Close Encounters of the Third Kind 4K UHD (1977) (40th Anniversary Edition)

[robgmun]

But that's the thing, every other UHD i play looks amazing, especially Bladerunner

[Geoff D]

Oh man, I see a CE3K 'photos of TV' challenge coming up!! rob, I'm not presuming to tell you what you're seeing, I'm telling you what I'm seeing and this thing is so authentically filmic it's amazing. Gimme a few minutes...

[robgmun]

Thanks. That's all I want so that I know that I'm not going nuts. I just want to see what other people are seeing so I can compare. It could very well be there is a batch of badly pressed uhds

[reanimator]

I know it's not real helpful, but I'm not seeing anything like the images you posted. Hopefully its just some settings you can adjust. Good luck!

[Geoff D]

The wee baby Seamus!!

[Ray_Rogers]

Didn't have a Slipcover with mine. That's fine though. Still keeping the 2007 2-Disc BD release and I have the OST CD with it.
Played this at a friends house on a 4K HDR projector and looked great. Glad this was a BD100.

[Geoff D]

Before I show my photos I do just wanna say a few things regarding the grain: rob's basically picked shot after after shot after shot which has some kind of optical element - the spaceships, natch - so grain will be altered from its original state, becoming coarser with a distinct kind of blue & yellow flecking introduced by the duping. This is normal, and it's still present on the 2007 disc but the lower resolution and the reduced contrast & colour saturation of that presentation tones it way down vs the new UHD. And for certain shots which show a distinct 'halo' of coloured grain, that effect is still present on the 2007 disc to varying degrees, as I will demonstrate. See what you think.

Highlight detail still very much present with the giant spotlight in HDR at my end. Yes, it's still noticeably blown out compared to the 2007 (also included for reference) but that's simply the way they've chosen to grade that shot, conversely if you look at the headlights of Roy's truck at the start of the chapter the UHD reveals the bulbs while the 2007 is just blown out completely.

[Show spoiler]

UHD



2007 BD

Another optical-heavy sequence as the ships fly past Roy, more chunky duped grain. Par for the course. I like the improved colour variation in the running lights on the UHD.

[Show spoiler]

UHD



2007 BD

Mr Smiley face. Looks great to me. Note the banding in the halation around the ship on the 2007 BD but a much more natural roll-off on the UHD.

[Show spoiler]

UHD



2007 BD

The hovering clam shell. My pic looks very similar to yours but that really is just how that scene is. You can see how the blue lighting breaks up into banding on the 2007 but is graduated much better on the UHD. Way more information in the highlights on the UHD.

[Show spoiler]

UHD



2007 BD

The lights in the sky, again more similar than not to your pic but I'm not seeing anything untoward. (Had to lower the exposure to get the lights on the UHD, that's why the background looks so much darker, ditto for the clam shell above)

[Show spoiler]

UHD



2007 BD

[RaphaelJ01]

Some of you guys were discussing the minor tinkering done for some VFX shots (particularly the mothership reveal) in the new 4K release. Well, today here in Brazil some theaters decided to show Close Encounters and I went to see it, and I think it's safe to say what they showed was from the new 4K restoration (although I'm quite sure it was on a regular 2K projector).

Anyway, for those of you who have the previous 2007 release, you will see that at the beginning of Barry's kidnapping scene, when he looks out the window saying "toys!", you can see the shadow of the camera on the window frame, on the right corner of the screen, as the camera pushes in to his face.

I was surprised to notice that this goof was not present today in (what I'm almost sure was) the new 4K restoration. Does anyone here who has the UHD release notice this too? Or was I just too engaged in the moment that my eyes didn't catch this goof (which has always bothered me in multiple viewings)?

In the 2007 BD the shot starts at 00:49:54 (Director's Cut). It's the second push-in shot on Barry, after we see the creepy clouds taking form.

[robgmun]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Before I show my photos I do just wanna say a few things regarding the grain: rob's basically picked shot after after shot after shot which has some kind of optical element - the spaceships, natch - so grain will be altered from its original state, becoming coarser with a distinct kind of blue & yellow flecking introduced by the duping. This is normal, and it's still present on the 2007 disc but the lower resolution and the reduced contrast & colour saturation of that presentation tones it way down vs the new UHD. And for certain shots which show a distinct 'halo' of coloured grain, that effect is still present on the 2007 disc to varying degrees, as I will demonstrate. See what you think.

Thanks for that Geoff, frankly if i was seeing what you're seeing then i would be perfectly happy with the transfer. Your UHD is far smoother and a lot less grain then what i'm getting. You're saying it's similar to mine in some shots but i'm seeing a huge improvement, especially when the ships fly past Roy and Mr Smiley face looks perfect!

So either two things, there's a bad batch of UHD's out there or my TV needs to be re-calibrated. I'd be interested in seeing what others can see who also complain about the grain. especially with the first one and Mr Smiley face.

[StingingVelvet]

I didn't even think this was a super grainy one, honestly. Ghostbusters for example is more obviously grainy on my setup (and I loves it).

[rroeder]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I didn't even think this was a super grainy one, honestly. Ghostbusters for example is more obviously grainy on my setup (and I loves it).

Yeah I agree, this is my favorite classic released so far but I still need to watch Blade Runner this wkd.

Ghostbusters was my first UHD I watched and I honestly didn't like the picture that much. I watched again this past summer and not sure if I have my setup(SDR) dialed in better or I've gotten used to UHD picture, but I thought the grain was not nearly as intrusive.

[jh901]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I didn't even think this was a super grainy one, honestly. Ghostbusters for example is more obviously grainy on my setup (and I loves it).

Were both of these films shot with a similar anamorphic 35mm process?

Blade Runner's brightness comes from neon lights and the like. There aren't really any naturally lit daytime scenes (where grain is most obvious).

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I didn't even think this was a super grainy one, honestly. Ghostbusters for example is more obviously grainy on my setup (and I loves it).

Agreed. Even on my previous settings (which made the grain look very weird on several Sony discs) this didn't look uber grainy at all. Grainy, yes, some sort of unwatchable sandstorm nightmare, no. There are quite a few people over at AVF who've been complaining about it, and to a man they all have OLEDs.

The multitude of opticals doesn't help though, it's not a coincidence that rob picked most of those to illustrate how bad it gets on his TV and the characteristically dupey blue-and-yellow-flecked grain of those shots isn't done any favours by the deeper contrast and the new colour grade which (in comparison to the 2007 Blu) has that slightly cyan-tinged effect that very few studio remasters seem to escape from - although the colour is definitely more nuanced on the 2017 UHD than the new 2017 Blu, that one just looks plain ugly to me for a variety of reasons.

[robgmun]

I was kind of hoping for SplitScreen to come into this thread and let us know if he's seeing what i'm seeing or what Geoff is seeing.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by jh901

Were both of these films shot with a similar anamorphic 35mm process?

Blade Runner's brightness comes from neon lights and the like. There aren't really any naturally lit daytime scenes (where grain is most obvious).

Both were shot anamorphic but Blade Runner used the slower 5247 versus the uber grainy 5294 that Ghostbusters was lensed on, that stock being one of the breed of faster 400T emulsions that debuted in the mid '80s. BR does of course have its own share of grain in 4K as 5247 100T/125T wasn't grainless, far from it, and when pushed one stop like it was on CE3K that will bring up the grain a bit more. The thing about BR's 4K is that there's some sharpening here and there though, which can also make the grain look a touch more apparent. Ghostbusters is grainier than both however.

[tjritter79]

My 2-cents, for what its worth....that and a$1 get you a cup of coffee at Wegmans (yes, I know a cup costs a$1 at Wegmans, demo's the worth of my opinion...), It seems like a calibration problem to me. And I'll add that if a TV is calibrated to a TV channel broadcasted or the source is NOT internal...well, that's trouble right there. Plus what looks good to MOST people usually looks too dark to others. So, the shots that I see where the grain is just too outrageous, I'd start while CEOTTK is playing.....to lower the contrast, black level and sharpness to HALF of what you currently are viewing, then according to your individual taste, begin to raise/lower each one to a desired level. Keeping track of each increment and note how the picture looks each time....eventually, you will get a desirable, viewable picture that doesn't annoy, and TBH the remainder of your programs shouldn't be affected (IF you have an LG DON'T apply the UHD disk player settings to "all inputs", that is fubar #1). Spend close attention to sharpness, I'd say a good 75% of my customers had their sharpness torqued to max, which is fine if you like it like that....but it wreaks havoc with an UHD/HDR setup. This may be fine watching sports and or TV shows on cable/sat, not so good watching movies and with HDR...and I'm sure the populace will agree....sometimes the LOWER the sharpness the better as it tends to "wash-out" adjacent black levels and/or overcompensate the brightness setting which I feel MAY be the prime culprit here. Again there is no RIGHT/WRONG way to set your TV calibration because when you deal with opinions, they are as different as we all are. Use this as a guide to start...not to be intended as gospel.

[Filmmaker]

Go get yours now! I did the second it went live! http://lalalandrecords.com/Site/CloseEncounters.html

[eddievanhalen]

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

Go get yours now! I did the second it went live! http://lalalandrecords.com/Site/CloseEncounters.html

I have some La La Land Record releases and they use to do outstanding releases with great sound, expanded full soundtrack presentation and top notch artwork.
I recently got from them the E.T. 35th Anniversary release and it's the most complete release of the soundtrack up to date. There's only one down side to it: no High Res release so even having this I always end up playing the 20th Anniversary SACD either in stereo or multichannel, it sounds more transparent with higher fidelity and higher dinamics than this new 35th Anniversary release.
The same happens with Close Encounters Of The Third Kind which was released as a hybrid stereo SACD by Audio Fidelity in 2015. It's the original album only on one hybrid SACD remastered to DSD (no PCM transfer and tampering, later converted to DSD for SACD release) that sounds great. Having the SACD edition, 'though it's shorter I'm not buying this new edition.

[s2mikey]

Originally Posted by robgmun

Thanks. That's all I want so that I know that I'm not going nuts. I just want to see what other people are seeing so I can compare. It could very well be there is a batch of badly pressed uhds

Damn. I told myself I wasn’t going to buy the UHD of this film since I’m trying to stay selective on what titles I rebuy in UHD. But the Amazon Lightning deal seemed ok good to pass up so I grabbed it. If those screenshots are accurate.... then sorry but that’s a disaster and sucks.

I’ll find out soon enough. Can always sell it or trade it in but geesh.

[XGEEKEDGERX]

Originally Posted by s2mikey

Damn. I told myself I wasn’t going to buy the UHD of this film since I’m trying to stay selective on what titles I rebuy in UHD. But the Amazon Lightning deal seemed ok good to pass up so I grabbed it. If those screenshots are accurate.... then sorry but that’s a disaster and sucks.

I’ll find out soon enough. Can always sell it or trade it in but geesh.

I'd hardly call it a disaster, in fact i'd say it's the opposite and I might be bucking the trend amongst OLED owners here as I've viewed this on my Panny LED and the C7 back to back. I think it looks rather great through my set up, grain and all.