New to Blu: April 6-12

Australian reviewers have given the high school comedy, Easy A, top marks for its HD specs.

It comes out here tomorrow but was released more than two months ago across the Tasman.

“The level of detail is impressive and the sharpness pleasing,” MichaelDVD said in its four-star appraisal. “There are no technical defects with the image.”

The DVD Bits called it “an incredibly high-quality transfer. Colours are bright and vivid throughout, and detail levels are incredibly high.”

However, High-Def Digest was a tad more guarded: “It falls a bit short of perfection … The one aspect needing some improvement is in brightness levels.”

Reviewers also were divided over Skyline: “The transfer looks okay, considering the extremely limited budget and the HD cameras used in the process” (Home Theater Forum); “armed with a solid 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer, Skyline unleashes strong colours, reliable skin tones and decent detail” (Blu-ray.com); “looks sparkling and impressive … sports vibrant colours and solid black levels” (DVD Verdict).

Also new this week are Devil, Life as We Know It, Fighting, Never Back Down and the BBC series, Wonders of the Solar System, which is being released on Blu-ray exclusively through JB Hi-Fi.

AV Forums rated the science hit, which inexplicably hasn’t aired here, 9/10, and the 1080i video, 8/10.

“The series looked good on BBC HD – but on this disc the material looks absolutely stunning … The level of detail is amazing – every droplet in waterfalls, every facet of rock faces is shown up in great detail as the camera swoops breathtakingly around the scenery.”

Universal is re-releasing its 3D IMAX triple-pack as separate volumes — Ocean Wonderland, Dolphins and Whales: Tribes of the Ocean, Sharks – while the pick of the back-catalogue Blu-ray bows is Bambi: Diamond Edition.

Also being dusted off for HD are, from Universal Pictures, About a Boy, Out of Sight, Ray, Peter Pan and Sleepers while three more back catalogue double-bills are due Monday from 20^th Century Fox: Kingdom of Heaven/Braveheart, Mrs and Mrs Smith/Fight Club and Taken/Hitman.

The rest of the week offers WWE Royal Rumble 2011 and a raft of anime: Ouran High School Host Club Series Collection, Summer Wars, Trinity Blood Collection and Xam’d: Lost Memories Collection 2.