Lawrence of Arabia 4K UHD (1962)

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

You’re literally in the LAWRENCE OF ARABIA thread.

You can't be referring to "Lawrence of Arabia" since that's the best one in that set. There's many other discs that would fall way under.

[Filmmaker]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

You can't be referring to "Lawrence of Arabia" since that's the best one in that set. There's many other discs that would fall way under.

I don’t have it yet, but from why I’ve read, no one is disparaging the film, which is sheer perfection, but apparently the 4K transfer of it has some drawbacks. Geoff D, if he happens upon this, I’m sure can clarify.

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

I don’t have it yet, but from why I’ve read, no one is disparaging the film, which is sheer perfection, but apparently the 4K transfer of it has some drawbacks. Geoff D, if he happens upon this, I’m sure can clarify.

The original poster of who talked about LofA being a disappointment simply said "The old SDR 4k stream looks miles better."

Personally, that's simply a matter of opinion. But I think the majority would agree the quality from the UHD Blu-ray is superior when directly compared to the streaming version of it.

[Geoff D]

99.9% of people will swoon over Lawrence on UHD, and rightly so. But it doesn’t quite look as good as it could IMO owing to a variety of factors like how badly damaged the negative was, as 10-year-old restoration work that looked seamless in SDR starts to creak a bit in HDR, and it doesn’t have that last scintilla of high frequency detail that I’d expect from 65mm. Old film is old, most certainly, but My Fair Lady is the first UHD of a vintage 65mm show where I truly felt that the grandeur and opulence of large format film had been adequately represented (2001 also suffering from some digitalitis like Lawrence). The colour and HDR are quite lovely on Lawrence though.

[Filmmaker]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

The original poster of who talked about LofA being a disappointment simply said "The old SDR 4k stream looks miles better."

Personally, that's simply a matter of opinion. But I think the majority would agree the quality from the UHD Blu-ray is superior when directly compared to the streaming version of it.

I’m sure that’s true. Nevertheless, I have read from people I consider authoritative that LoA’s 4K transfer falls short of where it should.

EDIT: Ah, there he is.

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

99.9% of people will swoon over Lawrence on UHD, and rightly so. But it doesn’t quite look as good as it could IMO owing to a variety of factors like how badly damaged the negative was, as 10-year-old restoration work that looked seamless in SDR starts to creak a bit in HDR, and it doesn’t have that last scintilla of high frequency detail that I’d expect from 65mm. Old film is old, most certainly, but My Fair Lady is the first UHD of a vintage 65mm show where I truly felt that the grandeur and opulence of large format film had been adequately represented (2001 also suffering from some digitalitis like Lawrence). The colour and HDR are quite lovely on Lawrence though.

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

I’m sure that’s true. Nevertheless, I have read from people I consider authoritative that LoA’s 4K transfer falls short of where it should.

EDIT: Ah, there he is.

Ok, I understand I think you're onto something there. I don't know much about it, but it might be possible that LoA'S restoration may have been older therefore not quite up to today's state of the art practices of what can be done to get the results we would expect today.

[pbarragan]

Saw people posted on here and I got excited that there was a US street date for the single release. Nevermind.

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

99.9% of people will swoon over Lawrence on UHD, and rightly so. But it doesn’t quite look as good as it could IMO owing to a variety of factors like how badly damaged the negative was, as 10-year-old restoration work that looked seamless in SDR starts to creak a bit in HDR, and it doesn’t have that last scintilla of high frequency detail that I’d expect from 65mm. Old film is old, most certainly, but My Fair Lady is the first UHD of a vintage 65mm show where I truly felt that the grandeur and opulence of large format film had been adequately represented (2001 also suffering from some digitalitis like Lawrence). The colour and HDR are quite lovely on Lawrence though.

They should have did like you thought 2 years ago. This is 65mm. They should have put it on 2 discs 1 disc pre intermission 1 after. Then they should have tested the HDR on multiple tv sets, and fine tuned that as well.

I'm happy with the digital release for cheap. If they ever rethink this release and put it on 2 discs after the intermission and adjusts the HDR tone-mapping levels or whatever because it is a little off /too dark (imho) then I'll consider it a quality release. If not digital it is. GGs.

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by KubrickKurasawa

They should have did like you thought 2 years ago. This is 65mm. They should have put it on 2 discs 1 disc pre intermission 1 after. Then they should have tested the HDR on multiple tv sets, and fine tuned that as well.

I'm happy with the digital release for cheap. If they ever rethink this release and put it on 2 discs after the intermission and adjusts the HDR tone-mapping levels or whatever because it is a little off /too dark (imho) then I'll consider it a quality release. If not digital it is. GGs.

Huh? It IS on two discs, separated by intermission. Has a lot of foreign audio tracks and doesn't fill both discs, but the average video bitrate is still a respectable 58 mbps. Without those foreign tracks, it's still the biggest movie in my collection at 99.4 GB.

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

Huh? It IS on two discs, separated by intermission. Has a lot of foreign audio tracks and doesn't fill both discs, but the average video bitrate is still a respectable 58 mbps. Without those foreign tracks, it's still the biggest movie in my collection at 99.4 GB.

Guess it needs 3 66's or 2 bd 100's. That's funny though! Sorry. Guess it needed 4 discs.

[Blu Cider]

For a Sony release the compression is also quite poor at times.

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by KubrickKurasawa

the HDR tone-mapping levels or whatever because it is a little off /too dark (imho)

APL can very greatly depending on how your system is set up. Are you referring to Dolby Vision or HDR-10? Is your TV's Dolby Vision display led or player led? If player led, try HDR-10.

What brand TV and disc player do you have? These factors can vary the way the image looks.

[Jerry2345]

Do we know whether the single 4K release will also include the bonus disc? Because I notice the Indian release is barebones…

I’ve really been dying to see the deleted balcony scene (well, it’s not really a ‘deleted’ scene, more a scene which used to be part of the movie, but which was not reinstated because, as I understand, the director died before he could give his ok…)

I must say, I really HATE the way Sony has been handling the releases of this movie. First, in 2012, there was a regular 2-disc edition, which soon was available for about 10 EUR, and a gift collectors set, with a huge book, a soundtrack cd and an additional third bonus disc (which included the abovementioned balcony scene), which I recall went for approx 100 EUR. Problem was, as I was not interested in the huge book or the soundtrack cd, the only real appeal of the gift collector’s set to me was the balcony scene. And I really consider it ridiculous to pay 90 EUR extra for a 7 min scene (including introduction, so I guess the exact scene is probably quite a bit shorter…). So I went with the regular edition, hoping that one day, a more affordable edition which included the balcony scene would be made available.

Finally, after 8 years of waiting, there finally is again a release of Lawrence of Arabia which includes the balcony scene. Except this time, it’s only available when bought together with five totally unrelated movies, two of which are American sports movies I don’t have the slightest interest in… So I decide to wait for the single release (which is taking forever, really). I actually have not yet switched to 4K, but I’m going to someday, and I’m happy to future proof (if there’s one movie I’d want to have in 4K, it would be Lawrence of Arabia), and that way I would already have the balcony scene in the meantime. And I really cannot bring myself to buy an expensive boxset which contains only a few movies I’m interested in, in a format I can’t play yet, just for a 7 min scene…

And then I see there is a single release in India…. which is totally barebones…

I’m starting to fear that the only way to ever see that scene is to pay for a whole lot of stuff I don’t really want (be it a huge book I wouldn’t know where to put, or movies I’m not interested in, in a format I can’t even play yet…), which really is driving me crazy… It’s getting so far that it’s basically ruining my experience of one of my favourite movies, as I almost can’t think of the movie anymore without getting worked up about this

Apologies for the rant, but I really needed to get that off my chest.

tl;dr: Will the single release of Lawrence of Arabia contain the bonus disc with the balcony scene? If not, I’ll go crazy

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by Jerry2345

Do we know whether the single 4K release will also include the bonus disc? Because I notice the Indian release is barebones…

At one point we have to enjoy what we already have. I already have a really nice Blu-ray release of this movie and like you; I'm waiting for a single release of it on UHD Blu-ray. I never knew anything about that scene in which you're talking about, but now I'm curious.

Like a lot of my discs, I usually only watch them one time and rarely go back to watch see something I already have on disc...though I do every now and then. It usually takes something like a need to see something or a feeling like I'd really like to watch something again. In this case, I spent a lot of money on the last Blu-ray release of this movie and I'm feeling like if I watch it again, I'm sure it would satisfy my craving (at least for a good long while) to see it in the UHD Blu-ray version.

Just like you I have not yet upgraded to 4K (just yet.) My disc players are capable, and they can down convert to regular HD so I can watch a new UHD Blu-ray release on my regular HD display (calibrated Pioneer Kuro Plasma.)

At this point only the Sony 83" A90J OLED will do. I'm getting close to buying it (sometime early next year) and like you; I've been buying a collection of UHD Blu-rays to enjoy today in HD and in 4K when I finally do upgrade. Can't wait.

The first movie in my collection I want to see in UHD Blu-ray is "Suspiria" (1977.)

[biggquis]

Good lawd I just looked at Ebay prices. Gonna watch it this weekend and then sell it to pay for the new set lol

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by biggquis

Good lawd I just looked at Ebay prices. Gonna watch it this weekend and then sell it to pay for the new set lol

Confused. What is it that you are going to try to sell? A Blu-ray edition of Lawrence of Arabia?

Did you get what you were asking?

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

Confused. What is it that you are going to try to sell? A Blu-ray edition of Lawrence of Arabia?

Did you get what you were asking?

I think they are saying they’ll sell the 4K to pay for Columbia Classics Vol. 2.

[biggquis]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

Confused. What is it that you are going to try to sell? A Blu-ray edition of Lawrence of Arabia?

Did you get what you were asking?

Yeah the 4k disc. I didn't ask anywhere near Ebay prices and it went to a member. I was gonna watch the movie but didn't want to do that and then sell to someone, so they got it untouched by me. I'll get a digital copy sooner or later

[Jipilo]

Is this going to be released as a standalone 4k or am I going to have to sell a kidney to buy it on eBay?

[useless watcher]

Originally Posted by Jipilo

Is this going to be released as a standalone 4k or am I going to have to sell a kidney to buy it on eBay?

Next year is the 60th anniversary. I would be surprised if they let it pass without issuing a standalone.