melasnus

When this format gets it RIGHT, it really really gets it right.
When the format gets it WRONG, it questions the point of even buying these disks.

I have bought about 20 disks and watched about 15 so far.
Some real stand-outs to my mind are Valerian, POTA 3, GOTG2, T2, and The Great Wall.
I just got done looking at 2 classics on UHD from Sony: The Fifth Element and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
What major disappointments these are.
Grain poorly resolved, detail barely above BD.
I suspect new 4K masters weren't struck for either or the sources used were pretty bad to begin with.
I want my money back.

FWIW, I have a Sony XBR-X940C and an Oppo 203.

Josh Z

Starship Troopers looks ghastly. Sony cranked the contrast way up, blowing out all the whites and really exaggerating all the grain.

Michael Corvin

GOTG2 is phenomenal. Valerian was equally gorgeous.

I also thought Fifth Element looked great, so what do I know?

gryffinmaster

The first two Harry Potter movies are enormous improvements over the Blu-rays.

melasnus

Thanks for the tip.
Because it is a guilty pleasure of mine, I have come very close to buying it.

I don't want to be a Negative Nancy regarding the format because there seems to be hope coming...
During the last couple of months I have noticed with some of the UHD announcements of upcoming classic films there has been an effort by studios to point out a new 4K master will be used and often emphasizing the film's negative as the source.
This REALLY is the way to get the best possible UHD.
Again, I want to remain positive and think the suits, after seeing some of these early releases, realized it was the only way to deal with older movies.

Also, ironically and perhaps problematically, some of the recent releases of BDs are absolutely stunning visually and could be mistaken for 4K by some people very easily.

JimRochester

I had the old defective Starship Troopers BR with the 20 second scene repeated. I upgraded to the 4K. I will admit that the presentation wasn't the best but I didn't see it as inferior to the BR.

I upgraded Apollo 13 and Serenity from HD DVD to 4K and the presentations are fantastic upgrades especially the audio

Josh Z

The UHD does fix that editing glitch (which was also fixed on later pressings of the Blu-ray). It also fixes the big problem with edge enhancement that plagued the Blu-ray during the last half-hour of the movie (but wasn't an issue earlier, strangely). However, I think the contrast and color on the Blu-ray are much better than the eye sore, blow-out levels in the UHD transfer.

melasnus

It's interesting how the UHD disk format has embarrassed the naysayers and actually made it to the marketplace.

For years and years the death of physical media was considered a bygone conclusion.
And yet, here we are in 2018 and it still retains its crown as being able to produce the highest level of presentation.
I say this as a big fan of streaming (the video quality of which can be superb).
It is still not possible for consumers to stream every movie they may desire.
Fortunately, physical media is still here to pick up the slack.

PhantomStranger

I'll give everyone here a sneak peek at the upcoming PQ Tiers list going up next week. This is based on dozens of veteran media watchers.

Transformers: The Last Knight UHD will be ranked #1 in a virtual tie with the Planet Earth II UHD for absolute best picture quality.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/150-bl...ly-2017-a.html

JimRochester

Too bad that was wasted on Transformers. One of the few movies I actually didn't think was worth a rental. The PQ was absolutely stunning though.

melasnus

I just got done watching this streaming 4k from NF.
Stunning and fascinating, to be sure.
Unfortunately, the stream was not in HDR (simply 4K rez).
I was so impressed with the content, I have been salivating at buying the HDR disks.
Can you comment on the HDR grading?

Would you start a thread here of picture quality rankings?
I'm sure Mods would make it a sticky if you asked.

PhantomStranger

The HDR in it is spectacular and high quality. It will test the limits of your display.

Years ago, I thought about duplicating the PQ Tiers to other media sites like here. But it now has so many entries (thousands +) that most sites' forum software makes replicating it on a new site very, very difficult. But I am game to having a thread discussing picture quality rankings here. The PQ Tiers are always looking for more user input and feedback on new discs.

melasnus

Great.
I have a Sony 940C, so it should be quite a visual treat.

OK, fair enough.
When I buy new UHDs I'll post my impressions on this thread (unless you have a better idea of what to do).

Sonic

I thought T2 was a disaster reading some of the negative reviews.

dex14

Maybe somewhere here can help me...

I upgraded my system back in November.

I received two 4K discs for free and at the time I thought they looked good when I tested them out. I started to buy some more and am just getting around to watching the full movies and the 4K discs look much darker than the Blu-ray. I watched GoTG Vol. 2 the other day and it was so dark. I watched The Last Jedi last night and actually took the 4K disc out and finished watching the Blu because it was just so noticeably darker. What is wrong? Is there a setting somewhere that I am missing or overlooking that should be enabled or disabled? Are there settings on two of the components that are working against each other?

I have:
Sony XBR75X900E 75" 4K X-1 LED TV
Sony UBP-X800 4K UHD Blu-ray player
Denon AVR-X2300W

E Unit

It is. I borrowed a friend's copy and it's abolutely garbage. I'm glad I never bought it, even at the price it was. The blu looks more impressive when you compare them.

JimRochester

Do you have the proper hdmi cable for 4K?

DJariya

Is there something in your TV settings or the 4K player where you can calibrate the 4K settings?

dex14

As far as I know. Yea. It specifically said 4K.

I really don’t know much about the settings.

I found the calibration on a website and set it with that and everything else looks good.

I’ve watched 4K on amazon and Netflix and all good.

Edit: I tried a show on Netflix that said Ultra 4K. I had the HDR setting to auto. It looked ok. But when I put HDR 10 on it looked very dark.

melasnus

A couple of possibilities...
Is there a menu for adjusting HDMI inputs from Standard to Enhanced?
My Sony has that and the input must be set to "Enhanced" for UHD disks.
Are you positive your HDMI cable is 4K HDR capable?
Some have been advertised as such, but turned out not to be.

FWIW, I found the default Sony HDR settings in my 940C too dark too.
After some adjustments in the user menus, it all looks great to me now, but I'm not afraid to make slight adjustments when the content is unusual.

Have you looked at the AVS (I know...I hate them too) thread for your display and see what other guys are doing?
One thing I've noticed is because HDR is a new technology in HTs, there is a lot of different opinions on what it SHOULD look like in the home environment.
The same thing happened when BD was new.
At the moment, there is no HDR standard for professional calibrators to rely on other than brightness and contrast.

Here is a quick overview of what HDR is:
https://www.cnet.com/news/what-is-hd...ould-you-care/

In a nutshell, HDR displays have more brightness and contrast than ordinary HD.
This results in more colors than standard BDs (the gold standard for 1080p displays IMO).
IIRC, BD can display around 35% of what human eyes can perceive, while HDR is about 75%.
Of course, this makes for much more visual "pop" for viewers.

GOTG V2 should NOT look "too dark."
It looks fantastic on my system.
Definitely something is awry with your setup.

Can you name other disks you've seen?
If I have them, I'll take a look and report back.

Streaming is a little more complicated than just throwing a disk in your player.
For example, unlike UHD disks, not all 4K content on NF, Amazon, etc. is HDR.
Sometimes it is hard to tell...much of it is just 4K resolution.
If it is HDR, typically there will be a little HDR logo near the 4K logo.
Without it, it's probably not HDR.

With my 940C, when the display detects a HDR signal it automatically defaults to the HDR Menu in the picture settings.
It's an easy way to be doubly sure.

The good news is streaming technology can produce some spectacular video (lossless audio is not available at the moment due to bandwidth limitations).
Try Marco Polo on NF...it's pretty amazing.

As far as cables go, a standard HDMI is not going to work with UHD.
What's needed is a "certified" HDMI cable.
Many companies are now producing them.
Unfortunately, some of them have been crap.
Monoprice and Amazon's own brand "AmazonBasics" are good and both are inexpensive.
There is no need to spend a lot of $$$ for proper cables.

PhantomStranger

It's likely calibrated improperly. I don't know much about your display - you should probably investigate these issues on a more tech-minded forum like AVS.

GOTG 2 is considered some of the finest video possible. I have not heard any complaints it's too dark.

JimRochester

Yeah GotG2 looks fantastic. Anything other than pristine indicates a problem on the television or player side of the equation.

melasnus

It truly is an amazing presentation.
I'm glad James Gunn pushed hard Disney for a UHD release.
The expanded colors add to the viewing experience considerably...it's stunning to see in an HT.

dex14

It turns out the enhanced HDMI input was not on. I turned that on and it is working now.

But the issue I have now is, when this is enabled, I'm not getting sound when I switch to Cable on my Receiver. So I guess I need to find a setting on the receiver now. I don’t know...

Inhumans99

I have nothing to add...something is off, even on my fairly cheap LG model (which I went to rtings.com for calibration advice and used the settings for a more higher end model that I could still work with) 4k blus look great played in my Samsung player. I have such a low end 4K that I needed to do a hardcore calibration to avoid the soap opera effect.

I went in and adjusted gammas, etc....it was insane and took me about 50 minutes (including fat thumbing the remote where I had to get back on track), as it was basically a professional calibration that I undertook on my own and hope to not to go through that again anytime soon (hence my holding onto this TV even though I could technically afford to upgrade to a slightly better 60" model).

Netflix 4K content played through my 4K Apple TV or first gen Tivo Bolt also looks great.

I do not think it is the cable, I used the same HDMI cables I used for my cheap LG plasma 1080P TV this 4K set replaced with no issues.

I was watching the latest POTC off a 4K disc and I could still see details in the sections that were deliberately dark and the sections that were particularly colorful were stunning to look at.

ETA: Doh...late to the party, I see you already resolved the picture quality issue.