USHE Press Release: Back To The Future Trilogy (4k UHD) (1 Viewer)

[Mark Booth]

Amazon shipped my standard 4K set today. We have an Amazon distribution hub here in San Diego so it is being delivered by an Amazon truck but not scheduled to arrive until tomorrow.

I noticed on the iTunes store that the 4K Dolby Vision versions are now available for purchase (not sure when that happened). That caused me to go fire up my Apple TV 4K in the theater room where I was disappointed to see that my HD iTunes versions have NOT been upgraded to 4K. They now show Dolby ATMOS but still only HD.

If the digital copies I already own were going to be upgraded to 4K, I was planning to redeem my new codes (that come with the 4K discs) on Vudu. I share my Vudu account with my daughter and she'd get the 4K versions to watch that way too. Maybe the existing digital copies will switch to 4K tomorrow? ?????

Mark

 

[Jake Lipson]

Maybe the existing digital copies will switch to 4K tomorrow? ?????

That seems likely.

In either case, both iTunes and Vudu are Movies Anywhere participants, so you could redeem them in UHD on Vudu and then link it to iTunes in order to get them in both places. Or, if iTunes does upgrade them, linking it to Vudu should transfer it over. Universal is a Movies Anywhere participating studio.

This would then give you new codes to trade or something.

 

[Tino]

but more for the "exclusive extra BD disc" of content

The regular edition also includes that disc.

 

[Mark Booth]

Caps are up on Caps-A-Holic. Will be interesting to see how this looks projected. Universal 4K UHD discs generally look good projected.

Back to the Future • US The Ultimate Trilogy Ultra HD Blu-ray vs. US 25th Anniversary Trilogy Blu-ray

caps-a-holic.com

I like what I see in those caps. It shows how the previous Blu-rays were a bit over sharpened. The 4K caps can look a bit softer by comparison but when you look more closely the amount of detail in the 4K caps has increased. Look at the first cap, the four judges sitting in the gym. The second guy from the left, look at the detail in his suit jacket. HUGE difference!

I plan to binge all 3 episodes in 4K tomorrow if the discs arrive early enough. If not, definitely on Wednesday.

Mark

 

[Paul_Warren]

I agree with that assessment except for one little detail that has always struck me as odd. Spoilers in here for an iconic 35-year-old movie, but I'm going to assume everyone reading the eighth page of a press release thread for said 35-year-old movie has seen it at some point and not use spoiler tags.

Jennifer says, "It's like Doc's always saying," and then Marty finishes the thought, "I know, I know, 'If you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything.'" So, this quote is directly attributed as coming from Doc Brown. And not just once -- he's "always" saying it.

But he never says it. Not once in any of the three films does Doc ever say that line.

So that's weird. There are multiple occasions throughout the film where he could have said it in a way that made sense, like when he sees that the time machine works in either 1985 or 1955. But he doesn't do it. So, I think it's a little weird to go out of the way to make him the source of that sentiment and then never have him say it.

To be clear, the movie is still great. I still agree that pretty much everything else in the script works. But that one little detail has always struck me as unusual. They might as well have just had Jennifer come up with it herself, if we weren't going to see Doc say it. That is the only thing I would have suggested changing (or adding) if I had been involved in the film somehow. I'm certainly not suggesting that it should be added now, since the film is the film and should not be altered at this point. But I would have done that in the first place if it were up to me. It's obviously not a big deal and doesn't detract from the quality of the rest of the film, but it has always struck me as bizarre.

Jake, I would not think too deeply about that as its implied they are very close friends so understandable if not spoken onscreen ..however what is more troubling to me after viewing the superb looking 4K UHD of BTTF3 is why is Seamus McFly played by MJF likeness instead of a Crispin Glover likeness! (I know the actor was not available but it makes no sense having an MJF looking ancestor instead of the actor (Jeffrey Weissman) they hired to impersonate him in BTTF2 & the end of 3!).

Because Jeffrey Weissman would not look much like George McFly is the best reason I can think of they choose not to use him instead of MJF as the ancestor is the best I can come up with !

Good job its only a movie

 

[Britton]

Are your codes from the 25th or 30th anniversary blu-ray sets? My cod from the 30th Anniversary set did upgrade to 4K Dolby Vision w/ Atmos.

Signing out and back in to my account always works for me if a 4K upgrade still comes up as HD.

Amazon shipped my standard 4K set today. We have an Amazon distribution hub here in San Diego so it is being delivered by an Amazon truck but not scheduled to arrive until tomorrow.

I noticed on the iTunes store that the 4K Dolby Vision versions are now available for purchase (not sure when that happened). That caused me to go fire up my Apple TV 4K in the theater room where I was disappointed to see that my HD iTunes versions have NOT been upgraded to 4K. They now show Dolby ATMOS but still only HD.

If the digital copies I already own were going to be upgraded to 4K, I was planning to redeem my new codes (that come with the 4K discs) on Vudu. I share my Vudu account with my daughter and she'd get the 4K versions to watch that way too. Maybe the existing digital copies will switch to 4K tomorrow? ?????

Mark

 

[Jake Lipson]

Because Jeffrey Weissman would not look much like George McFly is the best reason I can think of they choose not to use him instead of MJF as the ancestor is the best I can come up with !

Yes. They obviously didn't want to call attention to the fact that Jeffrey Weissman was not Crispin Glover. But Michael J. Fox is good as Seamus, so what's the problem? It's a different character. This is like people asking why Lea Thompson plays Maggie when she can't be a biological descendant of Lorraine Baines. If they had actually done a "Mom, is that you?" scene without Lea Thompson, people would be mad because she wasn't there.

They had already established the double casting in Part II, so I don't have a problem with that continuing through to Part III at all.

 

[Mark Booth]

Are your codes from the 25th or 30th anniversary blu-ray sets? My cod from the 30th Anniversary set did upgrade to 4K Dolby Vision w/ Atmos.

Signing out and back in to my account always works for me if a 4K upgrade still comes up as HD.

My current codes were from the 25th Anniversary set. They were redeemed directly in iTunes (the only option at the time).

When I look at the titles in the iTunes app on my Mac, I see this:

It shows that I own it (can download for no charge) but there's also a spot (where a rental price is normally shown) showing $14.99 to buy it.

The 25th Anniversary digital codes were probably SD and got upgraded to HD for free. Perhaps Universal (and/or Apple) isn't gonna let SD codes be upgraded to 4k??

Mark

 

[Jake Lipson]

The 25th Anniversary digital codes were probably SD and got upgraded to HD for free. Perhaps Universal (and/or Apple) isn't gonna let SD codes be upgraded to 4k??

To be clear, I don't have any official information on this or anything, but I think you are right.

However, you can still redeem them at Movies Anywhere and use that to link your iTunes and Vudu accounts. That way, you get the UHD upgrade within iTunes/Apple and it still also goes into Vudu for your daughter to access too.

Man, that 25th anniversary set with a separate digital copy disc for each film was bulky. I have it too and will be passing it to a friend after the new set gets here.

On another note, for anybody considering the hoverboard gift set, I saw an unboxing of that on YouTube. It's a very small magnetic toy. I definitely wouldn't think it's worth the extra money if it were me.



This video also shows an unboxing of the English language steelbooks (as opposed to the French ones I posted a few days ago.). I'm really excited to get those tomorrow.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

My current codes were from the 25th Anniversary set. They were redeemed directly in iTunes (the only option at the time).

When I look at the titles in the iTunes app on my Mac, I see this:

It shows that I own it (can download for no charge) but there's also a spot (where a rental price is normally shown) showing $14.99 to buy it.

The 25th Anniversary digital codes were probably SD and got upgraded to HD for free. Perhaps Universal (and/or Apple) isn't gonna let SD codes be upgraded to 4k??

Mark

Are you sure they were upgraded to HD? It's possible they weren't upgraded at all from SD -- I have some like that, but not the BTTF trilogy, which I do have upgraded to HD.

Does it actually look HD when you try to play them? IF you go ahead and download, are they actually HD (as that might be easier to tell)?

Usually, iTunes (and AppleTV) actually tells me I have the HD version and won't tell me anything about a potential 4K version (though I'm not using a Mac for iTunes) -- I can often catch a very brief glimpse of the 4K spec logos before the page finishes loading and quickly changes it to HD.

Anyway, either way, don't expect your DCs to be upgraded to 4K for free since they were redeemed from old SD codes.

Just redeem the new 4K DC codes if you want 4K DCs. And as Jake pointed out, you'll get them across all MoviesAnywhere partners, which is what you want for your daughter.

_Man_

 

[Jake Lipson]

My digital copies from the 25th Anniversary ended up porting over to Vudu when Movies Anywhere launched, and they are In HD over there. So I think that was probably the result of an upgrade at some point. I did not buy the 2015 release because the transfers were the same, so haven't had new codes since 2010.

 

[Mark Booth]

Are you sure they were upgraded to HD? It's possible they weren't upgraded at all from SD -- I have some like that, but not the BTTF trilogy, which I do have upgraded to HD.

Very sure. I played part of the first film via my Apple TV 4K (on my 4K TV) and then checked (down swipe on remote while film is playing) and it was playing HD with Dolby ATMOS.

If the codes from the 4K discs are redeemable directly in iTunes, that is what I'll do. I prefer to make sure that iTunes gets as many 4K versions as possible since, if I'm going to watch a streaming film from my collection (instead of getting the disc off the shelf and loading the player), it is ALWAYS via Apple TV and iTunes. I NEVER watch a film via my Vudu account. If the film isn't in iTunes then I get the disc off the shelf. I only set up the Vudu account for my daughter to have access to many of my films.

Mark

 

[Mark-P]

Very sure. I played part of the first film via my Apple TV 4K (on my 4K TV) and then checked (down swipe on remote while film is playing) and it was playing HD with Dolby ATMOS.

If the codes from the 4K discs are redeemable directly in iTunes, that is what I'll do. I prefer to make sure that iTunes gets as many 4K versions as possible since, if I'm going to watch a streaming film from my collection (instead of getting the disc off the shelf and loading the player), it is ALWAYS via Apple TV and iTunes. I NEVER watch a film via my Vudu account. If the film isn't in iTunes then I get the disc off the shelf. I only set up the Vudu account for my daughter to have access to many of my films.

Mark

They will be Movies Anywhere codes and redeeming them there will get you 4K copies everywhere. The reason you didn‘t get free iTunes 4K upgrades is because the 25th Anniversary codes were originally SD. The HD bump you got when joining Movies Anywhere doesn’t count towards iTunes upgrade policy.

 

[Jake Lipson]

If anyone wants the steelbook and hasn't ordered that yet, you might want to do so quickly The BB website says there are only three left at my store to resave for pickup tomorrow. Because it hasn't come out yet, that means they only got three of them in.

As usual, it doesn't really make sense to me to make a deal with a studio for an exclusive edition and then nget only a few of them in. But what do I know?

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 really hope that mine arrives in good condition from BB.com so that I don't have to worry about exchanging it.

 

[titch]

I like what I see in those caps. It shows how the previous Blu-rays were a bit over sharpened. The 4K caps can look a bit softer by comparison but when you look more closely the amount of detail in the 4K caps has increased. Look at the first cap, the four judges sitting in the gym. The second guy from the left, look at the detail in his suit jacket. HUGE difference!

I plan to binge all 3 episodes in 4K tomorrow if the discs arrive early enough. If not, definitely on Wednesday.

Mark

The second guy from the left? That's Huey Lewis!

 

[Mark Booth]

Amazon delivered mine at 11:15am. I redeemed the codes through Movies Anywhere and both iTunes and Vudu are showing I now own the 4K (UHD) copies! My daughter can watching 4K via Vudu and I can stream in 4K via Apple TV 4K (if I'm too lazy to put the discs in).

But, for today, it's via shiny discs, for sure. The BTTF marathon will start after lunch!

Mark

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Waiting for shipping info from Target.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

 

[Jake Lipson]

My copy of the steelbook set just arrived, and there is a spine slash right through the middle of Part II.

Ugh.

Because the whole point of buying the steelbooks is for them to look good, I'm going to have to return this for an exchange, which I've never done with Best Buy before. Given that they have limited stock of the steelbooks, I'm a little concerned about this.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Hmmm... he puts out some apparently very useful video reviews wrt HDR (and WCG) usage (or lack thereof)... Definitely makes me wonder if I shouldn't have bothered upgrading to the 4K disc for Blade Runner 2049 for instance.

_Man_