Contents
Introduction and Reviews
The Cast
Filming Locations, Part 1
Filming Locations, Part 2
Filming Locations, Part 3
Unanswered Questions
Memorabilia Gallery
DVD Video Comparison

Angel DVD Video Comparison

The US Anchor Bay and Italian 01 Distribution releases are 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, whereas both the Australian Rainbow Products and German MIB releases are 4:3 open-matte, although framed slightly differently.

The US and Italian transfers are of excellent quality that look similar but show intriguing differences when one looks at minute details. During playback the Italian disc seems to show more grain (that's a good thing because it means that detail hasn't been lost to filtering) but in busy frames there are compression artifacts that give an illusion of grain; so sometimes there's real grain (good), other times only the appearance of grain. It's not clear which is which unless one zooms in to look at the detail of individual frames. I'd love to see the Italian transfer on a dual-layer disc where a higher bitrate could be used to preserve the real film grain. Combined with the 20% greater vertical resolution of PAL over NTSC that would almost certainly be the best quality presentation until a high-def release comes along.

All four releases use a single-layer disc (or one layer of a dual-layer disc in the case of MIB) but the video quality of the Anchor Bay and 01 Distribution releases is excellent, dramatically better than the other two; with a brighter transfer that isn't too bright and doesn't suffer from obvious compression artifacts although details may be a bit softer on the US disc, probably as a result of the film grain being more filtered. The Rainbow Products release has ugly compression artifacts and two sections of the movie have the video fields out of phase (see below for details of this). The MIB transfer falls in the middle; it doesn't have the compression artifacts but it does have a strange vertical line pattern that's noticeable for most of the movie.

The Anchor Bay transfer is one of the best in my DVD collection but sadly the Rainbow Products is one of the worst. Form your own opinion by studying these frame captures.

Anchor Bay (US) 2.0 English 01 Distribution (Italy) 2.0 Italian 2.0 English MIB (Germany) 5.1 German 5.1 English Rainbow (Australia) 2.0 English All of the DVD covers seem to use the same marketing strategy of more or less featuring the classic poster imagery, with the US release showing the greatest variance by its background removal. The US DVD collection is a paper fold-out three-disc set (of the first three movies) whereas the other three are in standard plastic DVD cases. The MIB release has not been cleaned up as well as the others. Many frames during the opening camera pan show dirt and scratches. The slightly different framing on the MIB DVD makes it look like these aren't images of the same frame, but they are. The same dirt on many of the frames from the MIB and Rainbow discs shows that they come from the same transfer, or at least the same film source. This MIB frame is also a good example of one that shows the vertical line problem. Here's another MIB frame that shows the vertical line problem. The MIB and Rainbow frames show edge ehancement ringing on the title graphics that the other releases are thankfully free of. Both the MIB and Rainbow releases are darker and hard to watch compared to the one from Anchor Bay. The MIB release seems to have few compression artifacts (other than the strange vertical lines?) but the Rainbow release is cursed with annoying artifacts. The MIB and Rainbow releases are so dark one can't see the lovely blue colour of the West Castle's walls in the background. Compare the colour of the red and blue dresses. Look at the brightness differences. The action in the Roosevelt Hotel is lost in the gloom of the MIB and Rainbow releases. Compare that leftmost portrait too. Compare the legibility of the Joseph's Cafe sign. Note the compression artifacts in the sky of the Rainbow release (not the faint objects on the rooftops, but the sky itself) compared with the MIB release. A close look at the jacket Cliff Gorman is wearing reveals that the Italian release shows more detail than the US one, at least in this scene. This could be a result of the extra 20% vertical resolution PAL has over NTSC, although a glance at the Australian or German transfers shows that PAL by itself doesn't guarantee more visible detail. No visible edge enhancement on the Anchor Bay release except possibly on the inside lines of the MPAA logo. The 01 Distributors is even better.

Notes and Comments

• The Rainbow DVD has a problem with video field phase that makes it irritating to watch on a progressive scan display because all fast motion shows ghosting — a comb effect at the edges of moving objects. The first five Rainbow frames above have the problem, the last three do not; quality control should have rejected this transfer outright.

• I found the extra information in the full-frame open-matte transfers of the MIB and Rainbow Products releases to be useful for identifying filming locations, and it did give a slightly different visual feel in some scenes, but the dark transfers impairs one's enjoyment of so many scenes that appear unnaturally dark that it's not worth suffering through when there are brighter transfers available.

• One thing about the Anchor Bay and 01 Distribution transfers that must be mentioned is that while they're brighter, they aren't too bright. There are scenes where bright areas have detail that is more burnt-out than the other transfers, such as curtains in front of a window or lights on the street at night, but that's to be expected in a scene where the area of interest is significantly dimmer and has been properly exposed.

• The German MIB release compared here is the one from the FSK 16 rated Angel Collection (also marked "neue version") not the FSK 18 "Special Uncut Version". However, in this set Angel is uncut, only Avenging Angel and Angel III have cuts.

• The Italian release has one cut, apparently not for content, that removes the discussion about going to the morgue and the resulting grilling by Lt. Andrews. The resulting flow is smoother but it removes one of my favourite cute scenes where Angel wonders about "unclaimed bodies" and what happens to them.

Credits

Frame captures from the US Anchor Bay release are copyright 1983 The Angel Venture and are from The Angel Collection released in 2003.

Frame captures from the Italian 01 Distribution release are copyright 1983 The Angel Venture and are from Angel, catalogue number 00269, released in 2004.

Frame captures from the German MIB release are copyright 1983 The Angel Venture and are from The Angel Collection (the FSK 16 version, and marked "neue version") released in 2004.

Frame captures from the Australian Rainbow Products Limited release are copyright 1983 New World Pictures, Inc. and are from The Angel Collection (RGP3903) released in 2004.