I managed to locate a copy of the original 2008 German Blu-ray. I’ve updated the review with the information.
Batman The Animated Series 2018 Blu-ray vs 2004 DVDs
I thought I’d post a quick comparison between the 2004 DVDs of Batman The Animated Series and the just-released Blu-ray collection.
Obviously I’ve just sampled one episode (“On Leather Wings”)- so please keep that in mind.
The DVDs appear to be mastered from a composite source, which I’m guessing was the master for the broadcast, as a result there are occasional cross color artifacts present in the picture, these seem to be largely well controlled suggesting perhaps a 3D comb filter was used when the master was digitized. I also noticed a couple of instances of what might possibly be video drop outs on the source, but these were relatively minor.
The Blu-rays are a back-to-the negative scan which looks fantastic. In general details barely visible in the DVD version are clear and sharp on the Blu-ray, there is no artifacting even in areas of high motion. A faint grain patter is present throughout as are specs of dust and lint on the original animation cels.
Snell and Wilcox TBS-185 Review Update
I received an email from a reader a month or two back saying they were having trouble with the time-base correction (TBC) functionality on the Snell and Wilcox TBS-185. Thinking back to my review, I actually always tested with Laserdiscs, and generally played through players with integrated digital TBCs. I didn’t think much of this at the time – after all a TBC should, you know, correct timebase errors.