UHD and HDR in General

[swo17]

Honestly it was the B&W footage on the Singin' in the Rain UHD that wowed me the most

[FrauBlucher]

There are no classic Hollywood b&w films that have been released on the UHD format

Not sure if you are speaking just about Warner Archive, but of course Citizen Kane has been released!

Yes, I was strictly talking about Warner Bros. Discovery after George Feltenstein has repeatedly said that UHD is only good for certain films. The only thing I can think of by his statements are b&w films do not benefit from UHD, unless someone else wants to guess at what he's referring to. I wish he would go into an explanation on the podcasts.

BTW... Criterion had the Citizen Kane rights well before the UHD format became commercial

[Roscoe]

BTW... Criterion had the Citizen Kane rights well before the UHD format became commercial

Not sarcastically, but seriously because I don't know --

Did Criterion have the UHD rights to CITIZEN KANE before the UHD format became commercial? Is having the rights to a movie a guarantee of having all rights to every format?

[dwk]

Not sarcastically, but seriously because I don't know --

Did Criterion have the UHD rights to CITIZEN KANE before the UHD format became commercial? Is having the rights to a movie a guarantee of having all rights to every format?

Sometimes yes, but, when dealing with the major US studios, most of the time, no. So, in the case of Citizen Kane, Criterion would, most likely, have had to renegotiate with WB.

[Drucker]

Especially given that they did a fresh 4k restoration.

[therewillbeblus]

I've been having some poor experiences getting UHDs that are being packaged in plastic cases with a tiny bit of plastic sticking out underneath them, which due to the sensitivity of the disc has been ruining it during play due to some minor (undetectable unless I look very very hard) scratch. Are there typically replacements offered for these instances, or has anyone else encountered something similar?

[swo17]

What titles specifically?

[therewillbeblus]

The only one that caused significant problems for me was the StudioCanal Basic Instinct UHD last night - at first the disc was skipping and behaving irregular (which just happens with UHD in general in my experience, and I can usually tell its 'nothing' when I rewind and play the scene over without any glitches to indicate damage in a particular spot), but then it hit a point where it lost sound and the picture broke down consistently across a series of tests. After a lot of investigation, I noticed that the UHD disc was packed in one of those plastic middle cases but on top of that tiny external bump that usually exists outside of the place the disc is held. I'm hoping this was just a mistake, but I don't know exactly what to do. It was the Australian SC edition from the JB-HiFi sale in the Spring, so I emailed them, but wonder if it's just worth getting something separate from UK StudioCanal.

Also, if anyone can confirm they have an SC edition that's packaged differently, including the LE (assuming the booklet is interesting enough to be 'worth it'), I'll gladly just purchase that to avoid the anxiety of waiting for another defective copy

[Adam X]

I’ve got the Australian UHD of Basic Instinct. I can check the case when I get a chance. Not quite sure what you mean by “one of those plastic middle cases but on top of that tiny external bump that usually exists outside of the place the disc is held”, but I guess it’ll make more sense with the case in front of me.

I should note that i don’t yet have the ability to watch the UHD disc so I can’t check for playback issues.

[therewillbeblus]

It's a little elevated speck that usually rests outside the actual disc if they exist at all on the plastic, but this one happened to be under the disc itself. Anyways, I appreciate it, but JB-hifi finally got back to me yesterday and told me to mail it in to get a refund (they'll also supposedly reimburse me for postage back to Australia). They wanted to issue a return but I'd rather buy from Rarewaves or any company that'll get it here faster than ~1-2 months. Hopefully the next one doesn't have that issue- the UHD looks fantastic for the parts I was able to watch, and I transitioned to the blu-ray for the other parts and was able to noticeably tell the difference, which is pretty crazy for me- Enjoy!

[Adam X]

Good news then. That’s the problem with ordering from overseas, dealing with returns. Well that and shipping costs.

[swo17]

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is getting a 4K UHD release in September

[hearthesilence]

I just saw a UHD two-fer with Braveheart and Gladiator packaged together for $24. It's kind of weird seeing a bargain pack with two high profile titles popping up when the format is still so new.

[Ribs]

New? The first releases were seven years ago! There were cheap bargain Blu-rays far sooner then the equivalent period in ~2013 for Blu-rays life cycle.

[hearthesilence]

Jesus, it doesn't feel like it's been seven years.

[therewillbeblus]

Is it possible for a UHD player to cause playback issues, rather than the disc itself? I was watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory this evening, and it started glitching halfway through, to be point of being stuck and unplayable. I took the disc out to check for scratches or smudges, and it was spotless; so re-entered the disc and resumed play and it was fine in the place where there was a glitch that stopped the film before. I rewound the film back a few seconds and then it began glitching in a different place about ten-twenty seconds later than the time it had initially. I kept taking it out, examining the disc, re-entering it, rewinding a tad, and the same thing would happen. I then realized that the first glitch occurred about a minute after I paused the film for the first time during my watch (to retrieve chocolate from the kitchen prior to the chocolate waterfall, of course), so then I made the choice to just not rewind or fast forward it at all, and it played through til the end no problem.

Obviously one would like to be able to pause, rewind, or fast-forward a disc from time to time, so is this something others have encountered? Is it fixable, or should I just commit to a David Lynch-approved moviewatching lifestyle and never disrupt the flow, bladder or hunger be damned?

[fdm]

Cleaning the discs, even if they look fine, can potentially help with things like that, especially UHDs. Could be the player too, maybe it needs a cleaning or maybe it's just not up to working well with certain kinds of higher density UHDs. Also, replacing the disc itself might be all that's needed. Just some things to look into if you start to have issues with other UHDs.

[Finch]

Might it be a player firmware issue? Are you able to check the disc on someone else's player?

[therewillbeblus]

Wait, how does one clean a player? I don’t have an easy ability to test the disc elsewhere but how would I alter the firmware? (I don’t know what I’d be testing for either, since the disc never had issues in the same place or without using rewind, pause, fast forward features… just rewind the disc and wait for it to glitch at some point? Seems like a pretty strange and idiosyncratic problem for a disc to have)

[fdm]

To clean a player, likely it depends on the player. I've never had the need to do it myself, but I do have instructions for if/when I may have to, for my machines. The firmware is something you either download from the internet to a usb stick and install or download directly to the machine via ethernet or wifi, depends on the player. Research your player, update the firmware to the latest, do some cleaning maintenance if you feel up to it, try cleaning the disc.

[therewillbeblus]

Just as an FYI, my Heat UHD arrived loose, and when I opened the package it appears that they layered the UHD disc on top of the bonus features blu without adding an additional plastic sleeve or nob for it. Not sure if this is common practice, but I haven't experienced it yet with UHD (I certainly have with blu-rays in Mill Creek sets etc, though since UHDs are ultrasensitive it seems a bit reckless to put that disc on top, which is just asking to pop out and float around in the case during shipping, as was the case here)

[Finch]

I think Shout/Scream have done it for some of their releases as well. Not great.

[dwk]

I believe the excuse was that there was a shortage of 3-disc cases.

[therewillbeblus]

I believe the excuse was that there was a shortage of 3-disc cases.

Right, but why not just stack the two blu-ray discs, which will be used less and won't scratch as easily? Seems like a poor business decision if these UHD discs (the reason people are buying the upgrades...) are getting knocked loose, floating around and potentially damanged. I imagine companies have to know they'd be processing more returns that way, if they care at all

[therewillbeblus]

Not sure the best thread to ask this, and apologies if it's been reviewed before, but I'm wondering what the chances are of poorly-encoded/produced UHDs to receive new, fixed editions? I don't mean the same discs getting replacements- as obviously many instances have already occurred where companies are either remaining silent or refusing to acknowledge issues with the discs- but if it's feasible financially or if there is motivation to re-release films with time and energy put into fixing problems.

The go-to example for me is Jurassic Park, which is the film I'd probably most like to own in this format, but everything I've read has contributed to a big neon exit sign deterring me from picking up the available releases. Is this just a good enough seller in its current state, where it'll likely remain unrefined? Are the costs too great to make this worth it, or is the ethos of quality not being considered by some companies at all? Are we too early in the stages of the format's consumer trajectory to even make an educated guess?