New to Blu: March 29 – April 4

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them can be found this week on Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray and 4K-UHD.

But Kiwis are missing out on the 4K releases of the last four Harry Potter movies, which go on sale in Australia, the UK and the US at the same time as Beasts.

According to AVS Forum, Beasts’ 2160pHEVC encode was rendered from a 3.4K source and finished on a 4K DI, has an average bitrate of 64 Mbps, lossless Dolby Atmos/TrueHD 7.1 with an average bitrate of 4Mbps, and DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio with an average bitrate of 2.2 Mbps.

“With a discernible increase in detail and emboldened chromatic highlights, the image appears sharper and vibrant when compared to the 1080p version. Primary colours are pleasingly rich while whites appear gradational and punchy.

“The sequence that takes place at Newt’s zoo/preserve looks superb. The combination of rich colour, sepia, and gradational gray tones literally pop off of the screen … If you’re equipped for Ultra HD Blu-ray and immersive sound, you’re in for a treat.”

“Wow!” exclaimed WhySoBlu. “The image on this 4K UHD disc is world’s different than the standard Blu-ray. From the start I was struck with awe in how much enhancement there was on detail, colour, depth and motion in the picture.

“It almost feels as if the standard Blu-ray is being looked at through heavy fog in comparison.”

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them looks wonderful on 4K UHD,” Flix66 said. “If you’ve seen a lot of CGI heavy films on 4K, you know that sometimes the new format can make CGI look more fake than it does on Blu-ray.

“There’s a little of that here, especially with any wide shots of the Thunderbird.  But whatever was lacking on the CGI-4K issue was made up for during the final battle, where everything looked really impressive …

“For the non-CGI scenes, colours are deep and beautiful (when there is colour) and the detail adds a whole new level to the film … Overall, this is a very nice looking 4K and a worthy upgrade over the Blu-ray.”

“The sound and video quality of the movie were of a high standard and the special features were some of the best I have seen,” Impulse Gamer said of the Blu-ray.

“I really encourage you to take the time to view these as it really provides a fantastic glimpse behind the curtain into all the elements that went into the making of the movie.”

The week’s only other new releases are season four, volume two of Vikings and Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio.