ScreenScribe

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 [...]

A 20th anniversary edition of Oscar-winner Schindler’s List tops this week’s list of best buys on Blu-ray. “Schindler’s List arrives on Blu-ray with a stunning 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode that’s not only beautiful to watch but is also faithful to the photographic intentions of Janusz Kaminski and Steven Spielberg.” “Not only did director Steven Spielberg personally [...]

Sagebrush fans with a sense of humour can look forward to a rootin’-tootin’ Blu-ray bonanza. Universal is about to dust off four westerns that, while not as distinguished as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood’s other credits, still will be well worth rediscovering in HD. The best of the mild bunch is The War Wagon, in which [...]

Two top cable TV shows break out on Blu-ray this week. The timing of Breaking Bad: The Complete Fourth Season couldn’t be better, given SoHo will launch season five next month. Being able to see this sensational award-winner in HD isn’t the only reason to snap up the Blu-ray – it’s also packed with excellent [...]

Skyfall lands here on Blu-ray with a transfer that will leave even hardened HD viewers not shaken but stirred by “a transfer that perfectly reproduces Roger Deakins’ sumptuous cinematographic compositions … “Films like this justify the existence of Blu-ray all on their own.” “Skyfall‘s DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is more than equal to the obligatory [...]