text: This rather stacked 2-disc special edition of 8 ½ is presented in the aspect ratio of about 1.78:1 on the first dual-layer disc. The image has been enhanced for widescreen televisions.
  Up until Criterion’s recent Blu-ray release this DVD was the best I had seen the film. The image is pretty clean, almost completely free of damage. The image picture is sharp with a decent amount of detail through a good portion of the film, though it can look a little soft around the edges at time. There is some mild edge-enhancement at times but I didn’t notice any other artifacts. Black levels are decent, though not as deep as I would have liked.
  While the new Blu-ray offers a strong improvement the DVD is still rather good, better than previous home video incarnations.