UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[nicolas]

The UK / European / Australian Studiocanal Jacob’s Ladder release is inferior to the Lionsgate Limited. The encode is noticeably worse according to multiple viewers at the other forum and NLScavenger noted that the 2.0 is a downmix compared to the LL.

[rrenault]

So early word of mouth suggests Carlotta tops Vinegar Syndrome for its encode of The Tenant, although I’m guessing the latter wins on extras.

[nicolas]

In the Mouth of Madness (Arrow)

Outland (Arrow) - Got my copy today from Arrow and was very positively surprised to read in the booklet that they got Bad Princess to remaster the stereo track! Unsurprisingly it sounds fantastic with superb detail and dynamic range. The 4K master and encode by Engine House are top-notch as well.

The interview with Peter Hyams is ~50 minutes and seems to be a career retrospective, same for the DP interview that runs ~30 mins. It’s a beautiful edition from Arrow except for the artwork but the on-disc content makes up for it.

[Fus1on]

Kino's release of Dust Devil is a gigantic PoS. It not only has the usual terrible Kino compression, but it apparently also has some heavy AI upscaling and/or DNR applied to it. I've seen some screencaps and it genuinely looks abhorrent.

[tenia]

These AI-like issues might solely be on the US cut of the movie (though I'm glad to see yet another broken career and invisibilised movies for a cancelled director - oh wait).

[Maltic]

These AI-like issues might solely be on the US cut of the movie.

Would that be the "theatrical cut?"

The basoonist gives Kino's presentation of the "director's cut" 5/5 stars.

Edit - executive summary of thread from the other site: The AI stuff is on the US/theatrical cut (which sucks anyway). As for the DC, Kino encoding could be better (hence Svet is full of it), but the master is probably fine, so there's hope for the Umbrella release.

[Fus1on]

These AI-like issues might solely be on the US cut of the movie.

Would that be the "theatrical cut?"

The basoonist gives Kino's presentation of the "director's cut" 5/5 stars.

Edit - executive summary of thread from the other site: The AI stuff is on the US/theatrical cut (which sucks anyway). As for the DC, Kino encoding could be better (hence Svet is full of it), but the master is probably fine, so there's hope for the Umbrella release.

Yes, this is correct, my bad. The theatrical cut is the AI'd one, but the director's cut is still plagued with terrible encoding. Svet is infamously bad at spotting encoding issues on Kino and Criterion discs. He seems to only care when the color grading doesn't match up with a heavily magenta-pushed DVD from 20 years ago.

[nicolas]

The Return of the Living Dead (Arrow) vs. The Return of the Living Dead (Shout) - caps by asacmurr / BR.

[nicolas]

King of the Gypsies (Vinegar Syndrome) - FiM encode and a very good new master

[mteller]

For a split second and thought that said Time of the Gypsies and got crazy excited.

[nicolas]

Got the Shout Catch-22 4K today and it’s a mixed bag. The new 4K master is okay (agree with this post on the colors), grain is often fine and clean-up is decent. The encode is a letdown. While not too egregious in motion in the scenes I checked, highlights are often blocky and chroma noise is there - even in Dolby Vision. The encoder clearly has problems with the fine grain, particularly in skies. In shots where objects move rapidly, there are completely mushy frames full of Lego vision. Still better than what Kino would deliver but Shout and Duplotech phoned this one in. The extras are also slim compared to other Shout discs.

The above poster also wrote about the mono being disappointing but I can’t comment on that yet as I haven’t seen enough of the film and honestly I didn’t notice anything concerning. I’ll give the film a watch soon and report back. I also want to see more of the master before judging what category is appropriate.

[nicolas]

Shin Godzilla (Toho US) - caps. The Japanese Toho has a different, worse encode whereas the FR and US releases are about equal but the US is very subtly more detailed. BR members also compared subtitles and placement and the US contains the original burnt-in subs compared to the FR and UK 4Ks.

The Descent (Lionsgate) - caps and analysis by The HDR Dissector. The new 7.1 mix is said to be spectacular.

The Neverending Story (Imprint) vs. The Neverending Story (Constantin Film Germany 2025 disc) vs. The Neverending Story (Constantin Film 2021 disc) - caps. Imprint has a FiM encode, DV and lossless audio. Constantin 2025 has a solid encode, DV but lossy DTS-HD HR audio. Constantin 2021 has bad encoding, HDR10 only and lossy audio.

[Finch]

Eyes Wide Shut (Criterion) caps

[Finch]

Geoffy thumbs up on the Cuckoo's Nest 4K

[Drucker]

What specific titles is he referring to with this comment?

Thank fook the Zaentzes and the Academy restored this rather than Warners! No horribly ablated opticals, no Light Cannon grading

.

I continue to be unencouraged to make the jump to 4K. One day I will be forced to, but why would I shell out all the money for a new TV and find out 2 out of 3 4K releases seem to be bastardized in some way. It's very frustrating!

[nicolas]

What specific titles is he referring to with this comment?

I continue to be unencouraged to make the jump to 4K. One day I will be forced to, but why would I shell out all the money for a new TV and find out 2 out of 3 4K releases seem to be bastardized in some way. It's very frustrating!

There are multiple teams at work over at WB, such as the Archive team that usually does an excellent job with remasters. The bigger titles are done by other colorists and they’re fond of grain management, color grading that’s more faithful to previous home video releases rather than theatrical colors and brighter, more in-your-face HDR that isn’t faithful to the films’ celluloid origins either. Same with audio as they fancy remixes rather than OG audio but they’ve got a policy since 2023 or 2024 to include original audio with their discs.

The above applies to many catalogue titles WB released in the past years, such as Dirty Harry and the Eastwood westerns, Lethal Weapon or The Searchers (restored by the non-WAC team).

There’s a big difference when other labels like Arrow and Criterion put out WB titles as they only receive the raw negative scans from Warner.

[Drucker]

Got it. I've seen the reviews around Dirty Harry and such but I could have sworn The Searchers was Film Foundation?

[Matt]

I could have sworn The Searchers was Film Foundation

A little bit of both:

"Restoration work was completed earlier this year at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging, with audio work done by Warner Bros. Archival Mastering. The process was undertaken in partnership with The Film Foundation, and the resulting restoration premiered earlier this year at the TCM Classic Film Festival."

"...the 4K disc has been compressed and authored by the fine team at Fidelity in Motion (FIM), with encoding specifically designed to fit UHD100 and BD50 discs, thus allowing for maximum data rates."

It's a miraculous restoration, no reason to have any reservations on buying the UHD (which is listed above as reference tier).

[diamonds]

There is a caveat regarding the audio on the Searchers 4K:

2024 Warner UHD Blu-ray: The most noise reduction of any release, leaving hardly anything above 8 kHz. Bass content has also been removed globally. This sounds poor.

Perhaps this warrants a mention in the "4Ks with problematic audio" section?

[Finch]

I wasn't aware previously, everyone comfortable with me moving this down to Solid Upgrade (reference for audio, disappointing for audio)?

[Fus1on]

This should hopefully shut down any further whinging about whether Criterion's Eyes Wide Shut release is revisionist or not, as if it already wasn't an extremely stupid argument.

Also, insane that this got an FIM encode.

[Drucker]

There is a caveat regarding the audio on the Searchers 4K:

2024 Warner UHD Blu-ray: The most noise reduction of any release, leaving hardly anything above 8 kHz. Bass content has also been removed globally. This sounds poor.

Perhaps this warrants a mention in the "4Ks with problematic audio" section?

This exactly. And doesn't the same note hold true of all the excellent-looking Hitchcock 4ks?

[tenia]

The Searchers definitely belong to "problematic audio".

[Michael Kerpan]

>> "problematic audio"

"Problematic" or "not even minimally acceptable"?

[MichaelB]

Well, I watched it a fortnight ago unaware that there was any controversy over the audio and didn't notice a thing (I suspect I was too busy being wowed by the knockout visuals), so it certainly qualifies as "minimally acceptable". But I'll certainly bow down to greater expertise, especially if it comes with a spectrum analysis attached.