A Few Words About A few words about...™ Dunkirk -- in 4k UHD Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[George_W_K]

My Dark Knight disc is defective, it won't even play. I was looking very forward to the opening of that. I only checked out a little bit of Interstellar, but the water planet scene - WOW, what a difference when you compare to the bluray. Entering the wormhole was awesome too. The HDR and extra detail makes a big difference. The farmhouse scene when he's talking to his daughter right before he leaves didn't look much different to me. But when the IMAX footage starts the PQ jumps up noticibly compared to the bluray.

I watched all of Dunkirk and the detail throughout is gorgeous. The extra color, detail, and brightness of the opening beach scenes are a great example of what 4k has to offer over bluray.

 

[DavidJ]

You guys are going to cost me a lot of money.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm not in the market to upgrade anytime soon, but I already have a feeling that the Christopher Nolan films will be my first dedicated UHD purchases.

 

[Rick Thompson]

Lawrence/Dunkirk would be an interesting double bill, but to me the more apt Lean double feature with this would be In Which We Serve, which struck me as a clear inspiration for Nolan's film. It's also a sorely underrated Lean work.

Just don't have much to drink before you start it!

 

[Noel Aguirre]

I hadn’t read anything about this UHD release but bought it and immediately redeemed the digital code. I was playing with the ATV 4K today and wanted to watch some of Dunkirk to test for the 4K streaming quality . The widescreen picture was gorgeous but the sound had to be cranked extremely high. So I thought let me try the disc and POW the image filled the entire screen and the sound kicked it! So now I cannot believe what I have thanks to you guys discussing here. What a demo film I am showing this weekend!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The widescreen picture was gorgeous but the sound had to be cranked extremely high. So I thought let me try the disc and POW the image filled the entire screen and the sound kicked it!

That's pretty standard for Nolan - the BD and UHD versions contain shifting aspect ratios to simulate the IMAX presentation (going back and forth between 1.78:1 and 2.20:1) while the DVD and digital versions are at a constant 2.20:1 ratio and represent the standard digital and standard 70mm presentation. Both options are valid, but I personally prefer the shifting aspect ratio presentation from the disc that better simulates how I saw the film in IMAX.

 

[Tino]

99.9% of the time Physical discs are always better than their streaming counterparts.

Visually and sonically.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

That's pretty standard for Nolan - the BD and UHD versions contain shifting aspect ratios to simulate the IMAX presentation (going back and forth between 1.78:1 and 2.20:1) while the DVD and digital versions are at a constant 2.20:1 ratio and represent the standard digital and standard 70mm presentation. Both options are valid, but I personally prefer the shifting aspect ratio presentation from the disc that better simulates how I saw the film in IMAX.

But it seemed odd that the 4K digital version didn’t have the same ratio as the 4K disc. So this is a different 4K transfer I gather?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

But it seemed odd that the 4K digital version didn’t have the same ratio as the 4K disc. So this is a different 4K transfer I gather?

This would be a harvest of the 65mm 2.20:1 5-perf neg and an extraction of the 1.44:1 15-perf IMAX neg, so the material harvested from 5-perf would be identical, while the 15-perf stuff would be cropped to fit the 2.20:1 AR. Similarly, the 4K UHD version is not a complete extraction of the IMAX 1.44:1 negative; it's cropped to 1.78:1.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

But it seemed odd that the 4K digital version didn’t have the same ratio as the 4K disc. So this is a different 4K transfer I gather?

This would be a harvest of the 65mm 2.20:1 5-perf neg and an extraction of the 1.44:1 15-perf IMAX neg, so the material harvested from 5-perf would be identical, while the 15-perf stuff would be cropped to fit the 2.20:1 AR. Similarly, the 4K UHD version is not a complete extraction of the IMAX 1.44:1 negative; it's cropped to 1.78:1.

My understanding, and this could be incorrect, is that they're actually from different sources, as both versions of the film were finished photochemically and then scanned to create the digital assets used in theaters. Theatrically, the standard (2.20:1) DCP came from a color-timed 70mm IP, while the IMAX DCP (for digital IMAX locations) came from a 15/70 color-timed IP. I would assume that the home video and streaming releases were based on those two sources.