List of International BDs with Better PQ, AQ, and/or More Extras

[Tuco_76]

Originally Posted by oliviergregoire

How is the PQ on the DE/FR (I imagine it's the same since it's Studio Canal also)? It has higher bitrate.

Bitrate doesn't help much on this one, -> different master, and how much bitrate is needed for top PQ anyways differs strongly by how "compressable" the master/source content is.

The EU discs feature way higher bitrate, yet PQ is rather disappointing. According to director Alan Parkers commentaries he's totally amazed with the remaster's PQ. I'd agree, it looks remarkably better than all previous releases.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by knifethrower

Disc played in a region A player, was unable to test C. Framing through on my PC I find no interlacing and it looks like this is a 25fps progressive transfer encoded as 1080i. None of this matters because the transfer is a horrible upscale.

Done. I marked it as Region A/B for now. If you find out that it's A/B locked please post it.

[wesslan]

Originally Posted by Tuco_76

Bitrate doesn't help much on this one, -> different master, and how much bitrate is needed for top PQ anyways differs strongly by how "compressable" the master/source content is.

The EU discs feature way higher bitrate, yet PQ is rather disappointing. According to director Alan Parkers commentaries he's totally amazed with the remaster's PQ. I'd agree, it looks remarkably better than all previous releases.

Are we still talking Angel Heart here? And what new US remaster? I would say DE(EU) isn't great but still contains better detail and much better compression. Might be some? sharpening on DE but still better to my eyes.

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleich...ss=1#vergleich

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleich...ss=1#vergleich

[Tuco_76]

Originally Posted by wesslan

Are we still talking Angel Heart here? And what new US remaster? I would say DE(EU) isn't great but still contains better detail and much better compression. Might be some? sharpening on DE but still better to my eyes.

1:Yes.

2.: Who said "new"?

3. Oh my, better don't you start me up on this one , I totally love this movie. Alright then, the DE disc is one of the weakest and most inconsistent releases, PQ-wise, I've ever seen. I'm saying that whithout looking your caps, a few frames looking better doesn't judge the movie and I've watched both discs ~15-20 times. The DE disc is awfully noisy, almost throughout, it's consistently lacking sharpness, contrast looks pretty much DVD-like (own, compared), rounded up by black levels botched to an extent, it's a joke using the word "black" actually.

The responsible production company Kinowelt blamed the weak filmic source for the poor PQ of their release (they fully admitted it's weakness), but that hardly explains such extremely weak blacks and contrast.

Hence, the DE scored 2/5 PQ vs US 4,5/5.


Both the reviews at bluray.de and bluray.com are written by experienced and skilled reviewers who both happen to love that movie (as I do ) final verdict by the director, Parker stated the US looks so much better, he was totally stunned.
Now, don't you knock this and feel free preferring the EUR release

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by Tuco_76

1:Yes.

2.: Who said "new"?

3. Oh my, better don't you start me up on this one , I totally love this movie. Alright then, the DE disc is one of the weakest and most inconsistent releases, PQ-wise, I've ever seen. I'm saying that whithout looking your caps, a few frames looking better doesn't judge the movie and I've watched both discs ~15-20 times. The DE disc is awfully noisy, almost throughout, it's consistently lacking sharpness, contrast looks pretty much DVD-like (own, compared), rounded up by black levels botched to an extent, it's a joke using the word "black" actually.

The responsible production company Kinowelt blamed the weak filmic source for the poor PQ of their release (they fully admitted it's weakness), but that hardly explains such extremely weak blacks and contrast.

Hence, the DE scored 2/5 PQ vs US 4,5/5.


Both the reviews at bluray.de and bluray.com are written by experienced and skilled reviewers who both happen to love that movie (as I do ) final verdict by the director, Parker stated the US looks so much better, he was totally stunned.
Now, don't you knock this and feel free preferring the EUR release

Is the UK release the same as the German?

[Tuco_76]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

Is the UK release the same as the German?

No, it has LPCM 2.0 vs DTS-HD MA 2.0 (which makes way more sense ), IIRC it's not the same encode, lower on bitrate - which doesn't mean much since prolly 70+% bitrate on the DE disc is devoured by the extreme noise. Somewhat ironic, noise consuming awfully much bits, but matter of fact, it does.

Anyways it's the same flawed master been used, encoded in less bits, resulting in a comparable weak PQ. Studiocanal featured the same encode from the DE disc for the French release, that's from what it's been reviewed. I never bothered to buy another encode made of that crappy master, since I waited and hoped for it getting a proper remaster, and 2009 I got very very happy

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Angel...-Blu-ray/6864/

[Tuco_76]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

Is the UK release the same as the German?

BTW I think on the UK-release, they made the lower bitrate and the (space-saving by same quality) LPCM decision for no other reason than to squeeze it on a BD25

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by Tuco_76

BTW I think on the UK-release, they made the lower bitrate and the (space-saving by same quality) LPCM decision for no other reason than to squeeze it on a BD25

Sounds about right. I got the UK one because it was dirt cheap (£5) but Im pretty sure the US one is region-free so Ill get that at some point.

[Pieter V]

Taken 3
US - AVC 27999 kbps, DTS-HD Master 5.1 3647 kbps 24-bit, English subs (Region A locked) (Theatrical & Unrated Cut)
FR - AVC, Dolby Atmos (Region B) (Best AQ)

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Pieter V

Taken 3
US - AVC 27999 kbps, DTS-HD Master 5.1 3647 kbps 24-bit, English subs (Region A locked) (Theatrical & Unrated Cut)
FR - AVC, Dolby Atmos (Region B) (Best AQ)

Done.

[HD Goofnut]

Added Fury and The Interview.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Added Fury and The Interview.

[jscoggins]

Btw, there's no Atmos on the Taken 3 French BD.

[Fatalveli]

Rover, The
DE - AVC 29991 kbps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 3296 kbps 24-bit, English subs (Region B locked) Best PQ

Just played it in a Region A player, should be changed to region A,B for sure.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Fatalveli

Rover, The
DE - AVC 29991 kbps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 3296 kbps 24-bit, English subs (Region B locked) Best PQ

Just played it in a Region A player, should be changed to region A,B for sure.

Caps-a-holic is claiming region B locked. Are you positive on this?

[wesslan]

Fury
US - AVC 20945 kbps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 2215 kbps 16-bit, black crush, English subs (Region A/B locked)
DE - AVC 20946 kbps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 2215 kbps 16-bit, no black crush, English subs (Region B) Best PQ


Wow this will be a discussion Many said the DE is overly bright in other parts and no official word yet on exactly what is correct. There is for sure some crush in US but the movie doesn't look 100% on DE either. Your own words Goofnut: After looking at those caps you can see that certain scenes are just far too bright on the DE disc. That night time shots really suffer.

Sony US have said they are looking into the problem but haven't got a replacementprogram yet. It sure is wierd some countries got another version. I'll wait with my buy until it's sorted.

Also TW and JP bitrates are on caps and in the forum I think.

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by wesslan

Fury
US - AVC 20945 kbps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 2215 kbps 16-bit, black crush, English subs (Region A/B locked)
DE - AVC 20946 kbps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 2215 kbps 16-bit, no black crush, English subs (Region B) Best PQ


Wow this will be a discussion Many said the DE is overly bright in other parts and no official word yet on exactly what is correct. There is for sure some crush in US but the movie doesn't look 100% on DE either. Your own words Goofnut: After looking at those caps you can see that certain scenes are just far too bright on the DE disc. That night time shots really suffer.

Sony US have said they are looking into the problem but haven't got a replacementprogram yet. It sure is wierd some countries got another version. I'll wait with my buy until it's sorted.

Also TW and JP bitrates are on caps and in the forum I think.

I certainly hate 'too bright' greyish blacks more than black crush...

[wesslan]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

I certainly hate 'too bright' greyish blacks more than black crush...

Same here. Already watched US disc and I didn't see those problems people is pointing out. Sure my tv is good with shadows and calibrated but still screenshots always lifts the bad to new heights.

[Fatalveli]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Caps-a-holic is claiming region B locked. Are you positive on this?

I only have a region A Sony player at the moment and watched this last night so im positive. Was surprised it worked to be honest.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by wesslan

Fury
US - AVC 20945 kbps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 2215 kbps 16-bit, black crush, English subs (Region A/B locked)
DE - AVC 20946 kbps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 2215 kbps 16-bit, no black crush, English subs (Region B) Best PQ


Wow this will be a discussion Many said the DE is overly bright in other parts and no official word yet on exactly what is correct. There is for sure some crush in US but the movie doesn't look 100% on DE either. Your own words Goofnut: After looking at those caps you can see that certain scenes are just far too bright on the DE disc. That night time shots really suffer.

Sony US have said they are looking into the problem but haven't got a replacement program yet. It sure is wierd some countries got another version. I'll wait with my buy until it's sorted.

Also TW and JP bitrates are on caps and in the forum I think.

I still stand by my words as there are some issues with blown contrast. However, the black crush is gone and it's the same master as the bitrates are vritually identical. The TW disc has major compression issues so I was going to leave it off the list. I have not seen caps of the JP disc anywhere.