Region 4 Winners and Losers

    The Region 1 disc has been out for some time. The R1 Collector's Edition replaced an even earlier version that was movie-only and not 16x9 enhanced - that earlier version was not very good. The R1 Collector's Edition has all the features of the R4, plus a Recommendations section (two static pages with cover shots of three movies on each - boring) and a Web Link to the Universal Pictures web site. Not big selling points for the R1. Interestingly, the R1 disc is distributed by Universal whereas the Region 4 disc is distributed by Fox.

    The Region 1 disc's transfer is inferior to the R4. The R4 is a bit brighter, and has fewer film artefacts. The difference is not huge, and I would not advocate throwing out the R1 if you have it, but I would definitely recommend buying the R4 if you don't yet have a copy.