A Look at a ‘Predator’ Remastered on Blu-ray

Depending on how closely you follow DVD and Blu-ray releases you may or may not know all of the terminology, but if you haven’t heard of digital noise reduction (DNR) you are about to get your lesson, as if you hadn’t already learned by mousing over the image comparing the original Blu-ray release of Predator and the newly remastered one directly above.

I’d heard discussions about the heavy amount of smoothing that took place in Fox Home Entertainment’s just released Predator (Ultimate Hunter Edition) prior to receiving a review copy. Most prominent was the remastered look at Arnold you see above on the mouse over (you can see it in hi-res right here).There is so much digital scrubbing and grain removal Dutch becomes a Playboy cover model and looks as if he belongs in Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. The question, however, is whether or not this makes for a “better” picture. If you’re having a hard time deciding, don’t worry, more examples are on the way. Perhaps even take a look at babyfaced Carl Weathers after his digital scrub down right here before we move on.