Lionsgate

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray has the original stereo in lossy DD 2.0

US Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

> European/Australia StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (better encoding on Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray)

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray review / caps and packaging impressions by Kyle15.

For Blu-ray, Germany Plaion > US Lionsgate https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=14167&d2=14170&s1=144509&s2=144555&i=7&l=1

Italy or Japan Blu-ray should also have a better encoding than Lionsgate. Italy vs US caps

• 2015 Lionsgate Blu-ray (but it's missing the extra scenes in the Ultimate Edition)

• 2017 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray and subsequent 4K Blu-rays are notorius for being heavily denoised and smoothened. Alternatively, 35mm scans for the theatrical cut is also available.

• For the Ultimate Edition with the T-1000 searching John's room and the happy future ending, the 2009 Skynet Blu-ray, which is the older pre-2017 transfer, but has DNR.

• Original Kodak/ORC CDS mix:  Japan Pioneer DVD in DTS/ac3 5.1

• Original Dolby Stereo SR: USA Widescreen LaserDisc and others.

Differences of mixes on various releases: see thread and more info here.

2017 Blu-ray (which has the DNRed transfer), the 2009 Skynet Edition Blu-ray, and the 2000 Ultimate Edition DVD have exclusive extras. The 2003 Extreme Edition DVD has some exclusive easter eggs.

US Cut with Chaz Jankel Score: Lionsgate DVD

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray has the original theatrical 2.0 track, sourced from LaserDisc (absent on StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray), but the 5.1 track has issues which are not present on their new Blu-ray (LFE channel is missing, and instead it's the back left surround duplicated)

Lionsgate and StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray share the same video master: both have considerable improvement over the old awful Blu-ray but marred by teal grading and DNR. Lionsgate is additionally better compressed than StudioCanal.

• The BBC 4K collection and Shout! Factory 4K collection all use the same source, and are all unfortunately using AI upscaling and DNR'ed They are worse than the blurays and the 2023 US Shout! Factory collections are even prone to disc-rot.

• 2009 Lionsgate US (also prone to disc-rot) or UK 2 Entertain OOP Blu-ray will be the way to go.

• The 4K collection's Blu-ray seems to be a reprint of previous releases.

Shout! Factory 4K

5.1 track for The Wrong Trousers is in its correct pitch both in music and voices https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21535755&postcount=103

Unaltered track with the original music cues is on the LaserDisc.

Original matrixed Ultra Stereo mix: Lionsgate 2014 US Blu-ray
5.1 remix: Lionsgate US 4K Blu-ray

Both 4K discs include a mono downmix instead of a proper stereo.

Original Lionsgate disc was encoded in incorrect colorspace and used a lossy->lossless transcode for the 5.1 mix.

France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray slightly better than Criterion 4K Blu-ray

2014 StudioCanal Blu-ray 5.1, 2012 Lionsgate Blu-ray 2.0

Bandai JP 4K Blu-ray

All 4K releases are sourced from the same mediocre transfer provided by Bandai, with various amounts of tweaks. Japanese disc presents it with the least tinkering.

The best attempt at improving it comes from the German/French releases from KSM/All the Anime, both of which use the same master with HDR regrading (original grade is SDR in HDR container), tasteful regraining and sharpening, in an attempt to breathe some life into the middling transfer, making for an arguably more pleasing viewing experience.

All earlier releases are from an even worse transfer, with significant black crush, with the exception of a Japanese TV airing, which doesn't suffer from that issue, but instead is heavily sharpened and suffers from poor encoding.

Comparisons: JPN UHD, USA UHD, FRA/GER UHD, ITA UHD (tonemapped), JPN UHD, USA UHD, FRA/GER UHD, ITA UHD, ESP UHD (PQ), All 1080p BDs, HDTV, HDTV filtered

Original matrixed stereo mix: Bandai JP 4K Blu-ray
Most discs include this track with comparable fidelity (which is excellent).

Dolby Atmos remix: Lionsgate US 4K / All the Anime FR 4K
6.1 remix (from Ghost in the Shell 2.0): KSM DE 4K / All the Anime FR 4K

All tracks on the Lionsgate US 4K replace the original ending song with the one heard on the English dub. As the Atmos track on the FR 4K is just a port, it also has this song replaced.

Japanese 4K includes English dub and subtitles.
French/German 4Ks are not English friendly, with no dub or subtitles.
French disc includes the Atmos track, but the German disc does not.

Lionsgate 2002 DVD, or likely 1996 LaserDisc

The new master (both Blu-ray and Streaming streams) is botched, removes everything above 5.5 kHz.

Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release

US Lionsgate Blu-ray looks very different from either Italy Eagle Pictures or Germany Kinowelt Blu-ray: https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=502 but other than color grading looks better

• The BBC 4K collection and Shout! Factory 4K collection all use the same source, and are all unfortunately using AI upscaling and DNR'ed They are worse than the blurays and the 2023 US Shout! Factory collections are even prone to disc-rot.

• 2009 Lionsgate US (also prone to disc-rot) or UK 2 Entertain OOP Blu-ray will be the way to go.

• The 4K collection's Blu-ray seems to be a reprint of previous releases.

4Ks have low-pitched music and sound effects (and that includes Shaun's baas) correct-pitch voices: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21536116&postcount=109

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray has terrible compression, but still beats out the old disc which was sourced from a mediocre old scan with edge enhancement, and which has compression issues of its own.

Original 5.1 mix: 1997 Pioneer LaserDisc or 1997 Live Entertainment NTSC DVD
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

The film originally premiered with two mixes, a 5.1 for upgraded theaters, and a distinct matrixed Dolby Stereo mix for older venues. The original 5.1 mix can only be found on the earliest LD/DVD releases, as all later releases replace it with a mediocre 7.1 mix with reduced dynamic range.

The Atmos mix is based off of the previous 7.1 remix, but with futher alterations as per director's wishes. One scene intentionally drops out into silence, see this post for details.

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray doesn't have original audio

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray see caps

But has AI upscaling on opticals, see caps

Kino Lorber has 5.1, Lionsgate Blu-ray has 7.1, don't know which sounds better and closest to the theatrical mix.

Lionsgate US/Universal UK Blu-ray looks essentially the same https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=5758&d2=5756&c=2346

Lionsgate Limited US Blu-ray available for pre-order

Second Sight UK Blu-ray

Second Sight UK Blu-ray replacement disc