UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading

[nicolas]

Reiterating the comment I made when I saw the film in 35mm years ago at Film Forum, but this shot was definitely bathed in the blueish hue as seen here, and was not neutral gray like the other screen shot on DVD Beaver.

Everything’s great in that shot. The new grade in general looks wonderful and so much better than the one seen on the old KL BD. No criticism against that. I’m just referring to a small amount of blue that sometimes creeps in when white objects and also some reflections are in the frame during the color sections of the film. This isn’t a grave issue at all, just a small observation and maybe even insignificant when watching the entire film.

[rrenault]

No regrets whatsoever about buying Carlotta's Béla Tarr box. even though I ended up double-dipping on Damnation as I already had the FiM-encoded Arbelos release. I don't think I'll bother with the Criterion.

And I'm greatly looking forward to Nostalghia, which is currently in transit.

I hope you get your copy soon! Amazon did the unimaginable and sent my $14.99 price error pre-order with UPS a day before release even though I took standard shipping.

Just wanted to add that after writing my first impressions of the Nostalghia UHD, I gave the old KL BD another spin to refresh my memory about its look. The audio on that disc is much, much worse than I remembered. It’s absolutely a night-and-day difference to the restored (?) mix on the 4K. The upgrade is essential for that improvement alone.

Amazon listed my copy of Nostalghia as arriving in France on April 24 for the longest time, but it suddenly switched to May 6 the other day. Oh well, I guess I’m not one of the lucky UPS recipients. Anyhow, I’m looking forward to receiving it, but I’ll probably stick with Carlotta for Werckmeister Harmonies, even though it’s Blu-ray only.

[nicolas]

No regrets whatsoever about buying Carlotta's Béla Tarr box. even though I ended up double-dipping on Damnation as I already had the FiM-encoded Arbelos release. I don't think I'll bother with the Criterion.

And I'm greatly looking forward to Nostalghia, which is currently in transit.

I hope you get your copy soon! Amazon did the unimaginable and sent my $14.99 price error pre-order with UPS a day before release even though I took standard shipping.

Just wanted to add that after writing my first impressions of the Nostalghia UHD, I gave the old KL BD another spin to refresh my memory about its look. The audio on that disc is much, much worse than I remembered. It’s absolutely a night-and-day difference to the restored (?) mix on the 4K. The upgrade is essential for that improvement alone.

Amazon listed my copy of Nostalghia as arriving in France on April 24 for the longest time, but it suddenly switched to May 6 the other day. Oh well, I guess I’m not one of the lucky UPS recipients. Anyhow, I’m looking forward to receiving it, but I’ll probably stick with Carlotta for Werckmeister Harmonies, even though it’s Blu-ray only.

I guess Amazon sensed my excitement and treated me with a surprise. Otherwise, it’s always like you described, meaning they suddenly delay the delivery date without notice. That and the expensive shipping costs is why I don’t order there any more unless something like the Nostalghia price error happens.

[Finch]

The Demoniacs & The Nude Vampire (Indicator)
China O'Brien 1 & 2 (Eureka)
Basket Case (Arrow) (if compared to Arrow's BD)

The Indicator & Eureka titles are FiM encodes (I don't know - yet - if Basket Case is. Edit 04/27: yes, it is!).

[nicolas]

The Demoniacs & The Nude Vampire (Indicator)
China O'Brien 1 & 2 (Eureka)
Basket Case (Arrow)

The Indicator & Eureka titles are FiM encodes.

Great news! Finch, could you please also add Werckmeister Harmonies to the reference category? Thanks!

[therewillbeblus]

Any word on the various 4Ks for Beau is Afraid overseas? I imagine Eagle Pictures is probably good, but Leonine Films is what's available from easy retailers..

[Finch]

Geoff on BD.com mentioned in one of their threads that Universal's UK UHDs of Hannibal and Hard Target are lush looking and better compressed than Kino's 4ks so I've added them in red. I'll add them to the import tier later on.

[senseabove]

Saw a report elsewhere that the US Lionsgate UHD of One From the Heart only has the Reprise cut, not the original theatrical, so if you want both you need to get the UK release.

[nicolas]

Any word on the various 4Ks for Beau is Afraid overseas? I imagine Eagle Pictures is probably good, but Leonine Films is what's available from easy retailers..

I’ll direct you to the Blu-ray.com thread where all international releases are discussed. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... +is+afraid

From what I’ve seen after browsing a little, the Eagle should be the best one. Someone mentioned the Leonine is okay but from past experiences, I wouldn’t vouch for this. If you buy the UHD from Amazon IT, you can also check this Eagle thread and maybe you’ll find something to bring down your shipping per item: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... ight=eagle

Always feel free to ask if you need any tips or recommendations.

[nicolas]

Scorsese’s The Departed is a big upgrade in 4K compared to the more than ancient original BD. Still, the elephant in the room is the film’s origin as a 2K DI prepared at the time. That DI was used for the old BD and now the UHD as well and its limitations are apparent. More so than I thought, to be honest. The film looks quite soft and inconsistent in grain and image detail. It doesn’t appear that these are encode problems even though Warner weren’t afraid of bitrate dips into the 20-30 Mbps region. The decision of not conforming the negative to the DI and doing filmouts of the VFX in 2006 is what haunts us now, as a full-fledged 4K restoration would’ve been much easier to handle had they done this. Considering this is Scorsese and his passion for restoration and preservation, it’s even more disappointing to have the film locked in digital. I’d say this is a solid upgrade overall.

Rolling Thunder is yet another great Shout UHD. The restoration and grade look superb. The encode is excellent as well, although I have a feeling that at one point someone applied minimal filtering to ease the encode. This is purely speculative though and it doesn’t distract from the viewing, it’s just that I think there is a hint of more potential in the underlying master. We’d only have this confirmed if another label released the restoration too. I don’t have the old BD to compare but the SC disc looks at least solid on caps. Both red and blue categories should be fine. Maybe someone with the old BD can share some impressions.

[therewillbeblus]

Rolling Thunder does indeed look fantastic. The blu looked fine, but this feels like a major improvement.

Is there any word on Kind Hearts and Coronets?

[nicolas]

Rolling Thunder does indeed look fantastic. The blu looked fine, but this feels like a major improvement.

Is there any word on Kind Hearts and Coronets?

My copy of Kind Hearts and Coronets went missing in transit, so can’t yet comment but that release got somehow lost among the many other UHDs right now and even SC’s own Lavender Hill Mob and it’s lavish collectors edition. Based on what I saw from caps and specs, I think both are FiM encodes just like Ladykillers and most of their UK films.

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks nicolas - and I hope you get your package or a re-supply soon! Sounds so frustrating

[nicolas]

Thanks nicolas - and I hope you get your package or a re-supply soon! Sounds so frustrating

Thanks, I’ll definitely get a replacement from Rarewaves. Their support is thankfully excellent in getting things like that resolved fairly quickly.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah they are, big fan

[Finch]

I'm curious how much of an improvement Lavender Hill Mob and Kind Hearts & Coronets represent over Studio Canal's own most recent BDs. Are we talking reference discs or "merely" solid upgrades?

Paramount seem to have done right by The Crow with a good encode, and the BD was from 2011 (!).

[nicolas]

I'm curious how much of an improvement Lavender Hill Mob and Kind Hearts & Coronets represent over Studio Canal's own most recent BDs. Are we talking reference discs or "merely" solid upgrades?

Paramount seem to have done right by The Crow with a good encode, and the BD was from 2011 (!).

I assume Lavender Hill Mob is a slightly bigger upgrade than Kind Hearts & Coronets as the former’s last BD is from a 2K restoration whereas SC already released the 4K restoration of Coronets in 2019. Assuming that both are top-tier encodes, Lavender Hill is either reference or solid upgrade and Coronets solid.

Just wanted to ask about the elements situation but found the following info from SC:

THE LAVENDER HILL MOB was restored in 4K using a 35mm duplicating positive as the original negative was unavailable. Thanks to the latest film scanning technology and restoration tools, we were able to achieve a high standard image from the positive that was used. Silver Salt Restoration restored and color graded the film producing a new 4K DCP, HDR Dolby Vision and HD master.

Kind Hearts & Coronets: Brand new 16-bit 4K restoration that was undertaken by the BFI and finalized at Silver Salt Restoration. (Info from 2019) More from AVForums: “Kind Hearts and Coronets was shot on 35 mm film and had the benefit of a 4K scan from the 35mm nitrate original negative by the BFI in 2019, with the resulting DI getting restored with extensive manual correction carried out frame-by-frame fixing large dirt debris, warping, tears, scuffs, and scratches and then colour corrected by Senior Colourist, Steve Bearman of Silver Salt Restoration. It appears that it is this restoration upon which the HDR grade was added, and which forms the basis for this UHD.”