Superman: The Movie 4K UHD (1978)

[Jasper Freddo Frog]

Originally Posted by Bourne1886

Def The Four Lethal Weapon movies. Day one! When they coming out?!

Don't forget about the Goonies. I've been dying for a new transfer.

[thorr]

Originally Posted by Agent Kay

Y'all got any shots of superman in your superman comparison

Now eventually you do plan on having DINOSAURS on your dinosaur tour, right? Hello?

[HunterTech]

For anyone questioning the fact that of the 70mm 6 track mix being encoded in Dolby Digital, I have reason to suspect that anything they have related to the original audio in the vaults isn't exactly in the highest quality by today's standards. Spectrogram images aren't exactly everything, but it gives a good idea of what you're looking at for certain audio files.

Now, here's the original stereo mix that came on the 2011 theatrical BD:

[Show spoiler]

As you can see, there's not a whole lot of information that is present here. Of course, they probably still did their best to make it sound as good as it could, but its apparent that it wasn't exactly what you would call particularly high quality. You could probably even point to AC3 encodes from digital Amazon rips for modern films and say that they're perhaps better, even if they technically would be inferior to a DTS-HD encoded file like this.

Now for the 70mm 6 track mix itself on the UHD:

[Show spoiler]

It looks pretty darn close to the stereo mix, perhaps coming from the same sources even. I have a hunch to suspect that the reason this mix was encoded in Dolby Digital is because they realized there wouldn't be that much information to warrant another DTS-HD track to be made. So they went with what they thought fit best for it so that there would be more room for other, more important aspects of the release.

And lastly the 5.1 mix on the 2011 BD that is based off what they prepped in 2000:

[Show spoiler]

Now that looks much more like a mix you'd see in a modern release, with those frequencies reaching particularly high. Doesn't surprise me at all that this would be what the Atmos mix is based on, since there's far more to work with in terms of data.

People might perhaps tell me that 2001, another recent release, managed to have its original 6 track audio in DTS-HD, so why not here? Though I don't have a copy of it, my guess would be that that mix was either better preserved or was made in better conditions. Then again, the lack of an Atmos mix there means they probably did have the room to throw in two DTS-HD mixes, so who knows.

I'm expecting there to be disputes to this, as this is only purely a visual examination of something we ultimately would need to judge our ears with. Not to mention those who would say that they should've just made it lossless anyway for preservation sake, which I can definitely understand. I hope this helps in any way.

[Scorsese]

Great to see this is much improved over the Blu-ray which I've always felt was a bit rough.

Will be getting this ASAP.

[fighthefutureofhd]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

I'm dying to check this out. Why does 4K have to be so pricey?

UM, You smoking crack or what? Just look at the deals tab and you'll see a ton of 4K UHDs under $20.00. I just bought 4 UHDs for under $60.00. How much cheaper do they have to be? They're not got to sell for $5.00 or less. And I hope they never do. We complain about streaming and digital media taking over and bemoan the eventual end of physical product. But when a physical product is out that we can purchase we complain that it costs too much. Can't have your damn cake and eat it too!!

Originally Posted by Torgon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE7P8y-wpiw

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

FINALLY it looks like the teal is gone! For years I've been discredited for mentioning the fact that the color work on all the new masters in the Anthology box were fubar'ed (I and II theatrical, III and IV) and there were the youtube comparison videos that first brought it up.

This looks incredibly better in mostly subtle but very noticeable ways. All four Supermans have always been made to look very flat on video and it has been very hard to get away from that. The VHS looked bad, the LD looked bad, the DVD looked bad, the BD looked bad etc.

I'm dying to check this out. Why does 4K have to be so pricey? If the lossy 5.1 is indeed the 70mm mix it's very likely they already had it laying around in the digital domain somewhere.
Does it have the opening mono to stereo surround transition? If so that would indicate my long held belief that the 1990 letterboxed LD audio which so far is the best sounding version anywhere is the 70mm mix.


The 2.0 is the Dolby Stereo with little to no surround information. The film was released in three formats: Dolby Stereo, Dolby Stereo 70mm and mono. Each mix was done separately at the mixing stage one at a time. I think it's silly to dump the Dolby Stereo since there's obviously the space for it and the 70mm audio should have been lossless.
And of course nobody cares about poor mono mixes. The mono for this film doesn't seem any different outside of being single channel but I've only heard samples.


Ultimately this is the FIRST and only time a video release looks like the 1978 release print. This looks damn near close to the pristine nonfaded print I saw three years ago.

And after all of these positives you're complaining about the price?

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yes, but we didn't know that X old Blu was boosted to balls without a frame of reference. If SDR is all we've known then the traits of that visual system won't warrant a second glance, but once you get used to HDR these things can become amazingly obvious.

Wait until Warner gets to Superman II (theatrical) on UHD BD - that BD was contrast boosted to extra large balls.

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by fighthefutureofhd

UM, You smoking crack or what? Just look at the deals tab and you'll see a ton of 4K UHDs under $20.00. I just bought 4 UHDs for under $60.00. How much cheaper do they have to be? They're not got to sell for $5.00 or less. And I hope they never do. We complain about streaming and digital media taking over and bemoan the eventual end of physical product. But when a physical product is out that we can purchase we complain that it costs too much. Can't have your damn cake and eat it too!!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE7P8y-wpiw

No boys don't cry? That's a classic.

[Archivy]

Originally Posted by MEB

Everyone look at this section of this scene:

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...2&l=0&i=4&go=1

Look at the radio antenna behind Lois and the items on the shelf. Hell, look at Lois's face.

Awesome upgrade! Can't wait to get my copy.

Mark

Yeah, I was looking at this cap as well. The antenna is a VERY good example. Good catch. Me, I was looking at Clark's hair. You can see comb lines in the UHD whereas with the BD you only see sheen.

[HDM_fan]

Look at the trophies on the back shelf... much better detail & less noise on UHD.

[Archivy]

Originally Posted by HDM_fan

Look at the trophies on the back shelf... much better detail & less noise on UHD.

Agree. This whole frame is a great example of the upgrade from the BD to the UHD. But to be fair, my eyes in this moment of the scene are on Clark, not on the trophy case, so I'm going to focus on Clark's appearance in judging the resolution upgrade.

It is an interesting task, though -- to go through a movie and try to watch portions of the frame that are off center to see what you've been missing every other time you watched the film. It's not something I do, but I'm guessing there are weirdos who do that.

[L32GTPCompG]

Anyone have pics of the discs by chance?

[maverick22]

Think this is too new to go on sale for Black Friday?

[Panama Jack]

Originally Posted by Panama Jack

If anyone who has a U.S. copy is willing to sell their digital copy, please pm me.

<Nevermind>

[eddievanhalen]

I live in Spain and I'm Spanish but I DISLIKE to see all artwork translated into Spanish so I order from Zavvi, and Amazon UK and US and Wowhd.
My nextdoor neighbor already got the Spanish UHD BD which is the same disc everywhere, so I borrowed it from him even if I had my preorder placed on Amazon UK.
I liked what I saw, I liked the discreet 70 mm 5.1 audio track but that wasn't enough to keep my preorder on Amazon, I cancelled my Superman UHD BD.
I think picture is good and so is sound but it's not Close Encounters Of The Third Kind or E.T. Last Thursday I received The Fog UHD BD steelbook from Zavvi and I much enjoyed it on 4K HDR than I enjoyed today the borrowed UHD BD of Superman.
If I want to watch it again I can always borrow my neighbor's Superman UHD BD again anytime, we do it one with each other all the time as we are both extracarefull with our movie discs (and the package), but being flatbroke and thinking Superman UHD BD looks good but not stellar is not a release I'm eager to own.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

I live in Spain and I'm Spanish but I DISLIKE to see all artwork translated into Spanish so I order from Zavvi, and Amazon UK and US and Wowhd.
My nextdoor neighbor already got the Spanish UHD BD which is the same disc everywhere, so I borrowed it from him even if I had my preorder placed on Amazon UK.
I liked what I saw, I liked the discreet 70 mm 5.1 audio track but that wasn't enough to keep my preorder on Amazon, I cancelled my Superman UHD BD.
I think picture is good and so is sound but it's not Close Encounters Of The Third Kind or E.T. Last Thursday I received The Fog UHD BD steelbook from Zavvi and I much enjoyed it on 4K HDR than I enjoyed today the borrowed UHD BD of Superman.
If I want to watch it again I can always borrow my neighbor's Superman UHD BD again anytime, we do it one with each other all the time as we are both extracarefull with our movie discs (and the package), but being flatbroke and thinking Superman UHD BD looks good but not stellar is not a release I'm eager to own.

It's probably as good as the source negatives are going to get outside of WB doing a 12 bit release. It looks like it was just a DV metadata file rather than an enhancement layer.

[Blu Ray McHone]

I’ve loved this movie since I’ve been a kid. Pre-ordered!

[magoosh]

Originally Posted by Panama Jack

Bump!

I might. I'll let you know.

[Theta Sigma]

Anyone else in the UK received the special edition Blu-ray rather than the theatrical? I haven't gone 4k yet but this is a release I had to get. I was under the impression both discs contained the theatrical version sourced from a new restoration, but the accompanying Blu-ray disc is the special edition and doesn't appear to be any different than the previous anthology disc. At this point I can only assume the 4k disc is accurate, but rather miffed that there's no remastered Blu (despite the case saying that both discs contain the theatrical version).

[Geoff D]

There isn't a remastered [theatrical] Blu-ray, the reference to that was removed from the 4K cover blurb and the theatrical disc in the US UHD is the 2011 anthology disc, and I'd bet cash money that that's what we were supposed to receive as well. Eh, I can't says I'm too cut up as I was going to take the theatrical BD out and put the special edition and extended TV cut discs in there anyway