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Mr.DarjeelingLimited wrote: Sat May 30, 2026 3:30 pm Madagascar 2 coming to 4K disc. Hell yeah

nicolas wrote: Sun May 31, 2026 5:08 pmAlso, another day, another poor Kino release: Harry and the Henderson caps are here.

First Blood's encode holds up a lot better than Rambo III's. There's enough stuff in open skies like trees and mountains and whatnot to break up the monotony that usually makes the encoder decide to kill itself when given these settings, although the prolonged shot of the water with the sky above in the opening credits is more than a bit messy. It's an optical anyway, but the digital junk dancing about is purely compression related.

Other than that this still looks just like how FB has looked on 4K: very green, very thin blacks, very bright highlights in key moments (those flashes of lightning while they're hunting Rambo on the mountain are squint-inducing) and decent enough detail when the source allows as there's a few missed focus pulls. I'm starting to warm up to those murky blacks tho, it doesn't look like they used any lighting inside the mine aside from the fire itself and it's incredible that they pulled as much out of the emulsion as they did.

Just finished First Blood Part II, it's more like Rambo III's encode i.e. a bit schizophrenic, and it has that same 'hyper sharp' look to it. There are way more shots of open country in FBptII than the first film so there's plenty more opportunities for the compression to shit itself, and it does. But then you get a shot that's 'busier', with lots of clouds or action stuff going on, and it's fine. It baffles me that this can handle smoke, flame, rain and debris flying everywhere with apparent ease, all things that are usually a nightmare for interframe compression, but give it a slow moving shot of a clear sky and it loses the plot, it's almost like because there's so little for the encoder to latch on to it just goes 'nah' and farts out a bunch of blocks in those areas instead.

I will say tho that overall it's still vastly betterer compressed than the original US UHD which simply broke down at various points. The SC euro UHD was a big improvement on that but as I no longer have it to compare to then I can't state which one wins for me, but I'm happy enough with the new UHD and, again, the new/old audio tracks are glorious. In terms of the actual visuals I can't think of many obvious deviations, this one always had more of a denser 'look' than First Blood and it's still present on this latest 4K, along with that lovely diffusion that British cinematographers were so fond of.

Yikes. I'm half an hour into Rambo III proper and almost every shot of open skies, and there are a lot, are outrageously poor, as is that bit when Trautman gets captured and they're shining that light on him. Whatever dumb f*cking luck enabled the first two movies to get away with it has evaporated here, this is the worst compression job I've seen in a long time. A long time.

It's so bad I feel like turning it off and ordering the old US UHD as the encode on that was excellent. I think I'll rebuy it anyway as I'm not watching this disc again, OG audio be damned. I can tolerate various things to varying degrees and/or overlook them to a certain point if there are other key benefits, but this is such staggeringly bad work it's distracting me at every turn. Still, it's in the correct colour space at least!

Finch wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2026 2:47 pm The irony with Scream 4 is that the stream encode is great.

Finch wrote: Thu May 16, 2024 5:22 pm I've hit the 60k character limit on the OP, so I'm shifting the audio section to this post.

UHDs with poorer audio than previous releases:

Heavy filtering / muffled

Anatomy of a Murder (Alternative: 1986 RCA/Columbia LaserDisc)
Bridge on the River Kwai, The (Alternative: 1985 RCA/Columbia Hi-Fi VHS)
Citizen Kane (Alternative: 1992 Turner Hi-Fi VHS)
Dawn of the Dead (Theatrical Cut) (Alternative: 2017 Midnight Factory BD or 2013 JP Happinet BD)
Dr. Strangelove (Alternative: 1994 LaserDisc)
For a Few Dollars More (Alternative: 1984 Key Video Hi-Fi VHS)
Halloween (Alternative: 1994 Criterion LaserDisc)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Alternative: 1995 Columbia Tri-Star LaserDisc)
Paths of Glory (Alternative: 1999 MGM US DVD)
Raging Bull (Alternative: 1990 Criterion LaserDisc)
Rear Window (Alternative: Universal DVD)
Wizard of Oz, The (Alternative: 1989 MGM LaserDisc)

Moderate filtering

2001: A Space Odyssey (Alternative: 1997 LaserDisc (PILF-2510) or 1998 MGM DVD)
Double Indemnity (Alternative: 1991 MCA LaserDisc)
Elephant Man, The (Alternative: 2001 Paramount US DVD)
Fistful of Dollars, A (Alternative: 1985 CBS/Fox LaserDisc)
For All Mankind (Alternative: 2009 Eureka UK BD’s 5.1 (created from original audio stems) or 2.0 (OG matrixed stereo))
Full Metal Jacket (Alternative: 1999 Warner R1 DVD)
Godfather, The (Alternative: No good alternative)
Great Escape, The (Alternative: 1991 MGM LaserDisc)
In the Heat of the Night (Alternative: 2018 Criterion BD)
It's a Wonderful Life (Alternative: 1991 Republic Pictures LaserDisc)
Jaws (Alternative: 1995/1997 MCA LaserDisc)
Servant, The (Alternative: Universal DVD)
Seventh Seal, The (Alternative: 1993 JP LaserDisc)
Vertigo (Alternative: 2005 Universal DVD)

Light filtering

Get Carter (Alternative: 2000 Warner US DVD)
Piano, The (Criterion & StudioCanal) (Alternative: 2014 StudioCanal UK BD’s 5.1 for a faithful de-matrixing of the original Dolby Stereo track, or (maybe) 2012 Lionsgate US BD’s 2.0 for matrixed stereo)
Taxi Driver (Very minor. Likely not discernible. Alternative: 1990 Criterion LaserDisc or 1991 Japanese Columbia Tri-Star LaserDisc)

Non-OG mix & misc. other issues

American Gangster (Non-OG. Alternative: original BD)
Apocalypse Now (Theatrical Cut) (US Lionsgate UHD only has Atmos remix; IT Eagle UHD only has an earlier remixed 5.1. Alternative: German UHD & US BD purportedly have OG 5.1 in AC-3)
Back to the Future Trilogy (A handful of dialog has minor changes over the years. Alternative: LaserDiscs should have original versions)
Big Lebowski, The (Comparison against Cinema DTS disc reveals that UHD mix is non-OG.)
Blade Runner (Atmos track has later remixed effects. Alternative: 2007 BD Dolby TrueHD 5.1 is closer to OG)
Casino (DTS:X’s surround channels are boosted compared to theatrical. Alternative: Cinema DTS or BD 5.1)
Deer Hunter, The (StudioCanal’s 5.1 is sourced from 70mm mix but has a brief audio drop at one point. Their 2.0 is possible OG stereo and doesn’t have the drop. Shout’s 2.0 and 5.1 both have this audio drop, and neither sounds like StudioCanal’s 5.1. Hypothesis is their 2.0 is a downmix from 5.1, which in turn is an old remix.)
Escape from New York (Shout’s 2.0 is a unique faithful remaster of the OG theatrical, whereas Eagle only offers 5.1 remix. Shout > StudioCanal.)
Gladiator (Non-OG. Alternative: Cinema DTS or Signature Collection DVD AC-3)
Jurassic Park (Non-OG, but OG has distorted vocal. Alternative: 3D BD’s DTS-HD MA track seems to be best-sounding)
Killing, The (MGM DVD has “the most balanced sound”)
Labyrinth (Advertised OG 2.0 on the 35th anniversary steelbook is likely a downmix. Alternative: LaserDisc or 1999 Sony US DVD 2.0)
Marathon Man (No OG mono. But the 5.1 remix sounds good and likely came from original audio stems. Alternative: Warner/Paramount BD has lossy restored mono)
Matrix, The (Comparison against Cinema DTS disc reveals that both Atmos and 5.1 are remixes)
Reservoir Dogs (No OG 2.0. Alternative: US/JP LaserDisc 2.0)
Shawshank Redemption, The (Noticeable clipping. Alternative: 2008 US BD TrueHD 5.1)
Shining, The (No OG mono. Alternative: 1999 Warner DVD)
Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The (No OG mono. Alternative: MGM DVD or BD)
Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The (Second Sight) (Filtered and missing a few grunts. Alternative: LaserDisc/VHS likely will have less filtered and correct audio. MPI UHD’s mono appears to be correct content-wise.)
Thing, The (Non-OG. Alternative: Signature LaserDisc AC-3 or Shout BD 2.0)
Top Gun (Atmos track widely considered a bad mix. Alternative: US THX LaserDisc’s AC-3 5.1 or PCM 2.0)
Total Recall (Neither the US Lionsgate nor IT Eagle UHD has OG 2.0. Alternative: US LaserDisc) [/color]

nicolas wrote:Scream 4 (Lionsgate) - another Kino-grade encode with a huge DV layer. People noted that a French 4K is also upcoming. Maybe tenia gets a review copy and can let us know if it's better.