Lawrence of Arabia 4K UHD (1962)

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by Rathbone

I just finished the first disc of Lawrence and honestly I am not overwhelmed by it. This seems to be the old 4k restoration from 2012. The whole movie has a quite digital look.

For a movie shot on 65mm this is quite noisy and I don't mean grainy. The noise in the skies and deserts looks rather digital than analog. Further I am seeing constant ringing around objects and people. And when it comes to detail I would expect much more refined faces and costumes from a 65mm source. Most of the detail looks rather smooth.

Don't get me wrong: It's not bad at all but it's definitely far away from being reference material.

Lawrence looks rather underwhelming to me on the caps as well and the worst of the bunch. And except for the poor compresssion, one of the web rip caps posted in the heatmap thread looks clearly better.

[Ramble Tamble-TAN]

Originally Posted by Rathbone

I just finished the first disc of Lawrence and honestly I am not overwhelmed by it. This seems to be the old 4k restoration from 2012. The whole movie has a quite digital look.

For a movie shot on 65mm this is quite noisy and I don't mean grainy. The noise in the skies and deserts looks rather digital than analog. Further I am seeing constant ringing around objects and people. And when it comes to detail I would expect much more refined faces and costumes from a 65mm source. Most of the detail looks rather smooth.

Don't get me wrong: It's not bad at all but it's definitely far away from being reference material.

Agree about the old transfer, but the "ringing" on Lawrence might be true to its source. There's some good discussion about it here (of all places ).

[Rathbone]

Originally Posted by Ramble Tamble-TAN

Agree about the old transfer, but the "ringing" on Lawrence might be true to its source. There's some good discussion about it here (of all places ).

Yes, I know that ringing can be part of the source material but usually this happens in rather early color films due to the stock and photochemical process. Lawrence is from 1962 and 65mm, there should be no or minimal ringing. The ringing here reminds me of regular edge enhancement. Some desert shots (i.e. around 20:15 min. where Lawrence is riding thru the desert on the camel) look like people are acting in front of a rear projection screen (like cut out cardboard figures). I have a 120" PJ screen, it's quite obvious on this size. On my 55" OLED it's barely noticable though.

[lgans316]

Glad that the pixel peeping fun has begun.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by bradnoyes

Beautiful disc(s). Kind of a slog, though.

Thank god it's not just me. Found it hard going, I have to say. And it's not becuz long films hur hur as I literally watched Titanic the night before.

[invisiblekid]

Anyone compared this to the Sony Unlimited UHD release?

[Vangeli]

This looks like the older 4K SDR stream in terms of grain but the contrast and color and compression are a noticeable improvement.

[bradnoyes]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Thank god it's not just me. Found it hard going, I have to say. And it's not becuz long films hur hur as I literally watched Titanic the night before.

On more than one occasion I found myself thinking of this:

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by bradnoyes

Beautiful disc(s). Kind of a slog, though.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Thank god it's not just me. Found it hard going, I have to say. And it's not becuz long films hur hur as I literally watched Titanic the night before.

Originally Posted by bradnoyes

On more than one occasion I found myself thinking of this:

[Show spoiler]

[dannyboy104]

Originally Posted by Vangeli

This looks like the older 4K SDR stream in terms of grain but the contrast and color and compression are a noticeable improvement.

Yes, agree it is the same 2012 transfer with an HDR pass...I thought the Atmos audio was upgrade also. There are certain language issues which wouldn't be given the green light in today's world, but overall it is probably my favourite movie of all time. I will house it in my 2012 box-set, which has all the extras and the soundtrack CD. Interesting what Grover Crisp and Chris Cookson talked about with the 4K in 2012 as part of the extras.

David

[Bn43]

Since it's a 2012 scan, is Bridge on the River Kwai still the best David Lean scan?

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Looking at the caps by Pyoko here, it looks pretty damn good to my eyes. It's not 100% perfect, as nothing is, and while the 2012 restoration is beautiful, a newer one could be better due to newer technology. Still, I don't see the need to complain about it when it looks as good as it does in those caps.

I'm only speculating, but given the restoration effort that took place for this movie, I'm bet it's fine. However, a new master from the scan might have been more optimal. It almost looks like the same master used for the BD was used for the UHD BD but with the HDR pass looking at how the framing appears to be the same. Contrast this with Universal and Jaws, they used the 2012 restoration (wetgate scan), but clearly created a new 4K master for the UHD BD with stellar and improved results relative to what was done for the BD. They didn't recycle the same master. Of course, the 2012 master for Lawrence was done with far better care relative to the 2012 Jaws master. With all of that said, I'm sure this disc looks absolutely great. Looking forward to it as some point.

[punisher]

I know it's streaming but for 7.99 you can own the UHD on VUDU. Yeah I want the disc set and I am a physical media persion but this was the best 7.99 I have spent in a long time. Only watched the first 45 minutes on my LG E8 and it is awesome. Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, need I say more. I was glued to my tv, too bad I have to run now. The sound on my built in sound bar...terriffic, you surround set up guys are going to love it for sure. Until it gets a separate release..ya gotta check this out for a couple of bucks.

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Thank god it's not just me. Found it hard going, I have to say. And it's not becuz long films hur hur as I literally watched Titanic the night before.

Blimey Geoff, LoA is just so far ahead of Titanic its not even funny. The only good thing about Titanic is the end!

I did find all the excitement about LoA a little amusing though. I know its not a film for everyone but its status seems to make people want it despite the fact they may not actually like the film that much...or have even watched it before .

The Criterion threads are usually the place for this sort of thing mind. People don't usually admit the truth there mind...

[jh901]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

Blimey Geoff, LoA is just so far ahead of Titanic its not even funny. The only good thing about Titanic is the end!

I've yet to find a rationale to suffer Titanic and I'm not expecting to find one.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by punisher

I know it's streaming but for 7.99 you can own the UHD on VUDU. Yeah I want the disc set and I am a physical media persion but this was the best 7.99 I have spent in a long time. Only watched the first 45 minutes on my LG E8 and it is awesome. Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, need I say more. I was glued to my tv, too bad I have to run now. The sound on my built in sound bar...terriffic, you surround set up guys are going to love it for sure. Until it gets a separate release..ya gotta check this out for a couple of bucks.

You don't own it on Digital. You're only leasing it.

Lossy Atmos

MEL Dolby Vision. The disc is supposed to be 12 bit FEL Dolby Vision.

Lower bitrate by a lot.

Yeah, I'll stick with the 4k discs thanks.

[Bn43]

I like every single one of James Cameron's feature films. The early ones he didn't have much control over don't count.

[jh901]

Originally Posted by Bn43

I like every single one of James Cameron's feature films. The early ones he didn't have much control over don't count.

His finest film, bar none, is The Terminator. Been downhill since.

Back to the thread topic. I'm looking forward to throwing this masterpiece up onto ST100 tonight! Hoping the HDR work serves the 2012 restoration well.

[Bostonyte]

Originally Posted by jh901

His finest film, bar none, is The Terminator. Been downhill since.

Back to the thread topic. I'm looking forward to throwing this masterpiece up onto ST100 tonight! Hoping the HDR work serves the 2012 restoration well.

Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies...what a plunge!

P.S. I enjoyed Titanic also.

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

Lawrence looks rather underwhelming to me on the caps

And it does so in motion as well. From a pure detail/texture point of view Lawrence looks rather disappointing to me: too soft and even processed. The thing is, I don't really like Lawrence as a movie, but was at least expecting some 4K-eye-candy here - 2 discs and all - but it's just disappointing. By no means bad, but disappointing as in should've looked better (and the web rip cap, piss poor compression aside, shows the problem IMHO).