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LaserDisc

LaserDisc

245 films on Best Blurays

Type: Format

Page 7 of 13

Films where LaserDisc is in a pick or an upcoming release.

Director: Lawrence Kasdan

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 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)

Best Audio:

Original mono: Warner Bros LaserDisc
Stereo & 5.1 remixes: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Original mono mix was never released after VHS/LD. Warner's DVD and Blu-ray had a 3.0 remix in a 5.1 container. Criterion has new stereo and 5.1 remixes. Stereo is director's current preference.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23879243&postcount=51

Director: Sam Raimi

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Sony 4K Blu-ray steelbook

Unaltered version: 2007 Ultimate Edition DVD? Or 35mm scan

Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray steelbook

Video Notes:

Sony 4K Blu-ray steelbook, correct audio pitch and more bonus features

Confirmed to be a port of Sony's international 4K, encode different to Lionsgate's. Audio in the correct pitch and a cross-selection of archive extras where the Lionsgate had only one audio commentary. High Def reviewer thought the 2.0 was a mixdown of the 5.1 track.

Unaltered version: 2007 Ultimate Edition DVD? Or 35mm scan

Best Audio:

LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

LaserDisc has the original Mono

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray audio is in the wrong pitch while the Sony release is in the right pitch

Additional Info:

All releases after 2010 have digital alterations to some scenes. https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=999332

Director: John Milius

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1991 MCA LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

1991 MCA LaserDisc vs Arrow 4K Blu-ray, the Arrow is noise gated.

Director: Steven Spielberg

4K · Solid
Best Audio:

1988 MCA LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

Slightly better than
Universal 4K Blu-ray with the DTS 2.0

Director: Ridley Scott

4K · Solid
Best Video:

Final Cut: WB 4K Blu-ray (Caveat: No Dolby Vision from Streaming)

Other Cuts: WB Blu-ray

Workprint: WB 30th Anniversary Blu-ray Set for a better AVC encode

Best Audio:

1982 Theatrical Mix: Embassy Video releases, HD-DVD for the 70mm 6-track mix

International Cut Dolby Stereo: Criterion Collection LaserDisc, HD-DVD for the 70mm 6-track mix

1992 Director's Cut Dolby Stereo: WB CAV LaserDisc 2.0 PCM-best fidelity of any mix, HD-DVD for the 70mm 6-track mix

Workprint: WB 30th Anniversary Blu-ray Set DTS-HD MA 5.1

2007 Final Cut remix: Blu-ray Dolby TrueHD 5.1

Additional Info:

WB 4K Blu-ray only has Final Cut and contains a bad Atmos remix with new sound effects. Original Final Cut mix was removed.

Director: Steven Lisberger

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Disney 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Disney 4K Blu-ray see caps

Best Audio:
  • 35mm Dolby Stereo mix: 1995 Disney LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

The 5.1 is a more faithful remix than the later Atmos track.

Director: Richard Attenborough

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook

Best Video:

2025 Sony Steelbook

Video Notes:

2025 Sony Steelbook > 2020 Columbia Classics boxset.

Best Audio:

1994 Columbia LaserDisc

Directors: Frank Oz & Jim Henson

4K · Excellent
Best Audio:

LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory's 2.0 is a downmix of the 5.1

Additional Info:

Old Sony DVD has an isolated score

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

TV Cut: BFI Blu-ray. Japan Blu-ray likely better, no caps.

Theatrical Cut: BFI Blu-ray

Video Notes:

(box set and standalone are identical)

Best Audio:

TV Cut: 2011 Criterion Blu-ray (the 2018 Criterion and 2023 BFI box set have signs of applying a limiter)

Theatrical Cut: Criterion LaserDisc, DVD

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

4K · Solid
Best Audio:

1986 Pioneer LaserDisc

Director: Richard Marquand

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best Video:

OG: "4K83" or "OTD83" on the high seas

Special Edition: "4K97_VI" or "D+97_VI" on the high seas

Upcoming Release:

2027 Original Trilogy restoration/50th anniversary rerelease clips leaked plus release confirmed

Best Audio:

OG: LaserDisc audio is the best option for the Dolby Stereo mixes (and usually included in fan restorations). There are 16mm/TV rips of the mono mixes.

Special Edition: Cinema DTS or 1997 LaserDisc for the Special Edition.

Director: John Glen

Best English-Friendly:

MGM Blu-ray 

Best Video:

MGM Blu-ray despite Lowry master issues 

Best Audio:

1990 MGM LaserDisc

Director: Harold Ramis

Best Audio:

Original theatrical release featured the song "I'm So Excited", which was later replaced with "Little Boy Sweet". The former is included on 1983 VHS/LaserDisc releases, and was at one point available on Amazon and Vudu Streaming streams.

Director: Irvin Kershner

Best English-Friendly:

MGM Blu-ray 

Best Video:

MGM Blu-ray despite dated master

Best Audio:

WB 1995 letterbox LaserDisc

Director: Bob Clark

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1993 MGM/UA LaserDisc (slightly)

Director: Joel Coen

4K · Disappointing
Best Video:

Director's Cut: Disappointing UK StudioCanal/US Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879 - comparison. StudioCanal is a massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)

Director: Sergio Leone

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray

229 min cut (Theatrical): WB Blu-ray

139 min cut (US theatrical): VHS

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts

229 min cut (Theatrical): WB Blu-ray

139 min cut (US theatrical): VHS

Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps

The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.


Nic's review:

Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.

Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.

I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.

Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.

Best Audio:

251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray

229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)

Additional Info:

Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly:

35mm scan, Blu-ray, DVD or LaserDisc.

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray heavily revisionist. Purist option: 35mm scan, Blu-ray, DVD or LaserDisc.

Best Audio:

Letterbox LaserDisc 2.0 matrix stereo, DVD 5.1, Blu-ray 5.1

Additional Info:

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.
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 Temple of Doom had 70mm, 35mm Dolby Stereo and mono mixes. The mono was for 16mm and other outlets and is presumably close to if not a mixdown of the stereo. It is seemingly the last Lucasfilm title that had a mono mix made. The Dolby Stereo is one of the most aggressive matrix mixes ever made and is still a blast to this day on the letterbox LaserDisc release. It is more aggressive than any of the 5.1 discrete versions which is either due to studios taming the audio later or the 35mm mix being handled a bit differently to the 70mm mix. In terms of releases today, the LaserDisc still sounds better than DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray because of this factor.

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

Director: Joe Dante

4K · Excellent
Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1985 WB LaserDisc

Director: Ivan Reitman

4K · Solid
Best Video:

2022 Sony Ultimate Collection 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Only 2022 'Ultimate Collection' has dolby vision. 2022 ‘Ultimate Collection’ also has a higher average bitrate.

Best Audio:

1989 Criterion LaserDisc

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