Region 4 Winners and Losers

    In terms of content, this appears to be the same BD as was released in the US. It even has the US anti-piracy splash screen and the US R-Rating appear when the BD is loaded (even though the film is only rated MA in Australia).

    The Departed has also been released on HD-DVD, with an identical 1080p/VC-1 video transfer, and identical extras. The difference between the two formats is in the audio options: While the 30 GB HD-DVD has lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio, the 50 GB Blu-ray disc has uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 audio.

    The Departed was reportedly the first high definition movie to sell (not ship) 100,000 copies in the first 90 days of its release. As now the only major studio supporting both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, Warner issued a press statement claiming: "It's no accident that Warner is the first studio to reach this benchmark. We owe this success to a combination of great content and our decision to support both high definition formats... By releasing titles on HD DVD and Blu-ray, Warner Home Video not only increases our potential audience reach, but also offers consumers assurance that regardless of the format they choose they can enjoy our movies." A worthy sentiment, one can only imagine how many more high definition copies of Casino Royale (Blu-ray exclusive) or Transformers (HD-DVD exclusive) would be sold if the major studios backed both formats, and let the consumers decide with their wallets who wins the format war.

    As mentioned above, there is also a single-disc and two-disc Special Edition DVD. The latter has identical extras to the BD and HD-DVD.