Screenshot Comparisons 4K

[AlexBC]

Andrew,

Thank you very much for your great comparisons!

If you have the means and the time to make comparisons for The Prestige, Push and Sicario. I'd really appreciate it.

Comparing the Prestige on my display (Sony X905 75") I thought the BD was much better. I doesn't have such bright highlights (of course no HDR no SD), but color, contrast and even the perception of detail (due to these mentioned benefits), is so much superior IMO.

For me actually everything is brown and the black crushes too much on The Prestige UHD

[andreasy969]

@AlexBC

Thx and you're welcome. I can do "The Prestige" and "Sicario", but I currently don't intend to buy "Push", unless someone can convince me of it being an underrated little gem (I don't own it on Blu-ray, so buying the UHD won't hurt unless the movie sucks).

I already did at least UHD caps of "The Prestige" btw - just in case you missed it (those still came with some artefacts caused by a madVR setting though ...). The Prestige BD looked sharper on my projector as well, but I think it's only sharpened. The UHD actually has more detail imo. I also very much like the colors of the UHD, even though I've been told that they are not accurate. But if I like what I see, I don't really care about accuracy sometimes.

I've also seen 2 or 3 comparisons/caps of "Sicario" myself already which is why it isn't on the top of my list.

Anyway, the next on my list is "The Martian" (extended release), because it was requested somewhere else, but look out for "The Prestige" and "Sicario" rather sooner than later now.

[Geoff D]

Have you got the first edition of the Martian as well, the non-"noise managed" theatrical version? That would be an excellent comparison across all three main versions (Blu, first 4K, second 4K).

[andreasy969]

No, but I thought about buying it exactly because of that more than once. In this case, I'd really like to at least see some caps myself first though. Or at least someone telling me that it looks more noisy in other places as well (for example outdoor scenes on Mars, which really look rather waxy to me). That one single cap with unkown origin is a little bit risky and I also don't have unlimited amounts of money to spend.

[Geoff D]

I've compared both discs - albeit with my eyes, not caps - and the extended edition 4K has most definitely been noise-reduced, not just in one or two shots but the whole thing. You know I don't joke around when it comes to this stuff.

[andreasy969]

OK, your eyes are good enough for me and that's basically what I wanted to hear (or maybe not ). Guess I'll postpone Martian then ...

[jonam]

Originally Posted by cleeve

...really? The added detail in the UHD is easy to spot.

Sure about that? The BD is brighter, the UHD is darker but both are identical in detail.

Maybe a slight uptick but nothing compared to DVD vs Blu ray.

[AlexBC]

andreasy969,

Thanks for the reply and the attention!

I have the extended version of The Martian and I didn't know about this difference in regards to the TC only edition. Of course, I'd appreciate such comparison. I guess we find out something new every day on these foruns.

As for Push, I haven't seen it since the BD debut, but I remember previously being skeptic, but the movie turned out to be a really nice suprise for me at the time. I'm curious to check it out again on UHD.

[cleeve]

Originally Posted by jonam

Sure about that? The BD is brighter, the UHD is darker but both are identical in detail.

Maybe a slight uptick but nothing compared to DVD vs Blu ray.

Look at all the crops I provided after that post. It's just plain incorrect to say they're identical.

[andreasy969]

The Prestige

Another rather extensive one this time for several reasons, one being that I added a few caps where I thought the UHD looked rather poor, to check/confirm that the BD only looks even more poor in those cases.

I also included my previous caps (hopefully without artefacts this time), but the frames do not match, since I only had the rough timestamps (and didn't bother).

UHD-BD is the UK release, BD is the one coming with that one.

UHD-BD (madVR/SDR/200 nits) left, BD (upscaled) right

Disclaimer:

[Show spoiler]Please note that the UHD-BD shots have been converted from HDR to SDR using special techniques, which drastically compresses the dynamic range of the original image (the color bit depth has been compressed as well). The UHD-BD shots are therefore not an accurate representation of the original HDR image - dynamic range, colors (tone and intensity) and contrast should be taken with a big pinch of salt and the main focus should be on comparing details. Typically, the image will appear too dark, may lack a certain "pop" and may at times also appear "boosted" when compared to the BD shots. The SDR conversion should still give you a good idea of the actual image of the UHD-BD though and one should also be able to at least catch a glimpse of the increased dynamic range. The BD shots have been upscaled for comparison purposes, but other than that should be accurate.

[andreasy969]

Oh, and one more thing reg. #6, because the book page really looks utterly clipped on the UHD with 200 nits ...

That's the same exact same frame with 4000 nits (next to the previous 200 nits cap followed by the previous BD cap):

[Geoff D]

Heh, in case people were wondering where the tealy blues and yellowy whites of the 2001 trailer came from...ladies and gentlemen, I give you Christopher Nolan.

[cleeve]

Yeah, definitely not much of a difference on the Prestige outside of color palette changes. Matches up with my experience watching the film. This was one of the only 4K purchases I ever ended up reselling.

[Pyoko]

Last shot shows a pretty decent difference. Plus less sharpening/halos and finer grain. Still haven't received my US edition after more than a month (thanks Swedish postal service...)

[UpsetSmiley]

Speaking of screenshot comparisons, has anybody been able to access http://screenshotcomparison.com/? The search function isn't working for me and the site overall seems to have a bug problem as of recent.

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

Last shot shows a pretty decent difference.

Yes, the last one is showing the most obvious improvements detail-wise, but there actually are improvements in all caps. IMO maybe even more so than with Justice League.

the lamp and the area around both upper windows (the vertical lines above the left window are almost completely lost on the BD)


trousers of the guy on the right or the top of the table on the right


the pattern of the vest


right collar (again, horizontal lines basically gone on the BD)



But it is a rather soft one indeed.

[Crimsoncleaver]

As I have gotten over buying as many UHD as possible and films coming out sooner on the Apple TV 4K, UHD discs for me are now must own only titles (Dark Knight trilogy - IMAX full frame switching not on streaming etc), or titles I want that AREN'T in 4K on iTunes (tends to be Horror or comedies).

I’d love to see a third screenshot comparison here of streaming, obviously doesn’t account for how motion comes across, but still of interest.

[andreasy969]

Man Of Steel

Excellent disc.

UHD-BD (madVR/SDR/200 nits) left, BD (upscaled) right

Disclaimer:

[Show spoiler]Please note that the UHD-BD shots have been converted from HDR to SDR using special techniques, which drastically compresses the dynamic range of the original image (the color bit depth has been compressed as well). The UHD-BD shots are therefore not an accurate representation of the original HDR image - dynamic range, colors (tone and intensity) and contrast should be taken with a big pinch of salt and the main focus should be on comparing details. Typically, the image will appear too dark, may lack a certain "pop" and may at times also appear "boosted" when compared to the BD shots. The SDR conversion should still give you a good idea of the actual image of the UHD-BD though and one should also be able to at least catch a glimpse of the increased dynamic range. The BD shots have been upscaled for comparison purposes, but other than that should be accurate.

[Geoff D]

Exactly what people have been saying about MoS's UHD all along: it takes the digital mush that's supposed to be "grain" on the BD and actually renders it as grain, it's got a beautifully textured image and the HDR is excellent. Are you doing BvS soon? The compression on that UHD is, IMO, a bit more suspect however.

As for Prestige, something of interest to me is that I can see the same blocky colour artefacting therein as on Blade Runner's UHD, like on Bale's white collar in that last cap, however it's nowhere near as chunky as it is on Blade Runner and simply wasn't an issue in motion. Looks like they've managed to iron out the bugs.

[OutOfBoose]

Either UHD capture is poorly made, or hair detail is destroyed on the shot with the young Clark. Or look at the close-up of Jor-El. Neck is gone.

I'm seriously worried about The Matrix. If the same plonkers, who worked on Nolan's collection and MoS, did the encoding, we're ****ed...