New to Blu: August 24-30

Although the ET slaughterfest, Battle: Los Angeles, strives for a war-torn look, “the 1080p presentation is amazingly sharp” and “displays great life-like textures, revealing every pore, scratch and bit of grime on the faces of the actors”.

The “wonderfully boisterous” 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix “revels in its carnage, and the gunfire, explosions, shouts, and sweeping engines of the war machines all storm around your room in convincing fashion”.

The week’s other big-gun release is season one of TV3’s bikie drama hit, Sons of Anarchy.

It roars into town two years after going on sale in the US, where it was praised for “excellent flesh tones [and] very good depth … though there are occasional moments where shots, for whatever reason, are soft and lacking in detail”.

There also were concerns about “crushing here and there, and occasionally the picture has some mild halos” but the mostly the presentation was “quite clean and detailed”.

Also new this week are the direct-to-disc indie comedy, Happythankyoumoreplease, Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads, and two back-catalogue collectibles: King of New York and Cinema Paradiso.

The 1990 Oscar-winner about an Italian youngster’s friendship with a village projectionist boasts “a nice transfer, albeit an inconsistent one” but despite minor noise, mild edge enhancement and soft halos, it “has never looked as good as it does on this Blu-ray disc”.