The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080i presentation in 1.33:1. This is another in Eagle Rock's so-called "SD Blu-ray" series, and anyone who has either purchased one of these or even seen some of the screenshots on our reviews of previous releases will know pretty much what to expect. This has the same upscaling issues that many of the other SD Blu-rays have had, with combing artifacts galore (so much so that it was actually hard for me to get what I considered to be decent screenshots, one reason why you only see one full on screenshot of Charlie Watts). There are also prevalent issues with stairstepping on elements like guitar strings. There are some stylistic conceits, like quasi-montages, and those can offer very little detail at times (see screenshot 6). All of that said, some of the midrange and close-ups actually have decent clarity and acceptable if still obviously deficient detail levels. This is one of those "it is what it is" releases, and I parsing of the screenshots included with this review is highly encouraged to at least give some indication of what this can look like.
The Rolling Stones: Bridges to Bremen features LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio, with the disc authored to default to the stereo track. And in fact some may prefer the stereo track, as it tends to elevate the vocals in the mix and also arguably diminshes what is at times pretty overwhelming audience cacophony, something that can spill pretty aggressively into the surround channels of the 5.1 version. Both tracks have what sounds like some very minor distortion with regard to Keith's guitar, which can crackle a bit, though I noticed this same anomaly on the CD, so I'm assuming that perhaps someone had a gain dial on a board tweaked a little too hot. Otherwise, though, both tracks on this disc offer excellent fidelity and the surround track does offer some significant oomph in the lower registers, though there is a slightly phase-y quality to the midrange and lower end at times.