I received my Kino Lorber blu-ray set yesterday. :heart:
Here are my comparisons between this set and the 2016 Madman set:
1) Theatrical release of "Awakening"
a) Aspect Ratio: Kino's 2K-scan is in true widescreen vs Madman's upscaled PAL being in 4:3. Madman is not pan&scan but taken from the open matte, so it shows information at top and bottom that isn't in the widescreen Kino. :arrow: Slight win for Kino. The movie looks great in widescreen, but (!) even though this was filmed in widescreen, the composition seems aimed at the 4:3 television format (e.g. actors heads are close to the top of the screen in medium shots). For the specific goal of merging the Theatrical and TV-version in a fanedit it's a clear win for Madman because the aspect ratios match.
b) Picture Quality: Kino's image is sharper, but it looks to me that they applied sharpening because the grain is showing more prominently than in the subsequent episodes. :arrow: Slight win for Kino: in most shots Kino wins convincingly, in others I prefer Madman's image.
c) Framerate: Madman's theatrical suffers from PAL speed-up. :arrow: Kino wins.
These screenshots overlap, showing the difference in aspect ratio and quality (for an explanation of the unused corners, see
wikipedia's Open Matte description):
2) The episodes: Kino uses the same source as Madman's. The only difference is a 10% higher bitrate. I see slightly improved crispness in the image, but only in indoor close-up shots. For other shots I see no difference (on a 24" 4K Dell monitor). I expect that is because of a little DNR, not just the slightly higher bitrate. This because Kino shows more noise in difficult shots (thin lines, lots of shades of white, low contrast in lighting) :arrow: Draw.
3) Audio:
- Kino uses DTS instead of PCM, but it's the same dual-mono track. :arrow: Draw.
- Kino applies a little Noise Reduction for the Theatrical. That removes the very light static hiss on the Madman set, but also very soft sounds such as subtle rustling of clothing and the aspiration of the actors voices. :arrow: Slight win for Madman.
- Kino mastered the Theatrical Movie at a lower overall volume but with the same maximum volume, resulting in a greater dynamic range. There's no advantage for dialog, but explosions have more oomph and sound less 'flat'. :arrow: Kino wins for Theatrical audio.
- Kino uses the identical audio mix as Madman for all other adventures, just 7.1dB quieter (I tested it by lining up audio tracks, matching volume, and inverting one of them: result is total silence). :arrow: Draw for all audio except the Theatrical.
- Kino has commentary tracks for almost half the adventures. :arrow: Kino wins. I don't find the Theatrical commentary worth it. The other commentaries are more interesting (mostly rehashing the trivia-treasure "Companion" book from what I've listened to so far).
- Madman has a dialog-free Dolby dual-mono track for all episodes. :arrow: For normal viewing: draw, because who cares? For fanediting: huge win for Madman.
4) Subtitles: Kino has subtitles, Madman doesn't. :arrow: Kino wins. Altough, I already adjusted old DVD subtitles to match the Madman set. (those'll be in my upcoming Bonus Disc).
5) Packaging. Both sets are fine. Nothing special. I will point out that Kino put Dr Huer on the back cover of Season 2. Oops!
6) Minor difference: Both blu-ray sets have fade-to-blacks where the TV-commercials would have been. Kino's black lasts a second longer (between 15 - 23 frames per time from what I see so far) than Madman's, resulting in a slightly longer runtime. E.g. Time of the Hawk is 8 seconds longer on Kino because every fade-to-black adds a bit. :arrow: No winner. Only relevant if you want to fanedit the audio track from one with the video from the other set.