Rattle and Hum blu-ray

[u2rob]

Happy New Year everyone!  Long time no visit.

Does anybody know if there's any difference between the two blu-ray listings for Rattle and Hum on Amazon?  They have different release dates and it's listed with different aspect ratios (though I'm fairly certain that both are wrong - every review and IMDB all say that it should be 1.85:1), but besides the price and aspect ratio I can't figure why there'd be two listings at two different prices.

http://www.amazon.com/Rattle-Hum-Blu-ray-U2/dp/B002EEY8LC/ - $12.99 as of 5 Jan 2010 (listed as 2.35:1)
http://www.amazon.com/U2-Rattle-Hum-Blu-ray-Bono/dp/B000IOM0WO - $17.99 as of 5 Jan 2010 (listed as 1.66:1)

Is this just an Amazon "feature"?  I don't recall hearing anything about a re-transfer of the film, or re-release of any kind...

[Brad]

I'm not aware of any new transfer, and I can't imagine they would muck with the aspect ratio.

Rattle and Hum was one of Paramount's first blu-ray titles. Paramount later signed an exclusivity deal with the HD-DVD consortium and the blu-ray was out of print for a number of months. R&H was "rereleased" on blu-ray when HD-DVD went tits up, but it was exactly the same transfer, packaging, extras, etc. That may be why Amazon lists two different releases.

Incidentally, being an older transfer, R&H is actually MPEG-2 HD while most new blu-rays are now compressed with H.264 MPEG-4.

[George]

Incidentally, being an older transfer, R&H is actually MPEG-2 HD while most new blu-rays are now compressed with H.264 MPEG-4.

Would there be any noticible difference in quality?  Or is it just a more efficient form of compression?

[Brad]

I don't think you would notice any difference in quality unless they tried to cram too much onto the disc. Not an issue with Rattle and Hum because there's hardly any extras.

[slaneman]

What's up, u2rob? 

[God, Part II]

I don't think you would notice any difference in quality unless they tried to cram too much onto the disc. Not an issue with Rattle and Hum because there's hardly any extras.

True, but one also has to take into account that RATTLE AND HUM is an extremely noisy film, in terms of its heavy grain structure; a new encode could probably better handle this aspect of the cinematography.  That said, for those of us familiar with the movie on VHS, LaserDisc and/or DVD, the Blu-ray is a marked step up in quality; it's just probably going to be the least impressive looking Blu-ray in anyone's library (due primarily to how it was filmed).  Personally, I'd be more desirous of a remaster of the film elements themselves (they've always been a little dirtier and the colors more faded than I think is appropriate) than just a new encode of the current film master.