Ultraflix picture qualiry?

[4K fanatic]

I bought a Roku 4 because its really the only place for a vast library of uhd movies. Anyone with first hand experience using ultraflix on the roku 4 and a 4K movie? There are a ton but the price seems too goo to be true- Easter Day special 10/$25. Super cheap! Alot of foid titles too. After my experience w/Blu-ray, I'm looking to rent and view once vs buying for 5x tye amount and watching once. Its cheaper to rent once a year for the few times you'll rewatch a movie vs buying. Ive got some from vudu as well (30mbps).

[bunceman]

In my experience I wouldn't waste money on much of the Ultraflix selection because most content is upscaled 1080p and they no longer specify which titles are captured and mastered in 4K.

When I first got my Vizio P series about a year ago Ultraflix labeled their content in three tiers. Platinum (Captured in 4K), Gold (Older catalog titles with 4K scan), and Silver (Upscaled material) but the most annoying part just since the last few months or so they got rid of their tier system with no way to distinguish true 4K material or not.

The only way I can guess which titles are true 4K sources is by the rental price. Some titles are 9.99 and some are 4.99. Ultraflix claim the biggest library of 4K content but that's not really true. For example they recently added all the Friday the 13th films so called 4K rental for 4.99 but I know for a fact not one of those films has underwent a 4K scan or remaster in anyway. The list of catalog titles their claiming to be 4K is staggering.

[Cliff]

Originally Posted by bunceman

In my experience I wouldn't waste money on much of the Ultraflix selection because most content is upscaled 1080p and they no longer specify which titles are captured and mastered in 4K.

When I first got my Vizio P series about a year ago Ultraflix labeled their content in three tiers. Platinum (Captured in 4K), Gold (Older catalog titles with 4K scan), and Silver (Upscaled material) but the most annoying part just since the last few months or so they got rid of their tier system with no way to distinguish true 4K material or not.

The only way I can guess which titles are true 4K sources is by the rental price. Some titles are 9.99 and some are 4.99. Ultraflix claim the biggest library of 4K content but that's not really true. For example they recently added all the Friday the 13th films so called 4K rental for 4.99 but I know for a fact not one of those films has underwent a 4K scan or remaster in anyway. The list of catalog titles their claiming to be 4K is staggering.

Yeah, they have T2 listed and I always laugh because that is a title with a notoriously old 1080p transfer because Cameron still hasn't gotten around to approving a new one.

Plus, my experience is that Ultraflix on the Roku doesn't even have 5.1 audio... so it's waste on MANY levels.

[dvdmike]

We have a thread on this in here somewhere

[cole2kb]

Ultraflix is really disappointing as a service in terms of quality, and their support team does not really seem to give a damn either. They won't be getting any more of my money.

[uther]

Ultraflix has a Flickr page were they show how are better they are then the competitors and I looked at the ones I have BDs of and I was shocked at how bad the 'better' Ultraflix image was. They were only like 720p but it was obvious all the film grain was scrubbed out and EE used.

I have no idea if what they stream looks like that but I gotta wonder about their competence after visiting that page.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by uther

Ultraflix has a Flickr page were they show how are better they are then the competitors and I looked at the ones I have BDs of and I was shocked at how bad the 'better' Ultraflix image was. They were only like 720p but it was obvious all the film grain was scrubbed out and EE used.

I have no idea if what they stream looks like that but I gotta wonder about their competence after visiting that page.

Ultralfix indeed looks quite horrible most of the time as they use a very agressive grain / noise reduction technology. I sent them a mail about this issue and that they were throwing away the chance to be a real alternative to Amazon and Netflix. Somebody who obviously was aware of this practice answered and said that this was a decision they made to save bandwidth.

There is one upside now: Every movie can now be watched for two minutes I believe in order to access its picture quality which is very helpful - after checking out 5 different movies that I was sure had the potential to look quite good because of 4k masters or very recent 2k finishes I had to admit to myself that it was probably a waste of time to check out others as they all looked digitally scrubbed. if somebody is interested to check them out there are several movies on Ultraflix with 4k masters that do not hold up against the Blu-ray versions:

The Godfather
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Forrest Gump
Gladiator

[uther]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Ultralfix indeed looks quite horrible most of the time as they use a very agressive grain / noise reduction technology. I sent them a mail about this issue and that they were throwing away the chance to be a real alternative to Amazon and Netflix. Somebody who obviously was aware of this practice answered and said that this was a decision they made to save bandwidth.

I am surprised that would be admitted since it puts the service's grandiose claims in the bogus category.

[scorpiontail60]

I don't understand why they haven't been sued for false advertising yet. There's a certain expectation of quality when something is advertised as being in 4K; to be delivered in less-than-Blu-ray quality is just straight up lying to the customer. It's not like this is some shitty free video website like YouTube, it's a paid service!

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by uther

I am surprised that would be admitted since it puts the service's grandiose claims in the bogus category.

Well, it is not like they advertised it all over the internet but as everybody can see it anyway why deny it?

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by scorpiontail60

I don't understand why they haven't been sued for false advertising yet. There's a certain expectation of quality when something is advertised as being in 4K; to be delivered in less-than-Blu-ray quality is just straight up lying to the customer. It's not like this is some shitty free video website like YouTube, it's a paid service!

I think you would have a hard time suing as technically speaking their stream has 4k resolution even though most of it is not "real" information if you will. Plus with Ultraflix you get a 2 minutes free preview which immediately shows that something is amiss so they do not exactly trick people into buying - there are options to check things out beforehand.
I for one appreciate the preview option and will check their offerings from time to time, maybe at some point they will switch to acceptable picture quality.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

I think you would have a hard time suing as technically speaking their stream has 4k resolution even though most of it is not "real" information if you will. Plus with Ultraflix you get a 2 minutes free preview which immediately shows that something is amiss so they do not exactly trick people into buying - there are options to check things out beforehand.
I for one appreciate the preview option and will check their offerings from time to time, maybe at some point they will switch to acceptable picture quality.

90% of UHD discs are upscales...

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

90% of UHD discs are upscales...

Yep, better start suing those guys - much higher prices and no free previews

[cole2kb]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

90% of UHD discs are upscales...

There's a big difference between a 1080p upscale with EE and DNR vs a 2K master.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by cole2kb

There's a big difference between a 1080p upscale with EE and DNR vs a 2K master.

Eh tomato....

[Ocho817]

Originally Posted by scorpiontail60

I don't understand why they haven't been sued for false advertising yet. There's a certain expectation of quality when something is advertised as being in 4K; to be delivered in less-than-Blu-ray quality is just straight up lying to the customer. It's not like this is some shitty free video website like YouTube, it's a paid service!

This thread seems like suspect bunch of bashers, there are plenty of reviews including iMagic on avsforums praising the streaming quality of Ultraflix and many youtube reviews. All films are processed by 4k studios into 4k, I believe I have read however that previews may not be in 4k sometimes for whatever reason. Support is also generally very prompt in responding which I have experienced myself.

[cole2kb]

Originally Posted by Ocho817

This thread seems like suspect bunch of bashers, there are plenty of reviews including iMagic on avsforums praising the streaming quality of Ultraflix and many youtube reviews. All films are processed by 4k studios into 4k, I believe I have read however that previews may not be in 4k sometimes for whatever reason. Support is also generally very prompt in responding which I have experienced myself.

I have my own personal experience with Ultraflix as well as with their support team, and do not share your praise whatsoever, unfortunately.

[uther]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Well, it is not like they advertised it all over the internet but as everybody can see it anyway why deny it?

However Ultrafix likes to issue press releases saying:

UltraFlix can stream visually lossless 4K video with uninterrupted viewing at under 4Mbps.

UltraFlix also offers users with 100Mbps connections streaming quality identical to the new Ultra HD Blu-ray specifications

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...300121433.html

Which I find incredulous but I have seen a lot of taking these claims at face value.

Originally Posted by Ocho817

All films are processed by 4k studios into 4k, I believe I have read however that previews may not be in 4k sometimes for whatever reason.

Even Ultrafix itself has stated that many of their content is upscaled from 1080p. As for Ultrafix previews looking poor that is Ultrafix's fault and no one else's and speaks a lot to their competence.

Originally Posted by Ocho817

This thread seems like suspect bunch of bashers, there are plenty of reviews including iMagic on avsforums praising the streaming quality of Ultraflix and many youtube reviews.

Proving what? The reviewers provide zero comparison with BD or even other stream services so people can make up their own mind. If I went by reviews I would of bought the first Patton BD and Predator UHE and found out I paid for crap. Both of which got plenty of rave reviews.

[ray0414]

My only experience with the terminator Genesis was not a good one. Constant freezing forced me to change the Mbps speed. Dark scenes were a super blocky mess from compression artifacting and the audio was 2.1, day bright scenes looked good but that was it. I have ever credits that I'm waiting to use for when they launch hdr. God knows when that'll be.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by uther

Proving what?

Nothing. The referenced iMagic had/has a thread on AVS titled something like Giving Up on Blu-ray because streaming was good enough for him. He was/is supposedly a tech writer for AVS, what a joke, really for AVS.