UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading [Archive]

[therewillbeblus]

Poltergeist UHD

I watched my copy last night- wasn't sure I was 'feeling' the film at times even though it looked great, but the quality of the 4K came alive at certain moments, specifically the final strobe light setpiece, and completely hypnotized me. There have been a few occasion since I upgraded to the format where the transfer/capabilities of 4K discs alone have mobilized my esteem toward a movie from an okay one to a great one, and this is one of those cases: the ambitions of Spielberg/Hooper's haunted-funhouse aesthetics fully realised. Pretty cool that you can get a near-theatrical experience in the privacy of your own pitch-black room at 2am

[Finch]

Geoff is a a fan of Eureka's Police Story 3 UHD.

[Finch]

Added the entire Police Story set as a solid upgrade to OP: the first two are good upgrades that are inherently compromised by Ritrovata's aggravating signature grading (more noticeable in PS2) but as mentioned above, 3 is an amazing disc (though Eureka could have adjusted the framing so that the tape marks aren't visible).

A few users on the other forum have imported Crimes of the Future from France and the reactions are uniformly positive so far. There are no forced French subs though the title card has been translated into French. I'd like to see a more detailed review though before adding it to the OP. A US UHD is coming next year from Decal (who've had a lousy track record with their BDs).

[Finch]

The Incredible Melting Man (Vinegar Syndrome)

[M-A]

Three Days of the Condor (Studiocanal) (FR/DE import) should be great in DV, poor in HDR10

[MichaelB]

Three Days of the Condor (Studiocanal) (FR/DE import) should be great in DV, poor in HDR10

Have they fixed the glitch that bedevilled StudioCanal’s Blu-ray editions, where a narratively crucial but French-language conversation wasn’t subtitled?

(The US and UK editions got it right.)

[M-A]

Have they fixed the glitch that bedevilled StudioCanal’s Blu-ray editions, where a narratively crucial but French-language conversation wasn’t subtitled?

(The US and UK editions got it right.)

Apparently so

[Finch]

Three Days of the Condor (Studiocanal) (FR/DE import) should be great in DV, poor in HDR10

Added, thanks MA!

[Finch]

Army of Darkness review

Note that only the theatrical cut is in 4k.

[Finch]

a few capsule reviews on pages 2 & 3 for Metropolitan's French import of Crimes of the Future

According to those posts, there are no forced French subs, the extras are English friendly, and the PQ excellent. A teeny tiny caveat, like the German import of Howard's End, the film's title card has been translated into the local language.

[Finch]

Fright Night (Sony)

Scream 2 (Paramount)

The latter is not demo material as such but it's a big upgrade over the terrible Blu-Ray.

[Finch]

Night of the Living Dead (Criterion)

caps a holic and page 29 of the BR.com thread onwards

We all knew it was likely going to be a marginal upgrade but Criterion's RRP is really cheeky.

[Stefan Andersson]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned earlier in this thread --
the mono track on Bridge on the River Kwai UHD is taken from/is similar to the 1983 LD according to this info:
https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/search/la ... %281957%29

[Finch]

I don't think it was mentioned before, thank you for sharing, Stefan!

EVOLVIST has reviewed most of the Universal Monsters Vol 2 UHD set.

The Mummy

The Bride of Frankenstein

The Phantom of the Opera (admittedly a spot check only but others have confirmed that his remarks do apply to the entire film)

Creature from the Black Lagoon review is presumably still forthcoming. Another user was reporting that the underwater scenes look appreciably better on the UHD.

To Kill A Mockingbird reactions on page 4 onwards

The UHD has no DNR but the blacks are crushed as on some other Universal catalogue titles.

[rrenault]

I'm not sure where else to express this thought, but I just have to say I'm a bit baffled The Jokers and Koch Media are rapidly rolling out these overpriced and technically subpar UHDs of Wong Kar-wai''s entire filmography. It doesn't make much sense to me, since I'm sure the distributors are well aware of the shortcomings of the available masters. The Jokers' UHD of ItMfL retails at 45 Euros for crying out loud! I'd consider picking it up if it was in the low 20s. Saying that, testing the waters with a standalone UHD of his "flagship" title In The Mood For Love, despite the technical limitations of the source, would be one thing, but otherwise...

[hearthesilence]

The Bride of Frankenstein

Bummer. But glad I saw this ahead of time as I was planning to upgrade.

[Finch]

I'm still getting it along with The Mummy and Creature when the standalone discs appear this time next year. I can't abide those sets and how the discs are slotted in.

[Finch]

Lost Highway reactions on page 25 onwards

Happily for the fans of the film, they're all raves, with no complaints about the compression on the UHD.

[tenia]

The Jokers' UHD of ItMfL retails at 45 Euros for crying out loud!

Not sure what you're including in this price, but the MSRP is 35€. There is, however, a bigger more expensive collector set, that is 50€. It comes with a 190 pages book.

Not enough people care here about the actual technical result, hence why this can happen.

[rrenault]

The Jokers' UHD of ItMfL retails at 45 Euros for crying out loud!

Not sure what you're including in this price, but the MSRP is 35€. There is, however, a bigger more expensive collector set, that is 50€. It comes with a 190 pages book.

Not enough people care here about the actual technical result, hence why this can happen.

Ok ok. I found the 30 Euro 4K on Amazon.fr. I don't know why, but blu-ray.com was only linking to the more expensive collector set.

[FrauBlucher]

The Bride of Frankenstein

Bummer. But glad I saw this ahead of time as I was planning to upgrade.

Beaver's take is different

[M-A]

So is this user's

[Finch]

I don't think Tooze is a credible reviewer of 4k, to be honest (he rarely was with Blu-Rays). I did see captainsolo's review but several other users are also saying that Bride, while very good, is still not quite as amazing as the other transfers in the new set. I think some folks here still seem to think if something is not coded in red, it's not worth getting/upgrading and that really is far from the case.

[dwk]

Lost Highway reactions on page 25 onwards

Happily for the fans of the film, they're all raves, with no complaints about the compression on the UHD.

I guess there is some aliasing visible in the Blu-ray.com review's screencaps that, according to the thread linked above, is not on the discs. So if that site can no longer provided accurate Blu-ray caps (I know they have issues with UHD caps), the reviews are completely worthless.

[Finch]

the colors on the UK MUBI UHD of Benedetta are not correct compared to the German Capelight UHD.