Writings > DVD Image Comparisons > The Bird With the Crystal Plumage/L'Uccello Dalle Piume di Cristallo

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage/L'Uccello Dalle Piume di Cristallo

Region 0 (USA) - Blue Underground
vs. Region 2 (Italy) - Medusa
vs. Region 2 (Japan) - Cinefil Imagica

Details

Bit Rate

R0 USA

R2 Italy

R2 Japan

Screen Captures

Example 1

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Example 2

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Example 3

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Example 4

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Example 5

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Example 6

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Comments

There has been a considerable amount of praise for Blue Underground's new 2-disc special edition of The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, but I myself feel that it suffers from the same defects that plague all of that studio's releases, albeit to a lesser degree than some of their releases: edge enhancement, filtering and noise reduction. Despite this, it's still the best of the available releases, although a closer comparison does reveal that a rather alarming amount of information is cropped on the left hand side of the frame (see especially Example 6, where the stone at the edge of the screen completely disappears), as well as a small amount of cropping at the top in a number of shots (see Example 2). I'm not quite sure which colours values are correct, although the fact that Blue Underground went back to the original negative suggests to me that their slightly more saturated but noticeably bluer (in some shots) look is more representative of Dario Argento's intended look. The Japanese release, a PAL to NTSC standards conversion sourced from the Italian DVD, is not worth mentioning.

In terms of audio, the US release is the clear winner, with enough options (seven different mixes!) to satisfy any viewer. The US release also comes out ahead for bonus materials. In short, get the American version: it's bound to be the definitive edition for some time.

Summary