ADDITION: Masters of Cinema - Region 'B' - Blu-ray (April 2016): This is becoming a pattern - the Masters of Cinema bests the old Blu-rays... in every area. It is also a 2 Blu-ray disc package but it has a higher bitrate, more robust, richer, warmer colors - it is 1.85:1 (not 1.78) and detail advances - just compare the 1080 captures. Deeper black levels. No contest.

Okay, audio - again Masters of Cinema wins. It is not liner LPCM as advertised - it is DTS-HD Master but 24-bit as opposed to Olive's 16-bit. Options in Italian or English - both lossless and there are English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing for the English audio and English subtitles for the Italian audio. The UK Blu-rays are coded for Region 'B'.

NOTE: Louis tells us in email: "There is a slight difficulty with the Masters of Cinema BD of "1900" that you might want to add to your review. I played it for the first time on my multi-region Oppo BDP 83 yesterday, and the top menu offered English as the default language with an option for Italian, and under the subtitle options the default was set for English subtitles On and an option for English subtitles Off. I went with the defaults and when the movie began there was a subtitle translating "Quattrocento" as "1900" and at the end of the credits translating the gratitude to the citizens of Emilio, but when the action began there were no subtitles for the English dialogue. I pressed the subtitle button and saw that there were three different English subtitle options, of which number 3 was currently selected. I realized that the default setting was not the English for the hard of hearing, so I tried to select the option for English 1 but the Oppo said that operation was not possible; same thing happened when I tried to select the option for English 2. I resolved the problem by pressing the Pop-Up Menu button, whereupon a menu popped up that allowed me to select the language (English or Italian) and whether English subtitles were on or off. After selecting English and subtitles On, all the dialogue was subtitled. There seemed to be no way to get this combination from the top menu, where there was no mention of the type of English subtitles. I assume the subtitle option English 2 were subtitles to be used when the Italian language option is selected. Uncharacteristically clumsy for MOC which has always been very unfussy in my experience." (Thanks Louis!)

Extras also advance. On Blu-ray 1 we get The Story, The Cast and Creating an Epic, two 1/4 hour video pieces from 2006 featuring Bertolucci and Storaro and a trailer and on Blu-ray 2 - we get Bertolucci secondo il cinema, an hour-long on-set documentary about the making of 1900.

Our highest recommendation! - the Masters of Cinema is the one to own!

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ADDITION: Olive - Region 'A' Blu-ray - May 2012: Yes - a good upgrade! The new Olive Film 1080P release supports the scheme of the previous Paramount DVD but the image is brighter, sharper, has better skin tones and showcases some depth. Grain remains fairly fine but intact adding some appreciated texture to the visuals. There is no intrusive digital noise. Unfortunately - and typical of Olive - the 1.85:1 aspect ratio has been moved to 1.78. I don't see that we have lost anything ion the frame that may actually have opened-up a shade. Regardless, it looks very good in-motion.

Technically the 5 1/4 hour film has been transferred, in 2-parts, to 2 dual-layered Blu-ray discs with supportive bitrates. These share the space with no supplements (the lone extra is housed on an included DVD). Audio offers lossless track in the form of DTS-HD Masters in stereo, for English, Italian and French languages. The Ennio Morricone score receives the benefit from the upgrade sounds crisper with a shade more depth. There are smallish white subtitles available (see sample) on the Region 'A'-locked disc.