BFI

1993 Japan LaserDisc

Criterion Blu-ray (in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel boxdset) has major gamma issues. See caps

See detailed review However Criterion has better subtitles

Old BFI Blu-ray

> Criterion Blu-ray > BFI 4K Blu-ray > Toho Blu-ray See DonaldMcDonald's post

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.

BFI Blu-ray (slightly)

Criterion = BFI, both HD resto: source

BFI and Criterion BDs are same restoration, but BFI is much darker and Criterion is much brighter. Unsure which is correct.

BFI 4K Blu-ray is significantly better than older Blu-ray however the HDR grade is questionable as it introduces black crushes, see nic's review and caps

For Blu-rays, Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray > MoC Blu-ray see caps

All disc sourced from the 4K restoration use the same solid audio track. Older DVD releases are from a higher generation source with less detail and more hiss.

BFI 4K Blu-ray, caps

Criterion NTSC DVD

BFI better encode than Criterion

2006 Criterion DVD

UK BFI Blu-ray is very similar to Germany Capelight Blu-ray but Capelight is slightly more sharpened see caps

Both Kino Lorber and Twilight Time OOP Blu-ray suffer from Quicktime Gamma Bug see caps

BFI Blu-ray encoding is better than Kino Lorber Blu-ray see caps

2015 Star Media Blu-ray/2019 BFI Player WEB-DL

BFI significantly better than Kino Lorber even though same restoration http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_reviews_64/pocketful_of_miracles_blu-ray.htm

BFI Blu-ray has better encode than Criterion

2001 MK2 DVD

Criterion and BFI very similar

Fox Lorber DVD

Strong VDMS encode of a 4K scan.

No comparisons available against France Potemkine or Japan IVC. They are presumably from the same master, but do not feature English subs.

TBD: BFI Blu-ray’s mono sounds clean. No hiss but not noticeably muffled/filtered either. No known comparisons against older releases.

2010 R4 Madman DVD

Criterion/BFI Blu-ray no comparisons, both have theatrical and directors cut