Blade Runner 4K UHD (1982)

[SoCal]

After visiting Best Buy, WalMart, Target and Barnes and Nobel, I remembered Fry's Electronics. Sure enough, there were several copies at the Anaheim location at less than $30. After watching, here is what I wrote to a friend who is concerned about grain:

The color and sound are especially improved with the 4K disc. The thunderstorm is amazing with Atmos.

Sharpness can be perfect when the cameras were focused precisely. The best part of the 4K is the visceral feeling of being there in many sequences.

I had to reduce my LG OLED super resolution setting from high to medium to avoid grain darkening in white light shots. Even at high, the movie looks great. Medium offers less grain. Expect some grain from a 1982 film with dark scenes. Even so, it never looked better. No complains from me.

This release is an example of the 4K UHD discs that make the purchase of the Atmos and 4K playback worth the money. Those who say there is no difference with the 2K disc need hearing and eyesight checked OR a quality adjustment of their AV equipment.

[joenostalgia23]

The color grade is definitely different on this disc too btw. It's from the same 4K scan as the 2007 Blu-Ray but after comparing the two right next to each other, they'd strikingly different, though they both "look" like Blade Runner and I think most wouldn't notice the changes or just chock it up to HDR and WCG.

The green on the opening logo is much closer to that "computer text" green in the UHD while on the BD it's cooler, leaning towards teal. I feel like the 4K is more accurate to how it should look since it's designed to look like a computer screen.

The unicorn dream is WAY more green. The BD is kind of like a neutral gray that has a bit of a teal/green tint to it. The sequence on the UHD looks much more saturated and monochromatic, and the contrast is higher. Those wanting a more natural look may prefer the BD, but I personally like the 4K, it's more intense and dreamlike.

The blues are generally cooler, there is less teal in most of the film. It's always been a very Blue movie, and now it looks as blue as ever. But despite that, the other colors on screen contrast very well against all the blue, all the red and yellow lights on cars, the neon lights, the skin tones, every color gets to shine and they look pretty natural despite how stylized the color pallet of the film is. So really it's the BD that looks like it had a blanket tint applied in comparison.

The contrast throughout the entire film is improved. Shadows are darker and thicker, and highlights are more noticeable. The BD always looked great to me, but the 4K has spoiled my eyeballs, it looks so much flatter and almost mushy at times. The UHD's greater contrast gives the overall image more depth and objects are just easier to make out despite the whole picture being darker (like so many UHDs).

The black levels are great on this film. So many scenes on the BD had these thin black levels which also had some color in them. Sometimes the blacks looked dark dark green, or blue, or purple, or red. I accepted it as part of the aesthetic... but on the 4K blacks are simply black. And I certainly prefer this look. It looks more noir-like this way.

One problem that might either be my player or TV: the opening titles. Blade Runner is in red and it looks very nice. But then the scroll has "Replicant" in red and that looks washed out. It doesn't match the Blade Runner title card's red. The reds look great throughout the rest of the film, such as the lipstick on Sean Young's lips. But this one word in this one paragraph was hard to miss.

[SexySamSosa67]

It looks fantastic and this isn't even HDR10+ or DV so just imagine!

[AlanHarper]

My Amazon order still says Preparing for Shipment.
And it has a delivery estimate ranging from September 29 to October 19 because I live in Europe. Gonna be a long wait..

[StingingVelvet]

I don't have much to add to the raves, it really looks stunning. If you thought Goodfellas and Unforgiven looked a little too drab you won't have that problem here, it looks more vibrant like a Sony catalog title but without looking wrong in any way. The pop is kept to the neon where you'd expect it and doesn't feel revisionist IMO. I honestly think the biggest upgrade might be the details in brights and especially darks that were lost on the contrasty BD. This UHD looks so much more natural.

I gotta mention something someone else did a bunch of pages ago though. As I have mentioned often I'm a headphones guy, been using them for 20+ years because of PC gaming and just got used to using them for everything. The stereo downmix on this through my headphones sounded a bit off. Dialog was hard to hear in a couple scenes and music seemed to get more focus than effects or ambient noise. I might compare it to the BD track tomorrow, but it sounded a bit off to me. That's downsampled to stereo though, I would guess the Atmos sounds amazing on a proper system.

P.S. I got the other cuts disc as well, rather than the other DVD of extras. I just ended up putting the three discs from the digibook in there instead to have one case with all the Blade Runner you could ever desire inside.

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by SoCal

I had to reduce my LG OLED super resolution setting from high to medium to avoid grain darkening in white light shots.

Shouldn't be on at all for 4K content, IIRC.

[Movietone]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I gotta mention something someone else did a bunch of pages ago though. As I have mentioned often I'm a headphones guy, been using them for 20+ years because of PC gaming and just got used to using them for everything. The stereo downmix on this through my headphones sounded a bit off. Dialog was hard to hear in a couple scenes and music seemed to get more focus than effects or ambient noise. I might compare it to the BD track tomorrow, but it sounded a bit off to me. That's downsampled to stereo though, I would guess the Atmos sounds amazing on a proper system.

Being critical of moir, to the point of being insulting & sarcastic, just because i have an opinion on grain & clean image.....yet you listen to a movie via headphones & you appear to indicate you don't have Atmos ? ( Or even a "proper system" ? Whatever that means ?

[Marcuslaw]

Anyone w/Atmos playback ability care to comment on it? I'm dying to hear it but can't watch the film until Friday night. Originally, I had a viewing event/party scheduled for Saturday but some b*tch named Irma decided to preemptively crash it.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by joenostalgia23

The blues are generally cooler, there is less teal in most of the film. It's always been a very Blue movie, and now it looks as blue as ever. But despite that, the other colors on screen contrast very well against all the blue, all the red and yellow lights on cars, the neon lights, the skin tones, every color gets to shine and they look pretty natural despite how stylized the color pallet of the film is. So really it's the BD that looks like it had a blanket tint applied in comparison.

I wondered about that exact same thing in another thread, I've lost count of the amount of UHDs which remove a blanket green tint from x film so I had a sneaky feeling that BR 4K would be the same. I didn't think that the highlights would zing as much as they do admittedly, but from what everyone's saying it's done in a tasteful, respectful way.

And I am INSANELY jealous that y'all are enjoying this right now, I just hope that waiting another few weeks for the UK SE is worth it in terms of the extras config that I'm after, because if it's another Warners balls up then I coulda just got this first up and been done with it.

[Movietone]

Originally Posted by Marcuslaw

Anyone w/Atmos playback ability care to comment on it? I'm dying to hear it but can't watch the film until Friday night. Originally, I had a viewing event/party scheduled for Saturday but some b*tch named Irma decided to preemptively crash it.

The Atmos soundtrack is one of the best i've heard, yet....but if you want a REAL, EXPERT opinion i'd ask, StingingVelvet, if i were you !

[mzupeman]

Originally Posted by Movietone

The Atmos soundtrack is one of the best i've heard, yet....but if you want a REAL, EXPERT opinion i'd ask, StingingVelvet, if i were you !

Look at you, getting those zings in, oh master of wit.

I'm not sure what listening to a movie with headphones has to do with judging visual fidelity. This is a strange hill you're willing to die on, friend.

[Movietone]

Originally Posted by mzupeman

Look at you, getting those zings in, oh master of wit.

I'm not sure what listening to a movie with headphones has to do with judging visual fidelity. This is a strange hill you're willing to die on, friend.

Did i say that it had ! ?

Is that a line from a "movie" ?? ( If not, it ought to be ! )

I can vividly imagine John Wayne, saying that immortal line....

[Shalashaska]

Originally Posted by Movietone

The Atmos soundtrack is one of the best i've heard, yet....but if you want a REAL, EXPERT opinion i'd ask, StingingVelvet, if i were you !

Please stop talking.

[Bmoney003]

best scene for ATMOS is when he is his car in the alley during one of the rain storms...man that is some awesome atmos

but the whole soundtrack is top notch

[jh901]

"ATMOS is amazing"

Nevermind the pre-amp, power amp, or speakers. Oh well.

I'm looking forward to the image on this one. Don't know where to buy it yet, but I'm several weeks from 4K ready anyhow.

[bbwiscfan]

I placed an order first on Amazon; but then I decided to check Target online and while they don't have it in stores I thought I'd try my luck and place an order there as well. This morning the movie is already in transit while the Amazon is out of stock so I cancelled the Amazon order. It says I should have it no later than Monday, September 11 so we will see but this is going far faster than I had thought.

If you can, try Target for those of you still waiting for orders.

[Ebab]

Originally Posted by joenostalgia23

The color grade is definitely different on this disc too btw. [...]

Thanks for the review, very interesting!

Do we have any information at all on who oversaw the new color correction?

[curtw]

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

Amazon just e-mailed me a notice saying it's been delayed. I chatted with one of their reps who said he doesn't know when they're getting replacements and that I can't cancel the order since it's too far along in the shipment process(not sure how that's possible if it's out of stock).

Anyway, at least I got a $10 credit out of it. But this is annoying. If you're not sure you'll have enough in stock, don't advertise it as being delivered by September 5. Especially for Prime Members.

Same story here. 1:00 pm on what is supposed to be delivery day, Amazon e-mail says "there has been a delay." After an hour on the chat and phone, they still couldn't tell me when I would get it. Claim that discs are being sent to customers in the same order that original orders were placed. Mine was placed July 3. Got a one-month extension of Prime to make up for the fail.

Then, at 6:00 pm, a new e-mail saying it's been shipped, but with an arrival date of September 14. Seriously? They're *walking* it from Tennessee to Texas?

At this speed, the "Lost Horizon" UHD might just arrive first.

[ALCOMData]

The U.K. version of Blade Runner in 4K was supposed to have been released on 9/4/2017, as listed here on Blu-ray.com. But it's not out yet. The link to the U.K. version shows the same packaging as the U.S. version, but there's no 4K version on the availability list.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blade-Runner-4K-Blu-ray/dp/B074SGJHCN?SubscriptionId=AKIAIY4YSQJMFDJATNBA&tag =bluraycom-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creative ASIN=B074SGJHCN&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

[curtw]

Originally Posted by bbwiscfan

What the flip happened to Sean Young? Haven't seen her in ages, what rock has she been hiding under, or is that because of her "cray cray" that she's been non-existent?

Check out the indie film "Jug Face." Somebody found a role that was a good fit.