DVD details for
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) More at IMDbPro »

Michel Hafner (30 September 2000):
This new ultimate edition of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) by Artisan, with the THX seal for optimal audio and video quality does not live up to its promises as far as image quality is concerned. Reports about a new transfer are not supported by the look of the film. It's exactly the same old transfer that was used for the first DVD, down to the dirt parts in single frames. Only the bit rate is different. It's lower here due to the added footage and additional DTS track.
The film master used is pretty clean and image steadiness is good. Color and contrast rendition are good, but not more. Contrast is occasionally harsh with clipped highlights. Sharpness is lacking in several shots that look fuzzy for 16:9 enhanced material. Other shots have good sharpness. Indoor material looks mostly worse than outdoor scenes, and daylight material worse than scenes playing at night.
Image quality is generally uneven with some shots looking excellent, others downright mediocre. Reference quality remains elusive throughout.
The noise and grain level varies from low to noticeably elevated. The grain has been fought with DVNR and it shows almost all the time. Noise filtering artifacts are all over the place (for example in the mental institution scenes among many others). In addition we have overenhanced edges in a couple of scenes, making the video artifacts the weakest aspect of this DVD. Compression is good.
Well, I'm afraid the THX claim of optimal image quality is once more nothing but hot air. This transfer is out-of-date and far from optimal (e.g. state of the art). The DVD can not hold up to high end standards when watched on a revealing display. It looks often processed and like video instead of film.
Unless you are interested in the new footage, the wealth of supplements on the second disc (or other side of a DVD-18) or the DTS track there is no need to upgrade to this version since the old DVD looks just as good/mediocre.

Peter W. Simeon :
This was one of the first RSDL DVDs. Compared to today's top DVDs, it is not quite as excellent as these, but still very good. The resolution is fine and a noticeable improvement over the non anamorphic laserdiscs. It was encoded with a high data rate and has therefore no problems with compression artifacts. But in many scenes DVNR artifacts are visible and some scenes have also overenhanced edges. The colors are a bit too redish compared to the laserdisc versions.
Live Entertainment did an excellent job on the DVD menus, which are nicely animated. Also the layer break was chosen very well.
The 5.1 channel sound mix is not as good as expected, it lacks a bit of bass. The Dolby Surround mix is better in that area, but it's channel separation is not as clear.