Germany

Germany Capelight Blu-ray > Criterion Blu-ray

Criterion has the original stereo

Germany Universal Blu-ray has better encoding than US Shout! Factory, but it's more cropped?See caps https://slow.pics/c/cDui4NGF and https://slow.pics/c/JFGZRwhQ

Germany Universal Blu-ray is more dynamic than US Shout! Factory https://slow.pics/c/euldbr8T

Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray > US Shout! Factory - caps

The 5.1 track sounds very good and is said to be sourced from the original 6-track mix used for 70mm blow-up releases, but there is no conclusive proof of that.

(France Rimini Editions 4K has heavy DNR)

OOP Arrow LE has a bonus disc

Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (small caveat to both UHDs: the original song The Damned - "Dead Beat Dance" has been replaced by Straw Dogs - "Young, Fast Iranians" over the end credits in the print made available to Shout! Factory/Arrow) (caveat for Arrow: missing the Zombie subtitles and the workprint found on the Shout! Factory release)

Comparison between Arrow and Shout! Factory: https://slow.pics/c/iOrdhnra

Germany NSM Blu-ray has the unaltered Mono track with Dead Beat Dance intact.

Not really noticeable difference to Germany Bildstörung Blu-ray

Germany Bildstörung Blu-ray marginally better encode than Criterion

Arrow UK /Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber US 4K Blu-ray, see caps

Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino Lorber release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.

Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some are better in the Capelight.

(Arrow is a port of the LaserDisc track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout! Factory Blu-rays was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LaserDisc audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.

Capelight and old Arrow Blu-ray included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino Lorber only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.

The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.

The best source for the commentaries are from the 2003 Special Edition DVD.

Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray is superior to WB Blu-ray: caps

Subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking

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

The film exists in three versions:
- the original Australian cut (~104 minutes at 24fps/~100 minutes at 25fps);
- the American/international version (~98 minutes at 24fps/~94 minutes at 25fps) trimming some exposition in the Outback first half of the film and some shorter extensions of a few seconds in the New York section, altering some of the dialogue – including censoring a "fuck" to "screw" – but featuring one additional dialogue extension not in the Australian version (a comparison of the two cuts can be found at Movie Censorship);
- the Australian Encore Cut (~95 minutes at 24fps/~91 minutes at 25fps) which uses the international version source so it already has those alterations but also removes approximately three minutes consisting of parts of two scenes featuring Mick grabbing the crotch of a cross-dressing prostitute and a later sequence when he does the same thing at a party to a woman with a deep voice (a comparison of the international version and the Encore Cut can be found at Movie Censorship).

Germany Wicked Vision 4K Blu-ray better than US Kino Lorber?

Film Whisperer's restoration is better

Censorship changes for Blu-ray: https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=224122

Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray > Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray (Capelight fixes some magenta color faults of the Shout! Factory Release)