Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk 4K UHD 60p/3D (2016)

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by brainofj72

Man, this movie looks WEIRD. There's no denying the clarity and detail, which are STAGGERING, but I find it hard to even focus on the movie with how unnaturally hyper real the image and motion are.

For the record, I have the Philips player, and it has no problem playing in 4K 60fps HDR, and I have it set to 4:4:4.

What signal (combo of subsampling and bit depth specifically) is it outputting, out of interest? You can check it in the player information window as mentioned.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

Oh my, what a mess!

So you are telling me that if you set 4:2:0, the player refuses to output above 8-bit? LOL

For 4K60 material, si. But like I said, it's there to guard against bandwidth overshoots for people who don't have the full 18 Gb/s HDMI 2.0 bandwidth in their 4K gear, like myself for example. And I've never ever come across a comment of someone losing the menus on the Panny as I have with the Samsung - heck, we've already got someone up in here who loses signal completely when they set the Samsung to anything other than Auto.

[brainofj72]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

What signal (combo of subsampling and bit depth specifically) is it outputting, out of interest? You can check it in the player information window as mentioned.

Attached a shot of what it displays.

[MisterXDTV]

Originally Posted by brainofj72

Attached a shot of what it displays.

Yeah so 4:2:2 12 bit that is within the specs...

Maybe a problem with the setup for the other user?

[Dustin Putman]

WOW.

The 4K UHD of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is, bar none, the best PQ I've seen on a home video format. The 60fps eliminates all signs of motion blur while giving the actors and their surroundings a tangible, lifelike depth that might as well be three dimensional. The HDR was also stunning--the colors popped throughout, while black levels were as inky as can be. Pretty much flawless, and a new reference disc that anyone should pick up.

As for the film itself, I loved it. Had heard a lot of negativity but I was with it every step of the way and it packed a real emotional punch by the end.

Cannot recommend the 4K release enough.

[joenostalgia23]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Uh...but if you set the Philips/Panasonic to 4:2:0 for 4K60 then it will force SDR on the 4K60 HDR signal by default.

With it set to 4:4:4 it will prioritise the signal how it sees fit, and clearly it's busting joe's signal down to SDR 4K60 anyway. The problem with the Philips/Panny chipset is that 12-bit is the default UHD bit depth output, not 10-bit, so if the TV can't accept 12-bit 4K60 at either 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 (both permitted in the HDMI 2.0 spec) then it's going to nuke the HDR and bust the signal down to 8-bit SDR.

Joe, during playback of the disc check the player's information screen (press Options, then go into Operations Menu and select the Playback Information Window) and it will tell you exactly what the video signal is encoded as (top line) and what it's actually outputting (third line).

Thanks for the tip Geoff.

It says the video is 3840x2160/60p with HDR/BT.2020 YCbCr4:2:0/10bit

And HDMI video says 4K/60p with SDR/BT.709

So it did convert the video down. I went through my Philips' settings and it detects my display (LG OLED C6) as only supporting 4:2:0 so maybe it has to do with the TV. It could also be the HDMI or even my receiver (Yamaha RX-V679BL) but even in SDR the colors on this disc look incredible. It's definitely not the player though, hopefully I just need to get new cables, and not a new TV or receiver...

During the Destiny's Child show when the fireworks went up I could've sworn it was HDR even though it's not, the highlights look really nice and the black levels are plenty inky (though black levels always look great on SDR 1080p anyways with these OLEDs). I'm happy that my setup can at least handle the HFR fine, which is what I really bought the disc for.

[Geoff D]

No worries. It's definitely worth double-checking your equipment chain. Do you have the player connected into the AVR which then passes the signal thru to the TV, or have you got the player directly connected to the TV from HDMI 1 and the AVR from HDMI 2?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

Yeah so 4:2:2 12 bit that is within the specs...

Maybe a problem with the setup for the other user?

See? I'm not making it up bro

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Only by setting 4K60 to 4:4:4 will it squirt out an HDR 4K60 signal at either 8-bit 4:4:4 or 12-bit 4:2:2, dependent on what the main subsampling output (under 'Colour Mode') has been set to.

[ncraft]

Just finished watching this movie. Movie was not one of Ang Lee's best. But the transfer is pure eye candy, easily the best transfer I've ever seen. The battle sequences and the halftime show sequence really stood out to me. This really makes me wish I had seen the Hobbit in HFR. I really hope the Hobbit trilogy gets issued in a HFR (I do know that the 4K standard doesn’t support 48fps) version.

I know some people are having issues playing this, even on the Samsung player. I have everything turned to auto in my settings. I also have a AudioQuest HDMI cable that is very premium, although I'm not sure if the HDMI cable would make a difference in the case of frame rate/HDR etc.

[joenostalgia23]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

No worries. It's definitely worth double-checking your equipment chain. Do you have the player connected into the AVR which then passes the signal thru to the TV, or have you got the player directly connected to the TV from HDMI 1 and the AVR from HDMI 2?

UHD > AVR > TV

The Yamaha says it supports 4:4:4 passthrough so I'm thinking it's the cables.

Even without HDR, it's definitely the sharpest, clearest movie I've ever seen. Now is it the most beautiful? Not quite. It looks like real life, but The Revenant looks like a photorealistic painting and remains my favorite 4K disc (maybe tied with Lee's Crouching Tiger because I just love the way film grain looks in 4K). Billy Lynn is an incredible tech demo, but great cinematography has more to do with lighting, framing and color than sharpness and a lack of motion blur.

[brainofj72]

Yep. In technical terms, this is flawless. In aesthetic terms? Yuck!

[HeatEquation]

Originally Posted by ncraft

Just finished watching this movie. Movie was not one of Ang Lee's best. But the transfer is pure eye candy, easily the best transfer I've ever seen. The battle sequences and the halftime show sequence really stood out to me. This really makes me wish I had seen the Hobbit in HFR. I really hope the Hobbit trilogy gets issued in a HFR (I do know that the 4K standard doesn’t support 48fps) version.

I know some people are having issues playing this, even on the Samsung player. I have everything turned to auto in my settings. I also have a AudioQuest HDMI cable that is very premium, although I'm not sure if the HDMI cable would make a difference in the case of frame rate/HDR etc.

Glad to hear you were able to play it on the Samsung player without any issues. I've got a Monoprice premium cable that I've had zero issues with, so I feel confident that this disc will play without any problems.

[icy hot]

Just finished watching the UHD and the motion took a few minutes to get used to and was really distracting for a bit, then I was able to just get with it (maybe my eyes just adjusted to it?) and get into the movie itself. Solid drama and some unusual casting decisions with Diesel, Chris Tucker, and Steve Martin especially that really ended up paying off. Cant say I was that wowed by the HDR, but I dont think my TV really has the proper brightness for HDR to look right anyway. I'll check out the 3D for comparison hopefully tomorrow.

[HeatEquation]

Originally Posted by icy hot

Just finished watching the UHD and the motion took a few minutes to get used to and was really distracting for a bit, then I was able to just get with it (maybe my eyes just adjusted to it?) and get into the movie itself. Solid drama and some unusual casting decisions with Diesel, Chris Tucker, and Steve Martin especially that really ended up paying off. Cant say I was that wowed by the HDR, but I dont think my TV really has the proper brightness for HDR to look right anyway. I'll check out the 3D for comparison hopefully tomorrow.

What tv do you have?

[icy hot]

Originally Posted by HeatEquation

What tv do you have?

LG UH8500. I bought it for the 3D capability more than anything. I realize if I went OLED I wouldnt have this problem, but it was a bit out of the old price range. Other than the HDR and the minor vertical banding inherent with the model I've been really happy with the TV so far.

[AaronY]

Originally Posted by ncraft

Just finished watching this movie. Movie was not one of Ang Lee's best. But the transfer is pure eye candy, easily the best transfer I've ever seen. The battle sequences and the halftime show sequence really stood out to me. This really makes me wish I had seen the Hobbit in HFR. I really hope the Hobbit trilogy gets issued in a HFR (I do know that the 4K standard doesn’t support 48fps) version.

I guess they could convert the Hobbit movies to 60 fps with some kind of version of 3:2 pulldown via repeated frames but purists would likely reject it maybe.

[xxBachelor1981xx]

Just got done watching. It looks Incredible on point with the Revenant, Lucy and Pacific Rim. However the movie it self is just not that good. Average at best in my opinion. The war scenes and half time show were amazing though. Really good Demo disc material and that's about all.

[Adam_ME]

I watched a few minutes of this tonight with the wife and son. I wanted to get their take on it. She thought it looked like a video game. He said he hated it, but he's only 6, so that could be because it was a live action movie with a bunch of soldiers(and no, I didn't show him any violent scenes).

My only exposure to HFR films is The Desolation of Smaug which I saw in HFR 3D in theaters and I was not a fan of that presentation. I felt the same way with Billy Lynn. I guess it's nearly 40 years of watching movies in 24 fps(or 25 for those PAL DVDs I've imported), but I just can't get into this sort of hyper realistic look.

Maybe if enough films are made in this format, I'll adjust to it. And for the novelty alone, it was worth picking up this UHD. But for the time being, I'm a purist who likes 24 fps.

[HeatEquation]

Originally Posted by xxBachelor1981xx

Just got done watching. It looks Incredible on point with the Revenant, Lucy and Pacific Rim. However the movie it self is just not that good. Average at best in my opinion. The war scenes and half time show were amazing though. Really good Demo disc material and that's about all.

I would hope that it's better than Pacific Rim. Not to knock the PQ of that UHD disc, but it's so overrated. The HDR does add a lot to the film, but the detail and crispness is lacking (which is expected, given the fact that it's upconverted from 2K.) Overall, the PQ is very good, but not great. The Revenant and Lucy are vastly superior in that regard (as are X-men Apocalypse and Sully.)

Everything I've read about Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk seems to suggest that it's better in terms of PQ.

[Jpapp25]

I popped the 4K disc into my Samsung UHD player and it started making a high pitched whine (not out of the ordinary). Another issue was HDR wouldn't kick on. I'll have to try it again tomorrow when I have some more time to mess with the tv/receiver/player. Always an adventure with these things.