Arrow Announcements, Speculation & Wild, Irresponsible Conjecture

[tenia]

describing the Criterion release as 'decent' is ridiculous though and thats the point

Calling it "decent" might be a bit too strongly mixed, and sure enough, some Criterion's UHD are definitely way worse than this (Walkabout), but while the restoration is very good, its home-video-port through Criterion still suffer from non-optimal compression DESPITE a high-freq roll-off. First, there should be no roll-off; second, if you apply one to ease the compression, then don't still get blockiness here and there. So as it stands, I understand thinking other labels could be better.

[nitin]

I understand what you are saying objectively but this is still like saying this release is a 9/10, I will wait for a 10/10 release and in the meantime refer to the 9/10 release as something only just above average (appreciate that you aren't exactly saying this, but that is how a lot of other posters in the 4k threads on the other forum come across as).

[tenia]

I understand what you are saying objectively but this is still like saying this release is a 9/10, I will wait for a 10/10 release and in the meantime refer to the 9/10 release as something only just above average (appreciate that you aren't exactly saying this, but that is how a lot of other posters in the 4k threads on the other forum come across as).

That's exactly it.
I understand people thinking 9/10 isn't only just above average : it's actually closer to perfect 10/10. But it... isn't 10, and solely for home video reasons (and avoidable ones, at that), ie the culprit is entirely on the home video side/label.
I'm also unsure if "The Criterion 4K is certainly a decent disc" should be read as particularly pejorative, or just a variant of "is certainly a capable disc" or something like this, meaning "yeah, it's pretty good, but it should have been and could be better".
Anyway.

[Zot!]

To be fair, don't we have the tiered upgrade thread that is meant exactly for this kind of a finite assessment? I accept that we do not need to pollute every thread with every technical quibble, but I definitely appreciate people with time on their hands giving me some shopping hints for the titles I am interest in. Also, like it or not UHD is the videophile format, so some cork sniffing is only to be expected.

[Finch]

I have to say it's exactly that attitude and the recent posts in the Elephant Man thread that just make me want to tear what's left of my hair out. The diminishing of a near perfect product (after all warranting a 9 out of 10) in favor of a disc that's ultimately only a little bit superior. I bet you anything that outside of Geoff D and maybe two or three others, everyone else could not tell the difference between a 9 and 10 disc in motion if they hadn't pixel peeped at 200% zoomed in screenshots instead.