Disturbia

Kale (LaBeouf) is having a tough time lately. His father has died in a tragic accident, his mom is working extra hours to pay the bills, and he is having trouble at school. As a result of his trouble at school, he is placed under house arrest, ankle bracelet and all. Whilst serving time homebound in the suburbs, Kale begins to notice a suspicious neighbor. Convinced this neighbor is a homicidal maniac, Kale and his friend Ashley (Roemer) investigate this stranger living in their midst. Is the oddly behaved man next door trying to change this lovely suburbia into "Disturbia," or has Kale's cabin fever and boredom gotten the best of him? ( Stacey Pendry)

Special features include audio commentary with Director D.J. Caruso, Shia LaBeouf, and Sarah Roemer; five deleted scenes, a 15-minute Making Of featurette; outtakes; the music video "Don't Make Me Wait," a photo gallery; a Serial Pursuit Trivia Pop-up/Quiz; and the theatrical trailers.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 DVD exhibits a pleasing image with deep blacks and well-rendered fleshtones. Details are captured well, even in the darkest portions of the screen where the subtle gradations near black are still noticeable. Edge enhancement is not much of a problem, but edges can look slightly too digital and pixel breakup, while not often noticeable, can be seen at times. The H.264 AVC-encoded Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD still show the good shadow delineation and black levels, and detail is improved, as should be expected. Still, some scenes look overly soft and subtle gradation banding can be noticed at times. The two high-definition versions look identical. (Danny Richelieu)

Both high-definition formats include the same DTS® ES™ 6.1-channel encodings, with the Blu-ray Disc including a Dolby Digital Surround EX™ encoding and the HD DVD using Dolby Digital Plus Surround EX. The differences between the two Dolby EX encodings aren't night and day, although the Digital Plus used on the HD DVD does have an increase in overall fidelity, with a slightly smoother, more natural presence that isn't as digitally harsh. The DTS encoding provides slightly tighter bass (and an increase in overall level) compared to the Dolby encodings. All of the encodings provide a slight improvement in surround staging, although with a system set up to take advantage of phantom stereo imaging in the surround field (like our Reference Holosonic™ Laboratory), it is less obvious. The DTS encoding has slightly improved overall fidelity compared to the Blu-ray Disc's Dolby offering. The HD DVD's two encodings sound very close, from a fidelity standpoint, although the Dolby Digital Plus encoding is still preferred. (Danny Richelieu)