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
52 films on Best BluraysBest video release: 36 in 4K16 in HD1 more for audio only1 more announced
Best 4K release by tier:
- Excellent13
- Solid6
- Superior Imports3
- Good Imports1
Films where Plaion's release is the pick. How picks are made
Also known as: Koch Media
36 of 52 films match · Page 1 of 2
Films where Plaion's release is the pick. How picks are made
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
Director: Michael Mann
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Paramount/Plaion Spain/Italy 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Paramount/Plaion Spain/Italy 4K Blu-ray has better encoding than the US 4K Blu-ray.
Best Audio:
Audio Notes:
The EUR 4K has missing dialog.
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Ulysses Cut: Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best Audio:
Ulysses Cut: Arrow Blu-ray included in 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sean S. Cunningham
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Upcoming Release:
Video Notes:
> Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
Plaion fixed Kino’s errors. Excellent release but it’s only for the blue tier as there’s not as much fine detail in the master as we’ve come to expect from high quality 4K transfers. Either Kino / Studiocanal didn’t use the negative or the scan wasn’t the best. - impressions.
Kino Lorber is a solid master but with picture and audio errors
Director: David Lynch
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Upcoming Release:
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Video Notes:
Subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
Audio Notes:
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Director: William Wyler
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Italy Plaion 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
> Paramount 4K Blu-ray (marginally)
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