Jump to content

Anyone here succumbed to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray?


1977

Do you own or plan to acquire a UHD Blu-ray capable home cinema system?  

110 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you own or plan to acquire a UHD Blu-ray capable home cinema system?

    • Yes, I do
    • No, 1080p Blu-ray is good enough.
    • No, I'll miss my 3D Blu-ray too much.
    • No, I've only got 720p capability and it looks mighty fine.
    • No, DVD rulez!
    • No, I'm still rocking a Laserdisc player!
    • No, VHS will return (just look at vinyl)!
    • What's UHD Blu-ray?


Recommended Posts

38 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

You have that many?

I have 487 blu-rays of which 80 are 4k.

So you own more stuff than I do. I probably have fewer than 20 regular Blu-rays. I got rid of most of them and replaced with 4K. A couple of years ago, I was probably overdoing it but recently got bit more picky. To be honest, I was thinking of getting rid of some of them. 

 

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I got rid of most of them and replaced with 4K.

Yeah, I have done this too with some releases, but many other 4ks either lack something comparing to the blu-ray (eg. original audio), either they are not that much of an upgrade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Unlucky Bastard said:

This came in the mail today

 

 

20240618_045351.jpg

20240618_045406.jpg

Can you let us know if it is in a BD-50? (meaning in a 50GB disc)

The US edition is in a BD-25.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Unlucky Bastard said:

Where does it say that?

It doesn't say it anywhere.

You insert it in a BD-ROM and you see the total GBs of the disc.

I'm assuming you don't have a BD-ROM, right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're releasing steelbocks of the existing LOTR 4K editions

 

https://steelbook.com/releases/lord-of-the-rings-trilogy/

 

LOTR_LIBRARYCASE_V4-LIBRARY-SBs.png

Why do the mountain range heights line up if you line up the films backwards?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Why do the mountain range heights line up if you line up the films backwards?

 

There and Back Again?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Ok found out it wasn't a power outage issue, it's just a terrible player that everyone has issues with.  Do not buy the Sony UBP X700.  

 

I got the Sony UBP X700 II and regularly experience short cracks in the sound. I never had great experiences with Sony (once bought a terrible SACD player from them that went totally kaput after a year or so).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still have a launch ps4 going strong, plus noise cancelling headphones I use 8 hours a day everyday with no issues. I did have to take my Sony 4k player off line because it kept causing my settings to reset on start-up, but as it only has YouTube and Netflix, it wasn't a big deal. Samsung is the company I've had the most issues with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, Schilkeman said:

I still have a launch ps4 going strong, plus noise cancelling headphones I use 8 hours a day everyday with no issues. I did have to take my Sony 4k player off line because it kept causing my settings to reset on start-up, but as it only has YouTube and Netflix, it wasn't a big deal. Samsung is the company I've had the most issues with.

 

I guess their gaming console departement is better than their CD/DVD/Blu-ray/SACD departement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting. 

 

 

Sadly, as of yet there's really no ideal LOTR presentation on home video, and each release is something of a mixed bag. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only ever saw the original movie in the theater and I do remember what it looked like before I dozed off. It looked natural. I did somewhat recently get these in UHD digital copies and to me in DolbyVision they had a sickly greenish tint about them with a smoothed over DNR kind of look that is more like a DVD. It actually resembled the look of storm chasing scenes from the movie Twister.

 

Everyone gives GL crap for not releasing the original versions but the latest 4K releases of SW still resemble the movies and are pretty respectable, albeit lacking in grain, and Indiana Jones is basically perfect.

 

Meanwhile, Jackson made the LOTR movies look sickly and upscaled, and James Cameron made his movies look like they're animated by Dreamworks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I went to see the EE trilogy at the theater for the Fathom screenings, I did not mind the appearance of the movies as far as the DNR was concerned. It's probably because of examples like the recent Cameron 4K releases that I probably thought it was tasteful in any sense, but it was only in like one or two shots where I felt it was too mushy for what it should look like. Part of that might be how I tend to expect 2000s movies to look like, even though I already have things like Raimi Spidey showing the ideal path for a 4K master.

 

That being said, that video sure is eye opening. It's one thing to be told what the changes are, but it's another to actually see them. I hadn't even known An Unexpected Journey was altered until now, so it really is getting near Lucas levels at this point. I'll admit that I'm pretty poor when it comes to picking up on color, since I'm one of those people that tends to benefit from the yellow tint that's infamous in a lot of things. But I'd like to support having the original look whenever I can, since I certainly would be one to complain if I film I did know well was changed to this degree (even if I might still not notice if it's been a while).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Brock Lovett said:

Meanwhile, Jackson made the LOTR movies look sickly and upscaled

 

I think he was trying to bring the look of LOTR to be more in line with The Hobbit, which is definitely a bit of Lucasising, and while I'm sure @Chen G. will disagree, I think this was a mistake. For one, I prefer the original look of LOTR, but moreover, they don't have to look the same. The Hobbit should have a different look and feel.

 

14 hours ago, HunterTech said:

That being said, that video sure is eye opening. It's one thing to be told what the changes are, but it's another to actually see them.

 

Indeed.  I don't dislike the UHD releases as much as others (in many ways they're an improvement), but some of the creative choices were misguided, IMO. The DVD's look the best in terms of colour, but sadly they're only in SD, which goes back to my original point that there's no ideal presentation of these amazing film.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My thought process for collecting movies is this:

* If $10 or more is being spent per movie, I will always try to get a 4K release if it is available.
* Standard Blu-Ray releases are still "good enough" for most movies and I will get those if they are cheap at stores, regardless if a 4K is available in most cases.
* DVDs are okay if they are dirt cheap but I try to at least collect Blu-Rays if possible and definitely will not pay anything more than a couple bucks for a DVD.

I've grown used to DVDs again because I've been going through my collection. DVDs have a fascinating range of visual quality. Some look excellent and some look terrible. There ways to make them look better on modern displays. Just recently, I've been experimenting with a CRT emulation filter that helps DVDs look sharper on flat screens. Too bad it's not something that can be used on TVs. Meanwhile, the worst thing I can say about shoddy Blu-Ray transfers is that they just look like good DVD transfers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 22/06/2024 at 6:43 PM, Nick1Ø66 said:

Interesting. 

 

 

Sadly, as of yet there's really no ideal LOTR presentation on home video, and each release is something of a mixed bag. 

 

 

Thank you for posting this.  I watched it and learned a lot!  It is a big damn shame that FOTR is all messed up due to what was possibly a mistake, and that mistake persisted into the 4K remasters, even before getting into the separate issue that led to Gandalf's staff getting messed up.  And I never knew that changed Frodo's double in that scene, wowzers.  I'm glad I'll always have my original DVDs with all the right colors and completely unchanged from what was in theaters, and its a damn shame that that same exact thing isn't available in proper umolested 4K.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Drew said:

My thought process for collecting movies is this:

* If $10 or more is being spent per movie, I will always try to get a 4K release if it is available.
* Standard Blu-Ray releases are still "good enough" for most movies and I will get those if they are cheap at stores, regardless if a 4K is available in most cases.
* DVDs are okay if they are dirt cheap but I try to at least collect Blu-Rays if possible and definitely will not pay anything more than a couple bucks for a DVD.

I've grown used to DVDs again because I've been going through my collection. DVDs have a fascinating range of visual quality. Some look excellent and some look terrible. There ways to make them look better on modern displays. Just recently, I've been experimenting with a CRT emulation filter that helps DVDs look sharper on flat screens. Too bad it's not something that can be used on TVs. Meanwhile, the worst thing I can say about shoddy Blu-Ray transfers is that they just look like good DVD transfers!

 

I can barely watch anything PAL format anymore, despite living in a PAL country. So I seek out NTSC DVDs whenever I can now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Unlucky Bastard said:

 

I can barely watch anything PAL format anymore, despite living in a PAL country. So I seek out NTSC DVDs whenever I can now.

 

And I'm the kind of person who would get PAL DVDs for the higher resolution for movies that never made it to HD. I bet there is a way to layer an NTSC audio track with a PAL video.

I didn't know about PAL's pitch shift issues until a few years ago. I always thought being in NTSC made us unlucky for having to deal with a lower resolution. Audio issues sound more annoying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a Blu-Ray for a film that suffers from PAL speed-up (25fps), probably from using a PAL master as the source.  I ripped the disc losslessly to MKV and found instructions online on how to re-encode the file to 23.976 and correct for the speed-up. Plays and sounds perfect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

One would think it was possible to play PAL DVDs at the correct speed with newer equipment. 

 

I don't think any player exists that can do that. And I'm not going through the rigmarole of using some obscure computer program to rip DVDs and re-speed them.

 

6 hours ago, Drew said:

 

And I'm the kind of person who would get PAL DVDs for the higher resolution for movies that never made it to HD. I bet there is a way to layer an NTSC audio track with a PAL video.

I didn't know about PAL's pitch shift issues until a few years ago. I always thought being in NTSC made us unlucky for having to deal with a lower resolution. Audio issues sound more annoying.

 

Again, this sounds like too much work.

 

And a minute amount of extra resolution isn't worth actors sounding like chipmonks to my ears.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

So what's the deal with Blade Runner? Only the Final Cut is available in 4K?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, Jay said:

So what's the deal with Blade Runner? Only the Final Cut is available in 4K?

 

Yes. And the 4K disc even has subtle changes made to the sound mix, similar to what Burton did with Batman in 4K

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still want to see it in motion.  The AI stuff is troubling, but it’ll get better.  Just a shame it’s not there yet when this is probably the last stop for these movies on physical media. 
 

In this case I will stick with the 3D Blu Ray. 
 

I still resent the manufacturers for eliminating 3D to force 4K to the market. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now its weird that 2 had fairly good reviews for the 4K so I don't know why they'd immediately decide AI was the way to go, but I'm wondering if this could be a situation unique to 3 since the fuzzy 3D look is all over the 2D version of the movie and they attempted to clean it up, but who knows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you nailed it.  Because of the 3D cameras, it always looked atrocious, so in order to give it a perceived value and put a 4K logo on it, they felt they needed to go hard to brighten and sharpen it.  It’s just that AI is the new DNR.   I wonder what percentage of 4K buyers are as informed regarding this sort of thing.  I’d wager at least half of the consumers in the market will be fine with it.   I could be wrong, though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, that I don't know, but someone in the comments said discs would be out next week, so I assume there'll be more images coming soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.