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I would think so the bluray was great what do others think?rrenault wrote: Sat Jul 20, 2024 11:00 am Do people think KL’s UHD of Last Year at Marienbad is a safe preorder or should I wait and see whether or not it gets one upped by a Studio Canal release?
Surprisingly little consensus as of today apart from these beautiful screenshots: https://criterionforum.org/forum/viewto ... 56#p817756kniselyb wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 10:46 pm What is the consensus on Brokeback Mountain UHD from Kino? I know Kino hasn't been doing all that great work lately
This is a good comment I read on the other forum: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=658MichaelB wrote: Mon Jul 22, 2024 8:49 pm A total no-brainer (it's not even close!), and a useful cautionary tale against the assumption that the UHD version must always be superior.
Thanks for the sum up. That’s all I need to know.jheez wrote:Kino was either given bad information or didn’t do their research when it was first announced. They later backtracked and said their release was scanned from the same 2:1 source as previous transfers. They scanned as much information as they could from that 2:1 source to create the 1.85:1.
Very surprised to see that no one on this thread has even commented on it aside from the screencaps. I did watch it last week, so I'll give my brief thoughts on it. Long story short, I thought it was absolutely stunning. Without question, it's the best Brokeback Mountain has ever looked, and probably ever will look. Great DV grade, and surprisingly excellent encode for a KL disc. Didn't notice any compression issues and the image looked extremely sharp to me without any obvious edge enhancement or noise reduction. Audio quality was pretty solid to me. I only got a chance to listen to the 5.1 track, and I was perfectly satisfied, but never blown away by it. If it were up to me, personally, I would probably put this in red tier. The PQ alone is vastly superior to the old Universal BD, which is starting to show its age. However, I definitely want to see what more knowledgeable members of this thread have to say about this release before it gets placed anywhere, as I'm fairly new here.kniselyb wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 10:46 pm What is the consensus on Brokeback Mountain UHD from Kino? I know Kino hasn't been doing all that great work lately
I’ve only received mine today in Germany. Yes, this is one of KL’s best 4Ks since the authoring house switch last year. The main reason is that the film is rather “dim” and not graded for excessive highlights. I have a feeling that either Ang Lee or Rodrigo Prieto supervised the new grade as KL’s in-house grades usually run a lot hotter / brighter than that, which gives the encoder trouble. Not in this case though. The encode is mostly excellent but not entirely as the grain in the skies in particular occasionally has a slightly buzzy quality that isn’t far away from macroblocking. What did strike me as odd upon first glance is how fine-grained the film appears on the UHD. Opticals are what they are but the OCN shots are so fine that it’s a bit surreal to see that little visible grain, even in low-light scenes. I’ve done a quick research and Prieto shot with Kodak stocks ranging from 50D (the slowest, most fine-grained stock) to 500T for darker and night scenes. My first thought was that the top layer of the grain may have been taken off but it doesn’t immediately look that way as the film is remarkably sharp and doesn’t exhibit traces that bring DNR to mind. I need to see the entire film though to see how this is in motion and will compare with the old BD.Fus1on wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2024 6:22 amVery surprised to see that no one on this thread has even commented on it aside from the screencaps. I did watch it last week, so I'll give my brief thoughts on it. Long story short, I thought it was absolutely stunning. Without question, it's the best Brokeback Mountain has ever looked, and probably ever will look. Great DV grade, and surprisingly excellent encode for a KL disc. Didn't notice any compression issues and the image looked extremely sharp to me without any obvious edge enhancement or noise reduction. Audio quality was pretty solid to me. I only got a chance to listen to the 5.1 track, and I was perfectly satisfied, but never blown away by it. If it were up to me, personally, I would probably put this in red tier. The PQ alone is vastly superior to the old Universal BD, which is starting to show its age. However, I definitely want to see what more knowledgeable members of this thread have to say about this release before it gets placed anywhere, as I'm fairly new here.kniselyb wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 10:46 pm What is the consensus on Brokeback Mountain UHD from Kino? I know Kino hasn't been doing all that great work lately
Glad to see we're mostly in agreement on how good the Brokeback Mountain UHD looks.nicolas wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2024 7:25 amI’ve only received mine today in Germany. Yes, this is one of KL’s best 4Ks since the authoring house switch last year. The main reason is that the film is rather “dim” and not graded for excessive highlights. I have a feeling that either Ang Lee or Rodrigo Prieto supervised the new grade as KL’s in-house grades usually run a lot hotter / brighter than that, which gives the encoder trouble. Not in this case though. The encode is mostly excellent but not entirely as the grain in the skies in particular occasionally has a slightly buzzy quality that isn’t far away from macroblocking. What did strike me as odd upon first glance is how fine-grained the film appears on the UHD. Opticals are what they are but the OCN shots are so fine that it’s a bit surreal to see that little visible grain, even in low-light scenes. I’ve done a quick research and Prieto shot with Kodak stocks ranging from 50D (the slowest, most fine-grained stock) to 500T for darker and night scenes. My first thought was that the top layer of the grain may have been taken off but it doesn’t immediately look that way as the film is remarkably sharp and doesn’t exhibit traces that bring DNR to mind. I need to see the entire film though to see how this is in motion and will compare with the old BD.Fus1on wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2024 6:22 amVery surprised to see that no one on this thread has even commented on it aside from the screencaps. I did watch it last week, so I'll give my brief thoughts on it. Long story short, I thought it was absolutely stunning. Without question, it's the best Brokeback Mountain has ever looked, and probably ever will look. Great DV grade, and surprisingly excellent encode for a KL disc. Didn't notice any compression issues and the image looked extremely sharp to me without any obvious edge enhancement or noise reduction. Audio quality was pretty solid to me. I only got a chance to listen to the 5.1 track, and I was perfectly satisfied, but never blown away by it. If it were up to me, personally, I would probably put this in red tier. The PQ alone is vastly superior to the old Universal BD, which is starting to show its age. However, I definitely want to see what more knowledgeable members of this thread have to say about this release before it gets placed anywhere, as I'm fairly new here.kniselyb wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 10:46 pm What is the consensus on Brokeback Mountain UHD from Kino? I know Kino hasn't been doing all that great work lately
Colors and the restoration itself look beautiful.
Geoff D on the other forum has the Italian BD from 2014 and considers that one the best even though it’s not perfect either. Unfortunately the disc is long OOP and the distributor has since reissued it as part of a limited edition on a newly authored BD-50. If that re-encode is any better is anyone’s guess and they might’ve ”upgraded” to what Olive Signature, BFI etc. used.jheez wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2024 8:44 am I preordered the Kino Invasion of the Body Snatchers, thinking I made a mistake since I already owned the BFI and saw the caps comparison.
Well, I sat down with the BFI tonight and thought it looked quite poor. It’s sharper and (I think) better encoded, but I found the grain super unnatural and super distracting. The grain comes and goes, and clumps/moves along the edges of people/objects moving in the frame. The BFI also has more damage. I don’t have the Olive for comparison.
I ended up switching to the Kino 4k, which with all its problems, I found more pleasing (ugh). It’s horrendously encoded. It looks like an mpeg-2 encode at 10% of the actual bit rate. Really a shame they messed up so badly. I’m not sure how anything like this passes QC.
So, pick your poison, but I very begrudgingly pick the Kino as my favorite.
The Lionsgate UHDs look good to me, as in here: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 4&i=12&l=0Costa wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2024 10:45 pm Does anyone know what is the next best thing for Rambo Trilogy, after the Italian UHDs?
Those don't have English subtitles and I need them.
How are the German ones?
The Lionsgate discs are different encodes than the StudioCanal ones but are equally terrible - just terrible in different spots, like here:nicolas wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2024 11:44 pmThe Lionsgate UHDs look good to me, as in here: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 4&i=12&l=0Costa wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2024 10:45 pm Does anyone know what is the next best thing for Rambo Trilogy, after the Italian UHDs?
Those don't have English subtitles and I need them.
How are the German ones?
Good God, that’s horrendous. I picked 5 random caps and they all looked goodM-A wrote: Sun Jul 28, 2024 12:03 amThe Lionsgate discs are different encodes than the StudioCanal ones but are equally terrible - just terrible in different spots, like here:nicolas wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2024 11:44 pmThe Lionsgate UHDs look good to me, as in here: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 4&i=12&l=0Costa wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2024 10:45 pm Does anyone know what is the next best thing for Rambo Trilogy, after the Italian UHDs?
Those don't have English subtitles and I need them.
How are the German ones?
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=55 ... &i=18&go=1
Cliff from Lionsgate said they are working on a whole new Rambo set which should be the definitive release when it eventually comes out. I would wait for it.
If you want English subtitles, that would be another reason to avoid the Liongsate-releases. They do have English subs, but they are the most bizarre subs I know of, constantly rewriting the dialogue. "They drew first blood, not me" becomes "They shot first!", etc.nicolas wrote: Sun Jul 28, 2024 12:05 amGood God, that’s horrendous. I picked 5 random caps and they all looked goodM-A wrote: Sun Jul 28, 2024 12:03 amThe Lionsgate discs are different encodes than the StudioCanal ones but are equally terrible - just terrible in different spots, like here:nicolas wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2024 11:44 pm
The Lionsgate UHDs look good to me, as in here: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 4&i=12&l=0
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=55 ... &i=18&go=1
Cliff from Lionsgate said they are working on a whole new Rambo set which should be the definitive release when it eventually comes out. I would wait for it.
Hopefully that new Rambo set is still on track as it’s been a while since we last heard about it.