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Finch wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:17 pmA Blu-Ray.com user uploaded screenshots here. Use the page down/up button to change to new screenshots, left and right arrows switch between the UHD and the old UK BD. I've never seen the film myself so would like to hold off assigning a grade until I've heard from/read reviews from people who know the film well. Cine Outsider only compared the Blu-Rays but was very happy with the new 1080p.

Which reminds that each restoration still need to be judged on its own merits, but also that the restoration trailer was clearly showing this one wouldn't look like, say, the Bruce Lee movies. Despite what some decided to judge based on a twisted perception of the said-trailer. It's even more interesting since it seems like the new restoration is not very far away from the grading of the older master, though it fixes how extremely dull it looked (like caps 1, 4, 9, 11...).

Finch wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 6:04 pm Eddie, are these explicitly marked as reissues? How can people tell them apart online or in person? Is it just the small print with 2022 on the back, or are there other indicators?

Kwai, MiB and Dracula are all steelbooks.

Labyrinth is a digibook (with 35th anniversary designation).

Karate Kid is exclusive to the trilogy UHD box set.

And Ghostbusters I & II are exclusive to the LE UHD set with Afterlife, now out of print. Hopefully they'll get reissued individually.

EddieLarkin wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:29 pm Labyrinth (adds Dolby Vision along with the original 2.0 and older 5.1 remix)

Maybe worth noting that there's been some controversy about that 2.0 track on the blu-ray.com forums: apparently it's missing some sounds also missing on the 5.1 remix but present on the laserdisc 2.0 (and returning on the atmos remix(?!)), leading to speculation that they mistakenly used a fold down of the 5.1 track despite intending to use the original theatrical, and indeed advertising it as such. Probably impossible to say definitely outside of comparing with a print, and I don't think I've seen anyone compare the UHD 2.0 with the LD in any respect besides whatever minor sounds are missing (I know one is supposed to be a gasp from Connelly's character late in the film.) Hopefully that's because the difference is otherwise negligible.

So The Bridge Over the River Kwai's standalone release outside of the large box set is good to get? As far as I know it's only been released as an LE steelbook like Lawrence of Arabia, so are you saying this is the reissue, or that the standalone release that just came out has also been (or will be) reissued?

The steelbook is the reissue -- for reference, the earlier release is here. (This is actually a link to a 2019 repress that added the mono track, but the original 2017 release used the same art.)

Oh wow, so I can pay $10 less and get the same quality disc?

I'm a little lost about which disc is $10 less, but as stated above, the steelbook for Kwai is its third release and each has constituted an improvement on past releases in some regard. In contrast, the steelbook for Lawrence is its first standalone release. If you want the best versions currently available for both films, you want both steelbooks

The link bad future posted above is 10 less than the steelbook, and I thought they were insinuating that the issue was fixed/mono added on that disc, and I assumed this new one was just a 65th anniversary re-release

In case there's still any confusion, the second release (using the exact same cover as the first!) added the mono track. This third release then adds Dolby Vision and comes in a steelbook. There is currently no standard packaging release that presents the film with DV.

Right -- sorry, I didn't mean to imply that the 2019 issue was the same as the new steelbook, I was just noting its its relation to the 2017 release in case the fact that it was listed as "2019 re-pressing" on that link prompted any questions. But yeah, the new steelbook is the only one with Dolby Vision, and possibly a safer bet for getting the mono track, as if there are still any of the original run in circulation at this point they'd be harder to distinguish from the 2019 version.

Oh okay, and no you didn't imply anything wrong bad future, I'm just reading greek and getting confused because I don't even know what Dolby Vision is, let alone does to a presentation of a UHD that lacks it

therewillbeblus wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 8:43 pm Oh okay, and no you didn't imply anything wrong bad future, I'm just reading greek and getting confused because I don't even know what Dolby Vision is, let alone does to a presentation of a UHD that lacks it

Dolby Vision is a metadata system that instructs your TV how best to display the disc's HDR grade, scene to scene/frame to frame.

Different HDR grades can vary hugely from "barely using the HDR range above SDR levels" to "using the full range of HDR, particularly the high end". The higher the HDR range used, the more difficultly a TV may have in playing back the intended image properly, because the HDR spec is a lot wider than commercial TVs can display natively. This is the entire reason why Dolby Vision exists.

Sony, of all the studios, grade their films using the full range of HDR, in some cases excessively so. This arguably makes Dolby Vision more essential on Sony discs than any others. Sony has up until now never really used Dolby Vision before, but are taking the opportunity to add it in to select titles that are seeing anniversary re-releases.

Of course, you do need a Dolby Vision enabled TV and player to take advantage.

I'm not DV-equipped yet (still HDR10 only for the time being), but I've never really understood the studio practice of simultaneously releasing non-DV UHD blu-rays and DV-capable digital versions on Apple TV et al.

rrenault wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 8:17 am I'm not DV-equipped yet (still HDR10 only for the time being), but I've never really understood the studio practice of simultaneously releasing non-DV UHD blu-rays and DV-capable digital versions on Apple TV et al.

Pretty much everything graded in HDR is put out to a final Dolby Vision master (DV in reality is the "standard", not an upgrade), but because the UHD spec mandates that all discs carry an HDR10 layer, it is more time consuming to put DV on a disc than it is a stream. With streaming, you just have the 10-bit Dolby Vision file ready to go, but for disc HDR10 must form the base layer, and then a separate DV layer is added to enable DV playback (and this seperate layer can be either just the dynamic metadata (MEL), or a hard data recreation of the 12-bit DV source master (FEL), which adds another complexity). Some studios seem to just hate this extra work, Sony up until now, and Disney are the worst offenders. Everything they master is finished out to Dolby Vision, but they refuse to use it on disc.

I could be wrong, but I'm also inclined to think the poorer the encoding/the lower the bitrate the more advantageous Dolby Vision is, since the premise of DV is to compensate for the technical limitations of consumer display technology. In other words, the lack of DV is no great loss on the Hitchcock UHD discs but is night and day on some of the more poorly encoded StudioCanal 4Ks. So with better UHD encodings there could be a question of diminishing returns in the uptick from HDR10 to DV.

I have a related question as someone who is about to get a new UHD capable projector, but who doesn’t have a UHD TV set-up.
Since to my knowledge projectors don’t display DV but only HDR and HDR10, having a DV layer on the disc is of no benefit to me. But I remember hearing that some discs are not ideally encoded for HDR and their DV layer represents the movie much better (I believe Studiocanal is one of the culprits here).
Since projectors, at least high end ones, presumably have a better ability to show the HDR spectrum than TVs (hence the need for DV for TVs), will I get problems with discs where the HDR spectrum is very high or maxed out (like the Sony discs), or will my experience be better than if I had a TV and would watch only the HDR layer there?

rrenault wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 9:20 am I could be wrong, but I'm also inclined to think the poorer the encoding/the lower the bitrate the more advantageous Dolby Vision is, since the premise of DV is to compensate for the technical limitations of consumer display technology. In other words, the lack of DV is no great loss on the Hitchcock UHD discs but is night and day on some of the more poorly encoded StudioCanal 4Ks. So with better UHD encodings there could be a question of diminishing returns in the uptick from HDR10 to DV.

But that's no reason to actually use DV, it would be easier to just get the HDR10 encoding right! A bad encode has nothing to do with the technical limits of a consumer display. And whilst it is true that the FEL system can fix poor encoding, it's only relevant if FEL is actually used. Some studios, chiefly Sony and Warner Bros., never use FEL, so the point is moot in regards to their discs.

vsski wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 9:38 am I have a related question as someone who is about to get a new UHD capable projector, but who doesn’t have a UHD TV set-up.
Since to my knowledge projectors don’t display DV but only HDR and HDR10, having a DV layer on the disc is of no benefit to me. But I remember hearing that some discs are not ideally encoded for HDR and their DV layer represents the movie much better (I believe Studiocanal is one of the culprits here).
Since projectors, at least high end ones, presumably have a better ability to show the HDR spectrum than TVs (hence the need for DV for TVs), will I get problems with discs where the HDR spectrum is very high or maxed out (like the Sony discs), or will my experience be better than if I had a TV and would watch only the HDR layer there?

Projectors, even high end ones, do not have a better ability to show HDR than TVs. DV is not available on projectors precisely for this reason. You could definitely encounter problems with high nit discs like Sony, but you can do plenty to mitigate the issue. The new JVC line (their first to use laser rather than bulb) are the leaders for built in HDR10 mapping, and they also offer HDR10+ (though few discs use it). These projectors will likely handle Sony discs better than any others. You can also use something like the madVR Envy, which is essentially an outboard dynamic tonemapper. And there is even a way to experience FEL DV on a projector, using one of the products HDFury make. They essentially trick the player into sending over the DV data, and then map that to a compatable HDR10 file for the projector use (including the improved encoding of the DV FEL).

Ultimately, if one wants to have the very best HDR projector experience, it's going to be a lot more work to get things right than a TV, especially a high end TV. It's going to cost a bomb, and ideally you'd want an experienced calibrator/home theater installer involved.

Thank you very much Eddie - I’m glad I asked as I still have the ability to make changes to my system and set-up. I’m actually working with a professional company that builds my whole system so calibration and installation is included. And they did recommend me to take a JVC projector, but I will have a discussion with them and convey your points and suggestions - will be interesting to see what they say.
Thanks again, much appreciated.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (2022 Steelbook), MiB (2022 Steelbook), Karate Kid, Labyrinth 35th Anniversary, The Bridge on the River Kwai (2022 Steelbook) and The Quick and The Dead added to OP.

Finch wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:59 pm Bram Stoker's Dracula (2022 Steelbook), MiB (2022 Steelbook), Karate Kid, Labyrinth 35th Anniversary, The Bridge on the River Kwai (2022 Steelbook) and The Quick and The Dead added to OP.

What is the essential difference between encode on the original 4K UHD release and the 2022 Steelbook of Bram Stoker’s Dracula?

I think it's jumping the gun adding it to the list as it won't even be released until October. The advantages that have been announced in the press release include Dolby Vision, "the original theatrical English subtitle font for texted instances," and what should be the original stereo sound mix.

My bad. I had assumed that it'd already been released. Thanks for the heads up.

Killer's Kiss (Kino) and Shaft (Criterion) added.

Out of Sight (Kino) added.