Blade Runner 4K UHD (1982)

[CreasyBear]

"I want more life, Brade Runnar."

[Fang Zei]

Blade Runner was the very first bd release I ever bought, back in December of 2007 when it was becoming clear that bd was going to win the format war. I’d seen the final cut at The Ziegfeld in NYC on opening night early that October. My sister was in school near there and was completely unfamiliar with Blade Runner, but she saw it with me anyway. I of course had the old dvd and had gotten the remastered disc pretty much as soon as it had come out in September of ‘06, even though we all knew the final / all versions edition was due for the 25th anniversary in ‘07. They both got sold off later on, and I almost wish I hadn’t bothered with the remastered dvd if only because it would’ve made seeing it on the big screen all the more mind blowing. The Ziegfeld played it on a 4k projector but I didn’t learn until a decade later that the 2007 dcp would’ve still only been 2k. I saw it at the Uptown in DC on 35mm at least a couple more times the following month.

I wouldn’t even get a blu-ray player for a whole entire year, but as I recall there was no easy way to get all five discs on dvd without getting the briefcase, only the first four without the workprint. For the hd formats they simplified it and you got all five discs either way. I cared about future-proofing more than I did about being able to immediately watch the movie discs / listen to the commentaries (ended up checking out the four-disc dvd set from my school’s library after several months just for those final cut commentaries and the ‘82 cuts lol), but I watched Dangerous Days on the dvd player as soon as I got home since I could still play that and the “enhacement archive.” For several years I’d assumed the bd discs were dual-layered until I found out, duh, no difference on the audio tracks so of course they didn’t spend an additional layer just so they could use those last five gigs on the hddvd.

Anyway, Sleeping Beauty ended up as my second blu-ray disc purchase in October of ‘08, the inclusion of a standard dvd copy facilitating that decision for me. A couple months later I finally got a player (panasonic bd35, which was touted at the time as one of the first cheap blu-ray players that can play them “just as well as ps3” … it stopped being able to play bd’s somewhere around 2015). It didn’t come with any kind of hd cables, just regular rca composite which of course can only carry a regular ‘ol ntsc signal to the tv. Hooked it up to at least watch Blade Runner, blurry as hell. Ordered an hdmi cable from monoprice and OH MY GOD there was no going back after that. My jaw was on the floor.

Ironically, the middle bd disc from my ‘07 set is the only one that hasn’t suffered rot. My final cut and workprint discs both freeze up towards the end. I can still remember bringing it over to a friend’s place soon after getting it so that I could use his ps3 to check and make sure the data on the workprint disc wasn’t just a reprint of the final cut as I’d heard some sets with this error were out there and wanted to make sure mine wasn’t one of them. I played it and it was indeed the workprint, but we ended up watching the whole thing. My friend was like “this looks like Dune,” but that was probably just the workprint’s color timing making him say that. Just to make sure, I popped in the final cut disc right after just to make sure the data on that wasn’t the wrong thing either and it was all good, but it looked so strikingly better than the workprint that this other guy who’d just watched the workprint with us exclaimed “why didn’t we watch this version?! it looks so much better!”

So yeah, the ‘82/‘92 disc is the only one intact from my ‘07 set. The final cut disc is easily replaceable, too bad about the workprint. I’d honestly settle for a set that simply allowed me to do clean upgrade. That is, the exact contents of the ‘07 discs plus the UHD of the final cut. Since I was reading in one of these threads that the audio mistakes on the ‘82/‘92 disc got fixed in one of the various reissues, that would also be nice. I think just such a set did get released (the one with the origami cover I think?) but it’s expensive and I’d be paranoid about something new getting announced right after I bought it.

Honestly, even if I never got around to buying this movie again I’d still be fine with just my one bd disc of it that still works as it contains the ‘82 theatrical cut. That was the version I saw the very first time I saw Blade Runner when the scifi channel aired it in June of 2000.

[Kylo_Ren]

The steelbook saga continues:

Zavvi sent me another delayed email.

At this point, I expect to receive this in 1990-never. haha

My steelbook will be lost....

Like tears in rain.

[Kylo_Ren]

Originally Posted by soaptrail

Mine is delayed too as well as V for Vendetta. I have to assume since we are buying from their US storefront there should not be any VAT or customs.

You may want to check your email, soaptrail.

Hopefully, you have a better experience than me, because I just received an email from Zavvi notifying me that my order of the Blade Runner steelbook was cancelled due to unforeseen issues with supplier inventory allocation.

Of course, this also happens when international shipments to the US here are suspended. If there were no initial delays, it would have shipped before the mail got suspended. But by the time I got the cancellation email it was too late anyways.

The first time in years that I ordered from Zavvi, and they dropped the ball! Go figure! haha

Take it away, K!

[dallywhitty]

I think that artwork's years old. I've deffo seen it before.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

I think that artwork's years old. I've deffo seen it before.

You're right. AI was wrong, ironically. Thanks for calling me out.

[Wickerman1972]

I think it's kinda messed up to put a classic like Blade Runner on a bd 66. Movies that are considered some of the best of all time should go on the largest disc ya got every time.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Wickerman1972

I think it's kinda messed up to put a classic like Blade Runner on a bd 66. Movies that are considered some of the best of all time should go on the largest disc ya got every time.

There's plenty of room on a UHD66 for a superb encode of a 118-minute movie, and a triple decker alone is no substitute for competency. But with loads of audio tracks stuffed onto the BR UHD they eats into the available bitrate and even tho an average video rate of 50 Mb/s still isn't terrible (bearing in mind that's an average across the entire stream, it will peak much higher and go much according to the demands of each shot/scene), the source is so over-sharpened that it just cannot cope with so much high frequency information buzzing about.

[Wickerman1972]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

There's plenty of room on a UHD66 for a superb encode of a 118-minute movie, and a triple decker alone is no substitute for competency. But with loads of audio tracks stuffed onto the BR UHD they eats into the available bitrate and even tho an average video rate of 50 Mb/s still isn't terrible (bearing in mind that's an average across the entire stream, it will peak much higher and go much according to the demands of each shot/scene), the source is so over-sharpened that it just cannot cope with so much high frequency information buzzing about.

I suppose it may very well be sufficient but c'mon, that is a classic that gets mentioned in best of discussions all the time. If it's not deserving of the highest bitrate on the biggest disc you can put out there, what is? Just the idea of pinching a penny on a title like this one seems off to me.

[dallywhitty]

They should put all cuts on a UHD500.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Wickerman1972

I suppose it may very well be sufficient but c'mon, that is a classic that gets mentioned in best of discussions all the time. If it's not deserving of the highest bitrate on the biggest disc you can put out there, what is? Just the idea of pinching a penny on a title like this one seems off to me.

Bitrate alone will never guarantee a great encode. By all means be a slave to technical specs, FOMO and whatever else, but numbers numbers numbers are not the endgame.

[Wickerman1972]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Bitrate alone will never guarantee a great encode. By all means be a slave to technical specs, FOMO and whatever else, but numbers numbers numbers are not the endgame.

I don't think you're getting my point. I don't care if putting it on a bd 50 would look the same as putting it on a bd 300 if there were such a thing. It's Blade Runner! Put it on the biggest disc ya got BECAUSE IT'S BLADE RUNNER, necessary or not.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Wickerman1972

I don't think you're getting my point. I don't care if putting it on a bd 50 would look the same as putting it on a bd 300 if there were such a thing. It's Blade Runner! Put it on the biggest disc ya got BECAUSE IT'S BLADE RUNNER, necessary or not.

You could always buy a LaserDisc? I mean they're massive

[Wickerman1972]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

You could always buy a LaserDisc? I mean they're massive

Lol.

[KcMsterpce]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

You could always buy a LaserDisc? I mean they're massive

Actually, hat's off to that one. That was pretty good.
Cheers.

[Mierzwiak]

Originally Posted by Wickerman1972

I don't think you're getting my point.

What's there not to get?

It's 2025, we've been saying this movie should be on BD100 (with Dolby Vision AND the original audio) for eight years now. If your brain can't comprehend a simple, objective fact that a movie on BD100 can still be badly encoded, there's no help for you, sorry.

[Wickerman1972]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

What's there not to get?

It's 2025, we've been saying this movie should be on BD100 (with Dolby Vision AND the original audio) for eight years now. If your brain can't comprehend a simple, objective fact that a movie on BD100 can still be badly encoded, there's no help for you, sorry.

Umm, when did I say that? In what reply did I say that all movies on bd 100s look great? There's no need to get nasty and put words in my mouth, dude. We're not discussing politics after all so chill. Nope, was just disappointed to see that it's on a bd 66 cuz right away that told me it's probably not a labor of love kinda release. Ya put Madame Web on a bd 66, not Blade Runner, lol. Certain titles deserve the red carpet treatment, that's what I was saying, not what you're saying I was saying. As far as what you've been saying for 8 years well excuuuuuse the hell outa me for not going through and reading the 473 pages of replies first, lol.

[aladdin123]

They should put Blade Runner in a HVD.

[NotASpeckOfCereal]

Originally Posted by Wickerman1972

I suppose it may very well be sufficient but c'mon, that is a classic that gets mentioned in best of discussions all the time. If it's not deserving of the highest bitrate on the biggest disc you can put out there, what is? Just the idea of pinching a penny on a title like this one seems off to me.

If the film files fits on a 66 and putting it on a 100 will not change the quality in the least bit (same bit rate, same bat channel), then there's no good reason to do that. The prestige level of the title doesn't change that.

But here's a more practical reason to not use a BD100 if you don't need to: some players have issues with some BD100 discs, including freezing.

Chris

[Kyle15]

A lot of people don't have TVs that take full advantage of what the format has to offer nor notice, that's why some labels don't prioritize encoding. It's practicality.