10 must-own 4K UHD Blu-rays from the past year (1 Viewer)

[titch]

Most of us don't project onto a large screen which is why I can't agree with some of the criticisms here. I'm just not seeing the same level of issues you guys are experiencing.

What was most surprising was that Robert Harris pronounced the resolution as "spectacular" - he certainly has a high-end JVC projector and is normally quick to point out when the image does not resemble film. I was watching the 4K UHD of Casino Royale last weekend and thought that it suffered from exactly the same problems. Colour was nice but grain removal was obvious and detrimental. I have 230 UHD titles and like OliverK, I think the Lord of The Rings Trilogy is in the bottom ten as far as picture quality is concerned. I haven't seen it on an OLED screen, only projected.

 

[Dave>h]

As an outside observer of the 4K world who is waiting until 4K projectors start getting down into my price range, I am curious if every UHD disc gets the Dolby Atmos DTS:X treatment? And if so, are these soundtracks all remastered from the original mono (I am assuming a lot of films on this list are before Dolby pro logic and many more modern films (Indiana Jones, BTTF etc) are before 5.1 mixes even.

I got into this hobby way back when Dolby pro logic started to make its way into mainstream consumer electronics. Think I bought my first pro logic receiver in 1996 and cobbled together a 4 speaker system to accomodate it. I was soooo cool! I have been obsessed with sound ever since.

I currently have a nice mid range Yamaha Atmos receiver (RXV 1083) and enjoy Atmos soundtracks when I can find them on blu ray - I find them more airy than their 5.1 counterparts even if I cannot often pinpoint individual 3d sounds. But I find that many new blu rays do not have an Atmos sountrack, which is rather disappointing.

I guess ultimately, I am looking for another excuse to make the leap into 4k! And if the sound on the 4k disks is superior to that of their blu ray counterparts then that would be another selling feature for me.

 

[titch]

As an outside observer of the 4K world who is waiting until 4K projectors start getting down into my price range, I am curious if every UHD disc gets the Dolby Atmos DTS:X treatment? And if so, are these soundtracks all remastered from the original mono (I am assuming a lot of films on this list are before Dolby pro logic and many more modern films (Indiana Jones, BTTF etc) are before 5.1 mixes even.

I got into this hobby way back when Dolby pro logic started to make its way into mainstream consumer electronics. Think I bought my first pro logic receiver in 1996 and cobbled together a 4 speaker system to accomodate it. I was soooo cool! I have been obsessed with sound ever since.

I currently have a nice mid range Yamaha Atmos receiver (RXV 1083) and enjoy Atmos soundtracks when I can find them on blu ray - I find them more airy than their 5.1 counterparts even if I cannot often pinpoint individual 3d sounds. But I find that many new blu rays do not have an Atmos sountrack, which is rather disappointing.

I guess ultimately, I am looking for another excuse to make the leap into 4k! And if the sound on the 4k disks is superior to that of their blu ray counterparts then that would be another selling feature for me.

No - not every UHD has an Atmos soundtrack. But especially on newly remastered classic films, the picture and sound is almost always superior to that on the original blu-ray. Some classic films get a remastered, Dolby Atmos track; In The Line Of Fire has superb Atmos audio, as well as picture. Same goes for the Indiana Jones 4K UHDs. You are missing out!

 

[OliverK]

I was watching the 4K UHD of Casino Royale last weekend and thought that it suffered from exactly the same problems. Colour was nice but grain removal was obvious and detrimental. I have 230 UHD titles and like OliverK, I think the Lord of The Rings Trilogy is in the bottom ten as far as picture quality is concerned. I haven't seen it on an OLED screen, only projected.

A quick look at caps-a-holic caused me to pass on the Daniel Craig Bond movies in UHD except for the last one.
I do not think that a movie gets somehow elevated in quality by applying HDR to a picture that was no originally meant for it so I was not that interested anyway for a movie with s 2k DCP. Sure enough when I finally got a loaner of Casino Royale it looked somehow diminished overall compared to the Blu-ray which is a shame as it should look a bit better even when the movie only has a 2k DCP.

As for the LOTR trilogy yes the HDR is well done and the general color timing is good but the combination of EE and DNR used on old data make that trilogy such a wasted opportunity.