Meathead

idiots

Boba Fett

I’m tempted to put mine up for an absurd price and just rebuy on Disney Movie Club

GoldenJCJ

True Lies is #1 and Aliens is #2 on Amazon’s Best Sellers list. The Abyss dropped from #1 last week to #79. I guess sales dip a tad when they don’t have the actual product.

Inhumans99

I still say that even if the prices do not end up dropping all that much during future sales events, these titles will be abundantly available for purchase several months from now. Disney is not going to lock these titles away in a vault in the fairly near future.

I am truly happy that I will see a noticeable uptick in PQ with Aliens, and I have not seen The Abyss (I have seen maybe 15 minutes in total over the years) so it will look great in 4K to my eyes as I have no other image to really compare it to other than bits I saw during a TV airing many, many years back.

I thought True Lies when I saw it on either Hulu or Tubi sometime in the past 12-18 months actually looked great, so I might purchase this film but am kind-of bummed that the digital enhancement kind-of wrecked the quality of the image (I am not a Cameron completist, so maybe I just buy Aliens and The Abyss).

I have found that if a film I love to death received a 4K release that really is nothing to write home about, that I have the discipline to do without. Die Hard is exhibit number one of a film I would dearly love to watch in true 4K quality, but so many reviews express disappointment with the 4K release of Die Hard that I do not own my favorite film of all time on UHD even though I could have bought it for as low at $8.99/9.99 last BF sales event (I do have the Nakatomi Tower set, that will keep me happy for quite a long time). The Terminator 1 and 2 are also films I have been disciplined enough to hold-off on buying due to too many reviews groaning about the PQ due to digital enhancements. Almost forgot, I am also wary of picking up The Fifth Element until that film a proper UHD release.

Boba Fett

Mission Accomplished. Someone bought them for $130. Another set from Disney is on their way. After an Andor preorder they were $36 total.

OldBoy

so, you basically did what was reviled in this thread by severely over charging on these discs? way to go!

Meathead

I could be wrong but that version was probably the older HD transfer not the new 4K/AI transfer...

OldBoy

got a new receive date. 4/3, baby! can't wait. this is definitely a 4K viewing.

Josh Z

Correct. The version of True Lies that was streaming last year prior to the 4K announcement was the older HD master that originated with the D-VHS release. All those copies were pulled just before the 4K was announced.

DJariya

I used my remaining Amazon GC to get True Lies. It already shipped and will arrive tomorrow.

The Abyss is still in limbo. I guess demand was super high for that.

I'll wait on Aliens until it gets cheaper. I have that on BD, so I don't really need that one now.

milo bloom

Yeah, I really thought I'd be able to grab this at a local store so I didn't bother pre-ordering.
Has it shown up at any online retailer? I've got it on my Amazon wishlist but it won't even let me order it and wait for a restock.

TomOpus

The suits continue to be clueless as to how popular a release might be. They'll probably say it was their plan all along.

Shooba

Physical media is in decline.

I'm not surprised they would be cautious.

Yeah, they're James Cameron movies and his popularity should not be underestimated, but these movies are decades old. Flooding the market with them like in the old days would be irresponsible.

PhantomStranger

These "constrained" inventories upon launch are often a bit of gamesmanship by the studio. They believe word-of-mouth around sold-out titles builds buzz without paying for advertising.

Josh Z

The Lightstorm rep who told Digital Bits that True Lies is from a new 4K scan is full of bologna. Absolutely no way that's true. No question to me it's the same dated HD master that's been circulating since the D-VHS, just with new some A.I. noise reduction and sharpening applied.

milo bloom

OrbitDVD has some copies of The Abyss in stock, I just put in an order.

RocShemp

This is somewhat off topic, but this was an interesting video about different video masters/transfers, and even briefly touches upon Cameron's grain averse transfers.

clappj

I found that all three were available to ship from Walmart.com when I ordered them a couple of weeks ago.

PhantomStranger

There have been a handful of "4K" releases the past couple years which don't look to me like they actually originated from a 4K film scan. I wonder if they struck some of these transfers when the technology was brand new and have been sitting on them for years. I know Sony was sitting on 4K transfers before they even put out UHDs in some cases.

Josh Z

Well, there are a considerable number of 4K Ultra HD titles that are known to be upconverted from 2K sources. Just about any movie made during the early 2000s was most likely completed on a 2K Digital Intermediate.

But yes, you are correct that some studios were scanning movies in 4K years before there was a market for 4K media. Likewise, studios had been mastering movies in HD for more than a decade before Blu-ray.

In the case of True Lies, it doesn't even look like a decent 2K scan of the negative. It looks like a really old HD master. In addition to the softness and lack of detail, it has really flat contrast and color. I have no doubt that it comes from the same master as the D-VHS release back in 2003.

The Lightstorm rep claims: “True Lies, Titanic, and The Abyss were all mastered from 4K scans. Aliens was mastered from the 2K scan used for the previous Blu-ray release. Titanic was scanned in 2012. True Lies and The Abyss were done more recently."

I haven't watched The Abyss yet (still waiting for Amazon to ship me a copy), but there's just no way I believe that for True Lies. Not a chance. Even a 2K scan from 2012 would look better than this.

DJariya

Finally got a delivery estimate for my The Abyss order from Amazon. Coming between April 17th and 30th

GoldenJCJ

Mine says arriving May 1st.


Seriously, I know they were trying to play it safe with their quantity of discs initially printed but, fuck, none made it to Walmart, Targets, or Amazon?! What was the original print, like 200?

b2net

For Amazon it might have been when it was ordered. I received our copy of Abyss within a week of street date and True Lies about a week later.

milo bloom

My order from Orbit was supposed to arrive on Thursday but was at my place last night when I got home. Didn't have time to open all my stuff but my copy of The Abyss still had the slipcover and was in good shape.

OldBoy

This was a nice surprise to wake up to…