UHD Review Groundhog Day 30th Anniversary Edition UHD Review (1 Viewer)

[Todd Erwin]

Sony marks the 30th Anniversary of Groundhog Day with a new 4K UHD steelbook release.



Groundhog Day (1993)



Released: 12 Feb 1993
Rated: PG
Runtime: 101 min




Director: Harold Ramis
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance



Cast: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky
Writer(s): Danny Rubin (screenplay), Harold Ramis (screenplay), Danny Rubin (story)



Plot: A weatherman finds himself inexplicably living the same day over and over again.



IMDB rating: 8.0
MetaScore: 72





Disc Information



Studio: Sony
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution: 2160p HEVC w/HDR



Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: Dolby Atmos, English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, English 2.0 DTS-HDMA, English 5.1...

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[Carlo_M]

This is one of those movies that I'll basically repurchase until I can no longer do so. Will be interested to see how the Dolby Vision treatment compares to the HDR10 from the previous release on my OLED.

 

[Todd Erwin]

This is one of those movies that I'll basically repurchase until I can no longer do so. Will be interested to see how the Dolby Vision treatment compares to the HDR10 from the previous release on my OLED.

I reviewed it this time on an LG C1 and compared the two discs (the previous review was on a Sony X800D series). The older HDR10 still looked excellent, but the Dolby Vision disc had better and slightly more pronounced highlights. The newer disc with DV disabled and running in HDR10 appeared nearly identical to the 2018 disc. The new release does give you the 5.1 and 2.0 mixes (in DTS-HD MA) that were missing on the prior release (likely due to disc space limitations - that was a BD66, the new disc is BD100).

 

[Carlo_M]

On a primarily dialogue driven film, I'm not entirely sure that the DTS 5.1/2.0 tracks would have been enough to justify a re-purchase (unlike, say Edge of Tomorrow, where the DTS-HD track on the BD is IMO--and can be confirmed by the way my dishes in the adjacent room react to the DTS bass and not the Atmos bass--superior to the Atmos mix). If they ever release a 4K version of EoT with the DTS track on the 4K disc...I'll have to buy that one again.

 

[Carlo_M]

40 minutes in and the highest compliment I can pay it is that it looks like film to my eyes. A nice, pristine print. The opening credits and clouds always looked very grainy, and that's still true here (maybe they used stock footage for it) and probably the opening scene at the news station looks the weakest in terms of video quality, but after that, especially when they get into town, the film looks great.

I haven't had a chance to A/B it with the older HDR10 disc. If I get bored at some point maybe I'll move the other UHD player into the main room, sync them up and use the AVR to go back and forth.

And while I still do maintain that this is primarily a dialogue driven film, there are some surprising moments where the entire room comes alive, primarily when there's a music cue.

Now admittedly I've done all my previous viewing of the older UHD when I had a 5.1 system (and the BD, and DVD) so maybe if I popped in the older discs on my current 7.2.4 it would activate the room in the same way.

As someone who loves seeing Dolby Vision on modern movies (MCU, Sci-fi/fantasy, etc.) I can admit that both HDR methods if aggressively applied can make older films look unnaturally blown out, or affect shadow detail in a negative way. That does not seem to be happening here. I'm no expert in applying HDR to movies, but I'd wager the person who worked on this film used a very light, sparing touch, wanting to honor the original look of the film. I'd say they succeeded.