Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, formerly Warner Home Video, is the disc arm of the Hollywood studio and part of Warner Bros. Discovery. Its catalogue covers Warner's own films plus the pre-1986 MGM, RKO and pre-1950 Warner libraries held through Turner, with a steady run of 4K UHD restorations. Rarer library titles go out through its Warner Archive Collection line.
Warner Bros
409 films on Best BluraysBest video release: 191 in 4K127 in HD91 in SD36 more for audio only
Best 4K release by tier:
- Excellent60
- Solid65
- Disappointing4
Films where Warner Bros' release is the pick. How picks are made
Also known as: WB
191 of 409 films match
Films where Warner Bros' release is the pick. How picks are made
191 in 4K
Best video release on UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming
Best English-Friendly & Video:
WB 4K Blu-ray
Best Audio:
Mono: Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray
Stereo remix: 1998 R2 WB DVD ? (more detailed)
Additional Info:
4K Blu-ray is missing featurettes from the old Blu-ray
Director: Miloš Forman
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:
Theatrical: WB 4K Blu-ray
Extended: Warner Bros Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray: Huge improvement in colors and detail. The restoration was done by the Academy instead of WB MPI which explains that there’s no grain management or issues with colors. They also accessed the original credit optical and scanned that one instead of recreating them digitally
Audio Notes:
Theatrical: WB 4K Blu-ray, according to Saentz, the 5.0 is a recreation of the original and subsequently 70mm mix from original elements.
Director: Orson Welles
Best English-Friendly:
WB 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
Best Video:
WB Europe 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
WB Europe 4K Blu-ray slightly better encoding than Criterion (caveat: missing Criterion extras)
Best Audio:
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · hollywood-elsewhere.com (opens in a new tab)
Video Notes:
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray (caps; grade on the BD was controversial)
Best Audio:
2006 WB DVD
Audio Notes:
Later Warner Bros Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray are minor downgrades
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray
Audio Notes:
The 4K Blu-ray 5.0 is the original mix, but more muffled than LaserDisc and even the previous Blu-ray's gentle remix. The Atmos mix is revisionist.
Additional Info:
The 50th Anniversary box set has some exclusive extras.
1991 LaserDisc is Dolby Stereo matrix encoded from the original six track master and this was later upgraded to a 5.1 Dolby Digital version prepared for the first DVD. The 5.1 version may have had some slight tweaking in the process. This was reused for the DVD CE boxset and then the 5.1 on Blu-ray seems like a slight upgrade of the DVD track. (The first pressing from the UCE boxset had audio defects rampant on the Blu-ray. These were corrected for standalone pressings.) All 5.1s sound roughly the same as the LaserDisc 2.0 in terms of the mix, but the LaserDisc PCM mastering seems like the only one that is direct without any major processing.
Director: Ryan Coogler
Best English-Friendly & Video:
WB 4K Blu-ray
Best Audio:
WB 4K Blu-ray, excellent Atmos mix
Best English-Friendly & Video:
WB MOD 4K Blu-ray Replacement Disc
Video Notes:
The first pressing had a botched 5.1 mix, the second one has Atmos, which is an upgrade to the Blu-ray. Encoding is good.
3 with a weaker 4K
Best 4K release rated Disappointing or Worse Than BD · by Letterboxd rating
Director: Christopher Nolan
Best English-Friendly & Video:
WB 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
WB 4K Blu-ray has Excessive DNR
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray and 2011/2013 Optimum Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Upcoming Release:
Cineverse 4K Blu-ray announced with a new 4K restoration from the original negatives
Video Notes:
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray and 2011/2013 Optimum Blu-ray both have issues, up to preference. UK Optimum/Japan Amuse Soft Blu-ray is better, Criterion is worse
Japan Amuse Soft Blu-ray is better encoded than the Optimum, is in the original 1.85 ratio, and has the original colors
25 for audio only
The best audio is Warner Bros'; the video and English-friendly picks are other releases · by Letterboxd rating
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Director: Martin Scorsese
Director: Martin Rosen
Best Audio:
2002 R2 WB DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Director: Morton DaCosta
Sources: mega.nz (opens in a new tab)
Audio Notes:
For the most part, the mono track available on the BD and UHD is fine, but there's an 8 minutes long segment which sounds terrible with artificially expanded frequency range causing very audible artifacting. The 5.1 remix doesn't have that issue. Sample
Best English-Friendly:
Best Video:
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray from 12K scan
Director: John Waters
Best Audio:
Stereo: Criterion 4K Blu-ray
5.1: Warner Bros Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Director: Mike Hodges
Best Audio:
2000 R1 WB DVD (slightly)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Director: Martin Scorsese
Best Audio:
1991 WB LaserDisc
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
2024 Second Sight 4K Blu-ray
Best Audio:
Warner Bros Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · +3 more
Audio Notes:
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray is more filtered than Warner Bros Blu-ray, although differences may not be audible.
(While the LaserDisc 2.0 is reportedly better clarity in dialogue?)
Best English-Friendly:
Theatrical Cut with unaltered sculpture: Initial DVD
Altered Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Best Video:
Theatrical Cut with unaltered sculpture: Initial DVD with this red message: "The large white sculpture of human forms on the wall of John Milton's penthouse in "The Devil's Advocate" is not connected in any way and was not endorsed by the sculptor Frederick Hart or the Washington National Cathedral, joint copyright owners of the Cathedral sculpture "Ex Nihilo" in Washington D.C.".
Altered Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray see caps
Additional Info:
DV Plot. For those curious, the sculpture is still the altered one found on the re-issued DVDs, and previous Blu-ray.
5.1 audio on the Shout (either be 1080p or 2160p) was 16-bit, with more roll-off than the Warners one, the Warners was very similar to the NTSC and in terms of balance of the mix, while the Shout seems to be tinkered with, with the score at the beginning and at the end sounding worse on Shout.
Audio Comparisons: Slow.pics
For the regular commentary found on the NTSC DVD "Original Version" (there's no difference including the other NTSC DVD), Shout or Warners; the Shout commentary was just a bloated lossy transcode with some EQ. The best one was from either of the two DVDs.
Commentary Comparisons: Slow.pics
Now there's another commentary; it's basically the same commentary but has some parts different than the others, it can be found on EUR PAL DVD with subs for said commentary. The subs for it doesn't sync for the commentary #1 and vice-versa. Samples
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Best Audio:
Director's cut: 2007 WB Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Audio Notes:
Director's cut: 2007 WB Blu-ray; Arrow is a lossy transcode with dynamics compression.
2007 BD's AC-3 track with dynamic range compression enabled is nearly identical to Arrow's, see comparison
Theatrical cut is fine.
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Video Notes:
Both cuts are excellent in 4K. See caps
Best Audio:
Warner Bros 2002 DVD
Audio Notes:
Warner Bros 2002 DVD has the best sounding mono
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Hammer & Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Hammer & Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray are confirmed by Randy Miller to be identical down to the encode, the only difference being different studio logos.
Directors: Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski & Tom Tykwer
Best Audio:
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray / Warner Bros Blu-ray
Audio Notes:
(no audible difference)
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Director: Jan de Bont
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Audio Notes:
The EU disc from Universal has neutered bass.
4K Blu-ray Atmos track is much more compressed in all channels.
Best English-Friendly & Video:
Know a film where the Warner Bros release is the one to buy? Suggest it