Page 96 of 115
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 12:38 am
by Finch
Yes I'll add them once I get to the desktop.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 2:55 pm
by tenia
nicolas wrote: Thu May 16, 2024 12:13 am
The Italian Plaion-Paramount UHD of Roman Holiday is exceptional and an upgrade compared to the Paramount US disc:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=64
The same poster also owns The Firm, Beverly Hills Cop and Vanilla Sky and considers them upgrades as well. The Truman Show could be just as great.
I see that some of those come with a BD : do we know if they're remastered or if, say for The Truman Show, it's still the crap-old BD ?
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 5:16 pm
by Finch
Are the Italian Paramount 4Ks mentioned above considered reference or solid upgrades? Sticking them in the superior import tier for now but will add them to the regular tiers too once it's confirmed where they ought to go.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 5:23 pm
by therewillbeblus
Just want to confirm that this is referring to the Shout! disc on the main page, since it doesn't specify:
Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978 (bad compression & missing audio stem for Don Siegel cameo)
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 5:25 pm
by Finch
The Kino 4k. Thanks for pointing that out. Adding the distributor now.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 7:58 pm
by Finch
The Truman Show is also confirmed to have a good encode on Paramount's Italian disc.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 10:17 pm
by nicolas
Finch wrote: Thu May 16, 2024 5:16 pm
Are the Italian Paramount 4Ks mentioned above considered reference or solid upgrades? Sticking them in the superior import tier for now but will add them to the regular tiers too once it's confirmed where they ought to go.
From how many of the bitrate charts appear to me, these new encodes are generally set to constantly higher bitrates in the mid-70s with spikes up and down compared to Paramount’s encoding patterns which ranges from 100+MB/s to single digits and something like Kino who just encode in the 90s spectrum and call it a day. Just speaking from charts, the first approach is the best and mirrors exceptional encodes the closest. The second problem with Paramount beyond the bad encodes are some of the masters themselves with bad grading and/or grain management as well as the lack of OG audio in some cases. Should we decide on a case-by-case basis in which section to move them? I may pick up Vanilla Sky and The Truman Show when they’re discounted at Black Friday or during one of these Amazon deal weeks.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 12:21 am
by Finch
I don't mind holding off until you or someone else reliable has had a chance to compare those Italian 4Ks to the films' Blu-Rays before we move them to the red or blue tiers, or not at all.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 2:56 am
by Finch
Deathdream (Blue Underground) (compared to their own BD of the 2K scan)
The 4K restoration is released as a dual format 4K/BD and as a standalone BD.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 2:00 am
by Rupert Pupkin
Is
Magic Mike UHD only a UHD disk release or is it a combo UHD+Blu-Ray (and the blu-ray disk would benefit from the 4K restoration) ?

Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 2:18 am
by TechnicolorAcid
Rupert Pupkin wrote: Mon May 20, 2024 2:00 am
Is
Magic Mike UHD only a UHD disk release or is it a combo UHD+Blu-Ray (and the blu-ray disk would benefit from the 4K restoration) ?
If you’re referring to
this then it’s most likely just a UHD disc since the description states there’s only 1 disc.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 3:04 am
by Rupert Pupkin
TechnicolorAcid wrote: Mon May 20, 2024 2:18 am
Rupert Pupkin wrote: Mon May 20, 2024 2:00 am
Is
Magic Mike UHD only a UHD disk release or is it a combo UHD+Blu-Ray (and the blu-ray disk would benefit from the 4K restoration) ?
If you’re referring to
this then it’s most likely just a UHD disc since the description states there’s only 1 disc.
yes the Warner UHD. Blu-Ray using the 4K restoration ? Not that the original Blu-Ray was not good but I would have been curious to see if there was some fine grain. I really like this movie; especially the "broad" girl and the way S.Soderbergh is filming her watching Magic Mike, etc... the whole movie looks like it was filmed through sunglasses/rayban and I enjoyed it a lot.
I bought and was pleased with the combo UHD/Blu-Ray "Out Of Sight" even if S.Soderbergh was not there to approve this new transfer and color grading.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 6:58 am
by tenia
Magic Mike was shot digitally on Red Epic, so what fine grain would you be expecting ?
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 8:25 am
by Peacock
tenia wrote: Mon May 20, 2024 6:58 am
Magic Mike was shot digitally on Red Epic, so what fine grain would you be expecting ?
Most digital films have a layer of grain overlaid on top to help break up any banding and disguise any digital noise or noise reduction added.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 8:38 am
by tenia
I know that, but I don't recall Magic Mike not looking quite digital on this aspect, hence my supposition Rupert simply thought this was shot on film but it wasn't.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 5:47 pm
by therewillbeblus
Did anyone ever report on the quality of BFI's Gregory's Girl?
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 5:53 pm
by Finch
No, I hadn't seen any feedback about Gregory's Girl but with the BFI's track record it's got to be at least a good upgrade over the Second Sight BD.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 7:56 pm
by nicolas
therewillbeblus wrote: Mon May 20, 2024 5:47 pm
Did anyone ever report on the quality of BFI's
Gregory's Girl?
It’s as brilliant as the other BFI UHDs. Encoding is by FiM and the restoration looks beautiful.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 10:58 pm
by ryannichols7
I'm no expert but Gregory's Girl is one of the most incredible, filmic transfers I've watched to date. probably was my favorite UHD in terms of restoration alongside Arrow's The Big Boss. legitimately felt like I was watching a projected film, cannot praise it enough. film is obviously incredible too
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 11:03 pm
by therewillbeblus
Awesome, thanks guys, bought it. I remember feeling cool on the film originally, but I needed a title to add and I'm hoping it winds up falling suit with my later-life crushes on candid youthful romances like Jeremy
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Tue May 21, 2024 9:17 am
by MichaelB
It came out when I was fourteen, and I absolutely adored it - in fact, I'm not sure I met anyone who didn't at the time.
One really striking detail is that the Scottish accents are
much stronger than would be permitted in a mainstream British comedy today - really startlingly so at times, and certainly the strongest I'd ever heard at the time. But that's because nobody working on the film seriously thought that it would be shown outside a fifty-mile radius of Glasgow - that it achieved this, and with a vengeance, was thanks to it becoming a genuine word-of-mouth phenomenon.
And I've always loved
Gilbert Adair's Sight & Sound review, published at the time of the original release, because this is a writer who otherwise hardly ever alluded to his Scottish roots - he liked his readers to think that he was a native Frenchman (and it probably helped that his name works just as well in both languages). And it also does something that
S&S reviews were notorious for not doing - despite an approach highbrow enough to namecheck Harold Pinter, Eric Rohmer, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and even Claude Lévi-Strauss, Adair also makes his own intense personal pleasure all too palpably clear.
Incidentally, when you watched the film, was it the original Glasgow or dubbed Edinburgh version? The latter was created for the US release after the Glaswegian accents were deemed impenetrable (not unreasonably, to be fair), but it had the unfortunate side-effect of completely sapping the film's freshness and spontaneity; once you're aware that it's been dubbed, it's hard to miss.
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Tue May 21, 2024 12:25 pm
by therewillbeblus
MichaelB wrote: Tue May 21, 2024 9:17 am
Incidentally, when you watched the film, was it the original Glasgow or dubbed Edinburgh version? The latter was created for the US release after the Glaswegian accents were deemed impenetrable (not unreasonably, to be fair), but it had the unfortunate side-effect of completely sapping the film's freshness and spontaneity; once you're aware that it's been dubbed, it's hard to miss.
Hmm I probably watched a version from my lib, so perhaps the dubbed? As long as there are English subs on this release, I should be okay, but I don't see them listed in liner notes on Orbit et al's supplemental features. Can you confirm they're there?
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Tue May 21, 2024 4:17 pm
by MichaelB
"Optional descriptive subtitles" confirmed on the box.
(I think the BFI subtitles absolutely everything - I certainly don't recall them ever not subbing a feature presentation.)
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Tue May 21, 2024 4:28 pm
by therewillbeblus
I figured as much, thanks for confirming!
Re: UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
Posted: Wed May 22, 2024 9:00 pm
by therewillbeblus
Are there specs released for Chinatown's UHD set yet, other than the inclusion of the sequel? I offloaded my blu, but now I'm getting nervous that they won't port over the Fincher commentary..