UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[Finch]

Heads-up on Dolby Vision display issues on the Panasonic UB820 for the HK cut of Rumble in the Bronx where it's a black screen (like Arrow 's TCM2 and The Eye UHDs) and heavy flickering on the HK cut of First Strike on one user's Sony X700 so far.

I still haven't seen any acknowledgement from Arrow yet if the 4.0 and 5.1 tracks on the Audition UHD are going to be fixed. The 2.0 track is fine.

[rrenault]

The Pornographers is a great disc. I wanted to post in the release thread as well and post it here once I’m able to open the disc for screenshots. The master is SDR with fine grain, a beautiful grayscale and excellent audio. I’m not sure if this was communicated here but Radiance actually did the restoration. The BD is very good too but I noticed a nice uptick in fine detail when I checked the 4K afterwards. The Tony Rayns interview runs 47 minutes and is a career overview.

As I’m on a limited budget, I’m still waiting to hear what the word is on BFI’s Rocco and His Brothers UHD. If it turns out to be a negligible upgrade over Eureka’s bluray, then I’ll go ahead and pick up The Pornographers!

[nicolas]

Explorers (Vinegar Syndrome) - caps and comparison video

[Finch]

The Flintstones (Shout) caps

[andyli]

Why are the WB UHDs of 2001 and The Shining still in the red column? Aren’t those acknowledged to be flawed, due to color grading issues(the “Nolan restoration”) in the case of the former and audio and AR issues with respect to the latter?

I seem to remember reading somewhere (could be in this very thread) that the 2001 4K is not the same as the "Nolan restoration", which is pretty much about striking a new print and showing in selected cinema.

[tenia]

My memory also is that the 2001 UHD doesn't use Nolan's restoration.

[nicolas]

Nolan and Hoyte van Hoytema were involved in creating “unrestored” prints for cinemas and according to Geoff D he wanted to be involved in overseeing the 4K master for the UHD as well, which WB didn’t initially plan.

As this was still relatively early in the 4K era and soon after he remastered his own films, 2001 shares some of the mastering quirks. At the time, Nolan was bothered by scanner noise that made his images noisier than intended, which led him to use DNR on Batman Begins in particular. It’s been a while since I watched 2001 but there are instances of DNR as well. The color grade is another point of contention as it doesn’t really match what people saw on 35mm prints but Nolan’s “unrestored” prints apparently didn’t either. Here’s WB’s trailer for the Nolan prints:

2001 Unrestored YouTube Trailer.

[nicolas]

It Was Just an Accident (Criterion) Chris' review

The Front (Sony) caps

Marty Supreme (Metropolitan) tenia's review. Added to the international list

Early word on Arrow's Bullet to the Head and What Dreams May Come (Shout) is also positive.

[nitin]

Any word yet on BFI's Rocco and His Brothers? Mine shipped last week but I am overseas atm.

Also, I have Curzon's Breaking the Waves which I understand to be a SDR disc. However my system (Panasonic UB820 and Sony Bravia 9) recognise it as a Dolby Vision disc and play it in DV mode. Everything looks ok colour wise so maybe its just a weird flagging issue but does anyone else get this?

[tenia]

Marty Supreme (Metropolitan) tenia's review. Added to the international list

Wait, wait, wait on this one : the UHD isn't decrypted yet and this review solely is for the BD at the moment, which is why it doesn't have my usual heatmaps and WCG captures. The only thing I can vouch for so far is that I didn't notice any compression issue, but this is when watching the UHD downconverted to SDR (and I can't say yet if it's DV FEL or MEL).

[nicolas]

Any word yet on BFI's Rocco and His Brothers? Mine shipped last week but I am overseas atm.

Also, I have Curzon's Breaking the Waves which I understand to be a SDR disc. However my system (Panasonic UB820 and Sony Bravia 9) recognise it as a Dolby Vision disc and play it in DV mode. Everything looks ok colour wise so maybe its just a weird flagging issue but does anyone else get this?

No info yet re. the Rocco 4K. Curzon's Breaking the Waves is a SDR disc. Check your TV settings for one that forces non-HDR content into DV similar to what's usually available for upmixing audio.

Marty Supreme (Metropolitan) tenia's review. Added to the international list

Wait, wait, wait on this one : the UHD isn't decrypted yet and this review solely is for the BD at the moment, which is why it doesn't have my usual heatmaps and WCG captures. The only thing I can vouch for so far is that I didn't notice any compression issue, but this is when watching the UHD downconverted to SDR (and I can't say yet if it's DV FEL or MEL).

Damn, now that I've for once noticed a 4K review on your site (even though you have a few available already!), I've been too early. Feel free to update once you're ready. Can I add your other 4K reviews to the list?

[tenia]

Yes you can add them, no problem for me.

Marty Supreme is the one case (so far) where I didn't want to push back furthermore the publication, but still want to add the UHD details. I set up the page to accomodate for an update, and will simplify it as a BD-only review if the disc is too long to get decryptable.