Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie 
Blu-ray + UV Digital CopyHBO | 2013 | 560 min | Rated TV-MA | Jun 07, 2016
Movie rating
|
| 9 | / 10 |
Blu-ray rating
| Users |  | 5.0 |
| Reviewer | | 5.0 |
| Overall | | 5.0 |
Overview click to collapse contents
Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season (2013)
Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. It will stretch from the south, where heat breeds plots, lusts and intrigues; to the vast and savage eastern lands; and all the way to the frozen north, where an 800-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords, and honest men...all will play the “Game of Thrones.”
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Sophie TurnerDirector: David Nutter, Alan Taylor, Alex Graves, Daniel Minahan, Alik Sakharov
| Adventure | Uncertain |
| Action | Uncertain |
| Epic | Uncertain |
| Fantasy | Uncertain |
| Drama | Uncertain |
Specifications click to expand contents
Video
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian
Discs
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Five-disc set (5 BDs)
UV digital copy
Playback
Region A (B, C untested)
Review click to expand contents
Rating summary
| Movie | | 5.0 |
| Video | | 5.0 |
| Audio | | 5.0 |
| Extras | | 5.0 |
| Overall | | 5.0 |
Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 3, 2016HBO is releasing the third and fourth seasons of Game of Thrones with some pretty nifty new steelbook packaging that also includes magnetic emblems attached to the front (see the cover above). Packaging may not be the only lure here, though, for both seasons have been upgraded with Dolby Atmos tracks.
For Ken Brown's thoughts on this season, please refer to his Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray review.
A Note on the Packaging: While these SteelBooks are undeniably cool, especially with the magnetic sigils, HBO has stacked the discs inside in a fashion that some may find problematic. For the third season, two discs are stacked on the left spindle, with three on the right spindle. For the fourth season, there are two discs on each spindle. On the third season, the top right disc has been placed upside down (with the playing side up). On the fourth season, it's the left top disc that has been placed upside down. Both of the sets I received had at least one loose disc in the SteelBook.
Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Video quality is assessed in Ken's review, linked above.
Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Maybe it's time for Nigel Tufnel to drop by Westeros, or at least my home office, since Ken Brown already gave a 5.0 score for the previous Blu-ray releases of seasons three and four DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks. Nigel of course was a believer in "turning it up to 11", and so perhaps in a similar fashion we should be able to give these new Dolby Atmos tracks a 5.5 (at least). Game of Thrones' sound design has often been as contributory to the show's impact as its stunning visuals, though perhaps because those visuals are so astounding, sometimes the sonic atmospheres of the series offer a more subliminal experience. These new Atmos renderings of an already impressive audio experience simply up the ante, albeit in sometimes rather nuanced and surprisingly subtle ways. There are clear overhead positionings of effects now when, for example, one of Daenerys' "little pets" flies in for a moment or two, but there are more subtle discrete effect placements now in everything from breezes to the sounds of blizzards. Action elements continue to offer some awesome immersion, as well as forceful LFE. As with the previous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 renderings, there's a glut of side and rear sonic information, with quite a bit of excellent panning effects to keep the listener completely immersed.
Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
Supplements for this season are detailed in Ken's review, linked above.
Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Even those who normally don't go in for double dipping may want to at least consider picking up these new versions. The packaging is nifty even by SteelBook standards, and the upgrade to Dolby Atmos provides a whole new level of enjoyment for home theater enthusiasts equipped to decode the newer audio option. Highly recommended.
