Is there a review anywhere that compares the newly released City Lights to the old Image disc? I've looked at all the usual places and have come up with nothing. Thanks!

sorry - the old one looked good enough to me not to try to get the new one. if that's any help.

DVD Beaver compared the Region 2 Warner UK/mk2 release (which came out last fall) with the Image disc, and preferred the Image for picture quality (PQ). The R1 release is virtually identical to the R2 (with the exception of the PAL-to-NTSC conversion). The three reviews I've seen of the R1 disc only note some occasional softness of the picture (which could representing the ghosting artifacts of the PAL-to-NTSC conversion), but overall, they praise the PQ:

DVD Movie Guide
DVD Movie Central
DVD Town

I would conclude that:

1. If you own (or wish to purchase) the Image disc, and PQ is all that matters to you, there is no reason to upgrade to the Warner.

2. If you can live with excellent, but less-than-perfect PQ, and are attracted by the superb extra material of the 2-disc set, buy the Warner.

3. If you want the best PQ and the extras, buy both (the Image disc won't be difficult to find, now that many people will be upgrading to the Warner).


I own the R2 "Complete" Chaplin box set, and I'm very pleased with it.

The original DVD of City Lights is in fact a "port over" of the 1992 laserdisc produced by David Shepard. The film was manually restored on video (around 900 artifacts were removed from the film for the transfer) and also has a STUNNING PCM 2.0 track of the Carl Davis re-recording of the score.

However, the original 1931 recording sounds awful on the Image DVD. The MK2 version's remaster of the '31 music track sounds vastly better...

Since the PQ matters to me more than extras, I guess I should stick with the Image version....right? Thanks