Wow! This flew under my radar. Apparently ZAAT is on Blu-ray! http://www.diabolikdvd.com/category/Cult-Favorites/Zaat-(DVD-[sl]-Blu~Ray-Combo-Pack).html http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Zaat-Blu-ray/35923/
It continues to amaze me that movies like Zaat and Troll 2 beat Jaws and half the James Bond films to the high-definition format. If someone had told me that was going to happen 5 years ago I would have cracked up.
The DVD Drive-In review omits the fact that this disc is SLATHERED in noise reduction. http://www.rockshockpop.com/forums/content.php?2214-Zaat The screen caps don't lie, and yes it is awfully apparant even when the movie is in motion. Which is a shame, as this was otherwise a pretty cool release.
DVD Drive-In seems to recommend almost every disc that comes through to them, even the awful ones, usually on the grounds that it's either better than the VHS or is the only way to see a particular movie (both of which are true with ZAAT, since this is the only in-print release of the non-MST3K version and even with the DNR its probably still better looking than the two previous tape versions). Grain is the latest phase in the battle to get studios and consumers to adopt practices and expectations that get the home theater experience closer and closer to the experience of watching film in a theater. First it was trying to get people to accept films in their OAR, and then prevent excessive letterboxing on things that were actually supposed to be full frame or 1.66:1 (that is still sort of an issue, mostly because some films there's still confusion about what the OAR is, but there is at least a pretty broad acceptance now towards letterboxing). Then it was anamorphic enhancement of these letterboxed films, which many fans fortuitously started demanding even before they had widescreen televisions. Then the fight shifted towards getting companies to do progressive transfers, or at least flag their interlaced transfers for progressive displays. Now the fight is over grain removal. The company that released ZAAT still has not gotten the memo, and this is not an anomaly, their earlier wave of PD titles like DEMENTIA 13 also showed plentiful use of DNR.
I had my suspicions as HD Cinema Classics has been putting out piss poor transfers onto Blu-ray which were probably upconverts at best.