Looks like New Line is at it again.
Blu-ray.com: The Golden Compass BD Review
Quote:
Video: 3.5/5
The Golden Compass comes encoded in a high bitrate VC-1 presentation, averaging around 25 to 30 Mbps. This release looks quite impressive, though it does sport some drawbacks. The film's color palette has been well-preserved; the overall tone does not have a vividly bright quality to it, nor is it drastically dull. It feels natural; a lived-in world full of burnished golds for the affluent college and icy hues in the far north.
Black levels are excellent and remain consistent throughout the picture. In addition, no noticeable artifacts were present. One important aspect of this film is, of course, the profuse amount of CG effects, and it is to be noted that they look excellent on this Blu-ray Disc. Subtle touches, like spectral sheen on the hairs of the dæmons Pantalaimon and Stelmaria, are captured beautifully on high definition; I don't recall catching such a detail when seeing this film in the theatre.
Unfortunately, being that New Line is under Warner Bros, the mastering of this film likely had a hefty amount of digital noise reduction applied to it, as film grain and fine detail such as skin pores or cloth textures are noticeably absent. Despite the overall clarity of the picture, it definitely has a "tuned down" feel to it, and I found that highly unfortunate.
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I couldn't care less about the title myself, but New Line needs to freakin' stop with the digital noise reduction. First
Pan's Labyrinth and now this.
The comments above seem to be pointing towards Warner being to blame for the DNR, but I think it's more New Line's fault. Just look at the (albeit scaled down) screenshots in their
The Orphanage Blu-ray Review, released by New Line. Grain structure is clearly evident in those shots and fine detail is popping all over. My theory is that New Line utilized Warner's BD transfer for
The Orphanage since Warner handled the Spanish Blu-ray release. Plus both Warner's and New Line's BDs have the original Spanish credits.
I think
The Golden Compass and
Pan's Labyrinth BD transfers are purely New Line and they will only continue down the
"Blu-ray as a DVD with better color" path. This certainly dampens my outlook on future New Line titles. I gotta wonder what the hell they'll do to
Dark City.