PotC: At World's End impressions

Got my hands on the UK set today.



Has the slipcover like 1 + 2 as you can see. Two nitpicks about the back description though. First, the AR is listed as 1.85 (don't worry, it's 2.40). Second, it's marked down as only Region B, but the disc works fine on my Japanese PS3 (which is A).

Video is good old AVC. Audio is "only" 5.1 16bit PCM as opposed to the 7.1 24bit announced for the US edition. I thought about it for a second, and looking at the main m2ts (which is about 40GB), they might have been hard pressed for space to do it on top of foreign language audio + subs... but I didn't do the actual math (movie is 2hrs 50 mins long) so I'll leave that to the clever clogs. Could have used TrueHD, but eh, whatever, seems Disney have a habit of 16 bit releases in Euro land even if the US is 24bit. On to the actual disc!

First thing you're greeted with is an epic teaser of titles to come in the (probably distant...) future. Lots of animation titles snipped together around some a few catalogue live action ones.





No idea why they say they're "available" on BD since we won't see the majority of them for years probably. (Is this the first disc they've put this on, by the way? I think someone mentioned it in another thread on a completely different movie, but might be thinking of some other preview.)

(10 image limit per post, so continuing on...)

The menu is our good friend the skull dude, as per the other discs;



And onto the movie!




No surprises really, it looks great. Nice sharpness + detail, fine amount of grain intact... really you'll know what to expect if you've seen the second movie's disc.

The problem is the style of the movie gets in the way of the PQ a bit, IMO. The second movie, there were on those lush islands a lot, lots of vibrant colours, looked excellent. In this movie, the settings aren't as consistent. Most of the movie is set in darker or dimly lit places, not quite as much during the daytime... when it is, it either very quickly becomes nighttime/different setting, or in the case of Jack's adventures in the Locker, the contrast is intentionally pumped up which makes things unnatural. The whole movie really is like that, tends towards subdued or darker settings. That's not to say it's bad, like I say it's equal to the second disc in terms of detail, I just think those island settings in the second movie make it more visually pleasing. That's completely my opinion though, so when you all get the disc and post how you think I'm barking mad, no worries.

As for AQ... that's not really my department. Seemed good, haven't sat down through a full battle/action sequence though to compare it to anything. I assume if you've heard the second disc, you'll know what to expect (or maybe not, since the US version is supposedly 7.1 after all...).

Here you go;

Like I said in first post, it's a mistake. It's 2.40 on disc.