Labels
/
Image Entertainment

Image Entertainment

34 films on Best Blurays

Based in United StatesFounded 1981

Founded in 1981 in Chatsworth, California, Image Entertainment began as a LaserDisc distributor licensing studio catalogues, then moved to DVD with catalogue films, concerts, TV and foreign titles. Many silent-era discs came from David Shepard's Film Preservation Associates, drawn from the Blackhawk Films library. RLJ Acquisition bought the company in 2012 and merged it with Acorn Media as RLJ Entertainment, retiring the Image name.

Aliases: image entertainment, image

Page 2 of 2

Director: Vincent J. Donehue

Best English-Friendly & Video:

1990 Image Entertainment/GoodTimes LaserDisc or 1999 GoodTimes DVD

Director: Federico Fellini

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Image Entertainment DVD is slightly better than Criterion 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD (all basically the same)
Other Blu-ray releases are all much worse.

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> BFI. France Carlotta Blu-ray is a new, flawed 4K resto, which has heavy frozen grain

Best Audio:

1999 Image Entertainment DVD

Director: George Kuchar

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Image Entertainment Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986 OOP DVD

Directors: Charles Eames & Ray Eames

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Image Entertainment The Films Of Charles & Ray Eames Volume 1 DVD

Video Notes:

It's also available in SD Streaming everywhere

Director: Joe Dante

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Scream Factory US 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> StudioCanal UK for the inclusion of original mono, more extras

Best Audio:

Scream Factory US includes original mono

For the director/actor commentary, the 1995 Image Entertainment LaserDisc is uncut, subsequent releases are cut

Director: James Cameron

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly:

2013 MGM Blu-ray, or 4K Blu-ray if you MUST have the mono mix, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix

Sources: vimeo.com (opens in a new tab) · facebook.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Capelight 4K Steelbook and Mediabook announced for 2026

Best Video:

2013 MGM Blu-ray for non AI transfer, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix

Best Audio:

1991 Image Entertainment LaserDisc for the US mono mix, 2001 MGM DVD for the International mono mix

Audio Notes:

Comparison between the US and International mixes: https://vimeo.com/246332731

Additional Info:

The 4K Blu-Ray and the 2001 MGM DVD have exclusive extras.

Director: William Friedkin

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Arrow UK /Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> Kino Lorber US 4K Blu-ray, see caps

Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino Lorber release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.

Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some are better in the Capelight.

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow  4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

(Arrow is a port of the LaserDisc track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout! Factory Blu-rays was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LaserDisc audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.

Capelight and old Arrow Blu-ray included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino Lorber only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.

The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.

The best source for the commentaries are from the 2003 Special Edition DVD.

Director: Chick Strand

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Image Entertainment Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986 OOP DVD

Sources: filmpreservation.org (opens in a new tab)

Directors: Colin Chilvers & Will Vinton & Jerry Kramer & Jim Blashfield

Best English-Friendly & Video:

OG Version: 1989 US Image Entertainment LaserDisc

2005 Edited Version - Re-Edited and Censored: UK Warner Bros Blu-ray

2005 Edited Version - Uncensored: UK Warner Bros DVD

Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Germany Plaion Blu-ray with uncensored cut and 4:3 version

English-Friendly Notes:

Film Whisperer's restoration is better

Additional Info:

Censorship changes for Blu-ray: https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=224122

Director: Jonathan Wacks

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Image Entertainment or Anchor Bay OOP DVD

Director: John Flynn

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Eagle Pictures Italy 4K Blu-ray

English-Friendly Notes:

> StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray: better compression than StudioCanal

Director: John Mark Robinson

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

US Image Entertainment LaserDisc

Video Notes:

US Image Entertainment LaserDisc is pan-and-scan, but is the best quality release of the film. Widescreen version never released on home video.

Audio Notes:

US Image Entertainment LaserDisc has the original Dolby Stereo mix.

Additional Info:

Germany DVD is a dupe-y transfer ripped from a VHS with German titles, PAL speedup, and mono audio.

Missing a Image Entertainment film? Suggest it