Alfred Hitchcock films in 4K?? (1 Viewer)

[plektret]

For what gain?

This goes for everything shot on celluloid: I would appreciate more naturally rendered film grain than h264 compressed to BD50 is capable of (although the guys at WAC + David Mackenzie does amazing h264 encoding)

 

[Brian9229]

For what gain?

Well, the gain of projecting a uhd that has near the native resolution of the film it was shot on. How can a 4K scan and subsequent uhd & hdr encoding be a bad thing for any Hitchcock film? As long as the scanning element is decent anyway. I acknowledge some of Hitchcocks films probably need work, and probably photo - chemical restoration at that, but hypothetically, who wouldnt? Especially the VistaVision titles. We already have some superb examples of what uhd and hdr can do; The Shining, Suspiria, Schindlers List, Its a Wonderful Life, to name a few.

 

[Robert Harris]

Well, the gain of projecting a uhd that has near the native resolution of the film it was shot on. How can a 4K scan and subsequent uhd & hdr encoding be a bad thing for any Hitchcock film? As long as the scanning element is decent anyway. I acknowledge some of Hitchcocks films probably need work, and probably photo - chemical restoration at that, but hypothetically, who wouldnt? Especially the VistaVision titles. We already have some superb examples of what uhd and hdr can do; The Shining, Suspiria, Schindlers List, Its a Wonderful Life, to name a few.

4k has done little for Wonderful Life. There should be no comparison to the new Blu-ray, as that disc doesn't support what the film should look like. 4k would do little for the 35/4 Hitchcock films, many of which were shot soft, ie less than 2.5k resolution, and printed dye transfer, which is actually softer than a direct positive print. The majority would do very nicely with a quality master and high data throughput 2k disc.

 

[Brian9229]

4k has done little for Wonderful Life. There should be no comparison to the new Blu-ray, as that disc doesn't support what the film should look like. 4k would do little for the 35/4 Hitchcock films, many of which were shot soft, ie less than 2.5k resolution, and printed dye transfer, which is actually softer than a direct positive print. The majority would do very nicely with a quality master and high data throughput 2k disc.

Very interesting, thanks for your valuable insight.

 

[OliverK]

4k has done little for Wonderful Life. There should be no comparison to the new Blu-ray, as that disc doesn't support what the film should look like. 4k would do little for the 35/4 Hitchcock films, many of which were shot soft, ie less than 2.5k resolution, and printed dye transfer, which is actually softer than a direct positive print. The majority would do very nicely with a quality master and high data throughput 2k disc.

With some recent UHD releases of catalog titles the prevailing attitude seems to be one of "we are releasing it because we can". I cannot really blame the studios as UHD releases command much higher prices than a standard Blu-ray.

 

[Robert Harris]

With some recent UHD releases of catalog titles the prevailing attitude seems to be one of "we are releasing it because we can". I cannot really blame the studios as UHD releases command much higher prices than a standard Blu-ray.

I Can blame them. When the 4k allows little to no extra detail, we're in smoke and mirrors territory.

 

[OliverK]

I Can blame them. When the 4k allows little to no extra detail, we're in smoke and mirrors territory.

Agreed but people seem to want their favorites on UHD, doesn't matter if they are suited for a UHD release or not.

I used to shake my head when I saw lots of requests for older and not very sharp productions, often with rather flat contrast, but not anymore as now my stance is let them have it but please respect how these movies were intended to look.
Some adjustments are still needed almost 4 years into the format but I am hopeful that with catalog titles getting more plentiful things will improve.

 

[Robert Harris]

Agreed but people seem to want their favorites on UHD, doesn't matter if they are suited for a UHD release or not.

I used to shake my head when I saw lots of requests for older and not very sharp productions, often with rather flat contrast, but not anymore as now my stance is let them have it but please respect how these movies were intended to look.
Some adjustments are still needed almost 4 years into the format but I am hopeful that with catalog titles getting more plentiful things will improve.

Things will improve when the “necessity” that every release requires HDR is lifted.

 

[OliverK]

Things will improve when the “necessity” that every release requires HDR is lifted.

That would indeed help. I'll happily settle for the added resolution, bigger color space, better codec and higher bit depth.

 

[Osato]

http://www.classicmoviehub.com/blog/the-directors-chair-vertigo/

 

[Osato]

More 4k Hitchcock titles from universal??

While we’re talking 4K today, we’ve learned of a few more Ultra HD catalog titles that are on the way in April and May. Look for Last Action Hero, Snatch, Big Fish, and In the Line of Fire from Sony, as well as Smokey and the Bandit and at least a couple of the Hitchcock Collection titles as single-film SKUs from Universal.

Justice Society: World War II, News of the World, new 4K catalog titles from Sony/Universal, Apple 8K VR & more

All right, sorry for the late post today. It’s been a little nuts here at The Bits home office this afternoon. In any case, Dennis has a new review for you. He’s checked out Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974) on Blu-ray from our friends at the Criterion Collection. You’ll find that here...

thedigitalbits.com

 

[stevenHa]

Probably not always true, but I assume that when an older film is being formatted to 4K, it would be an improvement from the previous release because they would prepare a new/better master first ?

 

[Andrew Budgell]

More 4k Hitchcock titles from universal??

While we’re talking 4K today, we’ve learned of a few more Ultra HD catalog titles that are on the way in April and May. Look for Last Action Hero, Snatch, Big Fish, and In the Line of Fire from Sony, as well as Smokey and the Bandit and at least a couple of the Hitchcock Collection titles as single-film SKUs from Universal.

Justice Society: World War II, News of the World, new 4K catalog titles from Sony/Universal, Apple 8K VR & more

All right, sorry for the late post today. It’s been a little nuts here at The Bits home office this afternoon. In any case, Dennis has a new review for you. He’s checked out Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974) on Blu-ray from our friends at the Criterion Collection. You’ll find that here...

thedigitalbits.com

I'm interpreting it that the titles in the set released last fall, or at least some of them, will be released individually.

 

[B-ROLL]

I'm interpreting it that the titles in the set released last fall, or at least some of them, will be released individually.

That's what it looks like to me (and that Powerhouse/Indicator is releasing separate disc blu-rays of Mr. Sardonicus and Lilith both of which shared their single disc blu-ray issues with another film when issued across the pond by Mill Creek -.. )

 

[Osato]

I'm interpreting it that the titles in the set released last fall, or at least some of them, will be released individually.

I actually thought the 4 titles from the set were available individually on 4k disc. I missed that I was only interested in buying the set.

 

[Harold Chasen]

Probably not always true, but I assume that when an older film is being formatted to 4K, it would be an improvement from the previous release because they would prepare a new/better master first ?

If there was a 4K version prepared in the past (and many Blu-Rays in the past 10 years or so have been derived from 4K versions), then a new 4K version may not be done just for a 4K disc. So, you'd be getting better resolution, but not necessarily a new or better master. Depending on how well the 4K version was prepared in, say, 2012, this may or may not be an issue.

Then there's the general issue of quality work or lack thereof. If a prior 2K master prepared for Blu-Ray was done well, and a new 4K version prepared for a 4K disc was done less well, the Blu-Ray may be a better representation of the movie.