UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[Fus1on]

I feel the exact same way about several releases in that category like Duel, Halloween 1978, The Pianist, The Truman Show, Perfect Days, Blood Simple, Trainspotting, etc. Hell, I've even liked watching some of the James Cameron 4Ks on a big OLED screen (specifically Titanic and The Abyss). That's not to say these releases don't have a ton of issues (they all do), but that doesn't make them unenjoyable or bad viewing experiences.

[Finch]

Truman Show the European disc should be in the blue column - I'll check in the morning if I ever added it. It's the US version that's not good. Ditto a bunch of other titles that Paramount Europe handled better.

[therewillbeblus]

Drowning By Numbers and Typhoon Club are two others in the ‘disappointing’ column that I’d highly recommend. Even if flawed in some minor respects, they look pretty stunning, and what’s a better alternative? Not owning these great movies?

[ryannichols7]

I see "disappointing" as "should be a knockout, but doesn't deliver" for whatever given reason. like, Picnic at Hanging Rock should be one of the best discs ever, but it still looks really amazing and I'm glad I saddled up the cash for Second Sight's deluxe edition. they did the best they could with it. I thought Trainspotting was really incredible, but the movie is a top 20 all time for me and I can look past some of the imperfections I think since the old home video releases were so obviously and clearly wrong. I do really appreciate that we have that category, and I do take a lot of what's written about those discs to heart. I'm holding off on Blood Simple for example, it's another favorite and I wanna see if Studiocanal do an EU edition that improves on the Criterion, or I haven't rushed to get Once Upon a Time in the West. but many of them I've enjoyed - Liberty Valance is a good example. I think one thing to note is if you're satisfied with a respective Bluray edition, maybe upgrading isn't really worth it? like The Last Detail and Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56 both have really good Bluray editions, so I don't see a need to jump to a problematic 4K that doesn't have a whole lot of other incentive to buy (other extras, etc). basically what I'm saying is - I'd definitely read into these discs and make a more informed decision. some are for sure worth it, others not as much, and sometimes you can always see if a better edition rolls along

reading over that list again to make my response, I personally think In the Mood for Love should be in the "worse than the BDs", but I won't reignite that whole conversation again

[rrenault]

I generally avoid discs in the disappointing category. I think Breathless is the only film in that tier that I own on disc. I’ll settle for digital versions on iTunes of the films that fall in that category, although the Criterion 4K of Breathless frankly seemed okay to me.

As a rule, I only casually buy red tier titles but will get blue tier titles if they’re absolute favorites or have lots of replay value.

I still haven’t watched my blind bought Indicator disc of The Last Detail so wasn’t going to rush to get the Shout release. Lol

I’d spend €20-25 on a safely blue tier edition of In The Mood For Love, but I don’t think one exists anywhere in the world.

[nicolas]

The African Queen is red tier or blue tier depending on how strong the old BDs are. Compared to the Eureka, which I have, it’s a red tier upgrade. All in all, a brilliant UHD. Read more here.

[nicolas]

The Sixth Sense and Signs (Disney) are, as expected, huge improvements to the BDs and clearly deserve the red category despite “only” good encoding. Caps here and here.

Same applies to American Pie (88 Films) as well but with top-tier encoding by Visual Data Media, who are almost as good as FiM. 88 confirmed at BR that it’s a new 16-bit 4K restoration from the OCN. People reported that the film looks “dim” but the old, horrid BD was probably excessively brightened which the HDR/DV corrected. Screenshots here.

The Exorcist 3 (Arrow) is now confirmed that the encode is all but identical to the Shout and only differs when it comes to the audio, where Arrow has the better mix but I don’t think this merits a downgrade of the Shout. Finch, would you mind adding this as a note to your red tier listing?

[Mire]

I appreciate all the replies to my question. The only one from that tier I truly had to get was Pan's Labyrinth, as the Norwegian/Nordic BD had very milky-looking night scenes. No matter how much DNR, it is at least a vast improvement over the mentioned BD release we have here.

[nicolas]

Francois Truffaut - 5 Heroines 4K UHD set is a reference release for the same reasons after Shoot the Piano Player. Excellent encoding by LSP, beautiful restorations (no grain management, beautifully filmic grading, no revisionist tints) and tasteful HDR/DV across all four discs. Added to the non-English friendly post.

For fus1on: Late Night with the Devil (Second Sight) is a red category UHD. Encoding & QC by Fidelity in Motion. The master looks fantastic and the encode obviously presents it as best as possible.

[rrenault]

I’m feeling tempted by the 4K of Shoot The Piano Player. I’m also kind of hoping the Heroine films get standalone releases at some point, but it seems improbable. Perhaps The Soft Skin could get one since they’ve already done an individual Blu-ray release of that one.

In any case, “Skin” is the one I’d most want, along with possibly The Woman Next Door.

[nicolas]

Addams Family Values (Paramount) is a solid upgrade to a bad old BD. Encoding is more consistent this time but it looks like they employed a strong low-pass filter to take off the top layer of the image. This should be a lot finer-grained than it looks. Color timing was also greatly improved.

[Fus1on]

Currently not in the time or place to do a full analysis on this, but for now, I will say that everything on Columba Classics Vol. 5 (All The King’s Men, On The Waterfront, A Man For All Seasons, Tootsie, The Age of Innocence, and Little Women 2019) is beautiful and very deserving of red tier. The amount of effort that Sony puts into these sets always blows me away every time I get a new one, whether it’s the transfers or the packaging. On The Waterfront, in particular, got three BD-100s dedicated to it, just for the three separate aspect ratios the film has in its Criterion release. I’m not kidding. THREE BD-100s. Simply astounding. Since Little Women (2019) is a film that came out 5 years ago and used the same 4K master as the BD, I’m perfectly fine with adding it to the Reference Tier of the Contemporary List, while Finch can place everything else in the Master List. By the way, I haven’t gotten around to looking at the bonus disc yet, but it looks like it’s a BD-100 with four silent films, three of which are in 4K SDR. Very excited to check these out, based on how incredible everything else in this set is.

I will also mention that yes, The Sixth Sense and Signs are deserving of being in red tier. I am disappointed that they weren’t placed on BD-100s as was originally promised, but they are significant upgrades compared to the flawed 2K transfers these films originally got.

[nicolas]

Currently not in the time or place to do a full analysis on this, but for now, I will say that everything on Columba Classics Vol. 5 (All The King’s Men, On The Waterfront, A Man For All Seasons, Tootsie, The Age of Innocence, and Little Women 2019) is beautiful and very deserving of red tier.

Great news! Mine is in transit and I can’t wait for it, particularly the new supplements for Little Women.

I’ve also just shared my thoughts on Eagle’s Once Upon a Time in the West 4K here.

[Finch]

Does the Eagle 4K come with English subs? The audio is just the English and Italian 5.1, right?

[nicolas]

Does the Eagle 4K come with English subs? The audio is just the English and Italian 5.1, right?

No English subs and audio is Italian 2.0 and English 5.1

[Finch]

That's a pity with no English subs for the Italian. I'm probably still going to import this disc though.

[nicolas]

That's a pity with no English subs for the Italian. I'm probably still going to import this disc though.

I think the positives outweigh the negatives by more than it appears. The subtitle thing is likely licensing-related whereas the English audio can be considered an original track (Michael did a post in the other thread).

[nicolas]

Kobe’s first wave of screenshots for the Columbia Classics titles are out and they’re all fantastic with seemingly impeccable encoding and colors due to HDR but then again the old BDs of all three titles are far from bad and in On the Waterfront’s case really great. Despite these being red category titles on their own, putting them into the blue tier feels more appropriate.

Little Women, Age of Innocence, On the Waterfront.

Edit: He just posted our first red category title, All the King’s Men.

Added A Man for all Seasons & Tootsie (both blue category upgrades and exceptional on their own)

Here are all the restoration notes from the book.

[Fus1on]

Kobe’s first wave of screenshots for the Columbia Classics titles are out and they’re all fantastic with seemingly impeccable encoding and colors due to HDR but then again the old BDs of all three titles are far from bad and in On the Waterfront’s case really great. Despite these being red category titles on their own, putting them into the blue tier feels more appropriate.

Honestly, this is completely fair, especially for On The Waterfront, which uses the same 4K transfer as the 2013 Criterion BD (which I don't own, but I'll take your word for it that it's great). I think Finch could maybe add a caveat to the blue tier CC v5 releases that they are incredible on their own, because seriously, these are must-own releases if you don't have the BD.

[nicolas]

Kobe’s first wave of screenshots for the Columbia Classics titles are out and they’re all fantastic with seemingly impeccable encoding and colors due to HDR but then again the old BDs of all three titles are far from bad and in On the Waterfront’s case really great. Despite these being red category titles on their own, putting them into the blue tier feels more appropriate.

Honestly, this is completely fair, especially for On The Waterfront, which uses the same 4K transfer as the 2013 Criterion BD (which I don't own, but I'll take your word for it that it's great). I think Finch could maybe add a caveat to the blue tier CC v5 releases that they are incredible on their own, because seriously, these are must-own releases if you don't have the BD.

I need to clarify that I meant the 2013 Sony BD which I think is really great. The Criterion is just a notch below but still very good and a more than solid basis for the film. The UHD is therefore a slightly bigger upgrade if you just have the Criterion but still objectively “just” small rather than massive.

[nicolas]

Miracles do happen. Paramount’s Zodiac 4K got an excellent encode. fkid / BR.com confirmed this and the tasteful HDR grade is beneficial to the image. Miraculously, Paramount rediscovered that BD-100 discs exist and maxed it out to the brim. Every day a new surprise coming from this studio, unbelievable.

fkid’s caps here. Breakdown of the changes Fincher made.

[Finch]

All the more annoying then that they didn't also do the DC in 4K because its the only version I return to.

[dwk]

Al the more annoying then that they didn't also do the DC in 4K because its the only version I return to.

So frustrating when, for discernible reason, the superior cut is not presented in 4K. Just like Arrow's Blackhat and Scream's Lifeforce.

[therewillbeblus]

or Doctor Sleep

[rrenault]

I’m not a huge fan of the film, but Cinema Paradiso is another one.