UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading [Archive]

[tenia]

It definitely shouldn't be a reference disc as the lab itself it's not encoded properly and is outputting HDR of a SDR restoration, thus not being representative of their restoration work.

[MV88]

I know this probably isn’t feasible, but given that several of Criterion’s recent 4K releases have been in SDR, I do kind of wish there were a slightly lower price point for them as opposed to the ones with HDR presentations. Like even $44.99 as opposed to $49.99 maybe. I know HDR doesn’t exactly make it a different format than 4K discs in SDR, but I think it makes enough of a difference to a lot of people to warrant at least a slightly lower price when there is no HDR.

[tenia]

Le chat qui fume have been releasing UHDs mostly in SDR but when some of them were in HDR, they didn't precise it ahead (so people only discovered the discs were HDR when they received them), and it made 0 difference in their sales figures.
They are operating in a smaller market though, so maybe they only need 1000 customers not caring about HDR while maybe if they were to try and sell 2000 copies, it would go past this threshold, but I do think it reminds us that just like people might be happy with BDs reusing 20 years old obsolete HD masters, some might be happy buying SDR UHDs.

[Finch]

Checking in briefly. First time I'm hearing about encoding issues with the French 4k of the Renoir, to be honest. I did know about the HDR. I'll amend early next week.

[rrenault]

Well I think the HDR issue *is* the encoding issue. The compression on the French UHD seems to be more or less fine. Either way, given the state of the source materials, I can’t imagine a 4K SDR Blu ray from CC would provide a massive uptick over BFI’s 4K-sourced Blu ray presumably authored by FiM, so I’m surprised it’s such an early UHD title from Criterion.

[Finch]

Early reactions to two new Paramount UHDs suggest that they've not encoded The Core as well as they should have, but they appear to have treated Dragonslayer with proper care and even a great new cover to boot.

Studio Canal reportedly had David MacKenzie do a new encode for the files provided from Criterion. If confirmed, the UK version would leapfrog the Criterion which was their first UHD where the compression didn't quite match the standard set by the previous early releases. EDIT 3/23/23: I was referring to Virgin Suicides, sorry for the confusion.

Martin from Second Sight was done by David as per booklet photos posted by people who got their copies early from Orbit and Amazon.

[tenia]

Well I think the HDR issue *is* the encoding issue.

Yes indeed.

[MichaelB]

Studio Canal reportedly had David MacKenzie do a new encode for the files provided from Criterion. If confirmed, the UK version would leapfrog the Criterion which was their first UHD where the compression didn't quite match the standard set by the previous early releases.

Apologies if I'm being thick, but which title are you referring to here?

[yoloswegmaster]

Apologies if I'm being thick, but which title are you referring to here?

The Virgin Suicides. This is only speculation since it was only mentioned in a review that the Studiocanal 4K was encoded by them but that blurb has now been removed from the article.

[Finch]

It's been taken off? Hm. I'll keep an eye on the FiM thread on BR to see if Virgin Suicides gets added.

[onedimension]

Anyone know if the Synapse UHD of Phenomena is the same transfer as the Arrow?

[dwk]

They are the exact same discs. But, for the standard release, go with Synapse as their standard keeps both discs.

[senseabove]

First report on the Italian UHD of Teorema and it's a generally positive one with lots of weird caveats: it's SDR, despite the box claiming DV; it's region B locked (!!); and it's purportedly a different scan than the one used for the Criterion disc—though it seems unbelievable that they'd do another scan so soon—with notably, if not extremely, different color timing.

[black&huge]

any rumblings yet on studiocanal's The Man Who Fell to Earth?

[Finch]

The Superman UHD set has been officially postponed to May 9. WB sent an update to the press but didn't explain the delay.

[Finch]

Enough feedback has trickled in to confirm that the encoding of The Core 4k is not good but the HDR still makes it a slight improvement over Shout's Blu-Ray.

A BR user thought they'd applied quite a bit of DNR to the Dragonslayer finale which reportedly uses a lot of optical dissolves (I haven't seen the film but now I'm keen) but was very happy with the rest of the presentation. I'd like to see more reactions still before adding it to the OP.

Edit: never mind re 88's Hell of the Living Dead (I'd forgotten that we replaced the Avoid column with UHDs worse than the BDs)

Re Man Who Fell to Earth: people are starting to get their copies, so we should know more soon!

[Finch]

PS.: Rules of the Game; I labelled the French UHD as a reference disc in good faith at the time; it was only after the fact that the enforced HDR became knowledge. Still, it does look appreciably better than the Criterion Blu-Ray, so I think a "solid upgrade" with a caveat for the HDR seems fair?

[andyli]

First report on the Italian UHD of Teorema and it's a generally positive one with lots of weird caveats: it's SDR, despite the box claiming DV; it's region B locked (!!); and it's purportedly a different scan than the one used for the Criterion disc—though it seems unbelievable that they'd do another scan so soon—with notably, if not extremely, different color timing.

Could this be the reason why Criterion recently changed their description of the transfer on the Teorema standalone disc (as well as the one included in the Pasolini set) to 2K restoration? I suppose Criterion realize the earlier scan they used was in fact a 2K one, and this new 4k scan used by the Italian UHD was not good enough for them to make a change in the upcoming set.

[tenia]

The individual 2020 edition's booklet of Teorema clearly states it's sourced from a 4k restoration. It'd mean either they were wrong on the workflow for this one, or the set will include a different master.

[Finch]

Chris's review of Three Colors Red

So, if I have this right, we have a big improvement over the BD with Blue especially, and White, but Red's encoding is only acceptable in Dolby Vision playback.

I'm inclined to rate the entire set as a solid upgrade, since we don't seem to know for sure how faithful the grading for White and Red is (though, in comparison to the BDs, it feels more accurate to the people who've watched all the films) and the encoding of Red in particular could be bettered by the forthcoming UK release.

[Finch]

Dragonslayer (Paramount)

Further confirmation that the finale has had DNR applied but the rest of the film is very well encoded. Walter Chaw of FFC was disappointed by the video but was very complimentary of the Atmos track. Review here. His take on the PQ is mostly an outlier as most everyone else seems very happy with the disc, aforementioned scene aside.

kmhoffman said on the other forum he spot-checked the UK Virgin Suicides 4k and felt it was better encoded than the Criterion but turns to mush when the end credits begin. Interestingly Geoff D said in the same thread he thought the Criterion UHD looked great. Make of that what you will but either way, it doesn't seem like either release is going to turn out appreciably better than the other (and the cover for the Studio Canal is appalling compared to the evocative artwork for the Criterion).

[mhofmann]

kmhoffman said on the other forum he spot-checked the UK Virgin Suicides 4k and felt it was better encoded than the Criterion but turns to mush when the end credits begin.

The Studiocanal looked better to my eyes when comparing a few sequences side-by-side.

Similar to what we see on the two The Piano or Mulholland Drive versions: Studiocanal has more finely resolved grain, while Criterion's grain rendering looks decidedly more chunky, to the point where it could even be a bit low-pass filtered (either on purpose or due to different encoder settings).

The end credits look certainly messed up on the Studiocanal release and are fine on the Criterion.

[Finch]

Cauldron are off to a flying start with their 4k entry, Fulci's City of the Living Dead, with a David M encode and here is one of some early very positive reactions.

EDIT: 3/27/12: second review

[M Sanderson]

Cauldron are off to a flying start with their 4k entry, Fulci's City of the Living Dead, with a David M encode and here is one of some early very positive reactions.

Thanks for confirming this. The title obviously sold out quickly and is one of those LE’s that doesn’t get reviewed on any of the regular sites. I’ll definitely grab the standard edition when Cauldron bring it out. Happy to support them as I really liked their Blu-ray of Fulci’s Contraband.

[mhofmann]

kmhoffman said on the other forum he spot-checked the UK Virgin Suicides 4k and felt it was better encoded than the Criterion but turns to mush when the end credits begin.

The Studiocanal looked better to my eyes when comparing a few sequences side-by-side.

Similar to what we see on the two The Piano or Mulholland Drive versions: Studiocanal has more finely resolved grain, while Criterion's grain rendering looks decidedly more chunky, to the point where it could even be a bit low-pass filtered (either on purpose or due to different encoder settings).

The end credits look certainly messed up on the Studiocanal release and are fine on the Criterion.

Encoding difference depicted here:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=24