New to Blu: July 11 – 17

July 11, 2018 0 Comments

A Quiet Place

➢ “A Quiet Place‘s 2160p/Dolby Vision-enhanced presentation can be said to be mildly to modestly better than the 1080p Blu-ray, but better all the same. The Blu-ray delivers a significantly strong and very refined presentation considering textural quality and colours alike. The UHD refines the image and, while there’s not a significant boost to either, the improvements are often readily evident. And they are sometimes hard to spot.” — Blu-ray.com.

➢ “Silence is truly golden on 4K Ultra HD thanks to a lovely and great-looking HEVC H.265 encode that offers an excellent step-up over its Blu-ray counterpart. It’s not a massive jump forward, but the difference is nonetheless notable and more than satisfying, making it the preferred method of enjoying the film.” — High-Def Digest.

➢ “The immersive [Dolby Atmos] mix compliments the already top-notch soundtrack and enhances the experience of watching the film. The use of audio objects placed above and at ear level is a mix of atmospherics, discrete effects and music. The film’s critical moments, swallow you up as the mix elevates tension, placing sounds throughout the soundstage.” — AVSForum.

A Wrinkle in Time

➢ “A Wrinkle in Time travels to Blu-ray with a glorious 1080p image. The film was digitally photographed and it presents with a very clean, robust, highly detailed picture quality. Colours are certainly the standout highlight … A Wrinkle in Time‘s DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack once again suffers from Disney’s low volume output shenanigans, though this one is perhaps not quite the egregious offender as have been some other recent releases.” — Blu-ray.com.

➢ “Overall definition looked positive. Only the slightest sliver of softness occurred, so this was almost always a tight, concise image. No issues with jaggies or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes or print flaws.” — DVD Authority.

Loving Vincent

➢ “The only real issue with this transfer is some transitory if recurrent macroblocking that tends to show up in darker moments … The palette is incredibly vivid throughout the presentation, and there’s a palpable feeling to the ‘thick’ texture of the paintings.” — Blu-ray.com.

Blockers

➢ “Universal’s 1080p AVC-encoded transfer looks pretty decent. Colours are vibrant without bleeding. Contrast is very good with deep black levels that reveal little to no crush.” — Home Theater Forum.

➢ “This is one of those transfers that’s not a standout but that doesn’t disappoint, either. It’s a good, workmanlike 1080p presentation suitable for this style of movie in 2018.” — Blu-ray.com.

➢ Heading the rest of this week’s newcomers are two sci-fi ventures from opposite sides of the universe: Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and award-winning Kiwi comedy, This Giant Paper Mache Boulder is Actually Really Heavy, complete with theatrical and festival cuts plus nearly an hour of extras. Also new are the first five Mission: Impossible movies on 4K-UHD plus: