The Venture Bros: Season 3 Blu-ray

Warner Bros. | 2008 | 286 mins | Not rated | Mar 24, 2009

Large: Front Back Add to collection Set price tracking

Video Video codec: VC-1 Video resolution: 1080p Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 Audio English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English: Dolby Digital 5.1 English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (less) Subtitles English SDH English SDH (less) Discs 50GB Blu-ray Disc Two-disc set

Price List price: $44.98  Amazon: $26.99 (Save 40%) Third party: $24.95 (Save 45%) Usually ships in 24 hours Blu-ray rating Users 5.0 Reviewer 4.0 Overall 4.1 Based on 2 user ratings Playback Region free

The Venture Bros: Season 3

I've really found myself looking forward to animated releases from Warner Brothers lately. Recent titles like Wonder Woman, The New Frontier, and Tales of the Black Freighter all stick out in my mind as excellent high definition releases of traditionally-styled animated features. Thankfully, each episode of Venture Bros: Season 3 is delivered with a similarly impressive 1080p/VC-1 transfer; one that packs the screen with brilliant primaries, stable color fills, inky blacks, and refined details (so much so that some of the series finest lineart appears slightly pixelated at times). Compared to the show's television broadcast, the Blu-ray presentation boasts a relatively clean and sturdy image that doesn't suffer from digital noise, debilitating macroblocking, or severe banding. While minor banding pops up from time to time and bits of artifacting creep into a handful of frames (the most distracting of which appear during a screen-bending effect in the opening shot of Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny and a later-episode's nighttime reveal of a murderous doorway), the overall transfer is rarely hindered by its fleeting technical anomalies.

All things considered (particularly the series' humble roots), I would wager Venture Bros fans will be blown away by the quality of each episode included on this roomy dual-layered disc.

The Venture Bros: Season 3 Blu-ray, Audio Quality

Audiophiles rejoice! While the back cover of Venture Brothers: Season 3 doesn't list a lossless audio option, the Blu-ray edition nevertheless features an optional Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track. You have to pay a visit to the audio menu to access it (for some reason, Warner releases often default to the disc's standard Dolby track), but its presence should help assuage any fears fans have that the studio isn't fulfilling their recent promises.

I doubt the series' original sound design will defy anyone's expectations -- this is, after all, a show that parodies '60s cartoons in every regard -- but dialogue is crisp and perfectly prioritized, the rear speakers are tasked with a surprising amount of activity during action sequences, and LFE support is quite aggressive considering the nature of the production. And even though directionality is fairly imprecise on occasion, pans are smooth, dynamics are strong, and the soundfield isn't burdened with any glaring technical deficiencies. Granted, the strides the TrueHD track makes over the standard Dolby mix are minimal at best, but it only serves as a testament to their quality, not to any lossless shortcomings. Ultimately, Venture Bros junkies will be praising the Adult Swim gods for producing such a solid AV presentation.

The Venture Bros: Season 3 Blu-ray, News and Updates