Ghostbusters 4K UHD (1984)

[KenHurd]

I must have a setting wrong on my Samsung UHD player or my TV, but I'm not seeing as much grain as everybody keeps mentioning. I watched the UHDs of Ghostbusters 1 and 2, and for the first Ghostbusters, I compared it to the blu-ray. I noticed that the blu-ray was much brighter and the grain was clearly visible. I still saw grain in the UHD, but it never seemed overabundant. I have my UHD player connected directly to my TV with UHD color turned on, and I have my Oppo 103 running through my receiver and then to the TV in an HDMI input that has UHD color turned off. I did my comparisons with the UHD in the Samsung UHD player, and the Blu-ray in the Oppo. I didn't compare Ghostbusters 2 with its blu-ray.

Also, and I know this isn't the Independence Day thread, but I see some of you guys mentioning that movie as well. I haven't watched the Independence Day UHD all the way through, I just spot checked it (and I'm going to watch the disc in its entirety this afternoon), but one thing that I noticed was that the UHD didn't look nearly as grainy as the Blu-ray. I could see some grain, but nothing like what I saw on the Blu-ray. What caught my attention on the UHD disc was that the colors looked so drastically different from the Blu-ray. The image on the Blu-ray, while looked great in its own right with plenty of detail, had a very desaturated look, and the UHD had nice saturated colors that popped.

I like grainy images; I don't like Blu-rays that use excessive DNR. If UHD made the grain stand out more, I doubt it would bother me. But for some reason, I'm not seeing what you all are seeing. The only thing I can think is that I have some setting off on my player, but I don't have any of the enhancements turned on -- unless there is a setting I'm missing.

[Geoff D]

I wouldn't sweat it, Ken. There's so much up in the air re: UHD calibration and whatnot at the moment that I'm amazed that any two people are having the same experience.

To that end, it's worth taking everything I say with a rather large shovelful of salt.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Rocklandsboy

Well, I still find myself unable to commit to the format. It's not felt right to me since day 1. It's simply too "good" for most of the material that's presented on it. Catalogue titles will struggle - some more than others - to appeal to the demands of UHD viewers, even moreso than BD did. Yes, of course boosted contrast will emphasise grain! Blu-ray continues to strike the perfect balance, for me, between presenting new/old films to maximum effect.

I'm not prepared to sacrifice the experience of watching 100 movies from the 80s for every one movie from 2016.

For stuff that can resolve those extra stops of dynamic range then it'll still be worth a gander e.g. I'd have happily kept ID4 if the compression wasn't so cock-eyed. But it's apparent that in my specific situation re: SDR playback if I get something which has a more restricted range in HDR (either by design or the limits of the original capture) then I really will be better off with the Blu-ray.

Although I don't feel like I'm "sacrificing" anything as I can still watch those regular Blu-rays on my calibrated 100-nit settings, I'll just have to be more discerning with UHD purchases in future and I've still got the best Blu-ray player I've ever had into the deal.

Trouble is there's no way of finding that out beforehand as SDR UHD reviews are non-existent. I might have to keep some sort of cut-off in place like pre-1995 or something, and keep an ear open for user feeback (the dude who mentioned how super bright GB2 looks wasn't wrong).

[KenHurd]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I wouldn't sweat it, Ken. There's so much up in the air re: UHD calibration and whatnot at the moment that I'm amazed that any two people are having the same experience.

To that end, it's worth taking everything I say with a rather large shovelful of salt.

I probably need to check my TV settings again. One of the first things I noticed with UHD was that the HDR takes over the TV's settings. Settings that I had previously turned off, such as Auto Motion Plus, were turned back on when I played a UHD, but remained off when I played a Blu-ray. I was pretty sure I disabled all of the enhancements.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by KenHurd

I probably need to check my TV settings again. One of the first things I noticed with UHD was that the HDR takes over the TV's settings. Settings that I had previously turned off, such as Auto Motion Plus, were turned back on when I played a UHD, but remained off when I played a Blu-ray. I was pretty sure I disabled all of the enhancements.

If you have a Samsung UHDTV, turn off BDWISE.

[Khronikos]

The new standard is crazy so far. Thank god for cheap blurays IMO. No way am I investing in this stuff yet. I just got both of the films on the steelcase for like 10 dollars lol. I really don't care about a little more detail here and there anymore on a 42 inch set.

[KenHurd]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

If you have a Samsung UHDTV, turn off BDWISE.

I do have a Samsung UHDTV, the KS8000, but the BDWISE feature is not supported on this model for some reason. It is grayed out and it won't let me turn it off or on.

[rroeder]

GB2 in UHD looked stunning!, best looking older title I've seen.

I would agree with the comments above about older titles in UHD, some just may not be worth it, especially for those of us with 8 bit SDR displays. I'm still happy to be on board with 4k tho, mostly for some of the newer titles like Star Wars. I'm just not expecting a big bump in picture quality on my old favorites, so like Geoff said will need to keep an eye on those releases before purchasing.

[vincentric]

Got around to comparing the gb1 uhd to the mi4k bd and agree with Geoff regarding the dynamic range, it isn't as robust this time around. The uhd and bd from what I saw on my end contain roughly the same amount of detail in both light and dark areas of the picture. The final fight w/gozer did look more detailed than the bd but not by a great amount. I only have an hdr lite setup though, so ymmv.

The biggest difference I saw with the uhd and bd was with resolution detail. The uhd looked a bit more refined to me in that sense. Faces, various textures, and whatnot looked less smeary to me.

Where I kindly disagree with Geoff again is in regard to the grain compression w/ID4. What am seeing in gb1 looks very similar to id4 - close to medium range shots look good while some of the longer shots veer towards the clumpy side.

Am happy with the GB1 UHD but those with the mi4k bd shouldn't feel left out, that bd holds up very well to the uhd.

[Geoff D]

Cheers vinny. Re: ID4 I seem to be one of a select few who's seeing it with such poor compression it'd make a VCD blush, so while Ghostbuster's encode may not be 100% perfect (nor GB2's for that matter, I spotted a few little anomalies) it's still leagues ahead of the ID4 that I saw.

You're right about the sense of texture on the UHD, it really does make the Mi4K BD look a bit soft and smeary in comparison.

[vincentric]

No worries my man, am not doubting what you see in id4 at all, there might be a problem on my end for all I know. I appreciate your feedback if anything, whether or not I disagree, keep em coming.

Even I must say that the id4 uhd compression has room for improvement. Some of those long shots in particular can be rough to look at indeed. Even though am not seeing as bad as compression that you described, at the same time I don't want to give Fox a pass. This is a (supposedly) premium product at premium price point after all, we should expect nothing but the best. And in that sense, Fox did not deliver and seemingly pulled a lionsgate on us.

[Batman2]

Ghostbusters 4K UHD Blu-ray - YouTube

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by 42041

Curious, why is there so much more grain? Seems like UHD wouldn't inherently increase the visibility of grain -

On the contrary, HDR does inherently increase the visibility of grain.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

One thing I never thought about before with regards to HDR is that the additional contrast can also accentuate the grain, according to this paper.

(explained in 2015 prior to that Cine Alta article) not only grain but also sensor noise

and strobe (flicker).

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The grain/noise challenge brings to mind another problematic artifact exacerbated by HDR, that being strobe, especially seen in fast action sequences shot at 24fps with 180 degree shutter. This is because a high contrast object always strobes more than a low contrast object and as we all know, HDR is all about high contrast. (as an aside, good source material for testing for those having interest and the skills - http://www.dcimovies.com/2014_StEM_Access/ )

Anyway, this strobe, or flicker, if you will, exacerbation concept was inadvertently proven to be true during an HDR display shootout attended by professionals in L.A. several months ago in which the motion interpolation setting in one of the consumer HDR TVs couldn’t be disabled and the notwithstanding the resultant soap opera effect (which everyone disliked), it readily cured the strobing artifact and in that regard, looked superior to the other tested brands which had motion interpolation turned off, as requested.

additionally, on a more advanced level for those compressors who may be reading (but also not acknowledging), PQ HDR (due to its EOTF) produces other challenges to deal with as well….

[CelestialAgent]

Very happy with the UK cover art!

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Very happy with the UK cover art!

Yep, uk peeps who imported well, hmmmm

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

Yep, uk peeps who imported well, hmmmm

the cover art is the least of my concerns

[aerandir92]

I watched both movies this weekend (never watched any of them before actually).
I feel like the film grain was a bit too much on GB1 right at the beginning, but either it got better, or I stopped noticing it that much. It wasn't long before it looked fine, and almost grainless, to me.

On GB2 I didn't really notice film grain except for the small amount that is expected.
I was personally impressed how good these movies looked. Now, I have never seen them on Blu-ray, so I can't compare, but in UHD it looked like it could've been filmed today, if you ignore the obvious 80's look.

[dvdmike]

Wonder if I can get shots of GB yet, would be interested to compare to the Sony download

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by aerandir92

I watched both movies this weekend (never watched any of them before actually).
I feel like the film grain was a bit too much on GB1 right at the beginning, but either it got better, or I stopped noticing it that much. It wasn't long before it looked fine, and almost grainless, to me.

On GB2 I didn't really notice film grain except for the small amount that is expected.
I was personally impressed how good these movies looked. Now, I have never seen them on Blu-ray, so I can't compare, but in UHD it looked like it could've been filmed today, if you ignore the obvious 80's look.

So... how did you like the first Ghostbusters? Good that you saw that before ruining the vibe with the new reboot that looks to be a royal train wreck.