ScreenScribe

Three top indie titles bow this week on Blu-ray with HD fidelity not guaranteed. “Safety Not Guaranteed was shot in HD with the Sony CineAlta PMW-F3 at XDCAM (4:2:2) resolution and arrives in a 1080p/24 AVC encodement. “It’s a relatively solid transfer given the source, but some digital issues can be spotted from time to [...]

Trekkies and True Blood fans will be over the (full) moon about this week’s TV-on-Blu-ray premieres. To coincide with Star Trek Into Darkness’ box office run — it grossed the third highest opening week of the year here – Paramount is releasing three enterprising collections. They range from Star Trek Stardate Collection: I – X, a [...]

It’s another unusually slim Blu-ray slate this week, although all three newcomers have top-notch transfers with arguably The Master being the most masterful. Alas, this 65mm post-WWII drama about a cult leader lands here with key extras missing in action. “The Region 1 United States version contains an 8-minute behind-the-scenes extra, Unguided Message, and the 1946 [...]

Les Misérables tops a lacklustre, if not outright miserable, week for new Blu-ray releases. Whether or not you like musicals, you’ll love Les Mis’ HD transfer. “The visuals here are absolutely stunning … This movie has some big time production values that are perfectly rendered on screen.” “Les Misérables’ lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track [...]

Anyone who still thinks 3D is a home theatre dud should reserve final judgment until they’ve seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Life of Pi on Blu-ray 3D. The Hobbit at last goes on sale here six weeks after the US, where it was was acclaimed for its “demo-worthy video and a reference-quality audio presentation [...]

Classic NZ movie Whale Rider today is being released on Blu-ray for the first time to mark its 10th anniversary. But the excitement of rediscovering it in HD is tempered by confirmation that the most popular indie movie in NZ history, Boy, has had its Blu-ray release cancelled. Paramount Pictures intended to distribute the blockbuster [...]

Blu-ray buyers of the Southern Hemisphere will be wild about the latest local release being an inferior beast to the Region A species. The Oscar-winning Beasts of the Southern Wild goes on sale here with none of the extras of the US edition. Modest though they are, why a distributor would do this with one [...]

The latest top-flight HD series to get a Blu-ray release after being squandered in SD on Prime is the BBC’s Earthflight. The digital photography is “nearly flawless” in this two-disc release of the six-part bird’s-eye view of our world. “Detail and colour reproduction are incredible in most scenes and colours are vibrant, resplendent, with a [...]

The last of this year’s Oscar winners will be unchained on Blu-ray over the next three months. Beasts of the Southern Wild will be first, on April 24, followed by Life of Pi on May 1, Les Miserables on May 9,  Django Unchained on June 6, Lincoln on June 12 and Amour on July 24. Most of these already are on sale in the US, where Django goes [...]

If you’re wild about wildlife, and the camera technology used to capture it, don’t miss tonight’s HD premiere of Attenborough – 60 Years in the Wild (TV One, 8.30). The three-part retrospective focuses focusing on three areas that have transformed most profoundly over David Attenborough’s career: science, the environment and filmmaking. The premiere revisits key places and [...]