UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[rrenault]

Hmmm…I thought Carlotta’s Eustache boxset was supposed to be excellent and all done by FiM. It’s the first I’m hearing about their Mother and the Whore Blu-ray not being good.

[nicolas]

Hmmm…I thought Carlotta’s Eustache boxset was supposed to be excellent and all done by FiM. It’s the first I’m hearing about their Mother and the Whore Blu-ray not being good.

This is OT: The Blu-ray itself isn't the problem. It's well-encoded and what Carlotta / David did is great, only the grading of the master is not as beautiful as it should be, which is not their fault. If you check the trailer for the 4K restoration, you'll see what I mean.

[rrenault]

Ah ok. That’s fair. Then maybe I will just get Carlotta’s set and forget the Criterion 4K. (Someone on Twitter was once like “the Carlotta set is worthless because it doesn’t include Le Cochon”. Unless it’s buried in the supplements somewhere.)

I’m trying to spread my purchases out, so it’ll either be the Eustache set or the Truffaut 4K 5 heroines set in the immediate future. I’m still waiting to see how the Truffaut release turns out first.

My one concern about the Truffaut set is it’s suspiciously inexpensive (€60 for a boutique release of four films on UHD). Shoot the Piano Player is more in line with their standard pricing.

[nicolas]

Breakdown (Paramount) is a solid upgrade. Currently the 4K is only available as a standalone in the UK & Europe and tied to the Paramount Scares Vol. 2 set in the US.

[Finch]

^ samlop10 whose review I linked to page 2 didn't like the disc.

[rrenault]

So is WB’s UHD of The Hitcher the first release from a Hollywood major to use a FiM encode?

[nicolas]

^ samlop10 whose review I linked to page 2 didn't like the disc.

Thanks, I forgot about his post.

I think that colors look much better on the 4K caps and I like the gain in detail which Kobe's caps show, such as here and here.
I went through 25 caps and preferred the 4K version every time. Encoding-wise, surprisingly many caps like this and another one are drastically better in 4K.
I don't have the BD and will gladly go for the 4K once they put it out on its own.

[Fus1on]

Apologies for the disagreement yet again, nicolas (I swear, I'm not doing this on purpose), but, as someone who owns the Paramount Scares set and has watched the Breakdown UHD, I really don't think it should be listed as Solid, and instead should remain in Disappointing. I completely agree with what samlop10 said in his short review. I would still say it's at least a minimal upgrade compared to the BD, but nowhere near the level it should be thanks to its DNR and poor encoding which, as samlop10 said, basically erases the entire grain structure of the film at several points. It's not bad, but I would certainly not call it good either.

[Fus1on]

Contemporary UHDs List Update:

Moving Furiosa (WB) from Reference to Solid Tier. Also making note of the B&C version looking slightly better.

Labeling Smile (Paramount) as Solid instead of Reference. I just rewatched this one and I found the encoding to be pretty subpar at points despite it being under two hours long and encoded on a BD-100 (typical Paramount). The HDR and sound are both great though.

Adding Twisters (Universal) to Solid Tier.

[nicolas]

Apologies for the disagreement yet again, nicolas (I swear, I'm not doing this on purpose), but, as someone who owns the Paramount Scares set and has watched the Breakdown UHD, I really don't think it should be listed as Solid, and instead should remain in Disappointing. I completely agree with what samlop10 said in his short review. I would still say it's at least a minimal upgrade compared to the BD, but nowhere near the level it should be thanks to its DNR and poor encoding which, as samlop10 said, basically erases the entire grain structure of the film at several points. It's not bad, but I would certainly not call it good either.

Thanks for letting me know! Really appreciate getting feedback to my posts and in this case another solidifying opinion if the caps don’t tell the entire story.

[nicolas]

The Papillon UHD (French Import) is disappointing. Screenshots by cinemaniac / Kobe. Previous Blu-ray master DNR’d & upscaled to 4K. Added to the English audio & no subtitles import list.

Also added the German Reservoir Dogs to reference after seeing these screenshots from the StudioCanal release that look better than the US & IT discs.

[Fus1on]

Just rewatched Dead Reckoning P1 4K for the first time in a year, and (for once) I'm in agreement with nicolas that it's a blue tier disc. Moving its placement in the Contemporary List.

I also wanted to know if I should place MI Fallout onto the Contemporary List? It's on the master list, but since it's the only 4K release in the series (aside from Dead Reckoning) to not come from a new remaster, I felt like it would fit much better on the Contemporary List instead.

[nicolas]

Just rewatched Dead Reckoning P1 4K for the first time in a year, and (for once) I'm in agreement with nicolas that it's a blue tier disc. Moving its placement in the Contemporary List.

I also wanted to know if I should place MI Fallout onto the Contemporary List? It's on the master list, but since it's the only 4K release in the series (aside from Dead Reckoning) to not come from a new remaster, I felt like it would fit much better on the Contemporary List instead.

I’m glad you found the Dead Reckoning UHD as blue as I did.

I definitely second your idea re. Fallout. Fantastic UHD!

[Fus1on]

Yay! I'm glad we also agree that Fallout is fantastic, especially those IMAX scenes towards the end. Adding it to the list.

[mfunk9786]

Sounds like Paramount borked what should have been an easy layup in their The Ring release. (People reporting it’s too dark, 6/10 video score from Avforums, a significantly lower bitrate than the other version on the market.) Thank goodness Shout put some nice effort in a few months ago.

[nicolas]

American Movie (Sony) is a solid upgrade with improved colors and encoding.

Ghost 4K screenshots and review. Another disappointing Paramount disc solely because of the encode.

People also reported that Shout’s The Wolfman 4K is a more refined presentation of the film with all areas being a notch better than the BD. Sounds like a blue category title.

[tenia]

Ghost 4K screenshots and review. Another disappointing Paramount disc solely because of the encode.

This also looks like a much smaller upgrade that it should vs a 2008 BD. I thought at first the comparison was vs a much newer disc.

[nicolas]

Ghost 4K screenshots and review. Another disappointing Paramount disc solely because of the encode.

This also looks like a much smaller upgrade that it should vs a 2008 BD. I thought at first the comparison was vs a much newer disc.

Paramount put the 4K restoration out on BD for the first time in 2020 or 2021. Geoff D at BR suggested that they‘re likely still using the same encoding settings they once set up at the beginning of the format, such as throttling the Bitrate as soon as skies are visible or anything static. But what I don’t comprehend is how contemporary films look so much better than the catalogue stuff. Particularly Babylon is a film that should’ve turned out horrendously poor due to its length, grade and the presence of film grain but it looks wonderful. A real shame for all their classics that deserve better.

[Mire]

Something I have been wondering about for a while... Concerning the Disappointing UHDs category, what is the overall consensus on these (if there is any)? Are they generally still worth buying, or should one mostly hold on to the older BD discs?

[therewillbeblus]

I think there's a separate tier for 'worse than the blu-rays'. I have plenty of the UHDs in the 'disappointing' category and happily own them, as many are still an improvement despite DNR etc. Some of the louder voices in these threads have said the same.

[Finch]

If it's not a red or blue tier title or at least Good/Great in DV, I'm not considering it unless I can buy for cheap or it includes a new BD that's better than previous discs.

[nicolas]

Something I have been wondering about for a while... Concerning the Disappointing UHDs category, what is the overall consensus on these (if there is any)? Are they generally still worth buying, or should one mostly hold on to the older BD discs?

I agree with what TWBB said and also have many disappointing UHDs, often simply because I didn’t own the film before. Best search for reviews in the old UHD upgrading thread where we’ve discussed most of these releases or if not, there should be discussion at Blu-ray.com.

[nicolas]

From Chris’ Criterion reviews: Demon Pond is a blue tier disc and Gummo red tier although with a caveat about mediocre audio as Criterion once again had to employ filtering and the differences to the DVD are minimal.

[Fus1on]

Something I have been wondering about for a while... Concerning the Disappointing UHDs category, what is the overall consensus on these (if there is any)? Are they generally still worth buying, or should one mostly hold on to the older BD discs?

I agree with most of the responses on here. The Disappointing Tier is admittedly very nebulous, but I think it means that the releases in that category are not any worse than the BD (and sometimes might even be small improvements) while still having many issues that prevent them from being in the Solid or Reference Tiers.

[therewillbeblus]

For example, I recall a reputable format expert saying they were happy to upgrade Jurassic Park despite its known issues, which prompted me to do the same. No regrets. And I personally think Basic Instinct looks fantastic (plus any DNR application you might notice fits the vibe perfectly anyways)