I've long stated that Blu-ray is going to sink or swim based on how well it sells with new releases. Catalog titles on Blu-ray are not going to sell as well as they did with the DVD format for a variety of reasons. With this in mind, the studios have taken some differing approaches to their catalog releases.

Some studios (Universal and Paramount in particular) have gone the cheap route, primarily recycling older HD masters originally prepared for DVD releases. Since most of those transfers were done, the state of HD scanning technology has dramatically improved. While the older HD masters and a lot of the tricks deployed during the transfers such as noise reduction and edge enhancement might look fine on DVD, they don't hold up very well under the more revealing resolution of Blu-ray. Some of these Blu-ray releases trade off the inferior picture quality with lower prices.

Other studios (Warner and Disney in particular) have done some painstaking restoration work on their high profile Blu-ray releases. Releases such as Blade Runner, North by Northwest, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White are almost miraculous in how well they bring the organic look of film to home viewing. They properly preserved the film grain while bringing out the full color and detail. These releases cost more, but they are well justified.

Gladiator: Fixed

Which brings me to the Gladiator BD. When this release came out, it was highly anticipated, given how frequently the original DVD release was cited as a reference/demo disc. However, the BD release was roundly panned by reviewers and enthusiasts. Apparently, this was a case where the BD was sourced from the same transfer used in the original DVD release. Yes, that transfer was done in HD, but it pales in comparison with the current state of the art.

Now, it looks like a fix is on the way. A new 4k HD transfer was done for the Dutch Blu-ray release, and it looks like the newly remastered version is coming to North America. Best news is that Paramount has agreed to an exchange program, where anyone who bought Gladiator can obtain one of the remastered BDs.

The link below compares screenshots from the two Blu-ray versions (mouse over the picture for the new version). I'd only heard about how bad the original Gladiator BD looked, but I did not expect that it would look THIS bad by comparison.

http://comparescreenshots.slicx.com/...257/picture:0#

Predator: Wrecked

Another recent double dip release was the Predator: Ultimate Hunter Edition. It contains some new features, but it also has a new transfer that looks horrible. This was a case where the studio went way overboard on "cleaning up" the image. They took it to the point that everything looks like plastic. As Bill Hunt of the Digital Bits points out, the film grain is part of the intended look of the movie, and trying to make things look "perfect" ends up looking fake. You can see from the screen captures below just how heavy handed the noise reduction and edge enhancement was.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwoc...82.html#070610





The best Blu-ray releases find the right balance, and strive to preserve the original look of the film as much as possible. The high resolution and data rate of the Blu-ray format means that the film grain and micro details can be displayed without a slew of image artifacts (as is the case with DVD -- where greater application of noise reduction is necessary to prevent things like macroblocking from appearing). Blade Runner is a stunning example -- the image looks like high quality film projection -- film grain and micro details intact.

These two recent remasters show two divergent approaches, each of which are widely used. The lesson here is to keep a watch out for these things when catalog titles appear in Blu-ray. There's so much variation out there, which is a shame, given that Blu-ray represented a great opportunity to get things right once and for all.