First Blood / Rambo: First Blood Part II / Rambo III 4K UHDs (1982-1988)

[Aztek]

Hi!

I read somewhere here that in Rambo First Blood Part 2 the movie freezes, in my case happened when one of the villains is forcing Rambo to talk to the radio, is this problem in all discs? I have an Oppo 4K player I have to skip the chapter in order the movie to continue playing.

Thank you.

[Noremac Mij]

Originally Posted by Aztek

Hi!

I read somewhere here that in Rambo First Blood Part 2 the movie freezes, in my case happened when one of the villains is forcing Rambo to talk to the radio, is this problem in all discs? I have an Oppo 4K player I have to skip the chapter in order the movie to continue playing.

Thank you.

Perfect on One X and 820.

Edit: I have the Lionsgate dics.

[Aztek]

Originally Posted by Noremac Mij

Perfect on One X and 820.

Thank you for the reply, I'm going to have to check it on my xbox.

Thanks again

[Noremac Mij]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

Not sure why. They’re black on my E6 on all three of these discs, albeit with the second movie lowered by two brightness numbers.

People run gamma of 2.2 and then complain of milk. Pros use 2.4.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by TheSweetieMan

I don't think people are correctly reporting what 'elevated blacks' actually means.

I have an OLED, and the letterbox bars on my B6 remain perfectly pitch black. When I referred to the elevated blacks in the UHD for First Blood, I was clearly talking about the fact that during darker scenes in the film, they weren't interested in making the image look 'punchy' or contrast heavy. It's not an issue for me at all.

In fact, by having a set with self-emitting pixel technology, I've never had issues with discs that have elevated blacks. The image doesn't look 'washed out' or anything along those lines, just soft, which I'm sure is the intention, anyway.

Croweyes was clearly saying the black bars themselves are elevated, i.e. above true black. That would be more noticeable on an OLED, because the pixels would be on and displaying 99.9% black or whatever, rather than off. If you disagree with his assessment, ask Croweyes about it. As already said that kind of thing is impossible to judge on an LED, even with local-dimming, so I have no idea.

I agree the new master in general has thin blacks and weak contrast. It's still a homerun compared to the old BD though.

[Bourne1886]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Croweyes was clearly saying the black bars themselves are elevated, i.e. above true black. That would be more noticeable on an OLED, because the pixels would be on and displaying 99.9% black or whatever, rather than off. If you disagree with his assessment, ask Croweyes about it. As already said that kind of thing is impossible to judge on an LED, even with local-dimming, so I have no idea.

I agree the new master in general has thin blacks and weak contrast. It's still a homerun compared to the old BD though.

True but they never can get it just right though! Oh well, like you say it’s a HR compared to the old Blu-ray.

[StingingVelvet]

FYI I put Rambo 2 back in my backup LG player and it looked perfect this time, same as the Sony, so it was just a weird glitch the first time. Probably didn't boot in HDR mode or something.

[Geoff D]

Watched the second movie last night. It's got more of dat "true 4K" sharpness than the grimmer, grittier look of the first film for sure, a lot of it takes place in blazing sunlight and some of those wide shots of the jungle and paddy fields look stunningly detailed. Close-ups look okay, some are a bit soft but Julia Nickson is still one of the most gorgeous creatures ever put on this planet or any other. Nice colour on said jungle greenery, very lush, and while this has the same sort of yellowy-green colour balance as the first film it seems to fit it a bit better.

Once again the black levels are all too often a murky grey BUT it must be said that there's some decent gamma in some of the darker shots this time around, some have a nice amount of density like when Co is discovered in the jungle, it's not as pervasively grey as First Blood was. HDR is fine, as with the first film's UHD it rarely calls attention to itself (MDL of 1000 max/0.0001 min) and maybe even looks a little clipped compared to what we know HDR can do but I'm not knocking it for that at all. You may/may not notice how soft and hazy some of the daylight shots are but please don't adjust your set because that's Jack Cardiff liberally applying the British cinematographer's creed of diffusing the shit out of everything, it creates that lovely halation around light.

I even thought this one had got away with the compression because it was all going swimmingly until the gunboat attacks Rambo on the river, then the encode rapidly goes downhill. The explosons look really bitty and blocky and there's a bit when Rambo emerges from the deck that goes all Lego Vision, as do several other moments in the movie from there on out. Skies, smoke, flames, faces, this encode repeatedly craps itself and what's SO frustrating is that it'll do it for a few frames, then look alright, then turn to blocks for a few more frames. Rinse and repeat.

So, yeah. Forget what you might think about Dolby Vision stealing bits from the HDR10 encodes on these StudioCanal UHDs - I've got the US Lionsgate disc but it has been authored by SC - because these guys simply can't compress 4K HDR for toffee, period. (Though I still think the DV+HDR10 encoding process is exacerbating the poor compression on those discs because they're caring even LESS about what the HDR10 looks like.) In my "expert" opinion they had a problem with darkness, then with grain, then with bright lights and smoke but it really doesn't matter about looking for causes any more because it's sheer dumb luck as to what these encodes end up looking like. There are even moments WITH lots of smoke and haze in Rambo II that look fine while others are just appalling.

Took a few photos because I can't cap the discs directly, and while I know several of you will be rolling your eyes and stating that it looked fine, you can't see anything in the photos, that you don't pause to analyse your movies with your nose to the screen, maybe I've got a faulty disc and blah blah blah, well I don't give a shit. I saw all this stuff in motion, in real time, on my 65" TV from my regular viewing distance and when the movie was finished I went back and snapped a few of the worst bits. StudioCanal = ShitCompression, but then 'twas ever thus.

Get to da blocky choppa!

[Show spoiler]

Which then looks 10x better a couple of frames later (though still isn't great)

[Show spoiler]

Do they do a Lego Rambo set? No need to wonder any more kids, because here it is:

[Show spoiler]

And then literally just a few frames later it's fine:

[Show spoiler]

Look at the tips of the flames, have I switched to a Minecraft video? lolz

[Show spoiler]

[Fat Phil]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

what's SO frustrating is that it'll do it for a few frames, then look alright, then turn to blocks for a few more frames. Rinse and repeat.

This x1000.

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

[Show spoiler]

Yikes!

Troop leader to David Mackenzie. David come in please.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Took a few photos because I can't cap the discs directly, and while I know several of you will be rolling your eyes and stating that it looked fine, you can't see anything in the photos, that you don't pause to analyse your movies with your nose to the screen, maybe I've got a faulty disc and blah blah blah, well I don't give a shit. I saw all this stuff in motion, in real time, on my 65" TV from my regular viewing distance and when the movie was finished I went back and snapped a few of the worst bits. StudioCanal = ShitCompression, but then 'twas ever thus.

I'm just glad I don't (usually) see it. I admire your keen eye, but I don't envy it, if that makes sense.

[Geoff D]

At least my camera sees it as well, so that's something.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

At least my camera sees it as well, so that's something.

Yes, but as you know seeing it in motion in normal viewing conditions is a different thing. I love that you point this stuff out and want StudioCanal to fix it, but I can't lie and saw I saw it in motion. I didn't.

I did on The Fog at least, so I should get a Geoffy's Little Achievers badge for that one.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

[Show spoiler]

That's shocking.

[Jimllfaxit]

A bit off topic but, Can macroblocking be caused by upscaling bluray to 4k by the player also? I have a panny dmp400 4k player and am getting some blocking on upscaled bluray. I don't remember it on my old player (panny dmp500 regular bluray player) which wasn't upscaled. Playing through a non hdr panny tv.

I happened to be near the tv when I had Kill Bill on and noticed these little blocks. Also, solid black areas can be blocky. I can't really notice it from my seating distance but I keep going up really close to the screen now to see if the blocking is there. It's like mental torture, I just have to keep a very close eye on the blockiness even though I don't really want to.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Yes, but as you know seeing it in motion in normal viewing conditions is a different thing. I love that you point this stuff out and want StudioCanal to fix it, but I can't lie and saw I saw it in motion. I didn't.

I did on The Fog at least, so I should get a Geoffy's Little Achievers badge for that one.

The point is that I did see it in motion in normal viewing conditions which I made quite clear in my post, I saw everything that's in those photos and waaaay more besides. What is it Morpheus says when Cmdr Lock tells him no-one believes his shit in Matrix Reloaded? "My beliefs do not require them to."

Originally Posted by Markgway

That's shocking.

That's StudioCanal.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The point is that I did see it in motion in normal viewing conditions which I made quite clear in my post, I saw everything that's in those photos and waaaay more besides. What is it Morpheus says when Cmdr Lock tells him no-one believes his shit in Matrix Reloaded? "My beliefs do not require them to."

You're reading my posts wrong Geoffy. I never doubted you saw it in motion. I'm saying I didn't. I also repeated I'm happy to have you breaking this stuff down, so... not sure why you seem snippy about it.

[Bourne1886]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

At least my camera sees it as well, so that's something.

Bloody SC, they are shite heads! I’m definitely waiting for Sony’s Cliffhanger now. What is wrong with SC?Geoff get a job there.

[Geoff D]

Job? They need competent professionals, not amateur pontificators.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

Not sure why. They’re black on my E6 on all three of these discs, albeit with the second movie lowered by two brightness numbers.

I'm assuming he was joking as he has a CIH front projection set-up (as I do) so black bars
"don't exist"; it's only the scope image of the actual movie being displayed as the screen is the same shape.