Dersu Uzala (1975)
Дерсу Узала
Action, Adventure, Drama • 2h 24m
Overview
A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR
Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray
BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.
The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.
Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR
Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray
BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.
The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.
Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Criterion NTSC DVD overall. The 4K restoration's track is denoised and sounds muffled, but has a few of moments where it edges out in detail
Audio analysis between the Criterion 4K Blu-ray, BFI Blu-ray and Toho 4K Blu-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Criterion NTSC DVD overall. The 4K restoration's track is denoised and sounds muffled, but has a few of moments where it edges out in detail
Audio analysis between the Criterion 4K Blu-ray, BFI Blu-ray and Toho 4K Blu-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Criterion 4K Blu-ray: intact grain compared to Toho/BFI UHDs' DNR'd master
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is good, derived from the 1995 Criterion LaserDisc (which would be minimally better due to its lack of filtering) see blah-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Criterion 4K Blu-ray: intact grain compared to Toho/BFI UHDs' DNR'd master
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is good, derived from the 1995 Criterion LaserDisc (which would be minimally better due to its lack of filtering) see blah-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray >StudioCanal UK (slightly better encoding on Eagle?)
The US Criterion DVD has some unique supplements with 2.0 surround audio - this release contains Japan end titles.
The Japan 4K Restoration Blu-ray has some exclusive features with 4.0 audio (though the release is not English-friendly)- this release contains Japan end titles.
The StudioCanal releases contain France end titles - while their 4K Blu-ray releases contain identical features.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray >StudioCanal UK (slightly better encoding on Eagle?)
The US Criterion DVD has some unique supplements with 2.0 surround audio - this release contains Japan end titles.
The Japan 4K Restoration Blu-ray has some exclusive features with 4.0 audio (though the release is not English-friendly)- this release contains Japan end titles.
The StudioCanal releases contain France end titles - while their 4K Blu-ray releases contain identical features.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
No clear winner, Criterion SDR 4K Blu-ray has better defined grain and is cleaned-up more thoroughly. But looks grayer and flatter in daytime scenes. BFI 4K Blu-ray's HDR/DV is better in contrast but the grading can be debatable.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
No clear winner, Criterion SDR 4K Blu-ray has better defined grain and is cleaned-up more thoroughly. But looks grayer and flatter in daytime scenes. BFI 4K Blu-ray's HDR/DV is better in contrast but the grading can be debatable.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Kevin Costner
4K restoration of the extended cut to be screened in Locarno Film Festival
PQ looks the same for all BDs, but only Shout! Factory/Australia Via Vision Blu-ray/Germany Kinowelt Anniversary Blu-ray has both theatrical and extended cut
Director: Kevin Costner
4K restoration of the extended cut to be screened in Locarno Film Festival
PQ looks the same for all BDs, but only Shout! Factory/Australia Via Vision Blu-ray/Germany Kinowelt Anniversary Blu-ray has both theatrical and extended cut
Director: John Carpenter
Director: John Carpenter
Director: Martin Scorsese
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: Martin Scorsese
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: Peter Medak
Imprint 4K Blu-ray scheduled for August 2026 release
Director: Peter Medak
Imprint 4K Blu-ray scheduled for August 2026 release
Director: Roger Donaldson
88 Films & Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Imprint 4K Blu-ray scheduled for August 2026 release
88 Films tied with Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray (88 Films is FiM encoded)
88 Films and Scream Factory have exclusive extras
Director: Roger Donaldson
88 Films & Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Imprint 4K Blu-ray scheduled for August 2026 release
88 Films tied with Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray (88 Films is FiM encoded)
88 Films and Scream Factory have exclusive extras
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Canada Blu-ray or Netherlands Blu-ray? better than Constantin Germany 4K Blu-ray
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Canada Blu-ray or Netherlands Blu-ray? better than Constantin Germany 4K Blu-ray
Director: Roger Donaldson
Director: Roger Donaldson
Director: John Woo
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray, correct grade and archival extras missing from the Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Criterion LaserDisc, both Arrow 4K Blu-ray and Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray are worse.
Criterion USA LaserDisc [CC1397L]: Original Cantonese mono.
Best Cantonese mono still was from Criterion LaserDisc, as the Shout one was boosted with clipping, with some filtering and losing dynamic range over the Criterion LD.
There’s no need for other Cantonese audio, as all 5.1 remixes are extremely bad and not worth including.
For English Dub the Shout offered the best, it was pure mono. All other 5.1 remixed of said dub are also terrible and offer no value, only less fidelity and more echo.
Director: John Woo
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray, correct grade and archival extras missing from the Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Criterion LaserDisc, both Arrow 4K Blu-ray and Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray are worse.
Criterion USA LaserDisc [CC1397L]: Original Cantonese mono.
Best Cantonese mono still was from Criterion LaserDisc, as the Shout one was boosted with clipping, with some filtering and losing dynamic range over the Criterion LD.
There’s no need for other Cantonese audio, as all 5.1 remixes are extremely bad and not worth including.
For English Dub the Shout offered the best, it was pure mono. All other 5.1 remixed of said dub are also terrible and offer no value, only less fidelity and more echo.
Director: Ron Shelton
Director: Ron Shelton
More Action on Blu-ray
Directors: Masayuki & Hideaki Anno & Tsuyoshi Kaga & Shoichi Masuo & Ken Ando & Seiji Mizushima & Kazuya Tsurumaki & Naoyasu Habu & Hiroyuki Ishido & Tensai Okamura & Akira Takamura & Minoru Ohara & Masahiko Otsuka & Tetsuya Watanabe & Keiichi Sugiyama
Directors: Masayuki & Hideaki Anno & Tsuyoshi Kaga & Shoichi Masuo & Ken Ando & Seiji Mizushima & Kazuya Tsurumaki & Naoyasu Habu & Hiroyuki Ishido & Tensai Okamura & Akira Takamura & Minoru Ohara & Masahiko Otsuka & Tetsuya Watanabe & Keiichi Sugiyama
Director: James Cameron
Director: James Cameron
Director: Chuck Russell
Director: Chuck Russell
Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray > Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber Blu-ray, by encoding quality see caps
Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow ported the LD track) see spectrogram
Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray > Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber Blu-ray, by encoding quality see caps
Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow ported the LD track) see spectrogram
Director: Iain Softley
Capelight Germany 4K Blu-ray. Both 88 Films and Germany Capelight are superior to the Shout! Factory in HDR10 but their FEL layer may even things out. Objectively, the Capelight looks best as they avoided the chroma blocking that’s visible in 88’s disc but they in turn include an Atmos mix. I have the Shout! Factory, love how it looks and the 4K transfer is spectacular. https://slow.pics/c/vPmFQSAH
Director: Iain Softley
Capelight Germany 4K Blu-ray. Both 88 Films and Germany Capelight are superior to the Shout! Factory in HDR10 but their FEL layer may even things out. Objectively, the Capelight looks best as they avoided the chroma blocking that’s visible in 88’s disc but they in turn include an Atmos mix. I have the Shout! Factory, love how it looks and the 4K transfer is spectacular. https://slow.pics/c/vPmFQSAH
Warner Bros Blu-ray with TrueHD audio
Warner Bros Blu-ray with TrueHD audio
Warner Bros Blu-ray with TrueHD audio
Warner Bros Blu-ray with TrueHD audio
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