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
Best 4K release by tier:
- Excellent14
- Solid6
- Superior Imports3
- Good Imports1
Also known as: Koch Media
How we pick the best Plaion releases
36 in 4K
Best video release on UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming
Director: Park Chan-wook
Best Video & English-Friendly:
Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray > MUBI 4K Blu-ray
Best Audio:
Best English-Friendly:
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion Blu-ray or WB DVD depending on the cut.
Best Video:
First Preview (Turner): Germany Plaion Blu-ray
Second Preview (Final Preview): Germany Plaion Blu-ray
Theatrical: Criterion 4K Blu-ray
2024 Cut: Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Best English-Friendly:
Best Video:
German Plaion 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
German Plaion 4K Blu-ray see caps but doesn't have EN subtitles
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 Video & English-Friendly:
Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray > 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 Video & English-Friendly:
Plaion German 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Plaion German 4K Blu-ray > 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.
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: Pablo Berger
Director: Billy Wilder
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: David Cronenberg
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
2 announced
Plaion's release is announced; until it is out, the picks are other releases · by Letterboxd rating
Director: John Woo
Upcoming Release:
Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray
Best Video & English-Friendly:
Video Notes:
Arrow has a different grade and a better encode than the Shout! Factory, though the difference in either is not major. Imprint release, which leaves Shout! Factory's master and subtitles as is, is encoded by FiM. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24473097&postcount=56
Best Audio:
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Audio Notes:
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (similar to Criterion LaserDisc, but less distorted)
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Arrow used the alternate mix, but with extra filtering and lowered dynamic range. The alternate mix has much better fidelity.
Imprint presumably used the Shout! Factory original mix and left it as is, though no official confirmation.
Directors: Colin Chilvers & Will Vinton & Jerry Kramer & Jim Blashfield
Best Video & English-Friendly:
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
Know a film where the Plaion release is the one to buy? Suggest it