New to Blu: September 2 – 8

Mad Max: Fury Road

“Fury Road goes ballistic and erupts on screen with a magnificent and often lovely 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode that’ll leave viewers wanting to join in on the vehicular mayhem.

“Shot on a variety on digital cameras, the freshly-minted transfer is a gorgeous sight to behold thanks in large part to the expert camerawork of George Miller and cinematographer John Seale.”

“And not just one of the best video encodes … one of the best AV presentations as well. The Blu-ray release of Mad Max: Fury Road features a thunderous Dolby Atmos mix — core: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround — and it sounds every bit as good as it should.”

“The 3D version looked very good. It only lost a little sharpness/brightness when compared to the 2D edition, and colours held up well. In terms of definition/clarity, this was one of the more appealing 3D Blu-rays I’ve seen.

“As for the 3D effects, they worked pretty well. Fury Road lacked a ton of ‘in your face’ elements, which was fine with me, as those get tedious; a few flashy 3D visuals materialised, but not many. This meant most of Fury Road went with a sense of dimensionality, and it did so in a convincing manner.”

Orphan Black: Series Three

“Detail is terrific. The series tends to alter from close-up to close-up, with only the occasional establishing shot or eruption of wide frame action, and fine textures are precisely resolved without exception.

“Edges are crisp and clean too, free of ringing, aliasing or anything else that might hinder the photography.”

“Colours are used smartly and reproduced accurately without image issues, darker moments result in a nice black level that is consistent and presents an effective contrast during the viewing experience, and film grain is present during most of the viewing of the season as well.”

“The DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack has good presence and surround use. The show’s tense atmosphere is bolstered by this track, which really helps the experience.

“The surrounds aren’t kicked into high gear at all times, but they’re lively and ensure the show’s environments are brought to life.”

Tracers

“Shot digitally with Red Epic cameras, despite the constant use of ‘jiggly cam’ and similar techniques, things look commendably sharp and well detailed throughout the bulk of this presentation.”

“Sharpness is very pleasing throughout, and colour is rich and true with quite believable flesh tones.

“Contrast varies a bit throughout the presentation, but black levels are first-rate.”

“Tracers wins big with its DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track. Considering the type of movie this is you need a dynamic audio track to capture everything on screen. Imaging is just awesome as sounds circle around the channels.”

Also new are Better Call Saul (S1), The Walking Dead (S5), Person of Interest (S4, “nothing short of spectacular“), Boychoir, Testament of Youth and Paper Planes (“transfer is very good although not quite as spectacular as major release Blu-rays”).