New to Blu: June 28 – July 4

It’s not a beauty of a week for Blu-ray releases, with only two newcomers: Beauty and the Beast and Saban’s Power Rangers.

But at least the latter is for sale on both Blu-ray and 4K-UHD Blu-ray — plus it’s also the first Dolby Vision title from Lionsgate.

Lionsgate, Warner Bros, Sony and Universal have all committed to releasing 4K-UHD movies in the Dolby Vision encode, which is superior to the industry standard HDR 10.

The catch is you need a compatible 4K-UHD player and TV on which to view these titles — and they’re limited to Oppo’s UDP-203 and 205 models, LG’s first 4K-UHD player, and premium LG and Sony TVs.

Universal’s Despicable Me movies were first out of the gate and look unbelievably rich and colourful via the UDP-203 on a TV like LG’s C7 OLED.

Saban’s Power Rangers is the second Dolby Vision title in this market but Sony doesn’t appear to be releasing the animated Resident Evil: Vendetta here in 4K-UHD.

That makes the next major 4K-UHD Dolby Vision release Universal’s The Fate of the Furious, on August 2.

The glacial roll-out of Dolby Vision titles may at last signal Disney’s ready to enter the 4K-UHD market, with reports that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is being prepared for release in the format.

In the meantime, Beauty and the Beast is as good a Blu-ray transfer as you could ever hope to see.

“Beauty and the Beast graces Blu-ray with a splendid, practically flawless 1080p transfer,” Blu-ray.com said. “The image appears limited only by the available resolution.”

Home Theater Forum also praised the “reference quality picture and sound …The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 sound mix offers the kind of reference quality sound design that top flight productions today can attain.”