In previous years, this category was simply DVD of the year. However, the advent of Blu-ray and HD DVD has expanded its remit and, thus, has made it an even harder award to win. Nominees include Universal's excellent Extended Edition DVD of King Kong, Paramount's HD DVD box-set of the Mission Impossible Trilogy and Tartan Video's wonderful Vengeance Trilogy DVD box-set...

The Winner

King Kong: Deluxe Extended Edition DVD

£25

www.universalpictures.co.uk 

Reviewed: HCC #137

Assuming you are enough of a gorilla geek to sit through a longer cut of the already epic 137-minute movie, this box set really delivers the goods.

The 13 minutes of new material added in by Peter Jackson is all action – nothing from the tedious lead-up to the island adventure – and you still get the fabulous 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer and punchy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound of the original. The new features include a commentary, 16 deleted scenes, bloopers, shorts, trailers, animatics,
a documentary on various Kong collectables and scripts. Finally there’s
a massive 187-minute documentary.

Equally laudable is the HD DVD edition, with its 1080p transfer and Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack, though it lacks any extras – so get both!

Michael Potts from Universal Pictures collects on behalf of Kong

Also nominated

Mission: Impossible:
Ultimate Missions Collection HD DVD  

£45

www.paramountdvd.co.uk

Reviewed: HCC #139

Paramount’s first HD DVD issues set a high standard. For a start, this three-movie, five-disc box set is only a few pounds more expensive than its standard DVD equivalent. The Mission: Impossible films are ideal HD fodder; spectacular, noisy, and demanding lots of behind-the-scenes material.

Apart from an undistinguished transfer for the first movie, the set doesn’t disappoint; intense, contrast-heavy pictures, with stunning sound and
loads of extras including standard commentaries, interactive commentaries, standard-definition documentaries and HD trailers and Making of… features. An ideal introduction to the HD DVD format.

The Vengeance Trilogy

£50

www.tartanvideo.com

Reviewed: HCC #138

Nothing pleases us more than scenes of violent retribution, so imagine the pleasure we derived from this six-disc box set of Park Chan-Wook’s thematically-linked Vengeance Trilogy. Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, OldBoy and Lady Vengeance each get a magnificent two-disc treatment with improved transfers and Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS sound. Extras include a new 210-minute documentary, introductions, commentaries, featurettes, alternate scenes, trailers, TV spots and a Venice Film Festival doc. Best of all, much of this material is new so it doesn’t invalidate the earlier DVD editions. Great work.