UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Roman Holiday -- in 4k UHD (2 Viewers)

[Robert Harris]

William Wyler's terrific 1953 Roman Holiday is one of those problem films. It's also a bit of a mystery. There are a handful of early 1950s Paramount black & white production, for which the OCNs are simply no longer extant. Some understandably were copied to safety and destroyed.

But one might question why Roman Holidays, a film shot in Rome (and on Melrose) in mid-1952. Were they using up the final stocks of nitrate in Rome?

Regardless, there have been several attempts at being Roman Holiday back into form, and this new 4k from Paramount adds a tiny bit of extra detail (grain) via a higher data throughput.

Is there anything about the current master that's 4k? Dream on. Not even 2k, so the earlier Blu-ray should be quite sufficient under the circumstances.

But one must give Paramount credit for going above and beyond in trying to eek out the very last drop of image from the extant dupe.

Gray scale is fine. Decent blacks, good stability. There's no downside here, but the question remains that unless one is a super-fan of the film, and also a 4k addict, is this a viable upgrade?

I can't answer that question. The numbers below tell the story.

Image – 3.75 (HDR)

Audio – 5 (Dolby TrueHd Monaural)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 4

Worth your attention - 10

Upgrade from Blu-ray - If you love it and want the tiniest incremental advantage

Slipcover rating - 2 (it's shiny)

Very Highly Recommended

RAH


Thank you for supporting HTF when you preorder using the link below. As an Amazon Associate, HTF earns from qualifying purchases. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

See on Amazon

 

[Robert Crawford]

I can't wait until my 4K/UHD arrives because my last physical media purchase of this movie was the 2002 DVD. It's going to be a significant upgrade for me.

 

[Garysb]

I remember MOMA showed restorations of both "Roman Holiday" and "Sunset Boulevard" apparently back in 2002. I remember at the screening they said the restoration was done digitally and the results were then converted back to 35 MM for the screening. I wish there was more information on this but the only info I found was that there was such a screening at MOMA. I don't know what digital would have been like back then. I don't remember what elements they said were available and why it had to be done digitally. I am sure they mentioned it at the screening but after over 20 years the memory is fuzzy. MOMA was under renovations and they rented the Gramercy Theater for the screening.

Paramount Restores | MoMA

Film series. Dec 1–2, 2002. The Department of Film and Media presents Paramount Pictures’ newly restored classic features from the 1950s, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) and William Wyler’s Roman Holiday (1954). The department thanks Martin Blythe and Paramount Home Entertainment for the...

www.moma.org

 

[Robert Harris]

I remember MOMA showed restorations of both "Roman Holiday" and "Sunset Boulevard" apparently back in 2002. I remember at the screening they said the restoration was done digitally and the results were then converted back to 35 MM for the screening. I wish there was more information on this but the only info I found was that there was such a screening at MOMA. I don't know what digital would have been like back then. I don't remember what elements they said were available and why it had to be done digitally. I am sure they mentioned it at the screening but after over 20 years the memory is fuzzy. MOMA was under renovations and they rented the Gramercy Theater for the screening.

Paramount Restores | MoMA

Film series. Dec 1–2, 2002. The Department of Film and Media presents Paramount Pictures’ newly restored classic features from the 1950s, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) and William Wyler’s Roman Holiday (1954). The department thanks Martin Blythe and Paramount Home Entertainment for the...

www.moma.org

It looked like a very nice kinescope

 

[Garysb]

It looked like a very nice kinescope

Ah you were there. Not good then. I thought it may have been when Dalton Trumbo got his writer credit added to the film but that apparently happened in 2011.

 

[Robert Harris]

Ah you were there. Not good then. I thought it may have been when Dalton Trumbo got his writer credit added to the film but that apparently happened in 2011.

I was at a private screening at MOMI possibly 20 years ago, viewed examples of both RH as well as SB

 

[Keith Cobby]

Paramount could have released a b & w VistaVision film which would benefit from 4k instead.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Paramount could have released a b & w VistaVision film which would benefit from 4k instead.

They're releasing a movie with three movie stars that will probably sell better than any B&W VistaVision film.

 

[RickardL]

How is the framing? The blu-ray is a bit zoomed in but also shows a bit more of the right side whereas the DVD shows a bit more info on the left, top and bottom.

 

[Robert Crawford]

How is the framing? The blu-ray is a bit zoomed in but also shows a bit more of the right side whereas the DVD shows a bit more info on the left, top and bottom.

How do we know which framing is correct though?

 

[Robin9]

Is there anything about the current master that's 4k? Dream on. Not even 2k, so the earlier Blu-ray should be quite sufficient under the circumstances.

Thank you Mr. Harris. That was the only thing I wanted to know as I'm very happy with the Blu-ray disc.

 

[Robert Harris]

How do we know which framing is correct though?

Correct framing is Academy 1.37, but it’s impossible to know w/o a reference on fillum.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Correct framing is Academy 1.37, but it’s impossible to know w/o a reference on fillum.

That's my point, you can't go by what a movie looked like on a previous home video release because who's to say that was correct.

 

[Robert Harris]

That's my point, you can't go by what a movie looked like on a previous home video release because who's to say that was correct.

I’ve repeated that mantra ad nauseam.

Video transfers as any sort of true reference are generally worthless.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I just got done watching the 4K/UHD release of this classic movie in which the Mbps average rate is even lower than Rio Bravo. I suspect there will be complaints about it too. I don't have the 2021 Blu-ray, but I'm not sure this 4K/UHD is a significant improvement over that Blu-ray. Somebody that has both discs will have to comment in that regard. However, it's a huge improvement over my 2002 DVD so I'm relatively happy with this 4K/UHD release. That said, this isn't a reference 4K/UHD release for a classic movie like The Maltese Falcon or Casablanca. Not in my humble opinion.

 

[Robert Harris]

I just got done watching the 4K/UHD release of this classic movie in which the Mbps average rate is even lower than Rio Bravo. I suspect there will be complaints about it too. I don't have the 2021 Blu-ray, but I'm not sure this 4K/UHD is a significant improvement over that Blu-ray. Somebody that has both discs will have to comment in that regard. However, it's a huge improvement over my 2002 DVD so I'm relatively happy with this 4K/UHD release. That said, this isn't a reference 4K/UHD release for a classic movie like The Maltese Falcon or Casablanca. Not in my humble opinion.

It can be lower w/o affecting image quality. 1.37 vs 1.85. B/W.

 

[madfloyd]

I cancelled my order.

 

[Bartman]

There were reports of audio sync issues with the Paramount Presents Blu-ray at the time of release, were those reports real?
If so, was sync corrected in a later pressing and/or in the regular Blu-ray accompanying this release?

 

[DanH1972]

I just got done watching the 4K/UHD release of this classic movie in which the Mbps average rate is even lower than Rio Bravo. I suspect there will be complaints about it too. I don't have the 2021 Blu-ray, but I'm not sure this 4K/UHD is a significant improvement over that Blu-ray. Somebody that has both discs will have to comment in that regard. However, it's a huge improvement over my 2002 DVD so I'm relatively happy with this 4K/UHD release. That said, this isn't a reference 4K/UHD release for a classic movie like The Maltese Falcon or Casablanca. Not in my humble opinion.

If you are going off of your player's video bitrate meter, then you are getting a false perception. The meter can only read the HDR10 data layer. Roman Holiday is a 12 bit, dual layered FEL Dolby Vision encode and so, like many Paramount DV encodes, the HDR10 layer was basically sacrificed in the Dolby Vision automation settings and that gave the extra necessary bits to the differential data of the second video layer of the DV stream. You have to see the combined bitrate of the full, reconstructed Dolby Vision video stream.

A similar issue occurred on Criterion's 4k release of Wall-E. If you compare the bitrate of the original 4k Disney disc in HDR10 to the Criterion's HDR10 layer, you would think the Criterion release was pretty bad. The Criterion also had a lot of banding that wasn't present in the first 4k disc release. However, once you watched the Criterion version in 12 bit FEL Dolby Vision, the issues went away and the image actually ended up being superior to the older HDR10 only release. That's because the secondary DV layer got a healthy chunk of the video data.

Rio Bravo has its own compression issues because it's not a dual layered Dolby Vision encode. WB simply didn't do a good job with that one... probably just used a one pass automated encode and didn't spot check it.

 

[RickardL]

How is the framing? The blu-ray is a bit zoomed in but also shows a bit more of the right side whereas the DVD shows a bit more info on the left, top and bottom.

The UHD is similar to the blu-ray in terms of framing. Image shows DVD (red) and blu-ray (blue).