New to Blu: August 15 – 21

Avengers: Infinity War

➢ “Avengers: Infinity War‘s UHD release offers less a dramatic increase in visual excellence over the Blu-ray and instead delivers a mild, but appreciable and very welcome, boost to basic textural clarity and colour saturation. The UHD image appears a slight bit more glossy than the companion Blu-ray image. The net result is deeper and more intense colours, modestly more balanced blacks, slightly improved shadow detail, and a firmer accuracy to skin tones.” — Blu-ray.com.

➢ “The 2.39:1 HEVC 4K offering is among the best I’ve seen. Every colour of the spectrum is referenced here and the CGI is simply flawless. The purple of Thanos, the little details on Spider-Man’s suit and even the shaved ‘vents’ in Thor’s hair are all clearly visible. The HDR gives some of the scenes a particular boost when compared with the Blu-ray.” — Blu-ray Authority.

➢ “The war for the universe erupts on Blu-ray with a gorgeous, demo-worthy 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode, boasting a lavish array of colours in every scene. Iron Man’s suit and Dr. Strange’s cape are a lush, vibrant red while the opulent greens of Wakanda’s forest glow with life, and the electrifying blues of Thor’s lightning bolts shock the screen with spirited intensity. Better still, the video is continuously oozing with an endless supply of purples, yellows, magentas and oranges.” — High-Def Digest.

Life of the Party

➢ “Life of the Party makes its debut with a rock solid image in the choice of doing a standard Blu-ray only instead of a 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. It’s got sort of a bright and fuzzy look to it by nature, so its not the crispest or sharpest at times because of the lighting used. Details are quite strong.” — WhySoBlu.

➢ “This is a solid video presentation that boasts plenty of high level detail, boldly applied contrast, well balanced colours, and appreciable dimension. Blacks are punchy and stand out when onscreen with mixed content. Visual perspective in low lighting is estimable which enhances depth.” — AVSForums.

Fury

➢ “For this release it’s been given a high dynamic range grade in HDR10 and it’s presented on Ultra HD at the original 2.39:1 theatrical aspect ratio. The resulting presentation offers excellent detail and fine texturing, with a constant moderate wash of grain that gives the image a cinematic and slightly gritty quality … Overall, the image is notably improved from the previous Blu-ray.” — The Digital Bits.

➢ “Fury‘s UHD does not see the movie make a substantial jump in picture quality from Blu-ray, in large part because the Blu-ray is already quite strong, but the benefits the 2160p format brings to the film are certainly welcome … Fury‘s impressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack has been eclipsed by a superior Dolby Atmos presentation.” — Blu-ray.com.

The Patriot

➢ “Put simply this is a nearly reference level transfer for a film of this vintage. I did note a few minor sections with ring halos most likely resulting from the original effects sequences having been struck in 2K resolution prior to the 2000 release.  Very few will be bothered by this or even take note in them due to the very strong colouring and detail levels in all other scenes.” — Home Theater Forum.

➢ “It’s been scanned in full native 4K, given a high dynamic range colour grade in HDR10, and is presented here on Ultra HD at the 2.40:1 theatrical aspect ratio. The resulting image falls short of reference quality for this format as a whole, given the film’s origin and vintage, but there can be no absolutely doubt that this is a gorgeous presentation of this particular film.” — The Digital Bits.

● Also new are 4K-UHD re-issues of The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Utron, NBA Ultimate Jordan Collector’s Edition, and Blu-ray re-issues of Darkman, Escape From Absalom and The Great Outdoors.