New to Blu: July 24-30

A Good Day to Die Hard may be arguably the least in the yippee-ki-yay franchise but it ranks as the best on Blu-ray.

“The fifth instalment to the Die Hard franchise debuts with an excellent, near-reference 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode which often wows and amazes yet comes with a rough and gritty appeal.

“The picture is awash in a thick layer of grain that’s very noticeable throughout but stable, providing the image with an appreciable cinematic quality and actually complements some intensity to the action sequences.”

“Dark, grainy, moodily colour-graded, and all-around more gritty than previous entries, A Good Day to Die Hard has a very distinct visual aesthetic, unlike anything the series has tried before.

“To what extent it’s successful is debatable, but the movie does look fantastic on Blu-ray.”

“The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 sound mix is exactly the kind of hyperactive sound experience one wants from an action movie.

“With split effects which constantly ping around the soundstage (including outstanding use of the two back channels in the 7.1 mix), terrific use of the LFE channel, and a magnificent spread of Marco Beltrami’s driving score through the fronts and rears, the mix offers a marvellous aural experience.”

“The Host debuts unto Blu-ray with an exceptional and remarkable 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode that’s leaps and bounds better than the movie deserves.

“The video displays razor-sharp details from beginning to end, starting with the fine lines of hairs in the cast and the often extraordinary lifelike textures in the faces.

“Presented in 2.40:1/1080p HD widescreen transfer, this exceptional looking picture sports an awesome colour scheme and bold black levels.

“The visuals are crystal clear, offering up some of the best imagery in recent memory, wasting all this magic on a sub-par movie.”

“As a 3D film, Jack the Giant Slayer is stunning. Shot in native 3D, every bit of furniture sticks out at you in stereoscopic space.

“A lot of creative people took a lot of time with this movie to make sure that every element had its own 3-coordinate space to shine, and it really shows.”

“As unappealing as I found many of the design elements of the film, I can’t complain about the clarity with which they are rendered via this 1080p AVC encoded presentation letterboxed to the film’s original 2.39:1 aspect ratio.

“It renders the film with the level of perfection one would expect from a modern digitally shot effects heavy film with a nice blend of contrast in both dim and brightly lit scenes and pure, slightly artificial colours.”

“It’s big! It’s loud! It’s fun! It’s Jack the Giant Slayer’s booooming, thooooming, dooooming DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and it doesn’t miss a single chance to remind film fans Jack and his friends are facing creatures a hundred times their size.”

“For such a recent film, Parker should look nothing short of excellent and it sure does.

“This is an AVC encoded 2.40:1 aspect ratio transfer. Everything is sharp and finely detailed.”

Also new are Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Four, Egypt 3D, Fascination Coral Reef 3D, Madagascar 3D, Apartment 1303, Noobz, Citizen Gangster and Samsara  (“the clear, exquisitely detailed images simply can’t be topped, with bright, vivid colours that virtually explode off of the screen”).