Plaion Pictures is the German film arm of Austria's Plaion (Embracer Group), based in Planegg near Munich and known as Koch Films or Koch Media until the August 2022 rebrand. Its German-market catalogue leans on licensed Hollywood and European classics, westerns, gialli and cult titles, often issued as numbered Mediabooks with booklets and extras, alongside 4K UHD and Steelbook editions.
Plaion
51 films on Best BluraysBest video release: 35 in 4K16 in HD1 more for audio only1 more announced
Best 4K release by tier:
- Excellent12
- Solid6
- Superior Imports3
- Good Imports1
Films where Plaion's release is the pick. How picks are made
Also known as: Koch Media
Films where Plaion's release is the pick. How picks are made
35 in 4K
Best video release on UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming
Director: Park Chan-wook
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Best Audio:
Director: Don Siegel
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Rose Glass
Best English-Friendly:
Best Video & Audio:
Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Markedly better encoding on Plaion than A24 and without any low-pass filtering
Best English-Friendly:
Best Video:
Carlotta France & Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray
Director: René Clément
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
> Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray see caps From nicolas:
Kino has terrible encode with strong blocking in highlights & darker areas and a red push in the master. Plaion (via LSP) is much better encoding-wise and they seemingly adjusted the grade when they did their HDR pass. It’s a fantastic disc.
Director: Ivan Reitman
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Plaion German 4K Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
> US Kino Lorber see comparison and caps
Kino Lorber has an exceedingly poor encode, only slightly improved by the DV layer.
Best Audio:
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Universal US Blu-ray
Dolby Atmos remix: Plaion DE 4K Blu-ray
Audio Notes:
Universal's BD uses the same transfer as the old LaserDisc and sounds a bit better than Plaion's, which has worse dynamics.
Plaion's Atmos remix is tastefully done and preserves the original mix's characteristics, the 5.1 track on Kino's release is overly aggressive and unbalanced.
Director: Peter Hyams
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:
StudioCanal Germany (Plaion) 4K
Video Notes:
StudioCanal Germany 4K is better than Shout! Factory. Plaion are StudioCanal’s distributor in Germany and one of their representatives revealed in a Germany forum that StudioCanal hired LSP to do the encode.
Audio Notes:
StudioCanal Germany 4K got a proper 5.1 mix instead of the Shout! Factory upmix
Director: David Lynch
Best English-Friendly:
Theatrical: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray?
TV Cut: Australia Imprint Blu-ray included in their 4K Blu-ray set?
Spicediver Cut: Germany Plaion Blu-ray included in their Ultimate Edition release
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best Video:
Theatrical: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Australian Imprint 4K Blu-ray?
TV Cut: Australia Imprint Blu-ray included in their 4K Blu-ray set?
Spicediver Cut: Germany Plaion Blu-ray included in their Ultimate Edition release
Best Audio:
Universal 1998 DVD has the original 70mm 6-track mix in Dolby Digital 5.1
Dolby Stereo: Arrow 4K Blu-ray (5.1 mix is an inferior remix)
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Best English-Friendly:
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Best Video:
German Plaion 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
German Plaion 4K Blu-ray see caps but doesn't have EN subtitles
16 in HD
Best video release on Blu-ray or HD streaming · by Letterboxd rating
Best Video & Audio:
DE Koch Media
Video Notes:
DE Koch Media is presented in the correct 25fps and is likely better compressed than UK Dogwoof (29 vs 14 Mbps), but it doesn’t have English subtitles.
US Drafthouse is in 24fps for Region A compatibility, and is encoded at around 30 Mbps.
(Although bitrate does not solely determine the quality of the encode, the difference is large enough here and there are no publicly available caps.)
No info on the JP VAP Blu-ray.
Audio Notes:
DE Koch Media and US Drafthouse feature a lossless 5.1 track. Dogwoof offers only AC-3.
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
Germany Plaion Blu-ray has the best encoding, and both MoC and Kino Lorber Blu-ray have Quicktime Gamma Bug see caps
For encoding, Plaion > MoC > Kino Lorber
Director: George Marshall
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
Germany Plaion Blu-ray has better encoding and Kino Lorber Blu-ray likely suffers from the Quicktime Gamma Bug, see caps
Director: John Ford
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
> US Twilight Time Blu-ray see caps
1 for audio only
The best audio is Plaion's; the video and English-friendly picks are other releases · by Letterboxd rating
Director: Park Chan-wook
Best Audio:
Italy/Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray for Atmos
Upcoming Release:
Decal Releasing USA 4K Blu-ray - October 2026
Best English-Friendly:
AUS Madman 4K Blu-ray
Best Video:
HDR: GER Plaion 4K Blu-ray
SDR: AUS Madman 4K Blu-ray
1 announced
Plaion's release is announced; until it is out, the picks are other releases · by Letterboxd rating
Directors: Colin Chilvers & Will Vinton & Jerry Kramer & Jim Blashfield
Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)
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
Video Notes:
Film Whisperer's restoration is better
Additional Info:
Censorship changes for Blu-ray: https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=224122
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