The latest batch of discs from Amazon arrived on Wednesday, and I took the time to compare the Blu-ray of Baron Munchausen with my Australian DVD copy (my old dvd.net review is here).
What a difference a larger screen makes. The “bit of edge-enhancing” that I saw on my 33″ screen turned into some of the worst edge-enhancement I’ve seen on DVD on the 92″ projector. The “rich and lush” colours are… well, let’s be honest, it’s a yellow cast to the transfer. The Blu-ray is strikingly more natural. Another issue with the DVD that I never noticed on a smaller screen is the film weave. Obviously technology has allowed us to eliminate that, as the Blu-ray is rock-solid stable.
Naturally, the greatly improved resolution goes almost without saying. I’ll try to get some comparison shots up over the long weekend!
My original comments on the audio are still accurate. The DVD is still bass-light and it’s also uncorrected for pitch shift, which I could immediately tell when running it back-to-back with the Blu-ray. The Blu-ray opening horns sound sonorous. The same horns on the DVD are thin and reedy, like a child’s toy.
From this comparison, I’ll certainly be replacing my Australian DVDs with the Blu-ray versions when they come out. Fortunately we bought most of our collection from the US – the majority of the PAL discs were review copies or films I wouldn’t have spent full price on.
