New to Blu: August 22-28 > Best of the Rest

Battleship may boast one of the year’s best HD transfers but movies don’t have to be digital blockbusters to shine on Blu-ray.

“A wonderfully crisp, clean, and vibrant transfer, A Dangerous Method arrives on Blu-ray in its original 1.85:1 framing encoded in AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24.

“There’s nothing much to complain about here outside of an ever-so-slight softness in the very distant background that is apparent from time to time.”

“A Dangerous Method’s 1080p transfer pretty much defines the word ‘stunning.’

“Aside from a couple of brief instances of unobtrusive banding, this transfer delivers splendid high definition eye candy of the sweetest variety.”

Iranian drama A Separation “is fairly tame visually but making a glossy eye-candy filled presentation was not the filmmaker’s intention nor would it benefit the impact of the viewer.

“This Blu-ray does its job well and probably looks like the film did theatrically and is easily identifiable as higher resolution than DVD.”

“The DTS HD 3.0 Master Audio track is sturdy and simple: there’s almost nothing of note in the audio department aside from the dialogue, which is clear and clean throughout.”

Unfortunately, one of the year’s biggest box office hits, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, doesn’t appear to have the best exotic Blu-ray transfer.

Online reviews are scarce but apparently, “the transfer is poor.

“Too many jaggies around moving objects suggest that too much compression has been applied either at authoring or during the editing process.”

Spud is the only other theatrical release new to Blu this week while going direct to disc are The Ledge, Psych 9, Stash House and Screwed.

New TV releases are limited to season three of Sons of Anarchy (and a seasons 1-3 box set) and the superb documentary series, Apocalypse: The Second World War.