Time to Hunt (2020, hits Netflix April 10)

[Naiera]

IMDb

I'm excited.

Does anyone here have an idea whether this could hit Blu-ray later?

[shawnkjr]

Originally Posted by Naiera

IMDb

I'm excited.

Does anyone here have an idea whether this could hit Blu-ray later?

Wasn't this originally slated for theatrical release? Is it going to Netflix in all territories?

[thisgenius]

Originally Posted by Naiera

IMDb

I'm excited.

Does anyone here have an idea whether this could hit Blu-ray later?

Me too. This has been on my highly anticipated list for what seems like ages!

I sure hope it does. Word of mouth has been strong for this since its premiere at the Berlinale.

Originally Posted by shawnkjr

Wasn't this originally slated for theatrical release? Is it going to Netflix in all territories?

Yes, and yes. It was scheduled for a 26th February release but the pandemic delayed it indefinitely and I guess now the makers have decided to make the most of it while they can...

[Naiera]

I hope they got Netflix to pay up some serious money.

[Le Grande Blu]

Pulled from Netflix now, at the request of Korean distributors.

[thisgenius]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Blu

Pulled from Netflix now, at the request of Korean distributors.

A messy lawsuit prompted this decision. They were forced by court to have it pulled.

[vertigop1ayer]

That poster would be cool cover art on, say, a nice 4K Blu-ray. A person can dream can't they?

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Blu

Pulled from Netflix now, at the request of Korean distributors.

Faaaaaark. I was REALLY looking forward to it tomorrow

[mimurph1]

Something must have been worked out, looks like this will release on Netflix tomorrow.

[Naiera]

[Naiera]

The stream was just over 1 Mbps and the movie is 24.000Hz, which means that it "jerks" every 42 seconds when played on an Apple TV 4K that only does 23.976Hz.

No thx

[StanS]

PQ was horrible, especially in darker areas, pixels from hell. But I guess that's because of the coronathing, Netflix lowering the quality since the entire world is watching right now. If that's not the case, Netflix should be ashamed.

But I watched it anyways, wanted to find out if I should get a potential blu-ray release. And I don't think so. It was fine, especially in the first half. But the hunt itself was kinda meh, expected more. Movie was good and well-made (great sound design), but I'm not sure if I want to watch it again.

[Jasonic]

I enjoyed it enough, but definitely could have been something better. I actually thought it was pretty dang great through the hospital scene,

[Show spoiler]as I was getting a bit of a No Country for Old Men vibe, thinking it would go for an ending where all the leads meet a sad demise.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case and it goes downhill after that, particularly with the introduction of the one guy's twin. Looks like there was a decent amount of money put into this, so I'm not too surprised it played it pretty safe in the end. Oh well. PQ aside, I at least liked the look of the film and what they were trying to go for.
I think it's definitely worth a watch though. It's at least an entertaining couple of hours.

[thisgenius]

Bit too long, but otherwise I really enjoyed it! Great visuals and sound, and the action scenes were really well done and well acted. I’d definitely get the bluray if it were released. But yeah, like Naiera said, I noticed the jerks too. I thought it was just me.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by thisgenius

But yeah, like Naiera said, I noticed the jerks too. I thought it was just me.

This happens on every "true" Netflix original film, and some series, although I only know of The Witcher for the latter.

By "true" Netflix Original, I mean the kind that are commissioned by Netflix from the beginning, because those have to be shot in 24.000Hz and not 23.976, the way most content is still filmed.

In the Hunt was, like a lot of Asian content (in my experience), also shot in 24.000Hz, although Netflix wasn't involved from the beginning.

Netflix isn't shy about branding content they didn't originally commission as Netflix Originals, so not all movies branded as such will have the "jerks". One example is Dude (Lucy Hale), which was filmed two years before appearing on Netflix as an "original".

As mentioned, the Apple TV 4(K) only supports 23.976Hz and thus a "jerk" is introduced every 42 seconds. It's not always noticeable because of a lack of movement, but it's there, and there's nothing to do about it until Apple gets a fix done. It took them AGES to support any sort of 24Hz though, so it'll probably be a while.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by StanS

PQ was horrible, especially in darker areas, pixels from hell. But I guess that's because of the coronathing, Netflix lowering the quality since the entire world is watching right now. If that's not the case, Netflix should be ashamed.

Just to note: What Netflix is doing isn't doing anything good for anyone, except themselves. Skype, Microsoft Teams, etc. are/were struggling to keep up with demand because their own servers struggle to keep up, not because the entire internet is struggling under the weight of all the recreational video streaming. The entire interwebs has plenty of capacity, and Netflix has servers with internet service providers all over the world, where their most viewed content is stored, so most of what you're streaming on Netflix might never actually be leaving your own ISP's pipeline.

It also seems like Netflix have lowered bitrates to 25% (or less*) of what they were, rather than lowering bitrates by 25%. Just over 1 Mbps is ridiculous, especially for something like Time to Hunt.

Netflix is benefiting from this, of course. They save money streaming fewer megabits per second and get great publicity from media outlets who have no idea how the internet actually works.


*Time to Hunt has a bitrate of over 6 Mbps for video alone, if you're able to stream it without corona restrictions.

[thisgenius]

Originally Posted by Naiera

This happens on every "true" Netflix original film, and some series, although I only know of The Witcher for the latter.

By "true" Netflix Original, I mean the kind that are commissioned by Netflix from the beginning, because those have to be shot in 24.000Hz and not 23.976, the way most content is still filmed.

In the Hunt was, like a lot of Asian content (in my experience), also shot in 24.000Hz, although Netflix wasn't involved from the beginning.

Netflix isn't shy about branding content they didn't originally commission as Netflix Originals, so not all movies branded as such will have the "jerks". One example is Dude (Lucy Hale), which was filmed two years before appearing on Netflix as an "original".

As mentioned, the Apple TV 4(K) only supports 23.976Hz and thus a "jerk" is introduced every 42 seconds. It's not always noticeable because of a lack of movement, but it's there, and there's nothing to do about it until Apple gets a fix done. It took them AGES to support any sort of 24Hz though, so it'll probably be a while.

This is interesting. I don't use Apple TV; my tv has an inbuilt Netflix app which is what I used to watch this, but those jerks were still visible. This is the first time I've seen them I think, Netflix original or otherwise.

[Naiera]

Your TV displays Netflix content at 59.94Hz and also gets the jerks, in addition to the usual judder.

[darry]

I didn't notice any jerkiness but the blocking in the dark scenes was horrible.

It's a pretty bloody good movie, though. The start is quite boring but it really gets going once the baddie steps in. I didn't like the end. At all. How do you get shot about 20 times and fall into a river and survive? They really didn't know how to end it properly.

[Grewenth]

I had to register just to comment on the bitrate issue since this is the only place I found that was commenting on it.

It most likely has nothing to do with Netflix throttling in EU/around the world. The audio/video bitrate according to the Netflix stats are 1150/448, (accessed by pressing ctrl+shift+alt+d in the Win10 app or browser) which is extremely low. Audio track listed is Atmos but I don't have a device capable of running it so the audio track with the 448 bitrate is probably a regular multichannel one.

A random Korean drama had almost triple the bitrate this film has with way less of it reserved on its stereo audio track.

So, whatever the reason, it does seem to me that the film was released in a low bitrate version intentionally or by accident on Netflix. Since it is essentially the premiere without a theater release I wonder what the filmmakers would think of it being released in such a state. I don't consider myself a A/V snob but the film is essentially unwatchable to me in this state. It almost feels like I'm watching some sort of poor pirated copy from the early 00's.