UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ No Time to Die -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[JoshZ]

MGM isn’t part of MoviesAnywhere.

MGM is the copyright holder, but the movie is distributed by Universal on home video.

 

[Robert Crawford]

MGM is the copyright holder, but the movie is distributed by Universal on home video.

I’m telling you why every single Bond movie isn’t available on MA. If you don’t want to believe me then so be it.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

To bring this back to No Time To Die, does the BD have extras?

Yes, with a caveat. The BD set includes the movie on one BD, bonus features on a second BD, and a movie-only DVD. If you buy the UHD set, the bonus features are on the UHD disc and that set only includes the movie-only BD, so you won’t get bonus features in the Blu-ray format if you buy on UHD.

Bonus features on the BD are four brief featurettes. The UHD includes an additional bonus feature, the “Being James Bond” featurette that had a limited free preview on iTunes before the film opened in theaters.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m telling you why every single Bond movie isn’t available on MA. If you don’t want to believe me then so be it.

Yes, as you said, MGM owns the film and Universal is the physical media distributor. MGM isn’t part of Movies Anywhere so the code for No Time To Die isn’t MA either.

 

[JoshZ]

I’m telling you why every single Bond movie isn’t available on MA. If you don’t want to believe me then so be it.

I'm not saying I don't believe you! I guess I just hoped that Universal taking over distribution would mean support for Movies Anywhere.

MGM is the underlying copyright holder, but shouldn't the distributor have discretion over, you know, how and where the movie gets distributed? Isn't that their job?

Edit: Looking into this further, Wikipedia says:

"It is the first Bond film to be distributed by Universal Pictures, which acquired the international distribution rights following the expiration of Sony Pictures' contract after the release of Spectre in 2015. United Artists Releasing holds the rights for North America, as well as worldwide digital and television rights; Universal also holds the worldwide rights for physical home media."

I guess that explains it. Distribution rights are split between Universal for physical media and United Artists for TV and digital. I had thought Uni handled distribution for all media.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm not saying I don't believe you! I guess I just hoped that Universal taking over distribution would mean support for Movies Anywhere.

MGM is the underlying copyright holder, but shouldn't the distributor have discretion over, you know, how and where the movie gets distributed? Isn't that their job?

I guess it depends on the contract's language between MGM and Universal. Evidently, their home video distribution deal only covers physical media and not digital media.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I guess I just hoped that Universal taking over distribution would mean support for Movies Anywhere.

There’s precedence for this sort of thing. Universal has distributed physical media titles for other smaller studios that weren’t themselves part of MA, and in those cases the included codes weren’t either.

 

[Robert Crawford]

There’s precedence for this sort of thing. Universal has distributed physical media titles for other smaller studios that weren’t themselves part of MA, and in those cases the included codes weren’t either.

I think STX Entertainment is one of those smaller studios.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think STX Entertainment is one of those smaller studios.

I was blanking on their name, thank you!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Well fudge, I won't be watching my 4K disc until after Christmas as my copy is caught up in UPS Innovations/USPS hell.

 

[sbjork]

Well fudge, I won't be watching my 4K disc until after Christmas as my copy is caught up in UPS Innovations/USPS hell.

That sucks. I invited my parents over to watch it in the Casa Bjork Home Theatre for Christmas Eve. I've seen every Bond movie in the theatre with my father since For Your Eyes Only (and even saw one or two with him before that). He ended up passing on No Time to Die since he hadn't gotten his booster yet and didn't want to take the chance. So we're doing a makeup date for Christmas Eve.

Then my wife and I head down Christmas Day morning for Spider-Man!

 

[Klaus Stukator]

I wonder which gun barrell sequence has been used. Hopefully not the one with the Universal logo involved. After all, Universal had nothing to do with the production of the movie and is merely its home video distributor, at least in the US.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The thing that kills me with the additional picture on IMAX screens is that it's a complete gimmick -- 1.85:1 has been a standard aspect ratio for theatrical exhibition for years, after all. Now, instead of one definitive framing, we have most major tentpoles having to compromise serving two different aspect ratios when framing. It reminds me of the early days of HDTV, when the standard definition broadcasts were still 4x3 but the HD broadcasts were 16x9. You'd always end up with a bunch of dead space on the sides since everything essential had to fit inside the 4x3 crop.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I wonder which gun barrell sequence has been used. Hopefully not the one with the Universal logo involved. After all, Universal had nothing to do with the production of the movie and is merely its home video distributor, at least in the US.

For the U.S. market it’s the MGM version (without the Universal element). I don’t know if it’s the same worldwide with all discs.

 

[James Luckard]

Is there an online database of functioning IMAX theaters left in the states?

The list posted earlier is from IMAX corporate, so it intentionally makes no distinction between actual full-sized IMAX screens and the "lie-max" screens they've licensed in AMC theaters, which I try to avoid.

I find this to be a better listing, because it gives the screen sizes and formats used:

Theaters – LF Examiner

lfexaminer.com

 

[sbjork]

The list posted earlier is from IMAX corporate, so it intentionally makes no distinction between actual full-sized IMAX screens and the "lie-max" screens they've licensed in AMC theaters, which I try to avoid.

I find this to be a better listing, because it gives the screen sizes and formats used:

Theaters – LF Examiner

lfexaminer.com

I was actually looking for just such a list to help answer a question that a friend asked me, but hadn't been able to find anything like that. Thanks!

He wanted to see the new Matrix film at an IMAX theatre in the Twin Cities, so he asked me for recommendations. Since the only true 15/70 IMAX screen in the Cities (Apple Valley) closed a couple of years ago, I've been sticking with one of the Marcus Ultrascreens up here instead (Oakdale), since those have a 70ft wide screen, 4K projectors, and the one that I go to also has a fairly well-calibrated Atmos system. So I really couldn't answer his questions. The only digital IMAX film that I ever went to up here was disappointing, with a smaller screen and clear pixelation & aliasing from the 2K projectors.

That list confirmed that all the IMAX screens in the Cities are smaller ones with 2K projectors, and none of them do 1.43:1, so it's pretty much a useless format up here. I saw No Time to Die on the Ultrascreen in Oakdale, and I'm glad that I made that choice. Gaining just a little bit of extraneous information at the top and the bottom of the screen at the expense of a significantly smaller screen overall, and in 2K to boot, just isn't worth the tradeoff.

My only wish is that the UHD had the IMAX scenes at 1.90:1 since I don't do CIH with my home projector, so I can display variable aspect ratios on my 1.78:1 screen. But outside of Christopher Nolan films and a few other outliers, that seems like a dead issue on home video. More often than not it's always straight 2.35:1.

The only recent exception that I can think of was The Suicide Squad, which was straight up 1.90:1 for the entire film, not even variable. Can't think of another UHD that did the same thing.

 

[James Luckard]

I was actually looking for just such a list to help answer a question that a friend asked me, but hadn't been able to find anything like that. Thanks!

He wanted to see the new Matrix film at an IMAX theatre in the Twin Cities, so he asked me for recommendations. Since the only true 15/70 IMAX screen in the Cities (Apple Valley) closed a couple of years ago, I've been sticking with one of the Marcus Ultrascreens up here instead (Oakdale), since those have a 70ft wide screen, 4K projectors, and the one that I go to also has a fairly well-calibrated Atmos system. So I really couldn't answer his questions. The only digital IMAX film that I ever went to up here was disappointing, with a smaller screen and clear pixelation & aliasing from the 2K projectors.

That list confirmed that all the IMAX screens in the Cities are smaller ones with 2K projectors, and none of them do 1.43:1, so it's pretty much a useless format up here. I saw No Time to Die on the Ultrascreen in Oakdale, and I'm glad that I made that choice. Gaining just a little bit of extraneous information at the top and the bottom of the screen at the expense of a significantly smaller screen overall, and in 2K to boot, just isn't worth the tradeoff.

My only wish is that the UHD had the IMAX scenes at 1.90:1 since I don't do CIH with my home projector, so I can display variable aspect ratios on my 1.78:1 screen. But outside of Christopher Nolan films and a few other outliers, that seems like a dead issue on home video. More often than not it's always straight 2.35:1.

The only recent exception that I can think of was The Suicide Squad, which was straight up 1.90:1 for the entire film, not even variable. Can't think of another UHD that did the same thing.

The IMAX sequences in NTTD were actually shot full 1.43:1

There are only three IMAX sequences in the film, however:

- opening Norway sequence
- opening Matera sequence
- Cuba sequence

They wanted to shoot more of the film in IMAX, but they could only get 2 IMAX cameras, because Nolan was 5 IMAX cameras at the time to shoot Tenet.

In addition, it's only the action shots in those sequences that were shot 1.43:1 IMAX.

All shots involving dialogue were done on 70mm film, with what looked like the normal 2:1 aspect ratio for that format. They used 70mm and not 35mm, like the rest of the film, so those shots would match better with the IMAX material they were intercut with. (You can't shoot anything involving dialogue on an IMAX camera, they're too noisy.)

I saw the film 3x at the Universal CityWalk IMAX here in LA, one of the best IMAX screens in the country, and the film did, indeed, switch aspect ratios between shots, it's not like those whole sequences were shot 1.43:1

Also, it was pretty clear the 1.43:1 shots were framed to look decent when cropped. All the most important visual information was kept to the middle of the frame. The massive space on the top third and bottom third of the frame certainly made the movie immersive, but I don't think that experience can really be replicated on a home screen.

There were a few other random 1.43:1 establishing shots used throughout the first half of the film, like the first shot of Bond in his sailboat when the movie cuts to Jamaica, but when I looked at the 2.39 version of the film, it was pretty obvious that those individual shots were filmed 2.39 and cropped to 1.43, they weren't real IMAX material.

 

[Worth]

For the U.S. market it’s the MGM version (without the Universal element). I don’t know if it’s the same worldwide with all discs.

It's the MGM version in Canada, as well, even though it was the Universal in theatres.

 

[Dave Moritz]

No Time To Die arrived today which brings my 007 collection up to date and makes it currently complete! Funny thing is Tomorrow Never Dies was my first movie on DVD which is long gone but was replaced by the 007 bluray set. I am open to upgrading a number of 007 titles to 4K blu-ray when ever they become available. But for now only the Daniel Craig Bond movies are on 4K disc in my collection. For Your Eyes Only is the only title I currently have 4K digital / iTunes.

 

[Osato]

No Time To Die arrived today which brings my 007 collection up to date and makes it currently complete! Funny thing is Tomorrow Never Dies was my first movie on DVD which is long gone but was replaced by the 007 bluray set. I am open to upgrading a number of 007 titles to 4K blu-ray when ever they become available. But for now only the Daniel Craig Bond movies are on 4K disc in my collection. For Your Eyes Only is the only title I currently have 4K digital / iTunes.

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I love both tomorrow never dies and for your eyes only!

I had the special edition tomorrow never dies dvd too. I bought it before I owned a DVD player! I just had to have it right away.