Is 4K a game changer?

[Geoff D]

Yup. I downloaded the 8GB freebie of Terminator Genisys in 4K from ultraflix and it looked fantastic for what it was, as even though it had some extremely obvious banding the level of detail exceeded what I could see in Blu-ray caps. Having the images be at 2160p to begin with means that even though the severe compression of streaming will throw away a lot of info, there's still enough left over to pip 1080p Blu-ray to the post in some respects and it'll wipe the floor with HD streams.

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yup. I downloaded the 8GB freebie of Terminator Genisys in 4K from ultraflix and it looked fantastic for what it was, as even though it had some extremely obvious banding the level of detail exceeded what I could see in Blu-ray caps. Having the images be at 2160p to begin with means that even though the severe compression of streaming will throw away a lot of info, there's still enough left over to pip 1080p Blu-ray to the post in some respects and it'll wipe the floor with HD streams.

yep. higher starting resolution means that compression artifacts will be smaller and more dispersed across the image, and thus less noticeable. Banding, which is far and away my biggest pet peeve, also manifests in a more varied and detailed gradient, making it less blocky and distracting.

[MisterXDTV]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yup. I downloaded the 8GB freebie of Terminator Genisys in 4K from ultraflix and it looked fantastic for what it was, as even though it had some extremely obvious banding the level of detail exceeded what I could see in Blu-ray caps. Having the images be at 2160p to begin with means that even though the severe compression of streaming will throw away a lot of info, there's still enough left over to pip 1080p Blu-ray to the post in some respects and it'll wipe the floor with HD streams.

I saw this too: great quality for streaming standards, but 9 mbit/s AVC @2160p can't win against 1080p High Bitrate Blu-ray

At the same low bitrate and codec 1080p is better than 2160p. It seems better only because 1080p streaming doesn't have the same bitrate but much lower....

[kristoffer]

I am way more excited for HDR, 10 bit and better colours.

[Pieter V]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yup. I downloaded the 8GB freebie of Terminator Genisys in 4K from ultraflix and it looked fantastic for what it was, as even though it had some extremely obvious banding the level of detail exceeded what I could see in Blu-ray caps. Having the images be at 2160p to begin with means that even though the severe compression of streaming will throw away a lot of info, there's still enough left over to pip 1080p Blu-ray to the post in some respects and it'll wipe the floor with HD streams.

Care about doing a comparison? Hopefully they did create a 4K master as well, to maintain the 3.4K resolution of the Arri Alexa XT. Otherwise you were looking at 4K upscaled images.

If there is a 4K master it will use 2K VFX. All VFX was done at 2K.

I really hope studios kept 4K in minds and created 4K masters for their archives.

[renegadeviking]

Bluray UHD will be nichi, because studios aren't going to do 2k/4k masters to old films unless it was 2k masters as of 2015. Not right away. The 1080p masters to come out for UHD in 2023-2024. I never knew plastic Bluray are worth $30-40 for a single movie when it uses $2 worth of material. $20 is premium for movies these days.

I believe it says 2160p on the 2016 releases

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by renegadeviking

Bluray UHD will be nichi, because studios aren't going to do 2k/4k masters to old films unless it was 2k masters as of 2015. Not right away. The 1080p masters to come out for UHD in 2023-2024. I never knew plastic Bluray are worth $30-40 for a single movie when it uses $2 worth of material. $20 is premium for movies these days.

I believe it says 2160p on the 2016 releases

Niche like bluray? Or Niche like nuon?

[JayEmm]

Originally Posted by Pieter V

Care about doing a comparison? Hopefully they did create a 4K master as well, to maintain the 3.4K resolution of the Arri Alexa XT. Otherwise you were looking at 4K upscaled images.

For what it's worth, 4K in the acquisition and display worlds are very different things. IE - The "3.4K" ALEXA does not produce a genuine 3.4K picture. Closer to about 2.5K is probably fairer. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, just it isn't 4K at all. Some of the other models of ARRI offer 4K "in-camera" but it's an upscale.

Netflix I believe have banned productions from shooting "4K" on it, and as 4K is a requirement for their own shows they've basically banned the cameras.

[Geoff D]

^ The bayer array at work?

[reanimator]

Originally Posted by JayEmm

Netflix I believe have banned productions from shooting "4K" on [Alexa], and as 4K is a requirement for their own shows they've basically banned the cameras.

That is correct.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by reanimator

That is correct.

Can you explain I simple terms what this means?

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yup. I downloaded the 8GB freebie of Terminator Genisys in 4K from ultraflix and it looked fantastic for what it was, as even though it had some extremely obvious banding the level of detail exceeded what I could see in Blu-ray caps. Having the images be at 2160p to begin with means that even though the severe compression of streaming will throw away a lot of info, there's still enough left over to pip 1080p Blu-ray to the post in some respects and it'll wipe the floor with HD streams.

How did you download it instead of stream it?

[Geoff D]

Video downloader extension for my browser. There was zero DRM or anything like that on it either.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Video downloader extension for my browser. There was zero DRM or anything like that on it either.

Can any of the Ultraflix movies be downloaded or was this a 1 time thing?

[C. Anton]

I've read 4K is only good if you have a large screen, and watch from a distance. It's too expensive for me right now anyway, but curious as to what the improvement is from a shorter distance, if any. 5 to 6 feet away, actually. Is it really worth the investment?

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by C. Anton

I've read 4K is only good if you have a large screen, and watch from a distance. It's too expensive for me right now anyway, but curious as to what the improvement is from a shorter distance, if any. 5 to 6 feet away, actually. Is it really worth the investment?

I sit 13 feet from my 65" 4K tv. When playing native 4k content it definitely looks better. Its sharper and cleaner looking too. Playing hdr is even more noticeable with the more solid colors and depth. Hdr can be seen with any size tv at any distance.

[Canada]

On a large screen I believe it would be but any screen less than about 100" you can't even see all the detail that's in 1080p let alone a 3160p image. The thing that will be a big game changer is the higher dynamic range colour.

[Canada]

Originally Posted by kristoffer

I am way more excited for HDR, 10 bit and better colours.

Absolutely!

[C. Anton]

Originally Posted by ray0414

I sit 13 feet from my 65" 4K tv. When playing native 4k content it definitely looks better. Its sharper and cleaner looking too. Playing hdr is even more noticeable with the more solid colors and depth. Hdr can be seen with any size tv at any distance.

I sit a little over 5 feet from a 40" 1080p, because the room is so small, and not sure what HDR is or if my TV has it. It does have a great picture, and I ordered a Samsung BD-H6500 yesterday from Amazon to replace my Sony, which says Upscale Every Disc to Near UHD Quality with UHD Upscaling, but that really won't matter if the TV isn't 4K. Right?

[Alan A]

Interesting article by John C. Dvorak
I think he has a point with the general public, will they even notice or care about HDR?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2496390,00.asp