I've received the UHD of Downfall / Der Untergang from Constantin Germany (it has English subs) and am honestly shocked about what product they're feeding us. This is one of the worst encodes on the 4K format, no hyperbole. While I can't yet post BDInfo, I did get a glimpse at the disc size and, unbelievably, Constantin or whoever did their disc, compressed the film + everything else that's on the UHD down to 57 GB (!!!) in total. Yes, this is a BD-66 but they didn't even fill that. A refund paid this for me, otherwise it would've gone straight back.
This film is 155 minutes long, in 1.85:1 (aspect ratio thankfully corrected from the BD's 1.78) and shot on film. Fidelity in Motion could likely make this work but not a company that only releases 4K UHDs once or twice over the span of a few years.
Again, I can't make screenshots yet, so I'll try and explain. When grain is there, it's mostly buzzy and swarming around the screen in insect-like movements. As soon as things get even a little brighter, grain and fine detail is no longer visible and wiped out by the encode. When it's darker, grain is there and okay but absolutely nothing to write home about in contrast with normal and brighter moments.
With UHD and HDR, if properly presented, we can finally see films in a way where disbelief suspends that the "organic grain" we're seeing is just a pixel party. The best encodes do that, such as The Hitcher to name a recent example and it's a wonderful feeling.
Downfall is the exact opposite. We're constantly reminded that we're looking at a poor encode and a digital presentation. It's not immersive and not adequate for the film. There's no way around, it's an awful, awful encode and personally I think worse than Kino's poorest efforts. The reason being that Kino's auto encodes are serviceable when highlights aren't involved. A good example is Stalag 17, which I'm often using as one of their signature bad encodes. On this UHD, highlights are wiped out and grain cuts off razor-sharp at the border to something less bright, such as buildings or people. However, if grain is visible, it's usually rendered very sharply and precisely and in these isolated moments, the UHD looks like a DCP. I'm not praising KL here as their work is also awful but at least there is some sense of consistency in where grain is properly reproduced and where not. With Constantin and Downfall, it's all over the place and a neither/nor presentation. Grain is neither there when it's bright and buzzy in the dark.
I've compared the BD, which is the old one and the film looks better there. Due to the bad UHD encode, actual image detail isn't really worse and compression on the BD is better. Grain is there, fairly quiet and even. It's a fine presentation and the film looks more filmic and unobtrusively watchable for what it is on BD than in 4K, although the old master is obviously inferior with worse grading and traces of ringing / edge-enhancement. I haven't looked at the BD for long and don't know if there are any other issues.
The new 4K master on its own is very good and hints of that shine through here and there. The film's OCN was scanned and they did a rebuild in a way that the shots without VFX were carried over scanned from the OCN and they upscaled the VFX shots from the DI. The difference is drastic as they applied a bit too much HDR to these shots which makes them look artificial and the encode just doesn't retain detail. I will try and show this in my caps once the disc unlocks. It's not a situation like The Pianist where some effects were newly remade but then again they didn't DNR the OCN shots to match the VFX. I definitely prefer the way they did it for Downfall though. If you / others have any questions about details, please ask as I've last seen the film 10 years ago and can't point towards specific scenes that may be crucial.
And one more thing re. the audio. On the other forum, there's been some controversy about my "harsh" comments re. Constantin and them still using DTS-HD HR audio, which is not DTS-HD
MA and a lossy format from the early Blu-ray days that was quickly replaced by the lossless MA. Constantin are still using HR audio all those years later. I've extracted the HR mix from the Blu-ray and checked the
waveforms, which reveal that the track is clipped when it gets loud. Either the lossy compression cut off the high frequency detail or it's a poor mix. A lossy DTS 5.1 track that's also on the disc is exactly the same as the "High Resolution" HD track. Through and through a disappointing release.
