Which version of First Blood is the one to get?

I have the Artisan DVD which suffers from some pretty bad DNR (Digital Noise Reduction).


I have a 1080p Blu Ray rip that I downloaded to evaluate the Blu Ray transfer. This seems to still have some DNR, though not as bad as the DVD and I can't completely rule out some smearing caused by the re-encode.

I also have the original widescreen laserdisc First Blood (1982) [ID8060IV], which has some decent aliasing

Bottom line, I'm not entirely happy with any of these three options. Are there any versions that don't have DNR or aliasing? How about the P&S LDs?

I remember the US Blu-Ray both having some DNR and also rather nasty smearing, not pleasing at all. The more recent Blu-Ray release by Studio Canal beats it by a long mile. It's a bit soft (like many anamorphic 35mm films) but has certainly more textures, better grain structure and more intact geometry. Colors seem to be improved but I don't know what the reference is like.
http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0& ... 46&i=2&l=0

Thanks! I'll try to track down the studio canal release.

Be aware though that the earlier release from them has the same nasty master as the US one. However this one should be safe.
http://www.amazon.de/Rambo-First-Blood- ... 264&sr=8-3
Available new at €7,90 and released by the same company at the same time as the box set in the comparison. Shouldn't be any differences unless something is seriously messed up.

Us release also lacks lossless audio if I remember. I wonder how the HD-DVD and D-Theater versions are.

The HD-DVDs uses the same crappy master but the Swedish release has DTS-HD MA for the English track and DTS-HD HR for the German dub, at least according to the cover.

Some of these transfers just look like the settings on a tv.

Warm
Cold
Cool

Does that ^ sound familiar?

D-Theater is from 2003, it probably has the same master. I own in, I own the US BD box set too but never watched them yet.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Rambo-First-Blood ... nav=SEARCH

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Rambo-First-Blood ... nav=SEARCH

Are either of these the right version? Being in the US I'm kind of limited for buying options.

I can vouch for the D-theater edition. it looks splendid. happy owner here
No idea what the BR is like to be honnest.
An Iconic action movie but not worth buying it again on another format

Both should be right. The company logo differs but since it's a stock photo I wouldn't worry.

Just got the studio canal version today. It's definitely the best version I've seen, thanks for the recommendation. It's a little soft, but it probably was that way originally.

Good advice. I might for that eventually but will pick up the remastered LBX LD for the original audio track.

So the remastering refers to only the video then, I guess? After all you named "remastered" and "original audio" in the same sentence which sounds like a contradiction to me, hence my question.

I heard several reports about Rambo to sound very tinny on Blu-ray. Were the original cinema presentations the same or has the audio unnecessarily as usual nowadays been remixed over and over causing this effect?

Any recommendations strictly audio-wise on which format to buy this movie, whether LD, DVD or D-VHS?