UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading [Archive]

[captveg]

Platoon's DNR is likely a Stone/MGM problem from when they did the newer 4K master, but that doesn't make it go down any easier when Shout's release is probably the only one we'll get in the US. Echoes of Kino/Silence of the Lambs, though the issue on the MGM provided master in that case was of course very different.

I guess the silver lining is that if there's any studio willing to license their titles out again years later for yet another release with a chance at a better master being provided it's MGM.

[Finch]

Early positive reaction to the Funhouse UHD from a BR user who actually has the disc and watched it all the way through

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks!

[MichaelB]

Unless it's exactly the same encode, there's at least an outside chance that they might have fixed the encoding errors in the SC version.

[Finch]

Another positive reaction to The Funhouse UHD

[Finch]

Chris Muth on the other forum thinks the Scream Factory UHD of The Fog is clearly superior to the Studio Canal UHD, featuring the original mono (cleaned up, reportedly, as much as the problematic source allows) and much better compression on the HDR10 layer. I'd like to hold off a little longer for further feedback but Scream Factory's release qualifies at the very least as a solid upgrade. I am already adding it as a superior import for anyone who bought the SC release.

[Finch]

Dog Soldiers (Scream Factory) added

Both the Second Sight and Scream Factory UHDs advance significantly over the previously released Blu-Rays and which version you choose may ultimately come down to affordability and personal preference (which cover etc) but the Second Sight UHD does have the better compression of the two.

[Finch]

The colors on the SC and SF UHDs of The Fog are fine but the Scream Factory UHD is the one to get as per yesterday's post.

[Finch]

More Paramount catalogue titles with heavy DNR: Friday the 13th and Fatal Attraction (with the latter at least on the HDR10 layer, no reports yet on whether the DV layer fixes some of that).

[Finch]

On top of the DNR, a Blu-Ray.com poster also spotted an editing error in the F13 disc where the prologue no longer fades to white but black instead. No word from Paramount yet as to whether this gets fixed. My Fair Lady starts to feel like an outlier in their catalogue output in 4k. I personally don't care about either Friday the 13th or Fatal Attraction but that's enough snafus in a row now that I wouldn't pre-order a catalogue title I like from them for the time being.

Also, Blow Out (Criterion) Matt89 capsule review

I think Chris already confirmed this elsewhere but the enclosed BD is the old release with the editing error at the 28 minute mark intact.

[Finch]

Capelight's German UHD of Ti West's X is getting very strong feedback. Am adding this as we have a few fans of the film on this forum. No German-translated title cards or credits, good compression and application of HDR. Italian import is going to be out soon as well. Strange that A24 have not announced a 4k for the US market (yet).

[Finch]

The Italian release of Total Recall (1990) is superior to the Studio Canal edition which is only acceptable in Dolby Vision. I don't know how it compares to previous Blu-Ray releases, so I'll tentatively stick it in the solid upgrade column for now. EDIT: the distributor of the Italian disc are 4Kult/Eagle Pictures.

Caps

[M-A]

The Italian release of Total Recall (1990) is superior to the Studio Canal edition which is only acceptable in Dolby Vision. I don't know how it compares to previous Blu-Ray releases, so I'll tentatively stick it in the solid upgrade column for now. EDIT: the distributor of the Italian disc are 4Kult/Eagle Pictures.

Caps

Speaking of Eagle 4Kult discs, these are some other discs of interest:

Films already listed:
Apocalypse Now (theatrical cut): better compression on eagle, but german 4k has original audio track, US/UK releases are worse
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... count=4125

Escape From New York: better compression than SC and shout
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=625
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 29&i=0&l=1

Prince of Darkness: better compression than SC, correct colour space unlike shout
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... count=1009

The Fog: Better than SC, but worse than Shout. Also has audio pitch issue like SC.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=613

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: extended cut (excluding grotto scene) but not colour corrected like the kino and audio is 5.1 downmix. Has original italian title cards.

They Live: better compression than SC, but worse than Shout, though shout has colour space issue
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=709

Films not already listed:
Cliffhanger: Better compression than SC, Sony 4K has DNR.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=643

Divergent Trilogy: correct gamma levels on first 2 films
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=943

La La Land: fixed brightness shift and compression
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... count=1761

Lock Up: Better compression
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=779

Rambo First Blood: better compression
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=659

Rambo First Blood II: better compression, no forced subs during non-english spoken dialogue (same issue is present on SC and LG releases)
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 82&i=8&l=0
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=53 ... 1&i=2&go=1

Rambo III: better compression, but no forced subs during non-english spoken dialogue (issue is not present on SC and LG releases)
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=22 ... &i=19&go=1

[Finch]

^ Thank you for that input, MA.

Italian imports of La La Land and Escape from New York and Cliffhanger added to OP first tier

Italian imports of almost everything else added to the second tier, except for The Fog since the Scream Factory disc makes the Italian disc redundant. All Eagle Pictures titles except The Fog mentioned above are also listed as superior imports (though with Prince of Darkness and They Live, your mileage may vary if you value the even better compression on the Scream Factory disc more than the correct color space on the EP discs).

[M-A]

^ Thank you for that input, MA.

Italian imports of La La Land and Escape from New York and Cliffhanger added to OP first tier

Italian imports of almost everything else added to the second tier, except for The Fog since the Scream Factory disc makes the Italian disc redundant. All Eagle Pictures titles except The Fog mentioned above are also listed as superior imports (though with Prince of Darkness and They Live, your mileage may vary if you value the even better compression on the Scream Factory disc more than the correct color space on the EP discs).

No updates to Apocalypse Now? The difference between the Eagle and the LG/SC compression is similar/slightly larger than the difference between the 2 citizen kane discs, which are separated. Note that Eagle sells theatrical/final cut separately so these comments only apply to theatrical cut.
Also the German 4K of apocalypse now is the only disc to include the original audio mix (although it is lossy), so I think should be mentioned like is done for the 2 howling discs as its compression is basically identical to the US/UK discs.

For Prince of Darkness, the eagle also has better compression than the SF disc as well as being in the correct colour space.

I think the good, the bad and the ugly should be included. It doesn't have the corrected colours seen on the Kino and the stereo is a downmix, but it is the extended cut (with the grotto scene removed, and italian title cards), whereas the kino is the theatrical cut, so people may still want it for that.

Did you mean to not list the Divergent trilogy? I'm not sure how many people here are interested in it, but I think the differences should still be noted down.

For Rambo II and III, I was under the impression that the parts not in English were meant to be subtitled, whereas for II all 3 discs miss the subtitles, but for III only the eagle disc misses the subtitles.

[Finch]

Thanks for reminding me about the omissions. I was doing other things as well as the OP update yesterday and invariably missed a few titles. Honestly, I've not seen any interest in the Divergent films on this forum. If no one cares, I don't see any point in adding it.

Prince of Darkness (Eagle Pictures) moved to top tier

Apocalypse Now (Eagle Pictures) added to top tier, German Arthaus disc gets a mention in the Import tier for the original audio

[Drucker]

Thanks for reminding me about the omissions. I was doing other things as well as the OP update yesterday and invariably missed a few titles. Honestly, I've not seen any interest in the Divergent films on this forum. If no one cares, I don't see any point in adding it.

Prince of Darkness (Eagle Pictures) moved to top tier

Apocalypse Now (Eagle Pictures) added to top tier, German Arthaus disc gets a mention in the Import tier for the original audio

Does the US disc for Apocalypse Now not have original (presumably mono?) audio?

[Finch]

It does not have the original audio mix as far as I am aware.

[Roscoe]

The original audio mix for APOCALYPSE NOW was most certainly not mono, at least not in the original theatrical release.

[MichaelB]

Indeed not - historically, it was the first film to make use of a 5.1 speaker configuration (although ultimately the second to be released, after Superman).

Of course, plenty of prints - most likely the vast majority - would have been in mono, but that’s more “necessarily compromised” than “original”, and certainly shouldn’t be a preferred viewing option.

[EddieLarkin]

The US (and UK) Apocalypse Now UHDs have Atmos only on all 3 cuts. Frustratingly, the packaged in Blu-ray of the theatrical cut DOES include the original 5.1. This same 5.1 is available on the German UHD theatrical cut.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Apparently the packaging and the metadata for the German disc describe it as a "restoration" of the original mix, which makes me think it's the 1997 remix originally done for laserdisc. As noted further on in the Blu-ray.com discussion, the closest thing to a surviving master of the original mix was a copy of the 35mm printmaster that was literally rescued from a dumpster. I'm sure it was used as a reference, but the 1997 mix made use of effects not available on the 70mm mix, like consistent full-range channel separation on the rear surrounds—Dolby Format 43 matrixed these channels with the front LFEs, so the only way to play anything below 500Hz on the rear speakers was to use the single dedicated rear channel with no stereo separation. But it's certainly more "original" than the Redux-dervived 21st-century remixes that AFAIK all include at least one line of dialogue that wasn't present in the '79 version.

[Finch]

I've added the German import to the first tier as well. Both the Italian and German discs are also listed in the superior imports column (Italian for compression, German for the additional audio option).

[M-A]

Apparently the packaging and the metadata for the German disc describe it as a "restoration" of the original mix, which makes me think it's the 1997 remix originally done for laserdisc. As noted further on in the Blu-ray.com discussion, the closest thing to a surviving master of the original mix was a copy of the 35mm printmaster that was literally rescued from a dumpster. I'm sure it was used as a reference, but the 1997 mix made use of effects not available on the 70mm mix, like consistent full-range channel separation on the rear surrounds—Dolby Format 43 matrixed these channels with the front LFEs, so the only way to play anything below 500Hz on the rear speakers was to use the single dedicated rear channel with no stereo separation. But it's certainly more "original" than the Redux-dervived 21st-century remixes that AFAIK all include at least one line of dialogue that wasn't present in the '79 version.

Yes, I believe that the 90s mix (the one included on the german 4k) is a recreation of the original mix supervised by the original mixers after the 1979 mix was presumed lost, so it technically is not the original audio, but it is the closest thing

[Finch]

Geoff D on the Poltergeist UHD (BD is remastered too)

Overall though I'm *very* pleased with this. The movie has been given a fresh new transfer that brings it into the modern age without betraying its now-40-year-old aesthetic, looking clean and stable with minimal attempts made to "manage" the grain for the inevitable variations in the source material. The brightness of the HDR gives the spooky scenes a more contemporary energy but again, doesn't betray the core creative intent (which was indeed to light it very brightly in those scenes!) and nor does the colour, keeping that softer feel of the time but with the kind of precision that HDR/WCG is much more adept at than SDR. Indeed, the new SDR disc included with this UK set is a fine effort but just lacks that precision, that subtlety of the 4K HDR rendition in the quieter moments as well as lacking some oomph in the brighter sequences. The UHD's compression isn't top drawer, it makes me wish for a Dobly FEL encode just to round it out BUT it's nowhere near as bad as the base layers on whatever Dobly disc you might be thinking of, I do want to stress that point. It's just a bit untidy in the encoding is all, and that's weapons-grade nitpicking now. Most of y'all will think me mad when watching it as it looks great.