HD DVD

Universal's House of Horrors: Part 1 of 3

All right, you're thinking, I've seen it all. I've marvelled at the exceptional level of detail in Spider-man 3, I've been wowed by the fantastic grain reproduction in Silent Hill, and I just can't imagine an image that looks more all-round perfect than Ratatouille. Well, gentle readers, I present tonight, for the viewing pleasure of the hardened technophile, an inside look at the other end of the spectrum: the transfers so repulsive that you'd actually go out of your way to make sure people didn't accidentally see them and somehow "get the wrong idea" about high definition. Over the course of the next three posts, I'll be delving into Universal's swamp of catalogue releases, and we'll be asking ourselves how some of these travesties actually made it out the front (or back) door in the first place.

Attention, BD fans: don't go celebrating the assimilation of Universal into the Blu-ray umbrella just yet. This is what you have to look forward to.

 
Being John Malkovich
(Universal, USA, VC-1, 18.9 GB)

To be fair, this is already a really dingy, unappealing film to look at, but it shouldn't look this bad.

 
Brokeback Mountain
(Universal, USA, VC-1, 21.1 GB)

This one isn't even a catalogue title, so why in the name of all that is pleasant does it look like this? Nincompoop reviewers talk about the amazing landscapes on display as if that somehow means the transfer is any good.

 
Cat People
(Universal, USA, VC-1, 19 GB)

This one looks like someone took a giant dump on the disc stamper and then had it pressed. People won't actually believe an HD transfer can look this awful until you show it to them. This is pretty much as bad as it gets.

I can't see a goddamn thing, Jim!

The Kingdom on HD DVD is an example of what I would call the second tier of Universal's HD output. At the very top, you have titles like The Bourne Ultimatum and King Kong: recent releases which, barring any instances of compression artefacts, are as perfect as HD gets. There's no sign of filtering, edge enhancement, noise reduction or any other unwanted tampering. Then you get titles like Mr. Bean's Holiday and Eastern Promises, which still look very good, and appear to have come from excellent sources, but which introduce a layer of digital manipulation, usually a light sheen of filtering.

In the case of The Kingdom, there is clear evidence of ringing, particularly visible in the first shot. This is the thin, sharp, high frequency type usually associated with straight edge enhancement rather than the thicker, blurrier sort you get with filtering, so my theory is that someone sharpened this transfer. The fact that the credits text is also affected shows that this took place at the very end of or after the DI process: in other words, the editor wasn't simply being fed a bunch of pre-sharpened footage. (Sometimes you'll get transfers where the film-based material has been tampered with but the credits themselves are problem-free.) Theoretically speaking, therefore, it should be possible, one day, to go back to the source and get a "clean" master.

Trying the get clear screen captures of this disc was tough given the nature of the camerawork. The film was produced by Michael Mann, and the director, Peter Berg, seems to have attempted to replicate his, ahem, style by constantly shaking the camera around like a stoned monkey. The result is that the whole film is essentially one long jittery zip pan, so I found myself limited to the more serene, static moments, which are few and far between. Broadly speaking, it looks better in motion, although it does tend to make you feel seasick. Did I mention I hate this look?

The Kingdom
(Universal, UK, VC-1, 18.6 GB)

HD Image Quality Rankings updated

I've performed some updates on the HD Image Quality Rankings page, moving several 8/10-rated titles down into the 7/10 bracket. Among these are several of the more noticeably filtered Warner titles, along with such disappointments as The Simpsons Movie and Sony's somewhat unjustly lauded re-release of The Fifth Element. Two titles have also been pulled out of the prestigious 10/10 category and moved into the still highly impressive 9.5/10: Silent Hill, for having slightly elevated blacks (which can be corrected using the brightness control on your display, which you shouldn't really have to do), and King Kong, for some minor compression artefacts.

It's something of an indication of how good the best high definition transfers look that I am actually currently in a position of having to demote less impressive transfers. I consider this to be very good progress, given that, for the most part, even the best-looking standard definition DVDs were still heavily flawed.

Get 'em while they're still lukewarm

I know I said I wouldn't buy any more, but with the silly prices HD DVDs are going for in various stores, I thought it would be a shame to pass up the opportunity to pick up some mega-cheap titles. HMV.co.uk is currently selling off a whole bunch of titles for as little as £4.99 each, a steal when you consider the AV quality of some of them. I snagged King Kong, The Kingdom and Stardust, all of which popped through my letterbox this morning.

I watched The Kingdom this evening. An eye-pleasing transfer from Universal - not one of their best, but, when you consider how dreadful some of their releases look, particularly their catalogue titles, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. Actually, barring a small amount of ringing, it actually looks very nice, with a very pleasing amount of detail and commendably little artefacting, despite the amount of fast cutting and shakycam on display. I also found it a rather interesting film too, at least until it decided to abandon its loftier aims and turn into an old fashioned Men & Guns™ car chase/shoot-out extravaganza. That, and the constantly jittering camera made me feel fairly seasick.

The best pics in London

On Wednesday, while on my lunch break, I spied in the local Borders the UK Blu-ray release of Tim Burton's latest extravaganza, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, complete with a rather fetching tin case. Back when Paramount originally announced this for release on HD DVD in the US, it was one of my most anticipated purchases, so you can imagine my disappointment when the HD DVD was cancelled and the film then failed to materialise on Paramount's Blu-ray slate, despite (as far as I can gather) all of their other cancelled HD DVDs making the jump to Blu-ray. Luckily, Warner, who own the rights in the UK, have come to our rescue with an extremely nice release indeed, one that more than does the film justice and ranks among the best the studio has ever released for either format. The one failing, as seems often to be the case with the bit rate misers at Warner, is that some visible compression artefacts do creep in at times, one of the most offensive examples of which is visible in the first screen capture.

When you look at these pictures, you may notice what looks like smearing in the fine details of Johnny Depp's face. Unfortunately, this is the result of the process that seems to be being used more and more frequently on big budget films - an automated spot/wrinkle remover which I'm sure is very flattering for the actors but has the unfortunate side effect of making them look like porcelain dolls. It was inconsistently applied in Resident Evil: Extinction, making Milla Jovovich look at times as if she was made of plastic, and it appears to run rampant in The Golden Compass (the details of which I shall go into in a future post). For Sweeney Todd, however, oddly enough it appears that only Depp's cheeks and the bridge of his nose are affected, and it only seems to have been applied to close-ups. It's not a failing of the transfer, but it does provide an example of how really good high definition transfers make this sort of tomfoolery easier to spot. Ironic, really, when you consider that it was probably applied in the first place because someone got ants in their pants about "imperfections" on actors' faces being more visible in HD.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
(Warner, UK, VC-1, 27.1 GB)

Popcorn strictly optional

Whimsy Cinemas™ is finally ready to open its doors! Yesterday evening, Lyris assembled his projection screen and attached it to the wall, ready for its first gala presentation. What will it be? Inside Man on HD DVD was the first title to be screened on our previous movie-watching solution, the crazy bed sheet of multiple creases, so it only makes sense that we follow it up with something that boasts equally stellar image quality. So far, we've taken a brief look at the Blu-ray releases of Ratatouille, Resident Evil: Extinction and Across the Universe, all of which looked suitably incredible, not to mention the most recent pass of La Femme Publique, which looked better than a standard definition DVD has any right to.

Finally, we have something that vaguely resembles being at the movies, only without the spotty-faced youths heckling (if any heckling's to be done, we'll do it, thank you very much) the movie and playing with their mobile phones. Sometimes, we even get the films before they're released theatrically in this country, and in any event, in many cases, the Blu-ray discs we're watching look somewhat better than the prints being trotted round the local cinemas.

Get your tools ready

The upgrade bug has bitten me again. Partially inspired by how cheaply Lyris was able to assemble his fancy new quad core system, I've begun to look into the possibility of once again purchasing a full-size system to replace my small form factor Shuttle PC.

Primarily, this is because I would like to purchase additional RAM and a DirectX 10-compliant video card, the better to enjoy some of the latest games. Unfortunately, my Shuttle only has room for two sticks of RAM and a single slot video card, and most of ATI's more powerful DirectX 10 cards have whopping great fans on them that require more space than a single PCIe slot affords. On top of that, a more powerful video card would also almost certainly necessitate a heavier-duty power supply, one packing considerably more oomph than the paltry 250 watt affair that came with my Shuttle.

Finally, a superb bargain was recently pointed out to me: an LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray/HD DVD combo drive for a very reasonable £77.54, complete with the Blu-ray/HD DVD version of PowerDVD. Knowing that such a bargain wouldn't be around for long, I snapped one up despite the fact that, as a SATA device, I wouldn't be able to use is in my Shuttle system, which only has two SATA ports, both of which are being used by hard drives. It arrived today, and will have to sit on my shelf until I get my new system. Well, actually, I tell a lie. It's currently sitting inside Lyris' computer, so at least it's being put to use for the time being.

As for the other components, I'm going to pick up an Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 sound card (see my earlier post on the sound card issue for more information) and the best trade-off I can find between performance and price in terms of ATI's current generation of video cards. My brother seems to be pretty happy with his ASUS P5K-E motherboard, so I suspect I'll pick up one of those too. That only leaves memory (probably 4 GB, despite 32-bit operating systems only managing to access around 3.3 GB total), a processor (I'm still unsure as to whether to get a quad-core system, or simply go for the fastest dual-core I can get my hands on), a case and a power supply (I'll probably end up getting the latter two together). If I play my cards right, this shouldn't bankrupt me completely.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of March

• Across the Universe (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
• Atonement (R0 UK, HD DVD)
• Danny the Dog (R0 Japan, Blu-ray)
• Hidden (R2 UK, DVD)
• Lewis: Series One (R2 UK, DVD)
• The New York Ripper: Special Restored Edition (R2 Denmark, DVD)
• Sugar Rush: Series One & Two (R2 UK, DVD)
• Tragic Ceremony (R1 USA, DVD)
   

Gangs of Blu York

Source: High-Def Digest

For some reason, I seem to have been waiting for a high definition release of Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York for longer than virtually every other title. Back in 2006, it was erroneously listed for a release in the UK on HD DVD at Play.com... until, that is, it was discovered that UK distribution Entertainment In Video weren't actually going to be supporting HD DVD at all. A Blu-ray release eventually showed up after several delays, and looked like crap. In any event, it was coded for Region B only, which made it a no sale for me. Congratulations, EIV! A double strike!

However, Buena Vista have now announced their plan to bring it out on Blu-ray in the US on July 1st. No disc specifications have been revealed yet, but I do have slightly more faith in Buena Vista than in EIV, so here's hoping this film will actually get its first passable-looking home video release.

Blu-ray goes Live!

Source: High-Def Digest

The Playstation 3 has just become the first Blu-ray player to support Profile 2.0 (also known as BD-Live) via its free v2.20 firmware update. In addition to promising a raft of new thrilling interactive features like ring-tones and shared playlists (which were boring HD DVD owners around the world over a year ago), the 2.20 patch also adds some features that might actually be of use to the average viewer:

- BD-Live (Profile v2.0) Upgrade
- "Resume play" will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been removed (BD-J format not supported)
- "Audio Output Device" will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3
- PS3 system's Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser's view speed will be improved
- DivX and WMV format videos larger than 2GB will be playable
- "Mosquito Noise Reduction" will be added as an AV setting in the control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback (BDMV format not supported)
 

Swansong

Well, my last (and I mean it this time) HD DVD arrived this morning: the UK release of Atonement, which I'd had on order since January and more or less forgotten about. Thankfully, it's a more pleasant way to bow out of the format than American Gangster, as the image, while imperfect, is streets ahead of that blurry, smeared mess. The source is a digital intermediate, and Universal always fare far better with these than their print sources - for one thing, they haven't attempted to noise reduce it into oblivion. (Don't be fooled by the Universal logo at the start which appears to have been taken from a dupe print - the film itself is definitely from a DI source.) Like Mulholland Drive (HD captures here), this film appears to have been shot with a lot of filters (I hope I'm getting the terminology right here), and as a result has that same glowy, "soft but detailed" appearance, which doesn't necessarily result in the best screen captures but is rather pleasing to the eye when viewed in motion.

Atonement
(Universal, UK, VC-1, 21 GB)

A miscarriage of justice?

Amazon processed the refund for my returned Toshiba HD-EP30 the other day. However, no sooner had this happened than Lyris received an email from a reader of his site. Not only was his HD-EP30 not exhibiting the problems that mine was, he had the visual evidence to prove it.

I'm completely flummoxed. Our display devices were not at fault - we tested the player on everything that was available to us, and each time met with the same sub-par 1080p playback. As Lyris puts it:

Well, a reader (thanks James) just got back to me with visual evidence that his Toshiba HD-EP30, in fact, outputs 1080p (and 1080p/24, consequently) correctly WITHOUT any loss of resolution or juddering. To say this is weird is an understatement, because neither of my display devices have any problem with display 1080p natively (indicating the problem does not lie there) and the problem was present both before and after the latest firmware update. What are the odds of me having one faulty unit? My understanding of consumer electronics is that typically, one feature will work correctly or not at all.

I'm none the wiser as to what's going on - clearly, my player could not correctly resolve 1080p, but it seems that at least one of them does! In that regard, I would have to ask you not to write the HD-EP30 off based on my experiences. Did I have a faulty unit, or has (as I suspect is more likely to be the case) a revision of the hardware been released using the same model number? The jury's out on this one, folks.

Universal vs. Sony Pictures: Round 2

This morning, my copy of the Japanese Blu-ray release of Danny the Dog sailed through my letterbox and flopped gracefully on to my door mat. I'd been waiting for this release with some anticipation for a few reasons.

Firstly, while this title is (well, was) an HD DVD exclusive in the US, put out by Universal, in Japan the results are held by Sony Pictures, making it a Blu-ray exclusive. Whenever the rights are held by different companies in different territories, the possibility arises for rather interesting results as the two studios each handle their separate encodes (and, as the case may be, masters) differently. Additionally, two different cuts exist for this film: the American/British version, entitled Unleashed, is about a minute shorter than the international cut (Danny the Dog), lacking some character-building scenes and slightly extending an early montage, in addition to substituting the film's final shot. Personally, I was disappointed when Universal failed to include the international cut on their HD DVD release, so, since 2006, I have been eagerly anticipating another distribution getting a crack at it.

Good news, then: Sony Pictures' Japanese release is the international cut, complete with Morgan Freeman and Jet Li bonding over groceries (that's not as weird as it sounds). Even better news: it includes subtitles in Japanese and English, both of which are optional. Beyond that, though, things become a bit confusing, particularly when it comes to the transfer.

In my DVD image comparison between the US, UK and French standard definition releases, I remarked that the French release (the international cut) had a markedly different colour palette in comparison with the other two (both the shorter cut). The short version, by and large, looked to have its colour values more heavily manipulated, resulting in "the warm-tinted scenes looking warmer [...] and the desaturated ones looking more monochromatic" (to reiterate what I said in the Comments section of my comparison).

Well, the Japanese release features different grading again, less contrasty than either the French DVD or the UK/US DVD and HD DVD releases, which were quite heavily "pumped", crushing some of the shadow detail and blowing out the highlights. In addition, while the US HD DVD was clearly taken from a digital intermediate, the Japanese version comes from a film source. It exhibits more grain (I strongly suspect that some noise reduction was performed on Universal's HD DVD), but, while it seems to superficially show more detail, this is in fact due to edge enhancement, resulting in some unsightly halos around highly contrasted edges.

So, a toughie. I definitely prefer the look of Universal's release, which appears smoother and more natural, and has (to me) a more aesthetically pleasing colour scheme, but have a look at the images below and see which you think is the more eye-pleasing of the two.

Unleashed
(Universal, USA, VC-1, 12.8 GB)

Danny the Dog
(Sony Pictures, Japan, AVC, 26.1 GB)

DVDs I bought or received in the month of February

• Almost Famous (R0 UK, Blu-ray)
• American Gangster (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Astérix et les Vikings (R0 France, HD DVD)
• The Brave One (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
• Gone Baby Gone (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• The Lady Vanishes: The Criterion Collection [2007 re-release] (R1 USA, DVD)
• La Môme (R0 France, Blu-ray)
• The Night of the Werewolf/Vengeance of the Zombies (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Run Lola Run (R0 UK, Blu-ray)
• Volver (RA USA, Blu-ray)
   

Get thee behind me, Toshiba

Well, on Tuesday, the courier came to pick up my HD-EP30 and return it to Amazon. I'm sorry, but I just don't feel happy about the idea of paying for 1080p hardware which doesn't correctly resolve 1080p. Luckily, the returns process was pretty straightforward - Amazon are generally good when it comes to that sort of thing - and, in any event, my brother's bricked Xbox 360 has now been repaired and should be back aboard the HMS Whimsy before too long, so we're not facing an indefinite future without HD DVD playback.

By the way, I've yet to find any conclusive information as to whether or not all the HD DVD players advertised as being "1080p Full HD" (a blatant falsification) suffer from this problem, given that I've yet to find a single review that actually picked up on it, but I have my suspicions. In that case, there's something quite laughable about the fact that the best pieces of hardware for the two competing formats were both games consoles... and one of them a cheap add-on drive for an existing console, at that.

HD DVD review: The Bourne Ultimatum

Jason Bourne's third and no doubt final outing on the HD DVD format is a resounding success in terms of audio-visual quality. While the bonus materials are a bit of a mixed bag, it's the presentation of the film itself that matters, and in that regard, this release is among the best available on either format.

Courtesy of DVD Pacific, I've reviewed the HD DVD release of The Bourne Ultimatum. How does the third and supposedly final instalment in the spy franchise stack up in high definition?

Putting the "tosh" in Toshiba

Well, I got home today from work (and from visiting my granny, who is seriously ill) to find that my Toshiba HD-EP30 had arrived from Amazon.co.uk. After extracting the two free HD DVDs (300 and The Bourne Supremacy), I hooked the thing up and decided to give it a whirl.

Physically speaking at any rate, it's an improvement on my first HD DVD player, the venerable HD-A1. It's about half the height, and weighs significantly less. Also, from a standpoint of pure convenience, because this is a European model, it doesn't require a step-down transformer. (Good old HD DVD and its lack of region coding!) That's about where the differences end, though, as the Windows CE-based interface is virtually identical, and it takes almost as long as its predecessor to power up and load discs. The Xbox 360 add-on, in comparison, was positively sprightly.

Of far greater concern than the speed, however, is the issue of image quality. When I switched the machine on, my first port of call was the picture menu to change the output mode from 1080i to 1080p. As soon as I popped in my first disc (The Bourne Ultimatum, which I hope to finally get reviewed by the beginning of next week), I knew something was up. The Bourne Ultimatum is one of the best-looking discs released on either format - an extremely detailed encode with no sign of artificial sharpening or detail reduction, and yet, on the HD-EP30, there was ringing in abundance, and a distinct lack of fine detail. A couple more high quality HD DVDs later, and I ruled out any possibility of the discs themselves being at fault.

Lyris suggested that the problem might be the 1080p output. Rather predictably, he was right: setting the output to 1080i immediately resolved the ringing problem and returned the detail to its rightful place. All well and good - but I paid for a device with 1080p output, and 1080p24 output at that. Why should I have to limit myself to 1080i60 just because Microsoft and Toshiba couldn't get their acts together? Lyris' projector correctly resolves 1080i film mode, but it means we're still stuck with 60 Hz output rather than pure 24p, resulting in the infamous 3:2 pull-down judder that many viewers raised on a lifetime of PAL material find extremely difficult to ignore when watching NTSC content.

So, what do I do now? Do I attempt to return the player and attempt to explain to Amazon that I don't want it because its 1080p output introduces ringing? (Somehow, I don't think there's an option that quite fits that description on their returns form.) Is there even any point? For all I know, all Toshiba's standalone players could exhibit this problem. I've spent the last half-hour on Google and have yet to come across a single review or report that mentions the bug, so I have no realistic way of knowing whether I'd be any better off with one of the other 1080p-capable models.

Urgh! This just makes me respect Sony's Playstation 3 all the more.

Update, February 25th, 2007 09:01 PM: I updated the firmware to version 2.0 at the recommendation of others. Alas, the image quality is still as rotten as ever. See photographic evidence of the disgrace at Lyris Lite.

The final curtain

Source: High-Def Digest

The last domino of the format war has fallen: Paramount has officially announced it will align with Blu-ray and begin releasing titles on the format.

"We are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer," the studio said via a statement issued Wednesday to The Hollywood Reporter.

"As we look to (begin) releasing our titles on Blu-ray, we will monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly."

The studio did not issue any further details regarding a timeframe for the transition, nor any specific title announcements.

That's a wrap, folks. No more speculating as to which format to buy a title on. To paraphrase the American Pledge of Allegiance (or rather the 1954 revision of it), "One Format Under Sony".

Dear Universal, this is what a catalogue release SHOULD look like

With Universal on the way to Blu-ray, they will soon find themselves up against Sony Pictures, whose transfers for catalogue titles, while not always perfect, are generally of a much higher standard than the ones being put out by the other majors - particularly Universal, who are often guilty of the worst Crimes Against Film.

Today, I received the UK Blu-ray release of one of my favourite films, Run Lola Run, and I'm pleased to report that it looks better than I could ever have hoped. Is it perfect? No, it's not, and, unsurprisingly, it doesn't have the detail that you would get from a DI-sourced transfer, but it does look really, really good, and puts Universal's HD DVD release of American Gangster, which I also received today, a film that is nearly a decade younger, to shame. That's just plain wrong.

Run Lola Run
(Sony Pictures, UK, AVC, 23.3 GB)

In memoriam: HD DVD

Well, it's been a fun year and a half, and I hope you'll join me in remembering HD DVD's brief but promising life. I picked up a scant few discs - 68 - in comparison with some people, but it's a nice little collection, with some truly great titles in it, and here they are:

2006

#1: Million Dollar Baby (Warner, USA)
#2: Constantine (Warner, USA)
#3: The Bourne Supremacy (Universal, USA)
#4: Sleepy Hollow (Paramount, USA)
#5: Unleashed (Universal, USA)
#6: Red Dragon (Universal, USA)
#7: Land of the Dead (Universal, USA)
#8: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Universal, USA)
#9: The Machinist (Toshiba, Japan)
#10: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Warner, USA)
#11: Corpse Bride (Warner, USA)
#12: V for Vendetta (Warner, USA)
#13: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner, UK)
#14: Serenity (Universal, UK)
#15: An American Werewolf in London (Universal, USA)
#16: Wolf Creek (The Weinstein Company, USA)
#17: Miami Vice (Universal, USA)
#18: Casablanca (Warner, USA)
#19: Basic Instinct (Studio Canal, France)
#20: The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner, USA)
#21: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Warner, UK)

2007

#22: Brokeback Mountain (Universal, USA)
#23: Babel (Paramount, USA)
#24: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Constantin Film, Germany)
#25: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Paramount, USA)
#26: Children of Men (Universal, USA)
#27: A Scanner Darkly (Warner, USA)
#28: The Game (Universal, USA)
#29: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Universal, USA)
#30: HDScape: Antarctica Dreaming (DVD International, USA)
#31: HDScape: Visions of the Sea (DVD International, USA)
#32: The Fountain (Warner, USA)
#33: The Ultimate Matrix Collection (Warner, USA)
#34: Lost in Translation (Universal, USA)
#35: The Skeleton Key (Universal, USA)
#36: Mulholland Drive (Studio Canal, France)
#37: Brotherhood of the Wolf (Studio Canal, France)
#38: Dawn of the Dead (2004) (Universal, USA)
#39: Black Snake Moan (Paramount, USA)
#40: La Haine (Optimum, UK)
#41: Syriana (Warner, UK)
#42: Being John Malkovich (Universal, USA)
#43: Blood Diamond (Warner, USA)
#44: The Bourne Identity (Universal, USA)
#45: Mr. Bean's Holiday (Universal, UK)
#46: Silent Hill (Concorde, Germany)
#47: Underworld (Concorde, Germany)
#48: 300 (Warner, USA)
#49: Mission Impossible III (Paramount, USA)
#50: Seed of Chucky (Universal, USA)
#51: 2001: A Space Odyssey (Warner, USA)
#52: Les Triplettes de Belleville (France Télévisions Éditions, France)
#53: A Clockwork Orange (Warner, USA)
#54: Eyes Wide Shut (Warner, USA)
#55: The Shining (Warner, USA)
#56: Full Metal Jacket (remastered) (Warner, USA)
#57: Pan's Labyrinth (Optimum, UK)
#58: Wolf Creek (Optimum, UK)
#59: Inside Man (Universal, USA)
#60: Blade Runner: Ultimate Collector's Edition (Warner, USA)
#61: The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal, USA)
#62: Running Scared (EMS, Germany)
#63: Tideland (Concorde, Germany)

2008

#64: Cat People (1982) (Universal, USA)
#65: Eastern Promises (Universal, USA)
#66: Pan's Labyrinth (New Line, USA)
#67: Astérix et les Vikings (M6 Vidéo, France)
#68: American Gangster (Universal, USA)

As they say, it's been a good life.