A Few Words About A few words about...™ It's a Wonderful Life (Corrected)-- in 4k UHD Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[DavidJ]

I wanted to see what others were saying about this release, so I found the site below, and learned everything that I'd never known about nitrate stock, and the "silver" screen.

If one ever ponders where facts come from, go here, and learn all about it.

https://www.heraldextra.com/enterta...cle_06b71051-6593-5549-9756-f220de1f5c14.html

Ah, sarcasm.

 

[DavidJ]

There’s always the possibility that your player and display are playing more nicely together than mine.

I initially examined the disc on a projector, which while it can now better handle HDR, is still low on nits. Second shot was a Sony OLED. Similar results.

And this has me wondering what it would look like on a LCD display with black levels that aren't quite as deep and the added nits---not enough to buy it, mind you. Maybe someone else can chime in.

This is just a matter of curiosity for me as I agree with RAH that we should be looking for correct as much as possible.

 

[Robert Harris]

And this has me wondering what it would look like on a LCD display with black levels that aren't quite as deep and the added nits---not enough to buy it, mind you. Maybe someone else can chime in.

This is just a matter of curiosity for me as I agree with RAH that we should be looking for correct as much as possible.

The ability of a display to reproduce richer black levels should not negate a full gray scale, with proper shadow detail.

 

[DavidJ]

Yes, I do understand that. Just wondering if it would look better to the average consumer and reviewers like the one you linked to. And I should add it doesn't really matter. I'm just curious.

 

[OliverK]

In an ideal world, we would have 4K SDR discs, until technology catches up to properly display the REC.2020 colorspace and the nits in the 4K UHD discs. Right now, every display is different and shows things differently - colors are different as they cannot be calibrated, EOTF curves are different, and max nits and rolloffs are different. That said, it makes sense to get 4k UHD now as they will just look better and better as tech catches up.

To your point however, marketing 4K without HDR was not something that was deemed lucrative. Especially on average sized displays. So HDR is not restrained, but rather pushed. At times it's fine - Apocalypse Now, The Shining, 2001, and others, but most often it gets in the way. Especially on older films, where restraint is needed. Wizard of OZ is an exception of things done right as well.

I agree that we cannot deal in absolutes with a technology that assumes we have 4000+ nits displays and that will be an issue for a long time to come, It also causes lots of problems with projectors that very rarely go above 100 nits on screen. Apart from added resolution and a bigger color space (does not apply in this case) a movie in HDR should give us at least the same but often more shadow detail in addition to the added highlights and in the case of a catalog title I would strongly suggest that we should strive for the same shadow detail that was intended for the SDR version. Apparently somebody got the first part wrong and reduced shadow detail this time around.

 

[Robert Harris]

Yes, I do understand that. Just wondering if it would look better to the average consumer and reviewers like the one you linked to. And I should add it doesn't really matter. I'm just curious.

I don't have the answer. The reviewer to whom I linked was just doing a puff piece, not seemingly "reviewing" anything.

The average consumer shouldn't have to consider whether something is correct. It simply should be.

 

[DavidJ]

The average consumer shouldn't have to consider whether something is correct. It simply should be.

Wholeheartedly agree.

 

[David Norman]

Ah, sarcasm.

Sometimes takes me awhile with Mr Harris and even then I'm sometimes smart enough to figure it out with hand holding

 

[Gary16]

Well, I consider myself a dolt because I watched this movie in 4K/Dolby Vision a couple of times and I never noticed the issue you made known in this thread. Perhaps, I was looking at the video presentation from a different prism in which I'm not looking for imperfections, but, whether it looks good to me on my display. The issue you noted then stand out to me.

Don’t take this personally but the imperfections are not something you have to look for. As soon as that early scene started where the kids come into the dark soda fountain I knew something wasn’t right. A couple other scenes looked ok but then came the dance in the dark gymnasium. I honestly couldn’t continue watching and switched to the older bluray. I even had the tech people at Kaleidescape double check the 4K to make sure they hadn’t tampered with it but assured me that was the master they received from Paramount. I haven’t had this issue with any other 4K’s to date.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Don’t take this personally but the imperfections are not something you have to look for. As soon as that early scene started where the kids come into the dark soda fountain I knew something wasn’t right. A couple other scenes looked ok but then came the dance in the dark gymnasium. I honestly couldn’t continue watching and switched to the older bluray. I even had the tech people at Kaleidescape double check the 4K to make sure they hadn’t tampered with it but assured me that was the master they received from Paramount. I haven’t had this issue with any other 4K’s to date.

What can I say I didn’t see it. I guess I’m just a dolt.

 

[OliverK]

Yes, I do understand that. Just wondering if it would look better to the average consumer and reviewers like the one you linked to. And I should add it doesn't really matter. I'm just curious.

Without reading the linked review you can bet that enough people will claim something like "inkier blacks" and be happy with it.

 

[moviebuff75]

Should this be brought up to Paramount?

 

[Robert Harris]

Should this be brought up to Paramount?

Already has been.

 

[Mark VH]

I’ve never owned this film on Blu-Ray in any version and was hoping to buy the new version (on Blu, not 4K). So, hearing all this, should I buy a) the new one, b) the old one or c) none of the above?

 

[Tino]

The average consumer shouldn't have to consider whether something is correct. It simply should be.

Best statement I’ve seen in a long time!

 

[Robert Harris]

I’ve never owned this film on Blu-Ray in any version and was hoping to buy the new version (on Blu, not 4K). So, hearing all this, should I buy a) the new one, b) the old one or c) none of the above?

Please stand by. Need to see the new standard issue Blu-ray.

Not the old one.

 

[ghostwind]

It’s a Wonderful Life but a not so wonderful 4K HDR transfer - this should be the review title

 

[Paul Rossen]

Wow on all of this. I held back purchasing due to Paramount's crazy release pattern of including a wasted color version.

Hoping that Paramount corrects their error and comes to their senses with regard to the colorized version being forced fed...

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Someone stated earlier to change the brightness, but you should never do this on an HDR display. .

That was a joke. When someone uses the "" emoji, they are joking!!!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Robert,

I generally agree with you. But what might be the problem with presenting a foolproof product, that is actually correct, and plays back without a thought?

I’m returning to what I said years ago, which is to simply put out a product that functions. It should not matter that the viewer has no idea what a 1946 black & white film should look like.

Any dolt can look at HD eye candy, and exclaim “Pretty!”

But pretty can also be correct.

Earlier today I was considering going into my player/panel settings, and turning off Dolby Vision, to see if that made a difference. But then decided that the average viewer won’t be going there. Something either plays back properly, or it doesn’t. Hopefully, we’re not returning to days of yore, when HDR was the Wild West.

When I watched "IAWL", I had some issues where the image would go too dark at times.

It was the kind of dim look like I left the player in still frame and my TV's "screen saver" function dimmed the image to prevent burn-in.

I could repeat the scenes and not have it happen, so I chalked it up to quirks of my player vs. an issue with the image itself.

Now... I dunno. I've watched... 100? 200? 4K discs and never had one where the screen randomly varied from good brightness to oddly dim in this way.

Again, when I saw scenes that were too dark, I was able to "rewind" and try again and they'd look fine.

Odd!