Writings > DVD Image Comparisons > The New York Ripper/L'Éventreur de New York

The New York Ripper/L'Éventreur de New York

Region 0 (Australia) - Stomp Visual
vs. Region 0 (Netherlands) - Italian Shock Entertainment
vs. Region 2 Collector's Edition (France) - Neo Publishing

Special thanks to Tolpol for the screen captures and specifications of the Dutch DVD.

Details

Bit Rate

R0 Australia

R0 Netherlands

R2 France

Screen Captures

Example 1

Mouse over to switch between versions:
R0 Australia | R0 Netherlands | R2 France

Example 2

Mouse over to switch between versions:
R0 Australia | R0 Netherlands | R2 France

Example 3

Mouse over to switch between versions:
R0 Australia | R0 Netherlands | R2 France

Example 4

Mouse over to switch between versions:
R0 Australia | R0 Netherlands | R2 France

Example 5

Mouse over to switch between versions:
R0 Australia | R0 Netherlands | R2 France

Example 6

Mouse over to switch between versions:
R0 Australia | R0 Netherlands | R2 France

Example 7

Mouse over to switch between versions:
R0 Australia | R0 Netherlands | R2 France

Example 8

Mouse over to switch between versions:
R0 Australia | R0 Netherlands | R2 France

Update, April 26, 2006 (R0 Netherlands): Tolpol provided me with screenshots for the Dutch R0 release by Italian Shock (a couple of the captures don't show the exact same frames, but this shouldn't matter too much). The source used for its transfer seems to be the same as or very similar to the one used for the Australian release. It's darker and less saturated, and is non-anamorphic, but judging by the screenshots is still better than the French release. Obviously, because I haven't seen this DVD for myself, I'm not going to asign ratings to it, but as far as I can tell the Australian release still comes out on top.

PS. The Dutch release also misses out the scene with Davis and his secretary, as well as the misplaced one that appears in the final scene on the French release.

Notes

For some bizarre reason, two copies of the film are included on the French disc, one running for 1:31:06 and the other for 1:33:06. The shorter version omits a scene in which Dr. Davis has a brief conversation with his secretary that takes place between Williams' interview of Jane's husband and the raid on Mickey Scellenda's landlady's apartment. The longer version is played when you select the audio commentary, the shorter version for English, French and Italian audio - despite the fact that the longer version actually contains the audio tracks for all three languages. The scene is completely missing from the Australian disc.

A further discrepancy shows up in the form of an extraneous shot of Dr. Davis that, on the French disc, is for some bizarre reason spliced into the middle of the final scene, breaking the continuity. This shot should have appeared much earlier in the film, at around the 44 minute mark, when he and Williams have left the hospital. On the Australian DVD, it is completely absent.

Comments

The French release is a standards conversion that uses Anchor Bay's US transfer as a source, whereas the Australian release is taken from a native PAL master. Obviously, the Australian release shows much more detail while eliminating the ghosting that plagues the French release. It also has drastically different colours and contrast levels, which reveal additional shadow details lost in the French release. However, the Australian transfer looks a bit brown to my eyes, and I suspect that the colours on the French version are more accurate (the contrasts, however, are probably not). I think I'm going to need to get ahold of the US release to see how it compares.

The French release is stacked in terms of extras, but be aware that none of them are English-friendly (although the fact that they are mostly in Italian with French subtitles mean that more people will stand a chance of knowing one or the other).

Summary