On Air - Region 2 - PAL vs. Holland Criterion/Video Film Express - Region 2 - PAL vs. Criterion (oop) - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Filmedia - Region 'B' - Blu-ray

On Air

Region 2 - PAL

Region 2 - PAL

1.85:1 Cropped Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.10 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

1.64 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 7.34 mb/s
NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

On Air

Criterion

Blu-ray

English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen letterboxed - 1.85:1

Edition Details:
• Trailer
• Biographies of Cronenberg and Irons (In English)

DVD Release Date: ?
Keep Case

Chapters 20
 

Chapters 42

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen letterboxed - 1.64

Edition Details:
• Audio commentary by David Cronenberg, Jeremy Irons, editor Ron Sanders, production designer Carol Sp
• The original designs for the opening title sequence
• Twinning effect/motion control footage
• The electronic press kit, including a trailer and a featurette
 

Chapters 43

Edition Details:
• Le Grande Cinaste: David Cronenberg (57:13)

(25:57)

(7:11 in English)

Special Effects (20:24 in French)
 

Blu-ray Release Date: January 27th, 2012
Standard Blu-ray Case

Chapters 12

ADDITION: Filmedia - Region 'B' - Blu-ray - June 12':  Despite some definite black-marks - interlaced, appears to run in PAL time (1080i50), movement in the bastardized 1.78:1 frame (at times opened-up and sometimes cropped) - this doesn't look too-too bad and gave me a decent presentation. My Region FREE LG Blu-ray player could remove the French subtitles when the English dialogue is selected and I suspect any machine that has remote accessible (as opposed to menu-enforced) subtitles - can do similar. There is a bit of noise on the dual-layered transfer with high bitrate and colors gain vibrancy and detail certainly rises. There are hints of depth. The audio is lossless and the Howard Shore score is solid via the DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel sounding atmospheric and creepy - although there are no dynamic attributes. There is a French DUB.

I haven't deeply investigated the extras but there is a lot (1 3/4 hours worth) and the two main video pieces are in English with forced French subtitles - one on Cronenberg.

Easily to accentuate the flaws but this did give me the best presentation of Dead Ringers that I've yet seen. I doubt Criterion will revisit the title and for a relatively obscure-but-intriguing effort - this may be the best we get. It is notably more film-like than the previous DVDs.  

***

DVD ADDITION - Criterion Holland - Video Film Express (Sept -04) - Although on the box it is stated as 1.66 it is actually around 1.89 and therefore not the original aspect ratio. It looks as though they have purchased the Criterion extra features which match to a 'T', except the color on the Cronenberg featurette has a green haze to it. The feature image is likewise distorted. It appears to be even more hazy than the 'On Air' PAL edition, but has the vibrant colors of the Criterion. Anyway, its a pass for the image and the aspect ratio. Don't bother.

***

The out-of-print Criterion, in the proper aspect ratio of around 1.66, is showing much more image in the bottom of the frame than the "On Air, which has been cropped to 1.85. The non-anamorphic, early Criterion DVD is also sharper, brighter and has more vibrant colors. Contrast is also far better but skin tones do look a little reddish. Extras are kind of impossible to equal in the case of the Criterion. Stacked with a directors commentary, featurette etc. as per par for the course, we suggest the Criterion - at Amazon's Marketplace for almost $70 - Cronenberg fans will not be complete without it.

There is also a Dutch release with extras ported from the Criterion (see HERE). Certainly cheaper but has PAL speedup and we are unsure of the transfer quality.

 - Gary W. Tooze