Raro Video USA

Region 0 - NTSC

Region FREE - Blu-ray

1.29:1 Open Matte format
Average Bitrate: 7.2 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

Disc Size: 39,233,137,086 bytes

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

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.29:1

Edition Details:
• UN AGENZIA MATRIMONIALE (1953) short by Fellini (4:3; 16:35)
• Fellini's Circus - visual essay by Adriano Apra (16:9; 42:18)
• 50-page booklet with notes and illustrations by Federico Fellini

DVD Release Date: 1 March 2011
Digipack in slipcase with booklet

Chapters 20

Edition Details:
• UN AGENZIA MATRIMONIALE (1953) short by Fellini (4:3; 16:38 in 1080P)
• Fellini's Circus - visual essay by Adriano Apra (16:9; 42:24 in 1080P)
• 50-page booklet with notes and illustrations by Federico Fellini

Blu-ray Release Date: October 18th, 2011
Digipack in slipcase with booklet

Edition Details:
• Fellini's Circus an essay-film about the picture by the great Italian critic and scholar Adriano Aprà (42:23)
• A 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring new writing about the film, rare archival imagery, and more!

ADDITION: Masters of Cinema Blu-ray - October 14': The Masters of Cinema is far more robust and a little crisper. I expect it is from the same source but the UK 1080P is more advanced in terms of the visuals. It would be more noticeable depending on the size of your system.

Linear PCM audio at a reasonable 2304 Kbps. No superfluous bump, as found on the US edition, and my ears don't note too much difference from the Raro DTS-HD master stereo. It has optional English subtitles and is region 'B'-locked.

We lose the Fellini short, UN AGENZIA MATRIMONIALE, but MoC include the same 45-minute Fellini's Circus essay-film about the I Clowns by the great Italian critic and scholar Adriano Aprà. Thy add another of their impressive liner note booklets and being Dual Format has a DVD of the Feature.

Great release and at the writing of this review is cheaper than the US Blu-ray. Thumbs up!

***

ADDITION: Raro - Region FREE - Blu-ray - Oct 11': Thanks goodness! - Raro have decided NOT to manipulate the 1080p transfer and the egregious edge-enhancement seen on the DVD is gone. Actually this could be used to showcase just what edge-enhancement is. So the Blu-ray visuals don't only improve in the usual areas of detail and depth but also improve in a digital sense by an incredible amount. There may still be some low frequency EE but it is no where near on the level of the SD - so as this is the same print it, most probably, identifies Raro as the culprit on the DVD manipulation. Anyway, this is good news - the HD image looks decent if not stellar and is probably an authentic representation of how the I Clowns originally looked. Strangely there is more on the sides edges and top but less information on the bottom edge.  

The 2.0 channel as provided on the DVD is here is a DTS-HD Master at 1831 kbps and a 5.1 bump is also available as an option in a slightly more robust track at 2522 kbps. The separations were kind of heavy handed and I finished my viewing with the stereo. It's lossless so this is as good as it will get. The optional English subtitles duplicate the translation of the DVD - and seem complete.