A Few Words About A few words about…™ Grease — in 4k UHD Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Will you be offering an official review, Matt (of TGIF)?

Or maybe an unofficial one?!

Just some thoughts on it once I've watched it. Not a real review.

 

[Malcolm R]

TGIF is from Mill Creek, so I wouldn't get my hopes up for much more than "watchable" in the quality area.

 

[Mark-P]

TGIF is from Mill Creek, so I wouldn't get my hopes up for much more than "watchable" in the quality area.

Except for the fact that it is licensed FROM Sony which is very particular about how their masters are handled by licensees.

 

[Panman40]

I watched this in detail last night and is it just me thinking a lot of scenes look like SD DVD the image is so soft ?. Most of it looks very good but I'm not totally convinced having watched the 2009 original BD release many times.

Thoughts ?.

 

[madfloyd]

I checked out my copy yesterday. I was disappointed with the loss of detail/grain as a result of DNR.

 

[Eric Richard]

I am now thinking the red face error was always a part of the film. It looks like John got caught in a red gel fill light. In the next closeup, Olivia's hair does the same thing. Also, the face has more of an orange cast than the background.

 

[Mark-P]

I am now thinking the red face error was always a part of the film. It looks like John got caught in a red gel fill light. In the next closeup, Olivia's hair does the same thing. Also, the face has more of an orange cast than the background.

Nope. See post #98.

 

[Eric Richard]

I disagree. You can see the red streaks in the old version as well.

 

[Mark-P]

I disagree. You can see the red streaks in the old version as well.

Here’s what I noticed checking the old Blu-ray. For whatever reason rhe colors on the walls were completely different colors between the long shots and closeups. The red above the window was red in the long shot but faded to skin color in the closeups. For the new edition they noticed this bad color continuity and decided to fix it by digitally painting the walls in the closeups to match the long shots and some of that digital paint got on Travolta’s face.

 

[Rob W]

A spectacularly good 4K release with Dolby Vision really adding to the pep rally and drive-in scenes - the ultra- black skies made these night scenes more realistic than I have ever seen before from a video or film presentation.

My only complaint ( which I have made before ) is that few studios seem to know how to chapter-stop musicals. Don't start song chapters with 5 minutes of set-up of scenes leading into the songs ; at most give us two or three lines of set-up that lead into the songs. I can't be the only musical fan that often slips in a disc just to watch two or three of my favorite numbers. (Funny Girl is one disc that gets this right.)

 

[Will Krupp]

A spectacularly good 4K release with Dolby Vision really adding to the pep rally and drive-in scenes - the ultra- black skies made these night scenes more realistic than I have ever seen before from a video or film presentation.

This was my very first experience with 4K/HDR and those scenes (in particular) are how I "remember" (as subjective as that is) the movie looking back when I first saw it at the age of 11 in 1978! Good stuff!

My only complaint or puzzlement, I guess (and I may not have had the HDR settings completely right on my first try, I realize this) is that there were odd color shifts between watching it with HDR engaged and watching it in regular 4K. I'm specifically referring to Rizzo's shirt in the finale. With HDR engaged it takes on a decidedly orange tone while it looks more red/pink/magenta without it (which feels more 'right" to me)

 

[KPmusmag]

A spectacularly good 4K release with Dolby Vision really adding to the pep rally and drive-in scenes - the ultra- black skies made these night scenes more realistic than I have ever seen before from a video or film presentation.

My only complaint ( which I have made before ) is that few studios seem to know how to chapter-stop musicals. Don't start song chapters with 5 minutes of set-up of scenes leading into the songs ; at most give us two or three lines of set-up that lead into the songs. I can't be the only musical fan that often slips in a disc just to watch two or three of my favorite numbers. (Funny Girl is one disc that gets this right.)

Completely agree about the chapters in musicals. And musical numbers should have a chapter stop at the END also; some players will allow a chapter playlist, but if the song chapter continues into the scene that doesn't work.

 

[Dave H]

I've watched the disc a couple of times (and some musical scenes more than that) and the audio is just outstanding!

I do feel there was too much grain reduction in some scenes, but I was happy with the rest of the transfer.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Guess what? I didn't buy that package. I must have forgot to do so as I checked today and only bought the 50s and 60s packages. Now I'm debating whether to buy the 4K from iTunes for $9.99 since I'm not a big fan of Grease.

Well, I finally ended up buying the 4K/UHD release at Target for $16.14 as Cartwheel had a special on it combined with the usual 5% off. Also, I redeemed my digital code twice, once on Vudu and the second time on iTunes and both showed up as 4K/HDR.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

With the 40th anniversary of the film's release, I finally got around to watching it tonight. My setup still isn't 4k-capable, but -- as was reported earlier in the thread -- the Blu-Ray is a new downconvert of the 4K master, so other than resolution and HDR, all of the other benefits of this new release were readily apparent.

Had a positive feeling right from the first frames, with the Gulf+Western 1978 Paramount logo restored to its rightful place at the beginning of the movie, rather than the late nineties/early 2000s Viacom Paramount logo. I damn near rejoiced when the cold open ended and the animated credits sequence was no longer windowboxed.

The audio was astounding the whole way through. Felt like a silver screen musical again, instead of a low-rate karaoke bar. I like the color timing of this release better than than the late nineties version, too.

 

[Paul_Warren]

Finally got around to buying & watch this week... Fantastic audio visual experience without a doubt one of the finest 4K UHD catalog releases to date. Looked absolutely flawless to me (I watched on the fantastic Panasonic THX UB900EB Player with very latest June 2018 V1.80 firmware on a LG Super Nano HDR Dolby Vision HDTV with the very latest firmware release).

Amazing detail, wonderful restrained HDR & vibrant colours. Plenty of grain & variable detail in some scenes but it seemed like it was part of the original filming process if anything. The best compliment I can give this release is that it took me back in time 40 years to a wonderful place!

My main reason for posting is I can confirm that digital red smear glitch is totally gone they must have fixed it silently as its not there anymore. The version I bought was shipped direct from the Sony DAC pressing plant in North London, England. So this means its from the latest batch made in the pressing plant as they ship the stock direct to you so it does not come from older stock sitting in a warehouse gathering dust.

Here in the UK Universal Pictures & Sony have setup a website called Zoom which sells 4K UHD direct to the public & the discs are always shipped direct from Sony DAC (their name is all over the packaging).
https://www.zoom.co.uk/help/about_us

So if you want a corrected disc this is where to get it from! only £15 as well right now if you buy 2 UHDs from their special offer list but that special offer ends soon & you also gets an extra 10% off if its your first order!
https://www.zoom.co.uk/product/grease_40th_anniversary_4k_ultra_hd_blu_ray_uhd

 

[Howard S]

I must admit that I went into watching this transfer with high expectations and pre-conceived ideas about how it was going to look, so given all the praise from others, I do feel guilty that I'm either being unfairly critical or misguided!

I'm not yet UHD equipped so can 'only' watch the bluray version, but I found that some of the color grading was so 'odd' at times (unnatural grass/foliage color, unnatural sky color, color saturation pushed to unnatural extremes, inconsistent colors between shots, blue push on some shots) that it kept on taking me out of the film, and sadly, I've come away disappointed.

Some of the comments that I've read say that the UHD version has a more muted (I'm assuming acceptable) color palette than the Bluray, but wouldn't the Director/colorist have been able (and wanted) to achieve the same look for each? Does anyone know whether color grading is now done just once for the UHD version of a film, and for some color mapping software to automatically take care of the Bluray (in this case not as well as hoped for)?

I do get the impression that with the advent of digital grading tools, there is more temptation to 'fiddle' and more risk of not getting things quite right. Or is grading an OCN scan much harder than that from a positive for some reason? I guess what I'm finding hard to understand is why, in many years of film watching through the photochemical timing era (which I'm assuming was quite a crude tool?), I've never been taken out of a film by this kind of issue. Am I alone in seeing this kind of thing with some digitally graded films from this era, as here?

 

[Mark Booth]

Watch this YouTube clip of the 40th Anniversary restoration:



At the 25 second mark, watch for this (look at John Travolta's forehead):

This is the same spot on the original Blu-ray:

I might not have noticed it happen while watching the 40th Anniversary Blu. But now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it.

Robert (or someone), please check the actual 4K disc to see if it's still there. Perhaps Paramount caught it and fixed it before the new discs got pressed?

Beyond that, the color timing of those two versions is AMAZINGLY different. I wonder which one is most loyal to the original appearance?

Mark

FYI, Paramount has corrected the red band of color on Travolta's forehead in more recent pressing(s) of the 4K disc. I read about it on one of the forums (forget which) and contacted Paramount's Customer Service email last week. I received a replacement 4K disc today (just the bare disc in a disc envelope) and I have verified that the red band of color has been vanquished.

I have also verified that the 4K digital copy version on iTunes still DOES contain the red band of color. Maybe Apple will get around to swapping the streaming versions eventually?

Mark

 

[Dave H]

I must admit that I went into watching this transfer with high expectations and pre-conceived ideas about how it was going to look, so given all the praise from others, I do feel guilty that I'm either being unfairly critical or misguided!

I'm not yet UHD equipped so can 'only' watch the bluray version, but I found that some of the color grading was so 'odd' at times (unnatural grass/foliage color, unnatural sky color, color saturation pushed to unnatural extremes, inconsistent colors between shots, blue push on some shots) that it kept on taking me out of the film, and sadly, I've come away disappointed.

Some of the comments that I've read say that the UHD version has a more muted (I'm assuming acceptable) color palette than the Bluray, but wouldn't the Director/colorist have been able (and wanted) to achieve the same look for each? Does anyone know whether color grading is now done just once for the UHD version of a film, and for some color mapping software to automatically take care of the Bluray (in this case not as well as hoped for)?

I do get the impression that with the advent of digital grading tools, there is more temptation to 'fiddle' and more risk of not getting things quite right. Or is grading an OCN scan much harder than that from a positive for some reason? I guess what I'm finding hard to understand is why, in many years of film watching through the photochemical timing era (which I'm assuming was quite a crude tool?), I've never been taken out of a film by this kind of issue. Am I alone in seeing this kind of thing with some digitally graded films from this era, as here?

Good questions, but I'm not sure of the answers.

I closely compared the UHD BD to the remastered BD and found the UHD color to be much more preferable. I also found the gamma to be overblown on the BD and the HDR is done well and tastefully on the UHD.

I just sent off an email to Paramount about a UHD replacement disc. Looking forward to re-watching Grease again already.

 

[Paul_Warren]

FYI, Paramount has corrected the red band of color on Travolta's forehead in more recent pressing(s) of the 4K disc. I read about it on one of the forums (forget which)

Mark

I mentioned that above on 21st June!