The Australian DVD was cropped as compared to the 1:66:1 Criterion, and has scratches between 69:40 - 69:45 and the initial frames show a vertical jump. However, in some scenes the Criterion looks 'opened-up' against the Blu-ray which also shows some speckles here and there. As we stated in the previous paragraph though - I don't find any of this overly important due to the nature and intent of the production.

There is a more definitive jump is in the audio with the lossless DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 3129 kbps being that much more dynamic, obviously, than the Criterion 2.0 channel and even the Region four 5.1 track. The range of the rock concert footage seems expanded and sounds quite good considering the film's meagerly fulfilled roots but the separations were, expectantly, somewhat limited. A 1500 Kbps, 2.0 channel, track is also included on the Blu-ray. It offers optional subtitles and my Momitsu tells me this disc is actually region-locked to 'A'.

In regards to the extras - this Blu-ray was delayed with initial representation of 3 commentaries and a unique 'Create Your Own Band Game – Create and customize your very own rock star avatars'. These are not present. It instead has only one commentary (the 'Band' one with the actors staying in character), and the same 14 deleted/outtake footage from the Aussie disc (over an hour's worth). It also has the band's videos (4 of them that appear to be seamlessly branched). Also from that DVD disc it has the snippets of 4.5-minutes Flower People Press Conference, Spinal Tap appearance on “The Joe Franklin Show”, Heavy Metal Memories (1:36) and Cheese Rolling Commercial (1:42). These are all good - although nothing new. What bugs me is the inclusion of a single-layered DVD of less than 1 Gig which has two newer extras; 7 minutes of the Stonehenge Performance at the 2007 Live Earth Concert and 8-minutes of the National Geographic Stonehenge Interview (May 2009 VOB files). What I suspect is that MGM couldn't negotiate use of the Criterion's supplements, as they anticipated, which would have been a nice addition but regardless, there is no reason to have this second DVD included when the Blu-ray, at 35 Gig, could have easily have held those 2 segments of less than 15 minute in total. I mean - that's just crazy and smells of a piece-meal digital production.

This is still great to own but MGM continue to show themselves as disgustingly ineffectual on many fronts. I'd say prepare that the audio is of larger benefit than the 1080P video on Blu-ray but the film still has it's amazing appeal that I never seem to tire of. With all my gripes I'm happy to own this one.