UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading [Archive]

[JSC]

Speaking of noise reduction, the Cult Films release of Antonioni's Story of a Love Affair
has very heavy use of it with the result that voices sound almost as if they're underwater. As
an audio equivalent of DNR I notice it being overused a bit more frequently.

[Calvin]

True, but it's only as bad as most everything else that we get these days. Not that that excuses Scream, but it's a rarity to get an old track free from noise reduction like we did with The Good, the Bad and The Ugly UHD, or the alternative track on Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice.

The other issue is here that rather than just take the lossless mono track from their own Blu-Ray release, they've somehow got the lossy track and encoded it as lossless. Or that's how I understand this. Whether or not there's a discernible difference is another matter, but it's a bizarre thing to do.

It's funny to think that they could have kept everyone happy by just getting the audio track from a nearly-30 year old laserdisc - presumably Criterion wouldn't have a copyright claim or Scream could have kept it quiet and pleaded ignorant.

[tenia]

The other issue is here that rather than just take the lossless mono track from their own Blu-Ray release, they've somehow got the lossy track and encoded it as lossless. Or that's how I understand this.

That's my understanding too, and I have no idea what happened except somebody simply screwing up and churning the DVD track into the encoder instead of the SOURCE of the DVD track.

[EddieLarkin]

Geoff D on A Clockwork Orange

[MichaelB]

Speaking of noise reduction, the Cult Films release of Antonioni's Story of a Love Affair
has very heavy use of it with the result that voices sound almost as if they're underwater. As
an audio equivalent of DNR I notice it being overused a bit more frequently.

The Mr Bongo DVD sounded shockingly poor as well, so I suspect it's a source issue. To quote my Sight & Sound review (February 2008):

The restored source print is in excellent condition, and presented with optional subtitles (plus Italian and American dubs). However, corners have been cut in the encoding: the picture is surprisingly soft and contrasty, and the excessively compressed soundtracks have a near-constant accompaniment of tinny electronic distortion.

[JSC]

The Mr Bongo DVD sounded shockingly poor as well, so I suspect it's a source issue. To quote my Sight & Sound review (February 2008):

Yes, I noticed that, too. The NoShame release is marginally better (not great), but has a bit more fidelity, albeit
with some hiss and a few clicks and pops. In other words not quite as watery.

[JamesF]

On the disappointing side, I'd add in Jurassic Park which unfortunately is DNR'd, I believe due to being the same remaster as the 3D re-release.

[Finch]

Other than caps-a-holic and Beaver, are there any sites posting 4k screens? I've bookmarked Geoff D's posts on BR but wondered if those three are the only ones who are bothering to provide at least an approximation of what UHD can do. Me, I'm ready to take the plunge within the next 6-8 months (new cabinet, new TV and new sound system are also in order). Can we make the first post of this thread a summary of the very best titles and the ones to avoid/pass up? (looking at caps-a-holic's caps of The Witch, the improvements, while there, seem to be so subtle that I personally feel like it's not worth the bother with this particular title).

[swo17]

I'm not going to do that, but if someone else wants to take over authorship of my first post, let me know

[Finch]

Happy to volunteer for the compiling of the Reference/Avoid discs!

[flyonthewall2983]

Saving Private Ryan is absolutely worth it. I hadn’t seen it in a long time and in such gorgeous depth as the UHD is, sucked me in. Lord Of War is another title that really translates well, it’s blacks and blues especially. Ad Astra, Sicario and Collateral are other recent titles I really liked too, for how sharp they looked.

Speed looked alright, but not much to either write home about or even compare to since I hadn’t seen the movie on anything other then television before. Heat looks way too dark to even watch on my set. Die Hard (streaming) a little less so but never finished it. Alien (streaming from Apple TV) is by far the best Fox title I’ve seen in 4K.

[swo17]

Happy to volunteer for the compiling of the Reference/Avoid discs!

Knock yourself out!

[cdnchris]

Die Hard (streaming) a little less so but never finished it.

I'd say the Die Hard UHD was worth it because the Blu-ray looked so terrible. Not taking that into account, I was still happy with it.

[EddieLarkin]

Other than caps-a-holic and Beaver, are there any sites posting 4k screens? I've bookmarked Geoff D's posts on BR but wondered if those three are the only ones who are bothering to provide at least an approximation of what UHD can do. Me, I'm ready to take the plunge within the next 6-8 months (new cabinet, new TV and new sound system are also in order). Can we make the first post of this thread a summary of the very best titles and the ones to avoid/pass up? (looking at caps-a-holic's caps of The Witch, the improvements, while there, seem to be so subtle that I personally feel like it's not worth the bother with this particular title).

I've explained elsewhere that whilst using screencaps was a perfectly fine way to judge the difference between DVDs and Blu-rays, and Blu-rays and Blu-rays, it is getting close to useless for UHDs. It's obvious some of us became addicted to it over the last 10 years, but it's now completely foolish to head over to caps-a-holic to decide whether you're going to buy a particular UHD. Even a title like My Fair Lady, one of those hallowed 65mm titles that everyone automatically feels confident will provide some dazzling level of 4K spatial detail, barely looks like much of a jump from the Blu-ray (because they both use the same transfer). Certainly there is a much bigger difference in detail between the Blu-ray and the first Blu-ray from a decade ago. And yet, Geoff D calls the My Fair Lady UHD the single best looking catalog title on the format to date (and I've seen it in whole myself and can confirm it absolutely dazzling in a way the Blu-ray simply falls short).

It's even more foolish to do it on something like The Witch*, a wholly digital production that will be perfectly served by Blu-ray if one is only looking for spatial detail. But it would be a complete waste of the format and your new kit to only think in those terms. My advice would be to ditch the caps altogether and only read reviews from those knowledgeable enough about different film and digital formats, SDR and HDR, and thus what a given film can look like, and where UHD is offering an upgrade. Which is basically only Geoff D at this point, sadly.

*incidentally The Witch UHD does have an issue regarding the black levels, they are raised vs the Blu-ray to the point that I believe it is a result of an error. I had to set my Brightness control (not the OLED light, the actual black level) down 2 or 3 notches in Dolby Vision to get it back to the level of the Blu-ray.

On the disappointing side, I'd add in Jurassic Park which unfortunately is DNR'd, I believe due to being the same remaster as the 3D re-release.

It looks different enough from the 3D transfer that I believe it is a new go around, but it definitely has some unfortunate grain removal going on (ironic that The Lost World hasn't and looks great). That said the old Blu-ray was reeeeally crappy so it's still a relative upgrade, but yeah not exactly going to blow anyone's mind.

[Finch]

Okay, first post amended. If you think titles need to be shuffled around, let me know. I feel like some titles in the first paragraph could possibly be moved to the "Solid upgrade from the most recent Blu-Ray" column. Also, what other Studio Canal titles have had shit HDR but great Dolby Vision? I could only think of the Melville.

[swo17]

My impression is that the T2 UHD should be completely avoided in favor of the 2015 Blu-ray, but that the Jurassic Park UHD is still preferable to the Blu-ray, even if it's extremely wanting

[EddieLarkin]

Indeed. I happily have Jurassic Park on UHD but there's no way I'd swap my 2015 non-DNR'd (unlike earlier editions) T2 Blu with the horrific UHD.

[Monkey Ballz]

Heat looks way too dark to even watch on my set.

Heat has not been released on UHD disk.

If it's streaming or "digital" you're talking about, that's a whole different animal than disk.

[Finch]

MonkeyBallz makes a good point. I'd prefer only to list titles that you've watched on a disc. Streaming hasn't caught up with physical media (just) yet.

[JamesF]

If I may be so bold as to submit a title that I worked on, then the Arrow UHD of Tremors is certainly a profound, night-and-day upgrade from Universal’s previous Blu-Ray editions. http://www.dvdexotica.com/2019/11/contr ... s.html?m=1

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

Having collected around 40-50 UHD titles now, I can say that I'm quickly becoming a big fan of Universal's approach to UHD mastering. Almost every of their archival release has just the right filmic look, whereas I find the Warners and the Sonys to be a bit off sometimes (mostly Sony, but they are getting there, it's just that their first UHD releases were at bit too much which I think EddieLarkin has already mentioned earlier), and StudioCanal seems to be a mixed bag, really, and with the independents Arrows and the others always deliver, so it will be interesting to see where Criterion will fit in here.

Anyways, regarding Universal, of course there's The Big Lebowski which I would define as a text book example of how filmic a UHD can look. Of course all the Hitchocks, Gremlins,Casino (a really great one!), Blues Brothers, it's just terrific, but also Animal House, its texture, detail and definition. Just such a close to 35mm experience on my PJ. Also, it seems that they are hitting a homerun with the classic Universal Monster Films now, and take a look at Carlito's Way (I know that stills doesn't make sense for UHD, but just check out the resolution and film grain here). Almost like a filter being removed: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=16610&d2=16397&c=6199

With regards to the underwhelming Jurassic Park, I have speculated that it could come down to the fact that Universal cynically knows that it's a title they can re-release and sell again to the same buyers over and over and over. I'm sure they will be releasing a 30th anniverary remaster on UHD, maybe pack it in a boxed set together with the new trilogy in 2023? Sort of the same thing with Warner's Kubrick titles. I've lost count of how many times they have re-released those film (back in the dvd days even in different aspect ratios), and then they pack titles into a box set even before they have all been released on UHD, and then including both UHD and BD's in the boxset. That's the worst move, I've ever seen with regard to the Kubrick titles. The only explanation, to me, would be that they just know that the Kubrick fans will keep buying and buying and buying everything that they release.

I find it a bit funny that Universal leads this game as I always found their blu-rays (probably also a lot of dvd's) to be sloppy and suffer from all kinds of defects, where Warner had always been the go to studio of the big ones for reference quality releases. Not so with UHD, even though their recent releases seem to confirm that they've finally learned it.

[andyli]

Universal? You mean the Bourne Identity Universal?

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

Ouch, good comeback. I should have said "with a few exceptions, including Jurassic Park, and The Bourne Collection". It should be noted, though, that it was one of their early releases, it's already 5 years old, but I agree, there's no excuse for that atrocity. So yes, Universal, too, had to learn how to "do" UHD. But I still think that they're closer to the goal right now, if what you're looking for is a neutral presentation that comes as close as possible to the original 35mm presentation...

[EddieLarkin]

Sony have begun re-releasing some of their earlier catalog UHDs but now with added Dolby Vision, which will tame their HDR grading considerably on all DV TV/player combos. Labyrinth is available, Karate Kid was announced recently and just now Ghostbusters I & II.

[Finch]

Over at the other forum some people are saying some scenes in Frankenstein such as between the monster and the girl have lost a lot of detail. Can anyone here confirm? On the other hand, I keep hearing great things about The Wolfman and The Invisible Man.