UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading [Archive]

[cdnchris]

Yeah, it's a great looking presentation, one of their best of their recent releases.

[nicolas]

Yeah, it's a great looking presentation, one of their best of their recent releases.

Wonderful to hear this. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. When seeing these caps, I really am grateful that Schrader isn’t one of the tinkering directors and that the film went into the right hands at Arrow.

[Finch]

Were you going to get Cinema Guild's Typhoon Club release, nicholas?

[nicolas]

Were you going to get Cinema Guild's Typhoon Club release, nicholas?

I only received it today as my copy was held up in transit. TBH, I would’ve probably cancelled this had I read the DNR reports but it was already underway. I thought I didn’t have much to add to what’s already been said but anybody claiming that the film is unwatchable is wrong. My eyes got used to the DNR when I watched a few minutes. The DNR is gentle compared to the Cameron films and what makes it bearable for me is that the party that did the remaster refrained from applying fake grain on top of the DNR which the DP requested for The Pianist for example. Typhoon Club now essentially looks like a digitally shot film, which isn’t ideal but not the worst thing in the world.

What’s surprising though is that the general resolution and definition of the master is essentially identical on the UHD and BD. DNR is to blame for this but I’m currently not sure if the encode of the 4K is also partially to blame. I’ll check the disc in my computer tomorrow and update if I notice something noteworthy but what’s a little suspicious on first glance is that CG’s encoder used much lower bitrates than I’m used to from indie labels. The UHD is close to the BD in that regard but it isn’t a bad encode, probably just appropriate for the clean textures in the master.

I’d say getting the BD is enough although I happily supported Cinema Guild’s first UHD effort as their contributions to this release are very good and promising for the future should they release more. They’ll have to get better masters though, otherwise it’ll probably be tough getting sales.

Someone at the other forum posted comparison caps with the new CG and an old Japanese BD (which I don’t have) and it’s a definite improvement: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=29

[tenia]

I have Army of Shadows SC disc (from the UK boxset), and am planning to buy the new release. If so and if I find the time, I'll rip the 2 tracks and compare the spectrals through spek.

Had a quick look at the BD : FFS, what happened to the grain ? Grading aside, which indeed doesn't look particularly convincing at first glance (black levels look way too elevated to begin with), several shots have the film grain moving like in slow motion. It's not frozen in place, but I can only guess it's only a few steps from being so. The barbershop scene at the 27th minute for instance is a full-on nightmare, because not only this but Reggiani is making the grain move around him like he's projecting a Jedi force-field. Ugh.
Thankfully, the whole movie isn't like this, as the rest is... kinda fine but just looks low-pass filtered anyway (like at th 62nd minute) ? There seems to be overall a noticeable discrepancy in texture from scene to scene anyway, and this all makes it even more glaring.

I'm currently scanning through spek the new French track : it looks like there is no frequency above 9 kHz (except for the Studio Canal opening logo), so here you go.
EDIT : running the UK SC boxset disc through spek : goes up to 22 kHz for the first 15 minutes, then up to 11 kHz with bits of info between 11 and 22 kHz.

[Finch]

Thanks nicholas about the Typhoon Club feedback. Moving, the second 4K coming from Cinema Guild, may not be better looking as it's from the same rightsholder but perhaps we'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Calvin]

Thanks nicholas about the Typhoon Club feedback. Moving, the second 4K coming from Cinema Guild, may not be better looking as it's from the same rightsholder but perhaps we'll be pleasantly surprised.

Moving is from a different rightsholder - Yomiuri TV. Typhoon Club is Chu Eibo.

[nicolas]

A poster on the other forum made a comparison between all Typhoon Club releases, including the old DVD and the Third Window disc: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=36

The CG definitely warrants the blue category due to the fixed black levels and the best encode. The Third Window BD has even less textures than the CG. I’d speculate that they botched the encode.

Hearing that Moving is from a different rightsholder is great news and CG probably know what they’re doing as now confirmed with Typhoon Club. Looking forward to this!

[Finch]

Thank you for setting the record straight, Calvin, I thought Tuphoon Club and Moving were licensed from the same party; potentially promising that they aren't. Moved Typhoon Club to the blue tier.

[nicolas]

Purple Rain screenshots and disc specs posted at the other forum (courtesy of secretplace): https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=269

The 5.1 and 2.0 mixes are confirmed to have turned out great and were sourced from the original tracks.

[Finch]

Fist of Legend (88 Films)

DNR noticeable, but still a big improvement over the BDs.

[Titch]

There is controversy regarding the audio on La Femme Nikita, with a couple of reviewers on Home Theatre Forum (Robert Harris and Joshua Zyber) declaring that it is defective.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... hd.383073/

Apart from Harris and one another reviewer, it doesn't seem like anyone else has mentioned the audio issue on the French 5.1 track yet. Joshua Zyber wrote that there is zero interest in this title on the web - it's the least read review he's published. Is there really no one interested in Luc Besson's first merging of French art-house and Hollywood blockbuster?

https://videofileblog.com/2024/06/17/fe ... ay-review/

[nicolas]

Blue Velvet is most likely a blue category release: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=146

I haven’t gone through all the caps but the Criterion BD holds up quite well compared to the more refined 4K. HDR is essentially SDR in a HDR container according to the poster.

[MichaelB]

There is controversy regarding the audio on La Femme Nikita, with a couple of reviewers on Home Theatre Forum (Robert Harris and Joshua Zyber) declaring that it is defective.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... hd.383073/

Apart from Harris and one another reviewer, it doesn't seem like anyone else has mentioned the audio issue on the French 5.1 track yet. Joshua Zyber wrote that there is zero interest in this title on the web - it's the least read review he's published. Is there really no one interested in Luc Besson's first merging of French art-house and Hollywood blockbuster?

https://videofileblog.com/2024/06/17/fe ... ay-review/

Is that the only soundtrack option?

Because I encountered something similar when QCing the now ancient Blu-ray of Arrow's King of New York - the 2.0 track (which I assume is closest to the original theatrical version) was wonderfully punchy and aggressive, but the 5.1 track just sounded anaemic. I ended up looking up reviews of the US edition just to make sure that it wasn't my ears deceiving me, and those few reviews that went into that level of detail all said the same thing, so I can only assume that the 5.1 remix was messed up in some way. And Nikita (which is how I've always known it; I never really understood why the US distributors fiddled with the title) is pretty much exactly contemporary with King of New York.

[nicolas]

There is controversy regarding the audio on La Femme Nikita, with a couple of reviewers on Home Theatre Forum (Robert Harris and Joshua Zyber) declaring that it is defective.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... hd.383073/

Apart from Harris and one another reviewer, it doesn't seem like anyone else has mentioned the audio issue on the French 5.1 track yet. Joshua Zyber wrote that there is zero interest in this title on the web - it's the least read review he's published. Is there really no one interested in Luc Besson's first merging of French art-house and Hollywood blockbuster?

https://videofileblog.com/2024/06/17/fe ... ay-review/

Is that the only soundtrack option?

Because I encountered something similar when QCing the now ancient Blu-ray of Arrow's King of New York - the 2.0 track (which I assume is closest to the original theatrical version) was wonderfully punchy and aggressive, but the 5.1 track just sounded anaemic. I ended up looking up reviews of the US edition just to make sure that it wasn't my ears deceiving me, and those few reviews that went into that level of detail all said the same thing, so I can only assume that the 5.1 remix was messed up in some way. And Nikita (which is how I've always known it; I never really understood why the US distributors fiddled with the title) is pretty much exactly contemporary with King of New York.

English 5.1 and French 2.0 tracks are also included with the Sony. The upcoming Studiocanal Steelbook has these options according to Bluray-disc.de: German DTS-HD MA 5.1, German DTS-HD MA 2.0, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, French DTS-HD MA 5.0, French DTS-HD MA 2.0.

[tenia]

It looks like the previous 5.1 French track didn't have this limitation, and wasn't what seems to be a LCRS track encoded as 5.1 which actually is 5.0. The question, I suppose, is how the movie track originally sounded like, and whether it's closer to the boomier previous track or the 5.0-in-5.1 more recent mix.

[MichaelB]

Well, there wouldn't have been an LFE track in the original Dolby Stereo mix, so I wouldn't be fussed about that at all.

[tenia]

I think the matter here is that the lack of content in the .1 channel isn't just an encoding choice but the reflection of a lack of very low frequency content, hence the issue having by some with this new track.
I have no idea if that's representative of the original mix, and thus if the new track abnormally lacks this or if it's the previous video mix that was abnormally boomy.

[Finch]

Curzon's 4K of Memories of Murder is on a BD100 and first impressions from early buyers is that it resembles the South Korean 4K a lot more than the Criterion BD.

a first endorsement of the South Park Bigger Longer Uncut 4K

Glory (Sony steelbook with Dolby Vision added, solid upgrade if you already own the BD or the first 4K)

[MichaelB]

Curzon's 4K of Memories of Murder is on a BD100 and first impressions from early buyers is that it resembles the South Korean 4K a lot more than the Criterion BD.

Which means what?

[yoloswegmaster]

Probably that it's less green than the latter release

[therewillbeblus]

Probably that it's less green than the latter release

Too bad it's not as full of extras as the Criterion, I'd swap 'em in a heartbeat

[Finch]

Sorry for the lack of clarity, but yes, the Criterion Blu-Ray seems to be the outlier so far with the green tint. Here's nicholas's review of the South Korean 4K again.

[Finch]

Probably that it's less green than the latter release

Too bad it's not as full of extras as the Criterion, I'd swap 'em in a heartbeat

You could stick the Criterion BD supplements in the Curzon 4k keepcase for something approaching the most complete release if the Curzon encode turns out to be as good as on the South Korean disc. I actually wouldn't count against Criterion announcing their own 4K for October or November.

[MichaelB]

Is that good or bad? How green is it supposed to be?