Blade Runner 4K UHD (1982)

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Lope de Aguirre

That would be good but my dream set would be:

1 BD-66 - The Final Cut 4K
1 BD-25 - Dangerous Days HD
1 BD-25 - Original Theatrical Cut / International Theatrical Cut / Director's Cut
1 BD-50 - Workprint Cut + Extras

My dream set would be:

1 BD-66 - The Final Cut 4K
1 BD-25 - Dangerous Days HD
1 BD-66 - Original Theatrical Cut 4K / International Theatrical Cut 4K / Director's Cut 4K
1 BD-100 - Workprint Cut 4K + Extras

[MichaelR]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

You're the one who's got an in with Warners, not me.

If you say so.

[Laserdisk]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The audio is still lossy on the branched 'archival' disc in the 30th anni edition, it's the exact same disc as before. The audio problem with that disc is that the branched Director's Cut contains a couple of bits of audio from the workprint on the 5.1 track, the 2.0 is unaffected. (The European edition of this disc drops the 2.0 audio but fixes the errors in the 5.1.)

It's the workprint which got an upgrade to lossless audio when they redid that disc for the 30th anni to include the SD DVD extras from before (Dangerous Days and the Enhancement Archive) plus some new stills galleries.

It got an audio upgrade as it's the best one true cut.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Vangeli

OR all four alternate cuts on ONE 50GB disc (instead of two 25Gb discs)

1 BD-100 - The Final Cut 4K
1 BD-25 - The Final Cut
1 BD-50 - Dangerous Days HD + Extras
1 BD-50 - Workprint Cut / Original Theatrical Cut / International Theatrical Cut / Director's Cut

The workprint is what it is, a transfer directly from the 70mm blowup (hence the 2.20-ish aspect of that disc) and given all the little changes and whatnot it makes sense to keep it separate from the other 'official' cuts with their higher quality sources.

[Vangeli]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The workprint is what it is, a transfer directly from the 70mm blowup (hence the 2.20-ish aspect of that disc) and given all the little changes and whatnot it makes sense to keep it separate from the other 'official' cuts with their higher quality sources.

Quality-wise, sure. From a collection standpoint; having all alternate cuts on a single definitive disc would be lovely and much simpler. But that's just me.

[Laserdisk]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The workprint is what it is, a transfer directly from the 70mm blowup (hence the 2.20-ish aspect of that disc) and given all the little changes and whatnot it makes sense to keep it separate from the other 'official' cuts with their higher quality sources.

And it's lovely due to that.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Vangeli

Quality-wise, sure. From a collection standpoint; having all alternate cuts on a single definitive disc would be lovely and much simpler. But that's just me.

I'm just saying, those versions are from two very different sources so you can't just branch them together. In an ideal world Warners would rebuild the workprint using the best quality first gen material and the 70mm blowup for the exclusive bits....but then this is Warner "let's put a 10 year old DVD in this 4K set" Bros that we're talking about, so even when spitballing like this you've got to keep a sense of perspective.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I'm just saying, those versions are from two very different sources so you can't just branch them together.

Unless I misunderstand his post, I don't think he's talking about branching them together; he's just talking about putting them both, as separate encodes, on a single BD-50, instead of on two individual BD-25s.

[bbwiscfan]

Is driving me INSANE. LOL

[Vangeli]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Unless I misunderstand his post, I don't think he's talking about branching them together; he's just talking about putting them both, as separate encodes, on a single BD-50, instead of on two individual BD-25s.

Yes, this. It's more convenient to have everything on one BD-50 than two BD-25.

[Geoff D]

Oh, that'd work. But if both sets of movies had lossless - bearing in mind that the original BDs of the archivals and workprint had lossy audio, and presuming you'd want a lossless upgrade from your "collection standpoint" - then that might tip it over the 50GB limit and you're back to square one.

[Vangeli]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Oh, that'd work. But if both sets of movies had lossless then that might tip it over the 50GB limit.

Oh, this is Warner Bros.

I was assuming in my own dream-release that it'd be the same lossy encodes of the current releases just squished onto one disc. I have realistic dreams. They'd never put in the effort.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by bbwiscfan

Is driving me INSANE. LOL

Oh, it's expired. We're just witnessing an unsightly episode of Warner Brothers' necrophilia.

[Scottie]

I think a big thank you is due MichaelR for keeping the forum informed to the best of his abilities.

I just find the whole situation incredibly confusing and irritating.

Warner Bros. wanted to focus this release exclusively on The Final Cut. The most important thing, the 4K disc, is featured in the release. The next order of business (given the focus of this release) should have been a remastering of the existing Blu-ray of The Final Cut as an AVC with a much higher bitrate, which did not happen. Lastly, even if not presented in HD (unless the source material is terrible, there's no reason IMO to release anything in standard definition), there should have been one Blu-ray disc dedicated to all of the relevant extras of The Final Cut, the most important two being "Dangerous Days" and "All Our Variant Futures".

Judging from early reviews by members of this forum and other websites, it appears that someone at Warner Bros. ordered the wrong disc, resulting in this package containing 1 BD-66 disc (4K), 1 BD-25 (Final Cut), 1 BD-25 (U.S. Theatrical, International Theatrical, Director's Cut), and 1 DVD (Dangerous Days) instead of 1 BD-66, 1 BD-25, and 2 DVDs (the other dedicated to extras).

This now raises the relevant question of whether Warner Bros. should have used the 35th Anniversary Edition release as an opportunity to create the ultimate Blade Runner set with the 4K release of The Final Cut, a remastered Final Cut Blu-ray, the other four editions on Blu-ray discs (remastered if possible), and all of the extras (in HD if possible).

Even with this latest bit of information from Warner Bros.' PR department regarding a possible replacement program (1 DVD of extras replacing the 1 BD-25 that shouldn't have been included in the package given the focus of this release), this still seems like a deviation from the initial press release. There was no mention of anything in standard definition and no mention of DVDs in the press release or on the front or back packaging.

[bbwiscfan]

Has any UHD from any studio included DVDs (film or features) thus far or is this the first release to include them? I can't think of any UHD off the top of my head to feature a DVD....

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Even with this latest bit of information from Warner Bros.' PR department regarding a possible replacement program (1 DVD of extras replacing the 1 BD-25 that shouldn't have been included in the package given the focus of this release), this still seems like a deviation from the initial press release. There was no mention of anything in standard definition and no mention of DVDs in the press release or on the front or back packaging.

Yeah, but by the same token they didn't specifically state that the extras would be in/on HD so there's plenty of wiggle room there. As someone said, it's just Warners doing their usual Warnering so it doesn't pay to dissect their choices too much after the fact. You're better off consulting a tarot reading or a crystal ball, you'd likely get more sense out of them than you would Warners.

Originally Posted by bbwiscfan

Has any UHD from any studio included DVDs (film or features) thus far or is this the first release to include them? I can't think of any UHD off the top of my head to feature a DVD....

The French Unforgiven had the new BD, new UHD and 2-disc DVD in one package.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Warnering

That's it, right there.

[BryanMatthew]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Yes, the audio on the "archival" cuts was lossy on the 5-disc set.

Ah, that's what it was. Thanks!

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by BryanMatthew

Ah, that's what it was. Thanks!

You're welcome, but actually I've since been corrected. It's actually the workprint, specifically, that has lossy audio in the 5-disc set and lossless in the 3-disc set.

[BryanMatthew]

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

My dream set would be:

1 BD-66 - The Final Cut 4K
1 BD-25 - Dangerous Days HD
1 BD-66 - Original Theatrical Cut 4K / International Theatrical Cut 4K / Director's Cut 4K
1 BD-100 - Workprint Cut 4K + Extras