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Robert Harris

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RAH has been wrangling with HDR and Dolby Vision parameters since Caesar was in power.

Attempting to get Aurens to play properly finally caused things to come to a head.

When reviewing It's a Wonderful Life, I had problems in projection with DV, which is as expected, but also with a Sony OLED panel, which is not. When the panel kicks into Dolby Vision, it tells you, with a legend in the upper right corner that can be seen from space.

It was a no go. Clotted black levels. Tried making certain adjustments. Purchased a JVC 4k player to replace the ancient Oppo 4k. The JVC allows HDR and DV to be shut down entirely, or so it seemed.

Nothing helped.

Finally, I went into the "expert" menu, and located additional controls, which allow further control of gamma, black levels, etc, and finally, the image is proper.

As far as I can discern, there are different settings necessitated to make DV play nicely, apart from the automated re-setting of contrast and brightness, which are set automatically.

Now the question of being able to save settings for each function, without having to go back to a list and reprogram.

Which means that this review is being updated, and corrected.

I've sent bouquets of digital flowers to the folks at Paramount, along with corrections.

In the olden days, one would turn on a TV, wait for the tubes to warm up, and if you saw anything but a native American test pattern, you knew you had some sort of programming.

No longer.

It's at the very least, a weekend at MIT.


Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, has received a 4k make-over from the OCN, and with the help of Dolby Vision, it all seems to work for the best.

We gain a far more stable image, that's also more highly resolved, with gorgeous grain structure.

The gray scale appears fine, with rich blacks, white whites and attractive shadow detail, except possibly in dupes.

While the disc still has problems playing in projection - projectors have neither the ability to play DV, nor the requisite luminance to achieve it if they did.

Along with the new 4k, one gets a godawful colorized version, but no standard issue Blu-ray.

Image – 5 (Dolby Vision)

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Upgrade from Blu-ray – Yes

RAH

 
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Tino

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Well that’s a surprise. Considering how well received the iTunes digital 4K version was welcomed.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I’m hoping someone will review/compare the new Blu-Ray (sold as a separate SKU) to the prior Blu-Ray.

I have the new Blu and the old. I’m absolutely slammed so there’s no way I can get to it any kind of soon but if no one has compared the two by Thanksgiving, send me a PM to remind me and I’ll try to make time for a quick look.
 

Robert Harris

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I'm with you. I felt very pleased with the 4K disc...

Don’t get me wrong. Black level and shadow detail aside the new 4k is beautifully rendered.

But I’m unable to overlook the lack of shadow detail, for this film photographed by Joseph Biroc, and Joseph Walker.
 

Tino

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Don’t get me wrong. Black level and shadow detail aside the new 4k is beautifully rendered.

But I’m unable to overlook the lack of shadow detail, for this film photographed by Joseph Biroc, and Joseph Walker.
Curious. Have you seen the iTunes 4K version to compare?
 

Trancas

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Using the comparisons on Caps-a-holic, I tried adjusting the image in Photoshop. The shadow detail seems to still be there if you adjust the brightness and gamma on your TV and/or player.
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=13510&d2=13511&s1=135826&s2=135837&x=468&y=252&i=2&a=1&go=1&l=1
whole screen.jpg

The whole image with cropped area.

wonderful_lifeBRorig.jpg

The blu ray screenshot central portion.

wonderful_life4korig.jpg

The original 4k screenshot central portion.

wonderful_life4kadj.jpg

Adjusting the 4k screenshot using gamma and levels in Photoshop.
 

Robert Harris

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Acknowledged, but the concept of media is that it will be mastered, and presented without special setups. Doubtful that the entire film will track with a single adjustment.

Somehow, I’m thinking that the Paramount master is probably correct, and that something occurred on the back end.
 

Alan Tully

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I shouldn't even be posting here, as I don't have (as yet) a 4K TV or player, & I don't know how much I trust 4K caps, but the caps over at caps-a-holic do look remarkably flat, too flat. I'd like to see what they look like on a waveform monitor.
 

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