Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Terminator 2 is well represented on HD-DVD.

Video - 4/5

Its 1080p high-definition digital transfer is excellent, compressed using Microsoft's VC-1 codec. It appears to be the same master used for the previous Extreme Edition DVD prepared in 2003, although displayed at the full high-definition resolution. The transfer looks natural and just like Super35 processed movies of the era tend to look when optically printed to anamorphic 2.35:1. Furthermore, the film grain is often obvious, but this is forgivable when the movie uses a lot of in-camera visual effects with a lot of process visual effects shots. Grain is part of the film's texture, to digitally filter it out would remove further fine detail. There is nary a film artifact to be seen - no dust, hair or dirt on the image. In short, Terminator 2 has not looked better in the home.

Audio - 4.5/5

The audio is also a significant step-up from the previous DVD incarnations. My equipment is unable to fully decode the DTS-HD Master Audio lossless audio format, as of writing few players can do so. Therefore, current players merely extract the lossy DTS Coherent Acoustics core stream at 1.5Mbps, and play that instead. Even with the inherent mild loss in resolution, it's a terrific soundtrack - which was remixed and mastered back in 1999 for the Ultimate Edition DVD - and the stems made during this remixing process have been used as basis for this soundtrack. It boasts crisply defined treble and very deep bass which will require an exceptional subwoofer to show it to its best. The soundstage is terrific - with full use of all 5 main channels, and will also decode superbly using EX back-channel matrix configurations.

Extras - 1/5

There are no real extras to speak of. They consist of a trailer for upcoming HD discs from Studio Canal in 1080p video, some elementary video and audio calibration menu screens and that's your lot. Keep your previous DVD editions if you like extras.