Does anyone still buy and collect DVDs?

Interesting to hear about your first hand experience with 4K BD. It kinda' confirms my suspicions regarding HDMI technology requiring upgrades a subject I had to read about when I first started looking into switching over to HDMI output/input. It sent me chasing ghosts in the data supply chain when I noticed black points were treated differently if I used my LG as a computer monitor vs a cable tv viewing display by just switching to HDMI.

In regard to your black point snag with your 4K BD did you check for a Black Point setting on the TV that is selectable (not grayed out as on my Samsung) when going full HDMI with a 4K "Player" vs cable tv connection. My suspicion of why this gets grayed out might have something to do with HDMI data communication that may or may not be compatible with current or old versions of the throughput technology both with cables and devices.

I can't be sure but if the Game Of Thrones night scene fiasco that was parodied on talk shows in the last week is any indication, I'm blaming the entire content creation and device viewing technology industry including HDMI data communication integration.

 

I tried other DVD's on my 27in. LG connected to my MacMini DVD player and found other movies are a bit sharper. "The Prestige" is one of them. Hair detail is noticeably refined but still has that filmic soft edge. IMDB indicates both movies were shot on 35mm Panavision anamorphic/aspect ratio 2.35 : 1. Only difference "The Prestige" has no scanned digital intermediate master and "Across The Universe" does have for 4K but on Super 35 as the source format. Not sure if that has anything to do with the sharpness difference for the DVD.

 

I can confirm that 1080 on the vertical side is total RGB pixel triplets on my LG computer display. Viewed through a photographer's loupe with 1/8in. demarcation and counted the individual RGB triplet and it works out to roughly 1080 on a 13.25 in. vertical measure.

So that applies to HDtv's. 1080 total on the vertical measure. If it measures 25 in. tall on a 50in. screen then 1080 individual RGB triplets get stretched to fill 25 in. space making each pixel appear enlarged.

 

I have DirecTV for my guests, but I don't watch commercial TV and have never had a satellite box connected to it. I also choose not to connect my TV to the Internet.

I had upgraded to a 4K TV the summer before last, when my 60" LCD rear projection TV was in its final legs. My processor had its LFE channel go out and it was a couple generation old Emotiva. Emotiva had recently introduced a new 4K processor, so I decided to upgrade to that.

Right as soon as Oppo announced that they would be leaving the disk player business after announcing their new 4K players only a few months prior, I decided to upgrade to the 4K Oppo UPD-203. It fit exactly where my previous '93 player fit, directly underneath the TV and the TV stand.

When I replace a component, I just unplug the connecting cables and substitute the new unit for the old one and plug the cables back in. I did have to change the power cord because the old cord was a 2-prong, while the new AC cord had a ground.

After I had installed the new player, I put on the DVD of the Florida Project, so that a guest could view it. At the time, since I had already seen it, I was working on my laptop, while the movie was playing.

I would look up on occasion and watch, but my continuity was off and I did not seem to be following the movie in my head. The movie also seemed to end really soon, too soon. Puzzled, I asked my guest how long he had been watching the movie and it was under an hour. I didn't know the running time off the top of my head, but I knew from watching it before that it was well over an hour.

Afterward, I put the movie on again to watch by myself. The movie would skip ahead and the movie would also skip and jump in reverse. Maybe it was not actually going backwards but going back to where it should have been before it had skipped forward the last time. The movie was certainly jumping around and it did end early.

I called Oppo technical support and went over everything with the tech. He recommended using the HDMI cable that came with the Oppo, which I did. I also ordered another 4K cable from Amazon Basics.

Note: HDMI cables manufactured in and after 2011 all are supposed to meet 4K standards. The cables that were already in place we specified to meet 4K standards.

The Oppo player might have been upscaling to 4K. The Emotiva processor might have been upscaling up to 4K also, I don't know.

I really had not planned to buy the Across The Universe, BD to try out 4K, I happened to see it online for really cheap.

While the black level thing on the TV may be an issue. it was not while playing regular DVD's and BD's. Unless something totally different kicks in when switching to 4K. But sine the TV does automatically upscale DVD's and BD's, I would not think that it was a setting on the TV.

THe 4K disk started stuttering and finally would not allow me to play the remainder of the disk from about the halfway point.

Since it is the only 4K disk I owned, I have nothing to compare it to, the disk might be bad.

Because of my previous issues when I first got the Oppo player, I am thinking that the first places to check out, would be another disk and new HDMI cables.

 

All new cinema releases are done digitally, nobody uses film anymore in theater projection booths (yes I am aware that some movies are not released digitally for artistic reasons).

The digital print is going to have resolution that far exceeds that of a DVD by a large magnitude.

A couple of modern movies that I have on DVD that upscale perfectly sharply to the 65" 4K TV are Tomorrowland and Vlaerian. I belive the last two Star Wars movies that I have are on DVD also and they upscale fine.

 

What brand is your 4K TV? Just curious.

 

Just to confirm black point issue happens only with 4K discs. Regular DVD/1080 BD, no crushed black point.

So you only upgraded the processor and not the entire TV, right?

If so maybe the crushed blacks is on account that the upgrade to 4K tv processor has expanded the dynamic range and now needs calibrating. Not sure.

 

I was referring to the two films being shot on film. That is the source for digitizing. The film has to be digitally scanned for DVD and BD distribution. It's the film source and quality of the scan is what I was referring to to explain why the DVD of "The Prestige" was slightly sharper than "Across The Universe" DVD. Both of those movies were originally shot on film.

 

Thank goodness I have a DVD copy of Dawn Of The Dead original movie from 1978. Try streaming or finding it on any format without paying a lot of money.

 

Finding some rare ( ones I don’t have )DVD’s hard to get. Don’t really bother with blu rays unless a new title, or a Arrow/BFI title.

 

It is a Samsung QLED 65" curved screen TV.

Here is a link to a current model. 65" Class Q7CN QLED Curved Smart 4K UHD TV (2018).

 

I upgraded the TV, then the processor and then the player. They are all 4K now.

I have only that one 4K disk. The problems that I was speaking of happened only with this 4K BD.

All other video sources look fine.

 

Professional equipment that is used to scan 35mm negatives to digital is quite good.

Sine I have the DVD of Across The Universe, I can confirm that it is a high quality professional scan and is quite sharp.

The scanning equipment far exceeds the quality necessary for DVD resolution.

 

I hope he or she did not suggest that the type of cable had anything to do with the mechanical problem of your player skipping around the disc. Jeez.

 

As it turns out, problems that you don't think would have anything to do with cables absolutely can, I have found out from personal experience.

When I first replaced my old Oppo with my new 4K Oppo, I was only playing a plain old DVD and was having these problems, for reason's which were quite unknown to me.

After speaking to the Oppo tech support and being advised to change out the cables, the problems with the DVD went completely away.

The tech did not believe the part about the DVD skipping backwards. But it was. When writing my previous post, I was thinking that maybe it was not actually going backwards as such, but was returning back to where it should have been before it was skipping forward.

When I say skipping, I mean randomly jumping ahead many scenes and doing it on a continual basis.

As far as technical specifications for HDMI cables I understand them and have made an extensive post in this thread, post number 152, in a thread which is strictly about the subject of HDMI cables.

As it happens, the photo that I used as an illustration in this thread (photo below) are the cables that I was using and was subsequently replaced.



Since I had only that one 4K BD, I have no way of knowing what the particular issues were, the disk, cables or other.

There proved to be no mechanical problem with the player, which I thought there definitely was. I was not at all believing the tech support person, but he was absolutely correct.

The cables (above) meet all necessary 4K specifications and I had been using them on the DVD player's that I use in the motel rooms.

 

I'd surmise that simply knocking the machine around to change the cables cleared up whatever was causing the skipping. But, who knows.

 

It was definitely the cables.

 

Glad you figured it out. I was reading a review of the 4K Across The Universe, and it is supposed to have wonderful picture and sound quality, so I was stumped.

 

I think that there is the possibility that the replacement cable that I have in the system still may not be up to spec enough, but that is only a guestimation.

The 4K Across The Universe, BD is the first and only 4k BD that I own, so I do not know where the problem lies at this point in time.

I simply know that having HDMI cables that are not up to spec can cause issues.

 

My only other suggestion is to make sure that your firmware is up to date on your receiver. I have had problems with the picture going in and out on the 4K Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. After updating my firmware, everything worked perfectly. It happened on one other 4K disc as well, I think one of the Marvel ones. Updating the firmware fixed it as well. Worth a shot, and it is free, too.

 

I have both the VHS and laserdisc sets. It's too bad that Network wound up cancelling their UK DVD release after it had been announced (and, I believe, preorders were already being accepted for it). Lots of people were skeptical when it was announced, as it had long been assumed that clearing the rights for the hundreds of film clips used in the series for a DVD release would be prohibitively expensive.

I haven't been too tempted by the various unofficial DVD-R sets since even the better ones are, as you point out, sourced from LD - I suppose I may eventually get around to rolling my own, but I'm not currently set up to do LD-to-DVD transfers.

 

Didn't say it wasn't. Wasn't focused on that in describing the sharpness differences between "The Prestige" and "Across The Universe" DVD's. "Across The Universe" appears to have been intentionally shot for a slight edge softness to reflect the filmic look of the '60's & '70's using different lenses and lighting techniques. The two movies are completely different in their looks overall.

I can tell you for sure "The Prestige"s edge halo thickness and edge contrast is noticeably narrower than on "Across The Universe". But if one is viewing an HDtv or 4K screen from 10ft. away it probably wouldn't get noticed. I don't notice it 7ft away on my 32in. Samsung but I do two feet away on my LG computer screen.

 

This one?
There is also a longer version posted on youtube as well.
Gotta love youtube.

 

Looks like I was wrong. Sorry

 

I have never seen The Prestige, so I could not comment about its "sharpness" as compared to Across The Universe.

I don't think in Across The Universe, that they were necessarily intending to create any particular type of period look. To me, it looks like a normal movie with a normal, meaning moderate contrast that would be associated with 35mm filmmaking, nothing unusual.

The shot of Prudence, here is probably not a good shot to illustrate the contrast/sharpness of the film.



This shot has the sun low in the sky creating a solid side lighting, which is typically a high contrast shot. Leaving it naturally would make the right side of her face completely in the dark.

This scene would have been softened to reduce the highlight covering the entire left side of her face and lessening the shadow on the right side of her face to retain texture and skin tone.

I don't know about the 4K, 10' away viewing on a 65" TV set having observably less detail than you would see a few feet away on a 32" screen. Modern technology 4K 65" TV sets are by their nature very sharp and detailed.

They project major motion pictures in 4K, on huge movie screens. Many movies are projected in 2K and are sharp on large movie screens.