4K UHDs that look worse than their BD counterparts?

[joenostalgia23]

With the recent controversy over 3:10 To Yuma, I was reminded of the disappointing UHD of Oblivion by Universal last year. Are there any other examples of BDs that ended looking more detailed/colorful than the "upgrade" studios offered?

[HeavyHitter]

The BD of Oblivion is said to be better than the UHD BD.

[Geoff D]

Oblivion: BD is much sharper, but the HDR & WCG smokes the BD. Pick your poison.

Bourne Legacy: improved highlight retention vs the BD but holy hell they've drained the colour away.

First Class: again, improved highlight retention on the UHD but the grain has been filtered off slightly and the skin tones look much too orangey to me.

[jh901]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Oblivion: BD is much sharper, but the HDR & WCG smokes the BD. Pick your poison.

Which "poison" are you and others picking?

If the UHD is worth picking up, then I will. So, if a guest wants to see Oblivion at its best, all things considered, then do you screen the blu or the UHD?

[Nostalgic2001]

Originally Posted by jh901

Which "poison" are you and others picking?

If the UHD is worth picking up, then I will. So, if a guest wants to see Oblivion at its best, all things considered, then do you screen the blu or the UHD?

Both, you let them watch the blu ray first and tell them "alright, now try to remember all that detail you just watched and use your mind to integrate it with this HDR and WCG you're about to watch"

[jh901]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic2001

Both, you let them watch the blu ray first and tell them "alright, now try to remember all that detail you just watched and use your mind to integrate it with this HDR and WCG you're about to watch"

Pick one and only one. Which do you go for?

[Nostalgic2001]

Originally Posted by jh901

Pick one and only one. Which do you go for?

If I had to chose one, I would go with the blu, because I feel can manipuate the brightness, contrast and color to somewhat resemble the UHD, but I cant improve detail. But how much can be attributed to the upscaling by the TV and/or player? A good upscale on a blu ray minimizes the benefits of the UHD counterpart.

[StingingVelvet]

Jupiter Ascending on UHD is way too dark, crushes details and some action scenes are much harder to follow. Does have better color, but BD looks better IMO.

As Geoff said, X-Men First Class removes the natural grain and can look smoothed at times because of it, plus it's much warmer in color tone which makes skin look weird and outdoor scenes look borderline red and dull. This one looks so much worse I might sell it.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is overall improved but does have less grain than the BD, so grain lovers might want to stick with BD.

[wormraper]

The First Bourne movie is the only one that I think is no improvement. WORSE than the BD? haven't found one WORSE yet.

[RJ MacReady]

Originally Posted by wormraper

The First Bourne movie is the only one that I think is no improvement. WORSE than the BD? haven't found one WORSE yet.

Yeah, I think this "worse than the BD" stuff is overblown. I don't have a single UHD in my collection of 50+ that looks worse than the 1080p version, and yes, I do have Oblivion, which looks great with HDR. True, some aren't night and day improvements, but they're still better looking.

[Caesu]

This is a great thread since UHD is a considerable investment compared to the equivalent blu ray disc we would expect the UHD to be that much better not a step back or some things are better and somethings are worse so it all balances out.

No, UHD should be that much better. As in better in every way. Period.

Otherwise, it makes no sense paying 2-3x the cost of the blu ray disc.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by RJ MacReady

Yeah, I think this "worse than the BD" stuff is overblown. I don't have a single UHD in my collection of 50+ that looks worse than the 1080p version, and yes, I do have Oblivion, which looks great with HDR. True, some aren't night and day improvements, but they're still better looking.

Do you own Jupiter Ascending or X-Men First Class? I think those are two where the BD is absolutely better. For many others though it might just be a pick your poison thing, as Geoff said about Oblivion.

[RJ MacReady]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Do you own Jupiter Ascending or X-Men First Class? I think those are two where the BD is absolutely better. For many others though it might just be a pick your poison thing, as Geoff said about Oblivion.

No, I already own Jupiter in 3D and don't like it enough to double dip. I will probably pick up First Class if it ever drops below $20 since I already own the BD. I'm going to pick up 3:10 to Yuma tomorrow so I'll see for myself if it is indeed "worse than the BD."

[Adam_ME]

I've only played them on the Samsung K8500 and not the Sony X800 yet, but I wound up preferring the Blu-rays of The Expendables 3 and Divergent to their UHD counterparts. And Ender's Game was at best a tie.

[Patsfan123]

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

I've only played them on the Samsung K8500 and not the Sony X800 yet, but I wound up preferring the Blu-rays of The Expendables 3 and Divergent to their UHD counterparts. And Ender's Game was at best a tie.

All of those Lionsgate titles were encoded at PC levels. Change your K8500 to display in RGB and keep your black levels at video on the TV. The K8500 with crush the PC levels encoded on the disc to proper video levels.

[PRO-630HD]

Lower your black level on your tv till the letterbox bars are truly black. Expendables 3 especially being a 4K DI shows much more detail. With Divergent do the same, the specular highlights on this title are very impressive. We both know these title were mastered with improper black levels.

[Geoff D]

Expendables 3 is flat-out incorrectly mastered, if anyone prefers that to the BD then they need their eyes checking. Even adjusting the brightness or levels only does so much, the banding in the skies is truly dreadful.

[Patsfan123]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Expendables 3 is flat-out incorrectly mastered, if anyone prefers that to the BD then they need their eyes checking. Even adjusting the brightness or levels only does so much, the banding in the skies is truly dreadful.

The K8500 RGB bug will fix the levels. After comparing to the BD, it looked similar in my eyes. However, the DV encode on Vudu looks the best on my TV.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Patsfan123

The K8500 RGB bug will fix the levels. After comparing to the BD, it looked similar in my eyes. However, the DV encode on Vudu looks the best on my TV.

The levels can be fixed but the underlying image has been mastered much too brightly so essentially it destroys the bit depth. Sure, the banding's still pretty bad on the regular Blu (this is Lionsgate we're talking about after all) so the UHD may not seem to be that bad for banding in comparison, but it's bloody woeful for what UHD should be capable of.

[bbwiscfan]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Expendables 3 is flat-out incorrectly mastered, if anyone prefers that to the BD then they need their eyes checking. Even adjusting the brightness or levels only does so much, the banding in the skies is truly dreadful.

Yeah, I heard that disc was a pure abomination...