UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - American Graffiti -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[titch]

How are you quantifying the missing detail?

The smoothness, particularly in the faces.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The iTunes version just looks “weird”. Not sure if it has to do with the encoding, but I see strange things going on with how actors move against the backgrounds and the colours. It’s like a strange animation anomaly. Watched portions on both my 4K display, my iPhone 13 mini and my 1080p Panny plasma.

 

[Sam Favate]

I knew full well of the troubling reviews of this disc before I bought it (and I pre-ordered it). Once I got it, I popped it in the player to check it out. I was disappointed like everyone else. But last night, I watched the movie from start to finish, and - taking RAH's advice - I did not watch on a projector and I did not sit closer than 12 feet. (I watched it on my 55" screen and sat at least 12 feet back.)

I can only say that the movie transcends the transfer. I did not find any of the imperfections interfered with my enjoyment of what is one of my favorite films of all time. (I also did not see any aliens coming from any faces.) Yes, absolutely, it can and should look better, but putting myself in the hands of the movie, its wonderful soundtrack and terrific performances, I was simply enjoying one of my favorites again.

If I'm being honest, I was always going to buy this. It's the fifth time (VHS x2, DVD, Blu-Ray and UHD), and it's very likely the last physical release this film will get. (I really doubt Universal will revisit the transfer and it's too big a deal for Universal to let Criterion take a crack at, although I'd love to see that.) It deserved better, but it's still the movie we love.

(BTW, can anyone shed light on why Universal - which I have long considered one of the worst studios for blu-ray - always makes discs that take such an incredibly long time to load? Every Uni blu-ray -- I put in the AG blu-ray to compare to UHD -- takes absurdly long, like nearly 10 minutes. And it's not just this one! Very frustrating. Reminds me of the days of the double-sided DVD, which Uni championed and which were a disaster.)

 

[Charles Smith]

Ten minutes?!

When I come across a long-loader, it's still usually done in a minute or not much longer.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

(BTW, can anyone shed light on why Universal - which I have long considered one of the worst studios for blu-ray - always makes discs that take such an incredibly long time to load? Every Uni blu-ray -- I put in the AG blu-ray to compare to UHD -- takes absurdly long, like nearly 10 minutes. And it's not just this one! Very frustrating. Reminds me of the days of the double-sided DVD, which Uni championed and which were a disaster.)

Gotta be an issue on your end. I've never seen any BD or 4K take 10 minutes to load.

Bizarrely, my only issues are when I try to play Sony BDs... on my Sony BD player.

They just spin forever and never start.

 

[Sam Favate]

Every Universal BD I’ve put in the PS3 in the last several months takes 8-10 minutes to get to the menu. I rewatched all the Uni horror films on BD and had to build in time for each to load. AG was no different. Now, UHDs don’t behave like this, but BDs, all the time. I wonder if it has something to do with the BD-Live nonsense. (The firmware is up to date.)

 

[Robert Crawford]

No problems with my Oppos and Panny.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Every Universal BD I’ve put in the PS3 in the last several months takes 8-10 minutes to get to the menu. I rewatched all the Uni horror films on BD and had to build in time for each to load. AG was no different. Now, UHDs don’t behave like this, but BDs, all the time. I wonder if it has something to do with the BD-Live nonsense. (The firmware is up to date.)

I think that’s absolutely it; I experienced something like that ages ago. Universal discs are programmed to look for an internet connection first and to start downloading links to new trailers, etc, and if that has been discontinued on the server side, you get long load times as it keeps trying over and over to access it. If you disable internet connectivity you’ll have regular load times.