UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Dragonslayer -- in 4k UHD (5 Viewers)

[Dick]

I miss the days of being able to build a fort out of your movie collection.

And when you want to watch one that's on the second level from the bottom...?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Isn’t the blu-ray from the same master?

It’s derived from the same scan, but you’re not watching it in 4K/Dolby Vision which was the point of contention which is not seeing it above 2K.

 

[B-ROLL]

And when you want to watch one that's on the second level from the bottom...?

The fort comes down and you build a bigger better fort putting the ones you forgot you had but are now must-see on your TV on top !

I don't trust media shelves. I heard on this board someone was killed when one fell over on them !

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

 

[Stephen_J_H]

My steelbook is arriving from Amazon today. Watched the digital on Apple TV last night and am looking forward to a master with less banding.

 

[JoshZ]

For what it's worth, I picked up the SteelBook edition at Best Buy this morning, and it DID have the digital copy code inside. I successfully redeemed it through VUDU a moment ago, and the correct movie appeared in my digital collection there.

So, the issue with the missing codes is apparently not a universal problem with all SteelBook copies.

 

[sbjork]

I finally got around to watching it, and while there are some minor alterations that may or may not be a bridge too far, depending on your perspective, it's mostly a matter of cleaning up the ugly matte lines and digitally massaging the original composites to try to help them blend better with the surrounding material that was taken directly from the negative. There wasn't any recompositing from the original elements. You can see some light haloing along the edges of objects like Vermithrax's wings where the heavy black matte lines used to be. The massaging is most obvious in the blue screen close-ups of Ralph Richardson and the other actors at the top of the mountain, where the grain has been tweaked. They still stand out relative to the surrounding shots, but less so than before.

If you can't handle any of that, feel free to spend your money elsewhere, but it'll be your own loss. It's a gorgeous disc that I can't imagine missing out on.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I've never actually seen this before either. Originally thought I'd just go w/ the 4K digital, but now, think y'all have persuaded me to go for the 4K disc instead...

_Man_

 

[Artanis]

And when you want to watch one that's on the second level from the bottom...?

That's the fun of it.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

So my Steelbook arrived and….. no digital. I already have the DC I bought from iTunes for $5 and it upgraded to 4K a few months before this release. The Steelbook is gorgeous, though.

 

[JoshZ]

I watched the disc last night. I'm not familiar enough with the movie to know exactly what has or hasn't been tinkered with, but none of the noted digital changes stood out or drew attention to themselves during playback (very much unlike what happened to Star Wars). Given the nature of the movie's photography (typically soft, grainy, drab colors), I thought it looked great.

The Atmos soundtrack also sounds very good, but to me it seemed obvious that the entire thing must have been extensively pulled apart and reworked. The immersive three-dimensional soundscape seemed too good for a movie from 1981. I liked it, but I also kind of wish the original mix had been provided as well.

 

[JoshZ]

I just pulled up the copy on VUDU from my digital code redemption, and it looks terrible. Must be the old DVD-era master.

Edit: Let me caveat that by saying that I pulled it up on my computer, which means that I'm looking at the 1080p stream. Although my VUDU account says that I purchased UHD, my only 4K display is a projector, and I'm not turning that on right now.

I was hoping that the 1080p stream would be from the new master (like the separately released Blu-ray), but apparently not.

 

[sbjork]

I watched the disc last night. I'm not familiar enough with the movie to know exactly what has or hasn't been tinkered with, but none of the noted digital changes stood out or drew attention to themselves during playback (very much unlike what happened to Star Wars). Given the nature of the movie's photography (typically soft, grainy, drab colors), I thought it looked great.

The Atmos soundtrack also sounds very good, but to me it seemed obvious that the entire thing must have been extensively pulled apart and reworked. The immersive three-dimensional soundscape seemed too good for a movie from 1981. I liked it, but I also kind of wish the original mix had been provided as well.

There isn't one single original mix. Dragonslayer had both matrixed optical Dolby Stereo and discreet 4-track optical Vistasonic prints, but the 70mm prints did have 6-track mag mix with split surrounds and a baby boom track. In a perfect world, it would have been nice to get discreet 4.0 and 5.1 tracks with the original mixes as an option, but Paramount just doesn't roll that way with catalogue releases like this. They just offer the new mixes.

That said, I'm completely down with the new mix in this case, and while I'd still prefer to have the others as well from an archival standpoint, it's not like I'm going to be listening to them anyway. This Atmos track is just too damned good.

 

[JoshZ]

I just pulled up the copy on VUDU from my digital code redemption, and it looks terrible. Must be the old DVD-era master.

Edit: Let me caveat that by saying that I pulled it up on my computer, which means that I'm looking at the 1080p stream. Although my VUDU account says that I purchased UHD, my only 4K display is a projector, and I'm not turning that on right now.

I was hoping that the 1080p stream would be from the new master (like the separately released Blu-ray), but apparently not.

So, hold on a sec. I pulled up the scene that was screencapped earlier, and I'm not seeing the big visible matte at the bottom of the frame. Does that mean this is the new master after all? Because the 1080p copy on VUDU looks like absolute garbage - very soft, fuzzy details, hazy, noisy, dull. It looks like something struck for cable in the early days of HD.

 

[Robert Harris]

I watched the disc last night. I'm not familiar enough with the movie to know exactly what has or hasn't been tinkered with, but none of the noted digital changes stood out or drew attention to themselves during playback (very much unlike what happened to Star Wars). Given the nature of the movie's photography (typically soft, grainy, drab colors), I thought it looked great.

The Atmos soundtrack also sounds very good, but to me it seemed obvious that the entire thing must have been extensively pulled apart and reworked. The immersive three-dimensional soundscape seemed too good for a movie from 1981. I liked it, but I also kind of wish the original mix had been provided as well.

Have you not heard the original 1979 70mm tracks for Apocalypse with split surrounds?

 

[Konstantinos]

Does that mean this is the new master after all?

Yes, it seems it is since you see the reflection of the dragon too on the water.

 

[JoshZ]

Have you not heard the original 1979 70mm tracks for Apocalypse with split surrounds?

The Atmos mix for Dragonslayer has quite a bit of discrete overhead activity. It sounds like they went back to the original stems and rebuilt the entire track from scratch.

 

[Tino]

So my Steelbook arrived and….. no digital. I already have the DC I bought from iTunes for $5 and it upgraded to 4K a few months before this release. The Steelbook is gorgeous, though.

But you’re entitled to that digital code. I would email
paramount as many of us have and give it away if you can’t use it. That’s what I did.

 

[dpippel]

But you’re entitled to that digital code. I would email
paramount as many of us have and give it away if you can’t use it. That’s what I did.

I agree. I got a response with a code from PHE within 24 hours of my inquiry. Just included a pic of the open steelbook and a copy of my Amazon invoice. No questions asked.

 

[JoshZ]

Yes, it seems it is since you see the reflection of the dragon too on the water.

VUDU must be compressing the hell out of it. Most of the movie looks like this.