US
364 films on Best Blurays
Also known as: USA
Type: Region
Page 6 of 19
Films where US is in a pick or an upcoming release.
Director: Joel Coen
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)
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: Toshiharu Ikeda
UK Third Window Blu-ray and US Error 4444 Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
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)
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.
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc
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)
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: John Milius
US Shout! Factory or Germany/UK Capelight 4K Blu-ray?
Director: James Cameron
2013 MGM Blu-ray, or 4K Blu-ray if you MUST have the mono mix, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix
Sources: vimeo.com (opens in a new tab) · facebook.com (opens in a new tab)
2013 MGM Blu-ray for non AI transfer, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix
1991 Image Entertainment LaserDisc for the US mono mix, 2001 MGM DVD for the International mono mix
Comparison between the US and International mixes: https://vimeo.com/246332731
The 4K Blu-Ray and the 2001 MGM DVD have exclusive extras.
Director: Martin Brest
Spain/Italy 4K Blu-ray > US 4K Blu-ray
Director: Ridley Scott
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Mamoru Oshii
US GKIDS 4K Blu-ray authored by FiM
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
US GKIDS/Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray authored by FiM
US GKIDS/Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray authored by FiM with identical encodes
UHD vs BD comparisons
4K restoration includes a high-fidelity Dolby Atmos remix sourced from new transfers of original magnetic elements, with inconsequential content differences from the original mono mix. Umbrella 4K Blu-ray only includes a 5.1 mixdown of the remix, other discs have it in Dolby Atmos.
Umbrella/GKIDS 4K Blu-ray's 2.0 track is a stereo downmix. Older BDs and LDs have the original mono mix in varying quality, but are all inferior in fidelity to the new Dolby Atmos remix. The digital track on the Bandai/Emotion Japan LaserDisc BELL-942 is the best of the bunch.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23714400&postcount=159
Only the GKIDS 4K Blu-ray has the English dub.
Director: Neil Jordan
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · avforums.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray see AVForum review
The slight darkening of the colour palette with the new WCG/HDR grades suddenly seems to add another layer of detail and immersion into the picture. Now, those dark night times punctured solely by neon or those dreary overcast half-light early mornings or dusks feel more alive with authenticity. Skin tones are gorgeous, the subtlety in colour detail of Hoskins’ atrocious leather jacket/Hawaiian shirt combo is sublime and those all-important blacks go deep. But it’s the now huge variations in colours that stand out – the reds of the Peep Show as Genesis’ classic In Too Deep plays now have a much richer, darker saturation to them than the previous 1080p SDR grade, helping them stand out so much more than those more neutral, toned down colours of the Brighton seaside against the morning skies. It’s a gorgeous colour reproduction from top to bottom.
Detailing is also tightened up significantly – again, the 2K picture was good, but this improves on that with keener lines, sharper edges and a greater sense of delineation in those finest of fine details that add an extra little touch of depth to the picture. Add to this another beautiful grain presentation – with organic looks and movement throughout - and it’s an image where its edges match the brilliance of its colouring.
... and the encode – courtesy of Fidelity in Motion – is absolutely rock solid. Hope were not high for this over the very good 2K edition, but I am very pleased to say that those hopes were well and truly exceeded: Mona Lisa on 4K looks absolutely stellar
Director: Jim Henson
Shout! Factory replacement 4K Blu-ray
Sources: lddb.com (opens in a new tab)
Shout! Factory doesn't have the low-pass filter that's on the Sony US 4K Blu-ray from 2021 with Dolby Vision (or the worse HDR10 only release from 2016). Shout! Factory retains more high-frequency grain and detail.
Embassy Home Entertainment JPN LaserDisc or 1999 Sony US DVD 2.0
Director: John Woo
US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
review: Disk Kino
Both have better encoding than Disk Kino, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow
Shout Factory still has the best video while Arrow did a questionable regrade. Arrow definitely has less grain in most shots, has a worse encode and is cm v2.9 compared to Shout’s cm v4.0.
Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono
Director: Rob Reiner
US Sony 2023 Steelbook 4K Blu-ray
US Sony 2023 Steelbook Edition 4K Blu-ray
> Sony 2019 Standard Edition 4K Blu-ray
US Sony 2023 Steelbook 4K Blu-ray added Dolby Vision and more extras
Original Mono mix: Columbia Pictures LaserDisc, Sony 4K Blu-ray
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray Sony Blu-ray
The DVD has an isolated score track
In addition to the new Atmos track, both 4K Blu-ray releases have ported over the previous lossless 5.1 remix from the older 1080p Blu-ray in DTS-HD MA 5.1 and also include the original theatrical mono mix in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono
Only the US Steelbook has Dolby Vision
Director: Peter Faiman
Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD
International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray
Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding
Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)
US Paramount 4K Blu-ray, is the International US Cut and not the Encore Cut
Australia Cut: Laserdisc
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).
TV series
Japanese Version: OOP 2019 US Discotek Japanese Complete Series SD Blu-ray
English Version: OOP 2017 US Discotek English Complete Series SD Blu-ray
(caveat: marginally worse quality)
Director: Lam Nai-choi
88 Films UK or Vinegar Syndrome US Blu-ray (preference)
Different color gradings, 88 Films disc is encoded by FiM but Vinegar Syndrome encode (by Marcus Johnson) is more than robust
Vinegar Syndrome potentially has better audio than 88 Films, due to VinSyn possibly having EQ'd the audio mix after Fortune Star scanned the track in a way that makes it sound too hot, whereas 88 left it alone without addressing that issue. However, no direct comparisons exist
UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray in November encoded by FiM
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