UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading [Archive]

[FrauBlucher]

Rebel Without a Cause bluray.com review

[therewillbeblus]

Is there a good site, besides Amazon, to get Eagle Pictures 4Ks? I'm looking to pick up the superior Italian imports in bulk, but can't figure out the most lucrative way to do it that doesn't cost a ton. The usual places don't seem to carry these versions

[Finch]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Second Sight)

Nearly every review and comment I've found this far remarks on how much of a difference the additional clean up work done by the Brits on this film makes and the encoding from FiM is the icing on the cake. I'll update this post with links to comparison caps between the UK 4k and US 4ks if and when they get uploaded. So far, I'm only seeing caps from the UK UHD itself.

[M-A]

I compared Kyle's caps of the Second Sight 4K to the caps on caps-a-holic and uploaded them.
Second Sight 4K <-> MPI/Turbine 2022 4K (they are identical) <-> Turbine 2016 4K

https://slow.pics/c/Jtamm1g1

[Yakushima]

Is there a good site, besides Amazon, to get Eagle Pictures 4Ks? I'm looking to pick up the superior Italian imports in bulk, but can't figure out the most lucrative way to do it that doesn't cost a ton. The usual places don't seem to carry these versions

Rarewaves has a few.

[MichaelB]

I compared Kyle's caps of the Second Sight 4K to the caps on caps-a-holic and uploaded them.
Second Sight 4K <-> MPI/Turbine 2022 4K (they are identical) <-> Turbine 2016 4K

Yes, that's not even close. Nice to have an unequivocally clear winner, and even nicer that that's the one that I favoured sight unseen (although my copy has yet to arrive).

[ryannichols7]

hoping for The Double Life of Veronique insight as Orbit has the UHD in stock...

[Finch]

Impressions from a spot check of Kino's Serpico 4k in Dolby Vision: "by no means anywhere close to whatever is going on in the German StudioCanal 4K".

12 Angry Men 4k: first few posts suggest that it looks better and sounds worse than the Criterion BD though one user adds the caveat that the Criterion audio wasn't amazing in the first place either.

I'm only seeing general impressions of Midnight Run 4k but everyone seems to like the PQ. Audiophiles will be disappointed over the lack of the OG audio; this disc only has 5.1 and a downmix.

[Finch]

The Fisher King (Criterion) Chris's review

[MichaelB]

hoping for The Double Life of Veronique insight as Orbit has the UHD in stock...

A quick heads-up - the UHD only contains the feature, while the BD is the exact same one that Curzon Artificial Eye previously released, complete with decidedly inferior-quality copies of the shorts compared with the restored versions on the Kieślowski Dokumentalista DVD.

So if you have that already, and no plans to go 4K, you've already got it.

On the other hand, I'm delighted and relieved to confirm that this has proper translation subtitles as well as hard-of-hearing subs - and on the basis of a very quick spin through the feature, it looks astonishingly good in UHD, fully matching my still extremely vivid memories of seeing it in a huge Paris cinema in 1991. And the bitrate seems to be nudging 100mbps a fair proportion of the time.

[M-A]

hoping for The Double Life of Veronique insight as Orbit has the UHD in stock...

A quick heads-up - the UHD only contains the feature, while the BD is the exact same one that Curzon Artificial Eye previously released, complete with decidedly inferior-quality copies of the shorts compared with the restored versions on the Kieślowski Dokumentalista DVD.

So if you have that already, and no plans to go 4K, you've already got it.

On the other hand, I'm delighted and relieved to confirm that this has proper translation subtitles as well as hard-of-hearing subs - and on the basis of a very quick spin through the feature, it looks astonishingly good in UHD, fully matching my still extremely vivid memories of seeing it in a huge Paris cinema in 1991. And the bitrate seems to be nudging 100mbps a fair proportion of the time.

Curzon's 4K of Wings of Desire isn't encoded very well in dark areas. Does Veronique have the same issue?

[FrauBlucher]

Gary's review... Serpico

[MichaelB]

Curzon's 4K of Wings of Desire isn't encoded very well in dark areas. Does Veronique have the same issue?

I haven't seen that disc.

[Finch]

Quick reminder, Frau Blucher, I'm not taking Gary's reviews into account. Ditto anything reviewed on blu-ray.com by you know who. Randy Miller is fine though.

A user over there quoted from the booklet of either Three Colors or Veronique (I can't remember right now but *think* it was Colors) and it does not say who encoded it.

[Finch]

Worth mentioning that Kino's 12 Angry Men 4k is in the ratio of 1.85:1. The CC BD was 1.66:1. The AFI listing and a contemporaneous review from Box Office review show the ratio as 1.85:1.

[Finch]

12 Angry Men Kino 4k vs Criterion BD

toggle left/right to switch between the comparison stills, arrow up and down for next or previous images

If you only had to evaluate the video, the Kino is clearly a reference disc. But if you couple the heavily filtered audio with the fact that fans of the film will want to hold on to the CC BD for the extras, I feel like a solid upgrade feels fairer for the overall release.

So.. 12 Angry Men (Kino) (reference video but heavily filtered audio, fewer extras than the Criterion BD)

[M-A]

The sad thing is that if you are going to start docking releases for having filtered audio, then you will have to add a caveat to most releases because of how prevalent it is

[therewillbeblus]

As long as we're not talking KL's Bitter Moon, I'm usually not too sensitive to that stuff, so I've appreciate Finch's nuanced approach to sussing out how strongly it affects the release (i.e. seeing the audio issues mentioned in the liner notes next to red and blue recommended releases, which translates as 'don't worry, this won't ruin the experience')

[Finch]

I take your point, MA, but people felt it was very noticeable in the Kino 4k so I thought it merited a caveat.

[M-A]

While we are on the topic, I thought of some 4K releases that have especially poor audio that deserve a caveat:
Anatomy of a Murder - stereo is a 5.1 downmix with heavy noise reduction (though I believe the Criterion blu has even more, but is the actual 2.0)
Dawn of the Dead - Ridiculously bass-heavy and so sounds very muddy
For a Few Dollars More - Very heavy noise reduction
Halloween (shout) - Very heavy noise reduction
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - stereo is a 5.1 downmix with heavy noise reduction
Some Like it Hot - Heavy noise reduction and opening snare hit is missing (exact same audio as Criterion blu-ray)

There are many other 4Ks which I could have mentioned that sound worse than previous releases (or just bad in general), but I'm not sure where you want to draw the line with it.

I also notice that A Clockwork Orange does have an audio caveat for the 5.1 mix, but I agree with blah-ray:

I've read observations from people, some even from professional reviewers, that the new 5.1 track is flawed. Frankly, I disagree; I think it sounds good. Most complain about it being brighter, which I imagine is based on the new centre channel having its high frequencies much less rolled-off. I prefer it. I don't care much for the ambient dialogue now in the surround channels, but the centre channel's 'unveiling' is by far the biggest change here, and it is an improvement.

The 5.1 remix does actually have much better audio fidelity than the included mono, which sounds muffled by comparison.

[Finch]

Which Dawn of the Dead are you referring to above, and if it's the Second Sight 4k, is one of the tracks worse than the others or are they all equally problematic?

[M-A]

Which Dawn of the Dead are you referring to above, and if it's the Second Sight 4k, is one of the tracks worse than the others or are they all equally problematic?

ah sorry. I meant the second sight mono. I believe the 5.1 does not have the same issue

[M-A]

sorry for the second time. As far as I can tell, this is how it stacks up:
theatrical cut mono: extremely bass heavy and bad
theatical cut 5.1: has moderate noise reduction, but not too bad
european cut mono and 5.1: heavy noise reduction and bad

[Finch]

Updated OP, thanks!

[AxeYou]

I second M-A on the sad state of audio presentation today. I recently went through my entire collection, researched blah-ray and other forums, and compiled a list of releases I own with bad audio tracks.

I’d be happy to share here when I get some time, although, as M-A said, I’m not sure where Finch would want to draw the line.