A friend let me borrow his UHD-ripping capable external drive the other day, so I finally got around to ripping the theatrical cut from the Blues Brothers UHD and muxed the original stereo soundtrack back onto it. I'm usually not a stickler for original soundtracks but the 1998 remix (done for the restored extended version) does not work with the original theatrical cut.
@jamesc - Tron (1982), upscaled from 1080p to 4K was a total delight. I have no doubt it would be a great candiate for a UHD releases with only a smidge of further restoration. HDR would be a big draw. No wonder it looks so good: from Wikipedia: Tron (1982) – 'Real world' live-action filmed in color 65 mm; Computer world live action filmed in 65 mm B&W, composited to a VistaVision intermediate, and optically printed back to 70 mm IP. CGI sequences recorded to VistaVision. I could live with the BD for sure, but anything in Super Panavision 70 should get the UHD treatment. Alas, we're talking about Disney.
My UHD copy of Coco reached a point in playback where the image broke up and the playback itself just stopped. The player is my Panasonic UB9000. I tried some disc cleaning with a Zeiss lens cleaning tissue, but the same thing happened again at what seemed about the same place on the disc. I'd say Coco has had some authoring problems. However,I purchased a new UHD copy of Coco, and that played just fine all the way through. I have a good number of UHD discs, but I can't really recall if any other than Coco started macro-blocking in playback. It's rare, but it can be out there for any disc as a process glitch. You probably don't need to worry too much about sheer amount of disc data disrupting playback.
Watching Hurt Locker 4K disc for the first time--one of the best I've seen. Reference disc all the way. Atmos sound probably reference quality too.
I just got finished watching the UHD and then comparing it to the BD. Yeah, it's nominal upgrade, but I noticed that the BD gets washed out when there's a lot of light, while the UHD remains stable. The HDR colors pop a little more, but the BD colors are fine as they are. Where the UHD excels is its light and dark balance, where it's great with shadows and everything in between. Closeups are more detailed on the UHD. Poorly composed shots are now more unflattering under a 4K microscope. The Apollo 13 UHD will be my new go-to disc, of course. It's just nothing to wow over. The source is what it is.
Mine will hopefully arrive this week, I've recently gotten my partner into older films and she's excited to see this one! Coming June 7th as a steelbook! Lawrence of Arabia 4K Blu-ray (SteelBook)
I was thinking the exact same thing. Just sell me the friggin' film in a black plastic case. They could be releasing it in steelbook, only, to rake up that cash from the high demand after the Columbia boxset sold out.
Funnily enough I don't mind it! But I just refuse to buy steelbooks in general, I don't dig the aesthetic at all.
How is it just marketing? At the very least "Mastered in 4K" means that the studio has physically taken a print of the film (hopefully the original negatives), scanned it at 4K and downsampled the scan to 1080p. I mean, I guess the studio could lie and say it was mastered at 4K, when it wasn't, but there are a ton of people out there who could sniff past that lie, as they have insider information and/or they are connected to the studios, like some members in this forum.
What‘s the advantage of scanning a movie at 4K only to downsize it to 1080? That only adds artifacts.
Studios are future-proofing their archives, but more importantly they are preserving and restoring their films. Artifact? I don't believe so. It's no different than recording at 24/96 and then you downsample to 16/44.1 for the CD. It leaves no artifacts. There are umpteen examples of 4K scans to 1080p that only benefit from the 4K treatment. Really, there are 2K scans that benefit if the restorative work is put into it. Mastering the BD disc properly also plays a prominent role, as well as the bitrate by which the BD's information is sent from your player to your TV. Also, there are plenty of examples out there where a previous BD release is compared with a newer one, derived from a 4K scan, and generally things like aliasing, halos and banding are cured. I think @Oatsdad has noted many such cases.
Scanning in 4K for Blu-ray generally improves the picture quality, though casual viewers will only notice marginal improvements. Typically grain reproduction and fine detail are better resolved in 4K scans. This is true for most 35mm films. There isn't much benefit if we are being honest for 16mm films scanned at 4K.
I know, right? But I'll still pick up The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) when it's released on UHD. There is a German UHD out there, but it doesn't come in HDR. I still want to see it in 4K, although I'm not expecting miracles. The German reviews claim it's the best it's ever looked, for what it's worth. Yeah, I'm game, if it's an HDR release.
I'm going to use this space for my upcoming 4K wants (and maybe), since the OG topic is "are they worth investigating in." An American Werewolf in London (maybe) - 03/15/2022 The Apartment (maybe) - 03/15/2022 The Godfather Trilogy - 03/22/2022 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) w/Dolby Vision this time - 03/25/2022 - (no sooner than I spoke it) 12 Monkeys - 04/26/2022 Singin' In the Rain - 04/26/2022 Hitchcock Collection vol 2 - 05/10/2022(?) A Fistful of Dollars (maybe) - 05/30/2022 - need reviews A Few Dollars More (maybe) - 05/30/2022 - need reviews Double Indemnity (maybe) - 05/31/2022 Lawrence of Arabia - 06/07/2022 Paths of Glory - 07/26/2022 The Night of the Hunter (1955) - TBA/2022 The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - TBA/2022 12 Angry Men (1957) - TBA/2022 Giant (1956) - TBA/2022(?) Any other cool upcoming titles? Some times it's a first day buy, other times it's waiting for the price to go down. Some titles I need to pick up: The Beastmaster The Guns of Navarone The Seventh Seal The Ladykillers The Blue Brothers The Witch The Thing The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Animal House Christine Grease Unforgiven Blade Runner 2049 Halloween I, II & III Dredd Die Hard Taxi Driver (maybe 2023?) Star Trek: Into Darkness Of course all spread out over time. My pocketbook wouldn't like me, otherwise. Plus, there are some BDs I want to get.
Many of those are on my hit list too. I’m also looking forward to Larry Cohen’s God Told Me To, which is coming from Blue Underground, and The Killing, Killer’s Kiss and Dressed To Kill from Kino. And Paramount has just announced The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance too.
I'm down for The Killing. It's a great film. I've never seen Killer's Kiss, nor God Told Me To, nor The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Older Westerns really aren't my bag. The Eastwood films are cool, though. Really, I should know Killer's Kiss. I think somebody told me a long time ago to start with The Killing, that the other two films before it aren't that good. But I don't know. I'm sure that Liberty Valance will be a good seller.
