Halloween 4K UHD (1978)

[samlop10]

It’ll likely get re-released internationally using the same new restoration but with a different (and hopefully better) encode.

[DR Herbert West]

I think we'll see at least one more US disc.

[Jorvic]

Must admit that I do like the Shout Factory 4K UHD edition of this. I'm not familiar with every home release of the film and the only other version I own is one of the Blu-rays.

I think I can see some of the issues with compression on the 4K presentation that other posters have pointed too. But the colours are way better than on other versions. Also don't normally comment on the cover (as I'm mainly interested in watching the film), but the SF one is quite splendid.

[Jay Mammoth]

Originally Posted by Jorvic

Must admit that I do like the Shout Factory 4K UHD edition of this. I'm not familiar with every home release of the film and the only other version I own is one of the Blu-rays.

I think I can see some of the issues with compression on the 4K presentation that other posters have pointed too. But the colours are way better than on other versions. Also don't normally comment on the cover (as I'm mainly interested in watching the film), but the SF one is quite splendid.

Yep, looks amazing to me as well.

[bobbyh64]

Hopefully there will be another 4K edition of Halloween released next year for its 45th anniversary, this time with the unfiltered mono.

[Killer Meteor]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

Hopefully there will be another 4K edition of Halloween released next year for its 45th anniversary, this time with the unfiltered mono.

I wonder if one of the UK boutiques will take a shot at it.

[Zillamon51]

Look at how many editions of Halloween already exist. As long as physical media itself exists, even exclusively online as a niche collectors' market, someone will re-issue Halloween.

There will be a 50th Anniversary Edition of Halloween. It is a nexus point across the multiverse.

[KubrickKurasawa]

Exactly every 10 years or so they will release it again.

[HeavyHitter]

He will keep coming home.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by steel_breeze

Yes, II is a great UHD as well... except for that one inexcusable glitch you'll see pages and pages written about, which I don't see at all on my system.

I ordered the first two movies from current Target B2G1.

[Sage00]

Originally Posted by Zillamon51

Look at how many editions of Halloween already exist. As long as physical media itself exists, even exclusively online as a niche collectors' market, someone will re-issue Halloween.

There will be a 50th Anniversary Edition of Halloween. It is a nexus point across the multiverse.

Halloween is one of the few movies I’m okay with buying multiple times. It’s one of my favorites of all time and I watch it at least 3 times a year.

[The80s]

Originally Posted by Donl1282

Is this likely the final physical release for this film since UHD is the last physical media?

What makes you think UHD is the last physical media? With 8K TVs already out can't we assume that in the next 5+ years 8K physical media discs will be a thing?

[Donl1282]

Originally Posted by The80s

What makes you think UHD is the last physical media? With 8K TVs already out can't we assume that in the next 5+ years 8K physical media discs will be a thing?

Multiple people on this site speculated this. Sales figures show a decline in physical media sales where BD sales are much smaller than DVDs and UHD sales are a fraction of BD sales. Many believe 8K format is going to be digital only.

[The80s]

Originally Posted by Donl1282

Multiple people on this site speculated this. Sales figures show a decline in physical media sales where BD sales are much smaller than DVDs and UHD sales are a fraction of BD sales. Many believe 8K format is going to be digital only.

Damn. That's a bummer.

[Telemachus]

If there is another physical media format after UHD it would probably be too expensive to sell with the dwindling consumer base, $60-$100 per movie, prices we are already getting into with UHD deluxe sets, which means it would probably be too expensive to develop. I'm not even sure UHD garners much profit, it probably doesn't. I think they already maxed out Blu Ray tech with all the layers a UHD uses, and even then it's not ideal with how close all that data is packed together, as we all know there are many weird inconsistencies with UHD. Another physical format would probably have to be some type of encrypted data on sticks with the sheer size of films past 4k, but that's just silly when digital exists. Who knows though, doomsayers have been saying every disc based video game console was "the last one" since about 2010 and that hasn't turned out true yet. All I know is I'm enjoying the UHD format, I've seen every format since VHS/Laserdisc, and to me it does feel like this one could be the last one that spins. But when a company like Vinegar Syndrome still puts out VHS tapes of some of their specialty titles, I think buying new disc based movies might always be an option somewhere.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

If there is another physical media format after UHD it would probably be too expensive to sell with the dwindling consumer base, $60-$100 per movie, prices we are already getting into with UHD deluxe sets, which means it would probably be too expensive to develop. I'm not even sure UHD garners much profit, it probably doesn't. I think they already maxed out Blu Ray tech with all the layers a UHD uses, and even then it's not ideal with how close all that data is packed together, as we all know there are many weird inconsistencies with UHD. Another physical format would probably have to be some type of encrypted data on sticks with the sheer size of films past 4k, but that's just silly when digital exists. Who knows though, doomsayers have been saying every disc based video game console was "the last one" since about 2010 and that hasn't turned out true yet. All I know is I'm enjoying the UHD format, I've seen every format since VHS/Laserdisc, and to me it does feel like this one could be the last one that spins. But when a company like Vinegar Syndrome still puts out VHS tapes of some of their specialty titles, I think buying new disc based movies might always be an option somewhere.

I agree with all of that, but the bigger questions with 8K are where's the content and what visual benefits does it actually bring? 4K brought with it HDR but 8K just has the same specs, it's back to being a resolution game and as most people have a smaller screen and/or sit much too far away to get the benefit of 4K or 8K then the resolution means very little. And 2K upscales on 4K get enough stick as it is, 2K on an 8K format is not gonna fly in a marketing sense and we'll only run into the same complaints as now with native 4K masters being upscaled on 8K disc. Actual 8K content will come, mostly on streaming as it was hard enough to get theatrical movies finished in 4K never mind 8K, and as most streamers don't release their stuff on disc (and when they do it's mostly regular BD) then an 8K physical format is going to come up against a serious lack of 8K content, even more so than 4K's struggles for 4K content.

A few old 65mm movies - which themselves don't always have as much 8K-ness as people might think - isn't going to make companies spend the millions and millions of dollarpounds necessary to create an 8K physical format. As you say, 4K UHD being jury rigged on BD tech has stretched that tech to breaking point so 8K might well break it, and if they put it on an encrypted key thingy you might as well just be streaming it anyway in the eyes of the average consumer.

Disc is absolutely gonna keep on chooglin', but yeah: 4K is the last stop on that train. Thankfully it's lasted long enough to reach a point where we're getting remastered re-releases and lots of indie & foreign labels doing stuff we'd never have imagined, so even though it's the last stop we keep on revisiting it.

As for the topic at hand, I agree with whoever said that they're surprised a UK indie hasn't taken it on. But with the 45th anniversary due next year (!) then hopefully someone somewhere can take the new Shout transfer, give it a proper encode and snag the LaserDisc audio too.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

If there is another physical media format after UHD it would probably be too expensive to sell with the dwindling consumer base, $60-$100 per movie, prices we are already getting into with UHD deluxe sets, which means it would probably be too expensive to develop. I'm not even sure UHD garners much profit, it probably doesn't. I think they already maxed out Blu Ray tech with all the layers a UHD uses, and even then it's not ideal with how close all that data is packed together, as we all know there are many weird inconsistencies with UHD. Another physical format would probably have to be some type of encrypted data on sticks with the sheer size of films past 4k, but that's just silly when digital exists. Who knows though, doomsayers have been saying every disc based video game console was "the last one" since about 2010 and that hasn't turned out true yet. All I know is I'm enjoying the UHD format, I've seen every format since VHS/Laserdisc, and to me it does feel like this one could be the last one that spins. But when a company like Vinegar Syndrome still puts out VHS tapes of some of their specialty titles, I think buying new disc based movies might always be an option somewhere.

Yep.

I do think there could be some kind of uber niche hard drive option with 8K movies at some point priced not for the faint of heart, or maybe it's just relegated to something like Kaleidescape which isn't exactly cheap either.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Yep.

I do think there could be some kind of uber niche hard drive option with 8K movies at some point priced not for the faint of heart, or maybe it's just relegated to something like Kaleidescape which isn't exactly cheap either.

Dude, isn't that what Kaleidescape already is, but for 4K?

You may mean individual hard drives with movies on but that's not gonna work IMO. I can definitely see Kaleidescape doing 8K just to keep their nicheness going, with 8K streaming filling in the rest.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Dude, isn't that what Kaleidescape already is, but for 4K?

You may mean individual hard drives with movies on but that's not gonna work IMO. I can definitely see Kaleidescape doing 8K just to keep their nicheness going, with 8K streaming filling in the rest.

Yes, with K.

But I was thinking of other options outside of K. The price is just too much for many. I think there will be more competition for 8K when the time is right...maybe.

Why do you think individual drive options wouldn't work?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Yes, with K.

But I was thinking of other options outside of K. The price is just too much for many. I think there will be more competition for 8K when the time is right...maybe.

Why do you think individual drive options wouldn't work?

It'd just be insanely expensive, far too expensive to actually be worth bothering with from a business point of view. It's not the drives, it's everything else that a standalone format would need: enhanced copy protection (for what that's worth as it usually gets cracked, but without it in place to start with then you can say goodbye to Hollywood letting you have 8K copies of their movies), new playback hardware designed to work with that specific system of copy protection, the usual stuff. This wasn't a problem for previous formats but that's when physical media was worth a damn and it doesn't just spring up overnight either, it took a lot of wrangling over this and that to even bring 4K UHD to market.

So basically such a system would be just as expensive and just as much of a technological black box as K already is...so why bother when K will prolly do it anyway? It's going to be a niche of a niche of a niche of a niche as it is.