UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[kekid]

Any opinions on the Haneke Curzon Collection?
(Especially the picture quality compared to the available Criterions?)

[nicolas]

Any opinions on the Haneke Curzon Collection?
(Especially the picture quality compared to the available Criterions?)

It’s not out yet and not a 4K release but I’m confident that it turns out great. For the first time since doing these sets, Curzon had all discs newly encoded and that should make a difference compared to all the alternatives. Check the Curzon thread in a few weeks and we’ll surely hear something.

[Finch]

Isle of Dogs (Criterion) Chris's review

I'm guessing this is probably going to be the case for all the films in between Darjeeling and French Dispatch.

[nicolas]

Yes, the 2K DI upscales are all smaller upgrades essentially as SDR (P3 color space) in a HDR container. Here are caps I found for:

The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastisc Mr. Fox.

[nicolas]

Plaion’s Hard Target 4K is now out with the second replacement disc. The first one corrected a poor 5.1 that had the rear channels swapped but they messed up the subtitles as they couldn’t be activated in the menu. Also, while this wasn’t made public beyond a comparison someone uploaded, the 5.1 was clipped above ~17.5 kHz compared to the international mixes which had the high frequencies intact.

Finally, the new disc has proper subtitles and the 5.1 lacks the clipping. I already got my shipment and the film now looks and sounds excellent. Note that Plaion made their own restoration and grade on the basis of Universal’s negative scan.

The first pressing box set is no longer available but they reissued the film in a Mediabook and a BR member confirmed that it contains the correct discs: https://shop.plaionpictures.com/harte-z ... 2-blu-rays

[Finch]

Yes, the 2K DI upscales are all smaller upgrades essentially as SDR (P3 color space) in a HDR container. Here are caps I found for:

The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastisc Mr. Fox.

Are the 4K upscales better encoded than the original Blu-Rays?

[Yakushima]

Yes, the 2K DI upscales are all smaller upgrades essentially as SDR (P3 color space) in a HDR container. Here are caps I found for:

The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastisc Mr. Fox.

Thank you for the links, Nicolas! Fantastic Mr. Fox UHD appears to be cropped on all sides, compared to the Blu-rays...

[nicolas]

Are the 4K upscales better encoded than the original Blu-Rays?

Yes, the caps look good in that regard.

[nicolas]

Thank you for the links, Nicolas! Fantastic Mr. Fox UHD appears to be cropped on all sides, compared to the Blu-rays...

That appears to be a conscious choice as the compositions don’t seem to suffer. They also slightly expanded the black bars in order to hide the ringing on the borders.

[Yakushima]

Thank you for the links, Nicolas! Fantastic Mr. Fox UHD appears to be cropped on all sides, compared to the Blu-rays...

That appears to be a conscious choice as the compositions don’t seem to suffer. They also slightly expanded the black bars in order to hide the ringing on the borders.

Thank you, Nicolas! Yes, I hope too that it won't be too detrimental to the viewing experience. If worst comes to worst, we will still have the original Blu-ray to fall back to.

[Finch]

After weeks of this being out, some viewers have spotted compression issues in the highlights in the Tron Legacy 4K. Post here. Hopefully not going to be a common thing with future Disney UHDs.

[Finch]

Geoff on the Zodiac 4K

[nicolas]

A History of Violence (Criteron) - caps and HDR analysis video by The HDR Dissector.

[hearthesilence]

A History of Violence (Criteron) - caps and HDR analysis video by The HDR Dissector.

I already knew the US Blu-ray was atrocious but yeeesh....

[Finch]

Bottle Rocket (Criterion) Chris's review

[nicolas]

Altered States (Criteron) - caps

[nicolas]

@Fus1on: Dangerous Animals (Shudder) - preferable to the UK disc as it’s got Dolby Vision even though it’s not encoded on a BD-100 as the UK. While the Shudder encode isn’t particularly accomplished, it does its job and retains the film’s excellent detail, very fine noise without any discernible filtering.

@Finch: Diva (Studiocanal): The restoration is excellent and looks magnificent in 4K HDR. It’s a tasteful grade that comes across very naturally film-like. Couldn’t be much happier about that aspect of the release.

Have to be the bearer of bad news though as the encode is bad. We’re almost back in the early 4K era with those terrible, bit-starved SC encodes that came out of France and brought us Total Recall, Basic Instinct etc. While they’ve done worse, this definitely isn’t FiM or VDMS. Highlights are terrible and essentially devoid of any detail, mushy grain also creeps into normal shots here and there, particularly walls or clothing. Essentially areas that are slightly larger and have similar colors and textures.

I imagine that many buyers won’t be bothered though and I don’t expect many other comments to surface like mine, so I’d only advise my fellow pixel peepers to lower their expectations. Sadly we won’t get a better alternative any time soon Kino? No thanks. They’ve done worse than this on multiple occasions, hence my suggestion for the blue category.

[Zot!]

Sadly we won’t get a better alternative any time soon Kino? No thanks. They’ve done worse than this on multiple occasions

Sounds mostly promising, thanks for the review. I've been waiting for this since the VHS era anyways, so I'll still hold out on what people have to say about the Kino before making a purchase.

[nicolas]

Sounds mostly promising, thanks for the review. I've been waiting for this since the VHS era anyways, so I'll still hold out on what people have to say about the Kino before making a purchase.

I don’t see Kino improving PQ in any notable way but as you’re making such a leap in formats, theirs is probably the one to go for the extras alone.

[nicolas]

9 1/2 Weeks (LCJ Editions, France) - caps. Upscale from the BD with fake grain and horrendously encoded. Added to the import list in the avoid tier.

[therewillbeblus]

Here's hoping Kino surprisingly overdelivers with Diva. It's such a beautiful film, it deserves to look as perfect as possible

[tenia]

9 1/2 Weeks (LCJ Editions, France) - caps. Upscale from the BD with fake grain and horrendously encoded. Added to the import list in the avoid tier.

Bwahahahahaha.
LCJ strikes again after Papillon.

[nicolas]

Bwahahahahaha.
LCJ strikes again after Papillon.

The sad thing here is that their strategy worked as apparently enough people supported their Papillon release. They probably laugh at all the international labels who commission expensive restorations when they manage to sell BD rips instead.

But hey, it could’ve been much worse. Here’s a new comparison video a BR member made of the BFI Nosferatu BD and 4K. If you thought the caps looked bad, in motion it’s on another level: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=619

[Finch]

The Diva news is exactly why I didn't feel comfortable preordering Dead of Night. The inconsistency is so frustrating. Unless it's announced upfront that the title is encoded by Fidelity or VDMS, I'm pretty much done taking chances on preorders from most labels. Too often it's either the restoration stinks or it's the encode. Makes the asking price of $40-60 for a lot of releases all the more aggravating.

[swo17]

Unless it's announced upfront that the title is encoded by Fidelity or VDMS

That's who did BFI's Nosferatu and Aguirre 4Ks, respectively