UHD Review Back to the Future The Ultimate Trilogy UHD Review (1 Viewer)

[Todd Erwin]

To celebrate its 35th anniversary, Universal has released Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy on 4K UHD Blu-ray with greatly improved transfers and excitingly immersive Dolby Atmos mixes.



Back to the Future (1985)



Released: 03 Jul 1985
Rated: PG
Runtime: 116 min




Director: Robert Zemeckis
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi



Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Writer(s): Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale



Plot: Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent thirty years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the eccentric scientist Doc Brown.



IMDB rating: 8.5
MetaScore: 87





Disc Information



Studio: Universal
Distributed By:...

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[Jake Lipson]

Thank you @Todd Erwin. I'm looking forward to getting my copy in the mail tomorrow.

Incidentally, the discbook packaging is a major part of the reason why I was willing to pay the significant premium for the steelbooks from Best Buy. Even though I don't expect to go 4K and could have saved a lot by just getting the new Blu-rays on their own, the extra security is important to me. They provide a way to get this set with secure packaging for the discs, but people will pay a lot more for it. Best Buy is charging $65 for that set. Here is the direct link in case anyone wants it.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/back-to-the-future-trilogy-35th-anniv-steelbook-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-blu-ray-only--best-buy/6423196.p?skuId=6423196

I do like the steelbook artwork too, and if if I'm wrong and we go 4K, then I won't have to buy these again. But that possibility is so remote that I only do this for a handful of titles. BTTF is going to be worth it though.

 

[JackieT]

I just found my 25th anniversary blu discs that offered digital copies but it's from some defunct digital system that made you copy the disc from pc or something like that and then u could watch on a smartphone or tablet it says. Wish I could figure out how to convert them to digital.

 

[Mark Booth]

Thanks, Todd! Damn, I'm going to have a tough time sleeping tonight knowing what is coming tomorrow. Like a kid on Christmas Eve!

IMHO, BTTF is the finest film trilogy ever made. I have individual films that I rate over BTTF but, when it comes to a trilogy, BTTF gets my vote. Yes, even over Star Wars or Indiana Jones.

Mark

 

[Jake Lipson]

Wish I could figure out how to convert them to digital.

I'm not sure what you mean. They are already digital. They redeem directly at iTunes/Apple using their software.

If you want to get them into your Movies Anywhere account, redeem them at iTunes and then link iTunes with your Movies Anywhere account once that's done. It should then transfer to any other Movies Anywhere retailer(s) with which you have an account.

 

[Sam Posten]

Did you get the floaty board tchotchke? Mine got bumped to the 23rd from Amazon...

 

[Sam Posten]

I'm not sure what you mean. They are already digital. They redeem directly at iTunes/Apple using their software.

If you want to get them into your Movies Anywhere account, redeem them at iTunes and then link iTunes with your Movies Anywhere account once that's done. It should then transfer to any other Movies Anywhere retailer(s) with which you have an account.

It's probably an XML disk. It's a dead format that required you to put the disk into a computer bluray reader to redeem. It was a monstrous pain in the ass and died a quick death.

 

[JackieT]

Yes, it was like that. Needed a BD player in a laptop to convert to digital. I didn't even recognize the name of the company who created it. It was during the infancy of digital.

 

[Jake Lipson]

It's probably an XML disk.

Right. I should have been more clear. I remember those (and I have also have that edition.). What I meant was that even though it was XML, it does redeem as a digital copy, so using Jackie's term, they shouldn't need to be "converted" to digital. It's annoying and made the case unnecessarily bulky because each film got its own separate digital copy disc in addition to the Blu-ray. But it did give you digital copies as it was advertised to do.

 

[Osato]

Great review.

My iTunes versions of the films note that they have atmos.

 

[Todd Erwin]

I just found my 25th anniversary blu discs that offered digital copies but it's from some defunct digital system that made you copy the disc from pc or something like that and then u could watch on a smartphone or tablet it says. Wish I could figure out how to convert them to digital.

It's probably an XML disk. It's a dead format that required you to put the disk into a computer bluray reader to redeem. It was a monstrous pain in the ass and died a quick death.

Yes, it was like that. Needed a BD player in a laptop to convert to digital. I didn't even recognize the name of the company who created it. It was during the infancy of digital.

Right. I should have been more clear. I remember those (and I have also have that edition.). What I meant was that even though it was XML, it does redeem as a digital copy, so using Jackie's term, they shouldn't need to be "converted" to digital. It's annoying and made the case unnecessarily bulky because each film got its own separate digital copy disc in addition to the Blu-ray. But it did give you digital copies as it was advertised to do.

I had that set, too, on DVD, and tried to redeem those codes a few years back, only to find that they had actually expired.

In addition to the painstaking process of having to decrypt the DVD-Rom that held the digital copy and keeping it on a hard drive, when Apple joined Movies Anywhere, those codes were redeemed through the MA system as SD, although a fluke allowed many of those codes to redeem as HD, until it was caught and stopped. MA made the wise decision to allow those codes to remain as HD, although in my case I did have one movie revert back to SD, I'm guessing during an audit at Apple. Apple refused to revert it back to HD, claiming it should never have been HD in the first place.

 

[Todd Erwin]

FYY: The Universal Rewards code for this set is only redeeming for 1200 points, the same as any other ($30) single 4K UHD release.

 

[Jake Lipson]

That's ridiculous. It should at least give you more points than that because the price of these is substantially higher.

This is why I don't bother with rewards programs other than Disney. I did get a few free digital movies from Universal a while back when all you had to do is buy one disc to get a free movie. But now that you have to earn points to get free things, I'll pass. The only studio from which I consistently buy enough discs to build up enough points is Disney. I certainly will buy discs from other studios, but not often enough to keep track of it or make redeeming the points worthwhile.

 

[Todd Erwin]

That's ridiculous. It should at least give you more points than that because the price of these is substantially higher.

This is why I don't bother with rewards programs other than Disney. I did get a few free digital movies from Universal a while back when all you had to do is buy one disc to get a free movie. But now that you have to earn points to get free things, I'll pass. The only studio from which I consistently buy enough discs to build up enough points is Disney. I certainly will buy discs from other studios, but not often enough to keep track of it or make redeeming the points worthwhile.

Technically, you still get a free movie when you buy new releases on Blu or UHD, usually either 1000 or 1200 points for redeeming the code with the free movie costing 1000 points.

 

[DanH1972]

On BTTF 1, there appears to be a transfer glitch with chroma errors that lasts approx 10-15 minutes long in one section of the film... about the length of one reel of 35mm film. It's being reported on by the eagle eyes over at the Blu-ray forum.

 

[Todd Erwin]

On BTTF 1, there appears to be a transfer glitch with chroma errors that lasts approx 10-15 minutes long in one section of the film... about the length of one reel of 35mm film. It's being reported on by the eagle eyes over at the Blu-ray forum.

Like any major catalog release, someone is bound to complain about something. In many cases, especially with a movie of this vintage, people tend to remember things differently, plus the fact that the previous Blu-ray releases contained much more DNR than these new transfers. It could be a settings issue, it could be bad memory, it could be something that was always there in the source but not visible until now.

 

[Britton]

On BTTF 1, there appears to be a transfer glitch with chroma errors that lasts approx 10-15 minutes long in one section of the film... about the length of one reel of 35mm film. It's being reported on by the eagle eyes over at the Blu-ray forum.

I don’t have the disc but I pulled up the 4K version on Apple TV and yeah, I see what is being referred to. I go to Blu-ray.com a fair amount and I had a good idea about which member found it. His description is pretty spot on. The video in that portion of the movie does have sort of a smeary look like you’d see on analog video.

He did note it is present on the remastered Blu-ray as well, but it is not an issue with the Blu-ray released in 2010.

I am still waiting for my order from Target and I don’t plan to cancel. Hopefully someone lets Universal know and maybe there is a fix (assuming this was an error and not something baked into the source material), but I don’t consider this to be an error like the folded down mono track from Psycho.

 

[TallPaulInKy]

I just got an email about this Wal-Mart price drop on the new Trilogy. Blu Ray and digital code package.

Was $39.98

$27.99

Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy

 

[Johnny Angell]

I just got an email about this Wal-Mart price drop on the new Trilogy. Blu Ray and digital code package.

Was $39.98

$27.99

Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy

UHD?

 

[B-ROLL]

UHD?

That was the price of the blu-ray release in the store. The UHD set (sans Hoverboard) was 46.9X in-store. Online it looks like it's $38.49 ... I'ld wait to match ToysRUs or Circuit City !