UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[Fus1on]

I will also add:

Obsession (Universal)
One Battle After Another (WB)
Stranger Things: Seasons 1-5 (Arrow)

Marty Supreme (A24)

[nicolas]

I've not added Mrs Doubtfire to the Solid Upgrades since the encoding is worse than Master & Commander (the last Disney UHD with a good encode) and it doesn't seem fair to have Doubtfire in the same tier. Everything else from nic's post got added.

Mrs. Doubtfire and Dead Poets Society look really good in motion. Especially the former is one of those cases where caps aren't really reflective of the actual viewing experience in motion. If it weren't for the lacking OG audio, I'd actually petition for both to be added to the red tier.

[nicolas]

The Last Boy Scout (Arrow) - screenshots

[Finch]

Added Doubtfire, Poets and Scout to the OP.

[mfunk9786]

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Visions) - impressions

Maybe Fus1on can add it to his list if he’s still around.

This one was a lot better than I was expecting considering what the film is. The HDR really pops.

[Finch]

I'll watch it this week. Had Inugami Family and Paris Pick Up BDs to watch first. Curious how it looks with the HDR!

[nicolas]

Bluebeard (StudioCanal) - caps
Blood Simple (StudioCanal) - comparison. Massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)
Flic Story (StudioCanal) - caps
Macho Dancer (Kani) - caps
Tequila Sunrise (Arrow) - caps. Graded by Duplitech using a reference print.

[Finch]

The Cable Guy (Sony)

[Finch]

Little Shop of Horrors (WB)

Missing sound effects on the Atmos remix of both cuts, video is excellent. Luckily, it does have the OG audio mix, too, so if you don't care about Atmos, consider this a red tier entry.

[therewillbeblus]

Luckily, it does have the OG audio mix, too, so if you don't care about Atmos, consider this a red tier entry.

Thanks for that note, Finch, very much appreciated

[Finch]

Should point out that the Director's Cut only comes with the Atmos mix which has vocalizations missing in one scene with Audrey II and other sound effects throughout the film.

[therewillbeblus]

Well that sucks. Which is the preferred cut?

[Finch]

I'm not sure there is a consensus, or is there? The DC ending is truer to the broadway musical but it goes on forever (an entire 20 minutes).

[Finch]

A Better Tomorrow trilogy (Arrow)

caveat: A Better Tomorrow 3 encode not as good as the first two but better than Shout's.

Re: the extended cut of ABT3 (NLScavenger)

During the target practice scene in the Extended Cut, between 00:34:39 – 00:34:42, there are frames where large block artifacts occupy the screen.

Then later when Mark and Ho shoot at Bong (01:44:46 Theatrical, 01:55:15 Extended), there are frames that repeat large areas from previous frames. This is for example visible if you frame step through the first 2 frames. The repeated areas combined with block artifacts in places such as Ho's head, cause a noticeable judder effect. Additionally in the Extended Cut, the frame with the first muzzle flash has large block artifacts.

[Finch]

Cujo Arrow vs Kino caps

At a minimum, the grain looks far nicer on the Arrow. I don't know which one of the two has more accurate colors as I only saw the film on a magenta leaning DVD.

[nicolas]

Arrow’s is in the correct color space and matches the master, which I think is unfortunate in this case.

[nicolas]

The Complete Kubrick (Criterion) - caps for Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon (same disc), Eyes Wide Shut (same disc). Will update once more comparisons are up. The Warner masters are identical, just better encoded without the filtering.

[tenia]

2001's encodes look so close to each other, one could think they're actually identical.

[MannFan]

The Complete Kubrick (Criterion) - caps for Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon (same disc), Eyes Wide Shut (same disc). Will update once more comparisons are up. The Warner masters are identical, just better encoded without the filtering.

We’d have hoped for something a little more radical, like raw scans and then added filtering. But perhaps the original masters were pretty good in their own right, maybe that’s why Criterion didn’t alter as much.

[Zot!]

2001's encodes look so close to each other, one could think they're actually identical.

I would agree, but depending on the frame, you really truly can see a more consistently resolved grain structure. Sincerely doubt any of this is visible in motion, and I would NOT rebuy if I owned the original, but I appreciate that they squeezed just a little more juice from it to satisfy the obsessives. Looks great.

The others look impressively better textures and grain both significantly improved. I doubted it would make a difference, but consider me a believer.

[Drucker]

Will people once and for all stop falsely claiming that the 2001 UHD was "Nolan-ized" now?

[nicolas]

We’d have hoped for something a little more radical, like raw scans and then added filtering. But perhaps the original masters were pretty good in their own right, maybe that’s why Criterion didn’t alter as much.

The Warner masters definitely aren’t bad but they would’ve had room for improvement especially in the case of 2001 with its raised black levels and occasional DNR, both of which are apparently the result of Christopher Nolan’s input. I’d also argue that the color grades of 2001, Clockwork, Shining and Full Metal Jacket should’ve been a bit more film-like than they are now, similar to Barry Lyndon, which is perfect.

[rrenault]

Interesting. I’m guessing the aspect ratios are fixed on The Shining and Full Metal Jacket though. Correct?

I do notice a tiny bit more grain on the Criterion disc of A Clockwork Orange for what it’s worth. That said, I suppose it’s possible some of the perceived shortcomings of the WB discs stemmed from issues already baked into the masters given what we’re seeing here.