How satisfied are you with UHD and 4K so far?

[RealorFake4K]

We are now a full month in to having UHD discs in our homes. How has everyone experience been so far? What discs have you bought? How do you feel the content selection so far? What are your feelings on HDR implementation?

I've been pretty happy with living the 4K lifestyle so far. It hasn't been without its draw backs though. My internet, while typically fast, hits hiccups on 4K streams when traffic in the neighborhood is higher (6-9pm). Im a big Netflix and Amazon Steaming user.

As for the movie selection I'm always wanting more, but for only being the first month I really can't complain to much. I just hope studios start announcing 4K UHD disc releases more.

I have mixed feelings on HDR so far, some movies have really taken advantage of it naturally, while others have seemed to use it to excess. I am obviously all for the technology, it's obviously a step in the right direction, just in the right hands.

What are your insights so far?

[ashahzad_pk]

I have seen 2 movies so far on UHD BD. 1. San Andreas ( disappointed conversion ) 2. Smurfs 2 ( awesome conversion ). But still wow factor is missing in 4K

[ncraft]

I own 9 UHD 4K discs. I was throughly impressed with Sicario,The Martian,Mad Max Fury Road,Life of Pi,and the Peanuts Movie. I don't have HDR on my TV but the resolution and color differences are still impressive. I was very disappointed with San Andreas and Salt. The transfers were not much better than the Blu-ray versions,or maybe not as improved as I thought that would /should be.

The Samsung 4K player was good for a first-generation product but required way too much tinkering before I got the video looking like it should. I think when Oppo or Sony decide to put out a player of their own,I will upgrade.

[Alexandros]

I own a 4k LGub980t 79 inch ULTRA HDTV I'm currently watching daredevil in 4k and normal HD on NETFLIX and personally I can't tell the difference..

[nugget2016]

i won't know myself until i get sicario, asm2, the martian, kingsman and mad max in the UK..don't even have release dates for sony/lionsgate films yet over here. and the player too expensive for me upon release

[bruceames]

So far I have watched Kingman, Hitman, Wild, San Andreas, The Peanuts Movie, Exodus Gods and Kings, X-MEN: DOFP, The Martian and Mad Max (twice). I have been impressed with all of them. They all look better than the included BD. The Peanuts Movie is my demo disc so far, with Mad Max coming in second.

I was skeptical before the format was launched, but decided to buy in anyway at launch for a combination of reasons. I already have a 4k TV, the Samsung player was reasonably priced, was able to preorder about 10 discs from Foxconnect and Amazon.ca for under $20 each, the fact that they were combos which added value, and most of all my curiosity.

I started out with a non-HDR TV for the first few weeks (Sony 65x900A) and watched 3 movies on it. Kingsman and Hitman looked pretty good, but Wild for some reason looked worse. The colors were slightly different on all of them, but at least with the first two there was more dynamic range (even though the player in converting HDR to SDR, I still benefited from the extended dynamic range of the TV, plus the higher bit rate. So I saw more high and lows and better shadow detail).

But then I got some unexpected funds and saw the 930C on sale and got an HDR TV. I revisited Wild and in HDR it looks much better than the BD. Unlike Kingman or Hitman, where they lay it on a little thick, Wild only use the HDR for portions of scenes which fall outside the SDR range. I'd say it only takes up about 5% of the picture, but it makes a welcome difference when it's there. The same goes for San Andreas. I swear that I don't understand why so many people are disappointed in San Andreas, just because they didn't go heavy on it like they did with other movies. If you compare the fires and explosion and the shadow areas, there is a big difference. I think people who are opposed to adding HDR to catalog movies will be pleasantly surprised at the results of these two movies (Wild and San Andreas). That there is a 'right' way to do it.

Anyway so far my expectations have been exceeded. I have about 10 more movies to watch. I'm spacing them out watching about 2 new ones per week. If I want to watch more HDR then I'll revisit some of the better ones like Kingsman or The Martian, or maybe even a third time with Mad Max, lol.

[K i r a]

I own a 4K TV (Sony X850C), and only use Netflix 4K to stream and judge. I skipped on the Samsung player with the so-so feedback with compatibility and odd settings communicating between the TV and player, so cna't comment on UHD.

With my little bit in 4K, I'm a definite optimist. Blacklist 4K Netflix looks ****ing amazing, while House of Cards 4K (at least Season 1) looks kinda subpar; crushing blacks, poor detail and noise in low light scenes. I'm connected ethernet through a gigabit switch to a modem that can deliver up to 100Mbps, btw. Maybe the later seasons will look better.

My only big problem is one thing: CONSISTENCY! I abhor the fact that the UHDA finalized their specs for what they consider a "premium HDR experience" at CES 2016, months AFTER most of us jumped on the 4K market. Some TVs got HDR through a firmware (my X850C), and some perform well or great (Sony X930C, Samsung JS8500 and up), but STILL don't meet that minimum spec of "90% DCIp3 and 1,000 nit peak brightness). For example, my X850C is 89.35% of DCIP3, and about 285 nit peak brightness. Even the Samsung JS8500 is not all there, with liek 91% DCIP3, but only about 520 nit peak brightness. Admit it... we got duped.

I know technology is ever changing, but man does this feel kinda crooked.

Regardless, my TV was paid off for in full within 3 weeks of my final purchase (Went through 3 different models before settling on the X850C), and I almost expected to buy an OLED within 2 years, anyways, so I hope that these upcoming 2016 and 2017 models meet all the specs that they say will deliver the best HDR experience, and that ALL companies get on board with ONE label-- Looking at Sony trying to play black sheep in the HDR game.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by Alexandros

I own a 4k LGub980t 79 inch ULTRA HDTV I'm currently watching daredevil in 4k and normal HD on NETFLIX and personally I can't tell the difference..

Daredevil 4k looks like crap for being 4k. Almost everyone agrees.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by K i r a

I own a 4K TV (Sony X850C), and only use Netflix 4K to stream and judge. I skipped on the Samsung player with the so-so feedback with compatibility and odd settings communicating between the TV and player, so cna't comment on UHD.

With my little bit in 4K, I'm a definite optimist. Blacklist 4K Netflix looks ****ing amazing, while House of Cards 4K (at least Season 1) looks kinda subpar; crushing blacks, poor detail and noise in low light scenes. I'm connected ethernet through a gigabit switch to a modem that can deliver up to 100Mbps, btw. Maybe the later seasons will

House of cards season 1 is 108pp just an fyi.


And yes some people got douped. I would advise selling your tv for as much as you can and springing for the new 2016 vizio P series with dolby vision for 1999, insane value.

I know it's a tuff pill to swallow, I've been there. Bought a 4k tv for 3999 only to sell it 8 months later for 2k so I could get a much better HDR tv. Don't regret it 1 bit.

[Derb]

Of the 25 films I've seen now, I've seen maybe 5 worthy of the upgrade.

More satisfied with the BD upscaling than the 4K fakes.

[earthmartian]

The wow factor is there for me based on "double/source" upscaling alone. I think...

Watched Ghost Busters 2 & The Fifth Element "4k re-masters" on the Samsung 4k player recently and I was amazed.

Otherwise, I'm not at all impressed by the 4k movies I've purchased and fake HDR (on my set) so far.

I still have a little time left on the Best Buy 45-day trial run and I really want to dump this thing. It exposes every ugly flaw in my Sony 65X850C & the variations from disk to disk are very painful, for the entire family!!! However, Hateful Eight (1080p) arrives tomorrow, Star Wars (1080p) hits next week, and then we get The Revenant on the 19th in 4k.

Decisions... this sucks, perfectly timed...ugh!

[Doctorossi]

I'm pretty disappointed by the decidedly low proportion of launch titles sourced from actual 4K (or higher) elements. I anticipated a lackluster launch line-up (as is typical of the industry), but it really looks like they weren't even trying this time.

Also, I'm worried that "use-HDR-as-a-differentiator fever" is about to take our beloved catalog titles down a long, miserable road, the likes of which I'd thought we'd finally managed to get away from.

[scorpiontail60]

Well the UHD BD format is shit; it's been polluted by a bunch of 2K upscaled material and it has no support for stereoscopic 3D which is beyond retarded. So it's pretty much a waste of time right now. Crap selection and the few quality titles on the format at this point are just upscales.

So any movie that has a 3D version available is automatically USELESS on the UHD Blu-ray format because it will only be available in 2D and the majority of the time it's just upscaled from 2D so you're better off just watching the 3D Blu-ray version because it's not worth sacrificing stereoscopic 3D just for some upscaled content.

HDR is a gimmick which improves picture quality somewhat, but it's not nearly as important as the material actually being shot with quality cameras at native 4K and mastered in 4K. I have yet to see any material that I'd rather watch at 1080p resolution with HDR than I'd rather watch at 4K resolution without HDR for example.

So Netflix and Amazon content often ends up looking better than content on the Ultra HD Blu-ray format, because most of their original content is actually shot and produced natively in 4K.

Ironically, Amazon's children's programming like Just Add Magic and Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street is some of the best looking 4K content I've seen so far, . Mad Dogs is another show on Amazon that looks top-notch and I am quite sure that is because it is produced by Sony. Sony Picture's digital 4K produced television shows -- The Blacklist, Better Call Saul, Powers -- these are among the best looking 4K content out there. Another show with great picture quality is Netflix's documentary series "Cooked."

These TV shows look better than any content that I have seen on the Ultra HD Blu-ray format so far. Hollywood seems to be behind the TV industry in the picture quality department. And guess what? None of this had HDR when I watched it; these shows look better than HDR content I've watched on UHD BD, because they were all clean shot and produced at native 4K. Content shot on film and mastered at 4K seems to be another stumbling block because it just doesn't look as good as digitally shot 4K content either.

[earthmartian]

I didn't want to mention it on my first post here, trying to be somewhat positive, but yeah, I can't help but think about how much of a total loss of 3D screws everything up here....

Mad Max, Life of Pi, The Martian, etc.....The old school, 3D 1080p Blu-ray experience still seems so much better than the UHD version which seems to suck more and more with every disk purchase.

But that was the past, the masses (can't blame them for ignoring $25-30 disks), rejected that long ago. We should be accepting to move on but not really. In reality, wishing on firmware and compatibly upgrades to make an outdated (2015) 4k look better won't work. Bummer.

Side note, we're only talking physical media on the site I hope... Streaming discussions not allowed hopefully????

[scorpiontail60]

This is what Amazon's streaming 4K content looks like by the way:



And this is the impressive quality we see on the Ultra HD Blu-ray format! ...



(that was sarcasm)

Originally Posted by earthmartian

Side note, we're only talking physical media on the site I hope... Streaming discussions not allowed hopefully????

I don't see why we shouldn't be discussing 4K streaming on this site since it is currently handing Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray's ass to it in most scenarios. If I'm looking for reference material to show off the quality of 4K, I go pull up one of Amazon or Netflix's original series instead of putting in a Ultra HD Blu-ray. There is something deeply wrong here when it's easier to find examples of higher quality material on Internet-based sources than it is on physical media sources.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by Derb

Of the 25 films I've seen now, I've seen maybe 5 worthy of the upgrade.

More satisfied with the BD upscaling than the 4K fakes.

Which 5?

[Adam_ME]

I've been mostly impressed thus far. When the format looks great, it blows away its Blu-ray counterpart. Those titles include Chappie, Sicario, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peanuts, Life of Pi, and Smurfs 2. And there are plenty of examples of marginal, but noticeable, improvements as well like both Maze Runners, The Martian, Kingsman, Mad Max, and Days of Future Past. Honestly, my only real disappointments so far are Expendables 3 and Ender's Game.

Now all we need are more selections. And I'm very curious(and nervous) about the first true catalog title(i.e. something from before 2000) and what happens if HDR is applied to the transfer. My money is on Ghostbusters being that title.

[Koolice]

I have the LG EF9500 with HDR and i think it looks amazing. I own Sicario, Martian, X-Men, Mad Max, Ender's Game and Kingsman.

Sicario was distractingly good looking, Martian, Mad Max, xmen and Kingsman looked better, but not by a whole lot. Ender's game looked wonderful, but i didn't own it on blu ray, so i can't compare.

Overall for a first gen player and first gen media, i'm very pleased.

[earthmartian]

Originally Posted by scorpiontail60

I don't see why we shouldn't be discussing 4K streaming on this site since it is currently handing Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray's ass to it in most scenarios. If I'm looking for reference material to show off the quality of 4K, I go pull up one of Amazon or Netflix's original series instead of putting in a Ultra HD Blu-ray. There is something deeply wrong here when it's easier to find examples of higher quality material on Internet-based sources than it is on physical media sources.

I can't argue with that necessarily but streaming (zero ownership; at the mercy of the provider, etc.) vs. physical media sucks IMO, not an option at all for me. Totally different discussion, we're talking about major new UHD Blu-Ray disks movie releases (or so I hoped on this site).

$30 disks & $400 media players are not fun but I expected so much more for the investment and dedicated movies! I could care less about TV shows right now, not even on my radar, because it is seemingly forever away for the "good" shows like Game of Thrones and any decent live broadcast TV. For example, the Masters golf tournament will be in 4k live this year; totally groundbreaking, but you need the right equipment and service package. I totally expect streaming, on-demand, etc. to still suck for many, many years to come - but not UHD Disks.

Just my opinion!

[earthmartian]

Watched the Hateful Eight tonight in lowly 1080p, upscaled on the Samsung 4k player to a crappy Sony x850c and wow, blown away again!

I think the player is a keeper but UHD is still a ways off until affordable displays and HDR can be standardized... early adoption sucks... could have spent a week in the Bahamas instead.

Most importantly, my display did not flip out and I didn't have to spend a half hour plus tweaking just to make it barely watchable, but still look like crap in the end.