, Chris Vaina, Sandra Weston, Seth Zielicke, Alex DeCourville, Andrea-Nichole Olivas, Tina Grimm, Evan Kole, Hank Amos, Joti Nagra, Francisco Peramos
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 11 months ago
Overview
When an unexpected enemy emerges and threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins!
Director: Jon Favreau
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
France M6 4K Blu-ray has Dolby Vision, but is inferior with more washed out colors and inferior encoding plus no hardcoded subtitles for the Portuguese language parts
Director: Jon Favreau
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Director: James Gunn
Disney 4K Blu-ray or Disney Blu-ray for non-DNR version
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, and 2003 DVD is a fake 5.1 upmix
Releases from 2010 onward have the original music and sound effects, but distorted vocals
English dub (Streamline): 1996 Japan remastered LaserDisc, available in Ghibli Ga Ippai Collection boxset
Video format: 1080p 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.
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
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