4K Blu-ray

R1 DVD for the original Dolby Stereo. Criterion 4K Blu-ray upmix is fine, Sony Blu-ray has phasing issues

> US MVD

> 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

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (caps)

UK StudioCanal has more extras

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray's HDR10 encode and audio tracks are poor, film looks fine in Dolby Vision

Arrow has a different grade and a better encode, though the difference in either is not major.

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.

Arrow has a much better translation.

Arrow LE has the Taiwan Extended Cut which will not be present on the standard edition.

The 2024 Kino Lorber Blu-ray is botched.

Arrow 4K Blu-ray has better color grading, DV, and the best encoding.

Capelight 4K Blu-ray has good encode with the same color grade as Vinegar Syndrome.
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray has mediocre encode and over-saturated skin tones.

Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray has the best sounding original stereo mix; Capelight 4K Blu-ray audio is clipped; Arrow 4K Blu-ray is filtered.

The Paramount 4K master is HEAVILY revisionist in that all of the effects and opticals were redone and tweaked with errors and issues. There has been grain management (moments of stagnating grain and haloing) and the encoding isn't great hence the typical Paramount noise in the image. (especially skies) The HDR is a bit bright in the highlights. The Blu-ray is showing its age but does not have any of these digital alterations. It is from the scan done by Laser Pacific and is the highest quality unaltered master we have. The DVD was done by Lowry Digital and had much scrubbing and processing of grain in addition to edge enhancement. The letterbox LaserDisc was the first widescreen release and is very good for its time. There was also a rare SVHS release using the letterbox LaserDisc master.
The 4K Blu-ray audio is seemingly an Atmos remix of the 5.1 found on the Blu-ray which itself is very similar to the DVD 5.1. All are presumably based on the 70mm Dolby six track mix. The Atmos is more processed and moves the sound around more so it is inferior to the older 5.1 iterations. On release, Last Crusade had Dolby 70mm with stereo surrounds, Dolby Stereo SR for 35mm and was mixed in a THX sound theater to ensure the ultimate in technical quality in 1989. The DVD was supposedly made from the 70mm mix and the Blu-ray 5.1 seems to bring that into lossless. This is unconfirmed but each seems to be a healthy and accurate version of the original audio. However, the LaserDisc despite only having matrix PCM stereo is punchier and livelier as a listening experience. Despite not being discrete it arguably sounds better than the 5.1 versions. Some who remember seeing each of the original release versions claim to remember the 35mm Dolby DR as sounding better than the 70mm Dolby.  This is a case where both sound great and it's up to fans to decide which they prefer. Both are essential for any Indy collection and the LaserDisc is very cheap. The VHS hifi seems to be the same 2.0 matrix with format differences so it can also be compared against the DVD and Blu-ray 5.1 versions.

DFIC extensive review: https://youtu.be/evsrJOTIjdA?si=wtdWGxZBfhPYTIeW

Criterion DVD for the original Dolby Stereo (lossless). 5.1 upmix on BDs is fine, DTS:X is revisionistic

Criterion Blu-ray has extras not found on the Universal 4K Blu-ray