New to Blu: November 14-20

Don Draper may never have looked more dapper than in the season-five Blu-ray of Mad Men.

“Mad Men: Season Five moves from the Super-35 format of the previous seasons to a native high definition production captured on Arri Alexa cameras with Panavision Primo lenses at ProRes 4:4:4 (1080p/24) resolution.

“It arrives on Blu-ray in a superb and still rather filmic AVC/MPEG-4 1080p encodement from Lionsgate.

“What small amounts of video noise are present in the image are rather reserved, looking far more organic and natural than harsh and electronic.”

“Everything here is as solid as it can be. Detail is exemplary; there’s not a scene that goes by that isn’t rich with texture or other elements of the image – significant or otherwise.

“Everything from the pattern on Lane Pryce’s tie to the snow gently cascading outside Don Draper’s office window is captured and presented with delicate precision.”

Like its predecessors, season five has been lavishly packaged with extras, including 26 commentaries.

Also new this week are part one of Doctor Who’s seventh series, the complete first season of Luck (which doesn’t go one sale in the US until next month), a five-season box set of the original Twilight Zone, Metal Evolution: The Series, the French natural history series, The Kingdom of the Oceans, and the IMAX documentary, Born to Be Wild.

The pick of the multiplex releases in terms of HD specs is Arthur Christmas.

“It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Sony’s 2D presentation of Arthur Christmas in high definition is demo quality.

“The 3D presentation bordered on that lofty sphere of 5-star perfection, but I think I’m pretty safe in saying that the 2D presentation gets there easily.”

“Indeed, Sony’s Blu-ray presentation dazzles from start to finish.

“The image is defined by a wide array of brilliant colours that will impress even the most difficult-to-please videophile.”

Also new are Safe (“aside from some very minor niggling concerns, this is an outstanding high definition presentation which offers a beautifully sharp and well detailed image that for the most part features excellent contrast, solid black levels and accurate and nicely saturated colour”), Killer Joe and Storage 24

Rounding out the week are WWE: New World Order, Hit So Hard, Coldplay: Live 2012, Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest, Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Psychedelic Pill and Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day.

To celebrate Monday’s release of Celebration Day, Led Zeppelin has granted NBC and Warner Bros Television rights to feature two of their songs, “Kashmir” and “Since I’ve Been Loving You”, in the November 19 episode of Revolution.

You can view the trailer here.