DVD details for
Dracula (1992) More at IMDbPro »

Michel Hafner (17 August 1999):
This 16:9 enhanced DVD edition by Columbia/Tristar of Dracula (1992) would be one of their top DVDs if there were not some compression problems.
The film master used is clean and images are steady. Color and contrast rendition are superb. Images are sharp and the noise and grain level is low. Finally there are hardly any video artifacts. The result is a very film-like presentation that looks very good even on high resolution projection systems. It would be excellent if there were not above mentioned compression problems.
The average bit rate is around a low 4 Mbit/s and it's not enough, it seems. A couple of shots have problems. For example in chapter 10 watch the two bright yellow lamps at 0:31-0:44 and 1:28-1:33. They are moving around a bit which creates a jittery look. At the start of chapter 25 there is a bouquet of flowers that is twitching several times. Facial textures lose occasionally some detail and look a bit distorted. This DVD would profit from the dual layer format and a higher bitrate, skipping the Pan & Scan version altogether.

Michel Hafner (24 January 2002):
This is the new superbit version of Dracula (1992) by Columbia/Tristar and the first superbit DVD I have watched.
Is this superbit approach a scam or for real? After all other labels have issued high bit rate DVDs for quite some time. So where's the beef?
The film master used is the same and so is the HD transfer from which the DVD is mastered. The only differences to the older version are as follows.
First the average bit rate for the compression has been more or less doubled. This allows the elimination of almost all compression artifacts visible under normal viewing conditions.
Second, the additional bits allow also more high frequency detail to be encoded. There is no or less low pass filtering required before compression. Images are sharper, textures but also film grain and noise are better resolved.
Finally there's a DTS soundtrack on the disc in addition to the standard Dolby Digital to complement the first rate picture with the highest resolution sound available on DVD. The DTS track sounds very good.
In the case of this DVD the picture is also a bit brighter and there's a bit more shadow detail. Contrast and color rendition profit also somewhat from the higher bit rate, but not much.
Should you replace your old DVD with this one? It depends. If you can take advantage of the DTS track and if you have a high quality display the additional sharpness and better compression will be quite visible. If you don't the two DVDs will likely look the same to you and upgrading is pointless.
As a concept superbit is progress compared to many older single layer DVDs from Columbia-Tristar, but it's not better than the best stuff from other labels. It's not unique in any way and it's dwarfed by any decent HD transmission on TV. So if you want the very best, DVDs won't do, superbit or whatever. In a couple of years these superbit DVDs will look old compared to HD DVDs. They look old now compared to HD programming on TV. Give us the HD transfer, folks, THAT is real progress!