Master and Commander 4K UHD (2003)

[RobertR]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

According to many the original DVD still has the best quality version of the original mix (either the 448 kbps Dolby Digital or the 755 kbps DTS)

There's no doubt it should have been included here

Exactly why I would mux the audio from the DVD into this. This video says that the new Atmos mix even fails to put the footsteps into the overhead speakers, which was the obvious thing to do. It's a ridiculous failure.

Master And Commander 4K UHD Blu-ray Review - YouTube

[WhiskeyGnome]

Originally Posted by RobertR

Yep. Those examples show the ridiculousness of the bass neutering on UHDs.

Honestly, for stuff like this a graph is useless to me, and so is my own setup even with nice Sennheiser headphones.

I'd need a solid 12 inch ported sub to even understand how much is being left off. Sometimes movie soundtracks are too boomy or weirdly flat, but I couldn't tell you anything about it since I just use headphones now.

I wonder about the decisions being made, but I can't even really throw an opinion in because a lot of the complaints about Disney per se just seem like they have more dynamic range now. But this actually seems like it's just cut off for some reason. Why would that be though? What actually is the point in cutting that stuff off?

Please don't tell me it was to save space for the bitrate on picture lol. Because that would be amazingly incompetent and cheap.

[RobertR]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyGnome

I'd need a solid 12 inch ported sub to even understand how much is being left off..... this actually seems like it's just cut off for some reason. Why would that be though? What actually is the point in cutting that stuff off?

Please don't tell me it was to save space for the bitrate on picture lol. Because that would be amazingly incompetent and cheap.

I have a huge IB sub with 8 15" drivers that reaches into the single digits, so I'm very much able to take advantage of discs with infrasonic bass. You're right, I don't see the point in cutting it off. Some might say "they're catering to the soundbar crowd, who can't detect the difference", but why not maintain it for those of us who can take advantage of it? How would that harm those who can't? It's ridiculous and annoying.

[HDMan72]

Mine was just arrived from Amazon. Pristine. Phew

[roustabout]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyGnome

Honestly, for stuff like this a graph is useless to me, and so is my own setup even with nice Sennheiser headphones.

I'd need a solid 12 inch ported sub to even understand how much is being left off. Sometimes movie soundtracks are too boomy or weirdly flat, but I couldn't tell you anything about it since I just use headphones now.

I wonder about the decisions being made, but I can't even really throw an opinion in because a lot of the complaints about Disney per se just seem like they have more dynamic range now. But this actually seems like it's just cut off for some reason. Why would that be though? What actually is the point in cutting that stuff off?

Please don't tell me it was to save space for the bitrate on picture lol. Because that would be amazingly incompetent and cheap.

Would putting a 2 hour 18 minute movie with seven audio tracks and 16 sub tracks on a BD66 be amazingly incompetent and cheap?

[sbjork]

Just to clarify once again, there's not 400 effects shots in Master and Commander -- there's over 700. They originally planned 400, but the shot count grew and at one point it was going to go over 800 before they cut it back down again. But it's still 700+. There are over 100 effects shots in the battle at the beginning and nearly as many in the battle at the end. Much of the Galapagos sequence consists of effects shots, too. It's a significant percentage of the running time. And we're talking about live action and miniature work scanned into a computer at 2K resolution with circa 2002 technology, combined with and sweetened with 2K max digital elements, composited in Inferno circa 2002, and scanned back out to film.

None of these shots are going to look perfectly natural in 4K no matter what they did. They're going to stand out compared to the surrounding footage, full stop. They may well have applied some processing to tamp down noise that was in the original composites, and it took out some of the grain from the IN at the same time. But that's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. It's a bit like those godawful optical transitions in Giant: try to fix them, leave them alone, either way they're going to stick out like a sore thumb. This situation isn't nearly that bad, but there's still no way to make those shots blend in perfectly with the surrounding material -- in fact, they're going to stand out worse in 4K. It is what it is.

That's another issue that I have with overreliance on screen shots in this case: out of context, it's harder to tell if they're effects shots or not. And many of the effects shots aren't obvious as such, too. It's not just the ships. There are background matte paintings that don't call attention to themselves, and some of the fog elements are layered on top. You may be looking at an effects shot and not even realize it.

[Zack83]

Originally Posted by Zack83

Can't even get an estimated shipment date from Amazon. I still just have the "order received" notification.

Just got updated to between August 26th and Spetember 24th. Oof...

[Okiephile]

Originally Posted by roustabout

A new review is up. He is not that impressed.

Master And Commander 4K UHD Blu-ray Review - YouTube

When you have a million dollar home theater it’s easy to not be impressed, I liked him better 5 years ago.

[Vertizontal]

Originally Posted by Zack83

Just got updated to between August 26th and Spetember 24th. Oof...

Just got a similar update: August 26th - Sunday, September 28 (order placed July 20th).

It's a shame, I was really looking forward to this long overdue title but I'm leaning towards canceling now, especially since this is not exactly sounding like a slam dunk "must own" release any way, where the early word here is that we got a significant PQ/AQ upgrade over the ancient BD. Then there's that price...

[RobertR]

Originally Posted by Okiephile

When you have a million dollar home theater it’s easy to not be impressed.

What's the harm in making the audio good enough to be impressive in a million dollar theater? How does that harm those with much less expensive setups? Catering to the lowest common denominator is unjustified and inexcusable.

[PullBackCamera]

Good to hear this wasn't a full 2K D/I back in the day and that at least half the film is now from a brand new 4K scan, with grain intact. UK Standard release ordered.

[sbjork]

Originally Posted by roustabout

A new review is up. He is not that impressed.

Master And Commander 4K UHD Blu-ray Review - YouTube

And... He says "The daytime scenes at the Galapagos could pass for a film shot today, with the amount of resolvable detail on display," all while showing one of the matte shots. 2K matte painting, 2K composite, scanned back out to film, then rescanned at 4K, looking like it was shot today. He also describes what he calls a "handful" of effects shots that don't look quite so good, then describes a series of scenes that he says aren't effects shots that also don't look good, some of which are indeed effects shots. Color me not impressed by him.

It's like anybody who says anything negative is automatically granted credibility, while anybody who says anything positive is treated skeptically.

[Eye Candy]

The 20th Century Studios site offers a link to buy a streaming copy only. It does not link out to Walmart, Target, and Amazon, as it does for other movies for a retail purchase.

As for buying it digital, the site links only to Vudu, Fandango Now, Prime Video, and Microsoft Movies & TV, so it's not currently linking to Apple TV or Movies Anywhere, or Xfinity or Google Play (as is done for other movies).

The Movies Trading outlet here had 2 copies on display. They wanted $55.00 for it.

There were no copies out at Walmart this morning. It's a 3rd party vendor there, so the local clerks know nothing about nothing.

[Okiephile]

Originally Posted by RobertR

What's the harm in making the audio good enough to be impressive in a million dollar theater? How does that harm those with much less expensive setups? Catering to the lowest common denominator is unjustified and inexcusable.

It doesn’t, I just meant he’s gotten a little too big for his britches.

[roustabout]

Originally Posted by sbjork

And... He says "The daytime scenes at the Galapagos could pass for a film shot today, with the amount of resolvable detail on display," all while showing one of the matte shots. 2K matte painting, 2K composite, scanned back out to film, then rescanned at 4K, looking like it was shot today. He also describes what he calls a "handful" of effects shots that don't look quite so good, then describes a series of scenes that he says aren't effects shots that also don't look good, some of which are indeed effects shots. Color me not impressed by him.

It's like anybody who says anything negative is automatically granted credibility, while anybody who says anything positive is treated skeptically.

I think it is like him saying it ranged from DVD to very good 4K and rated it a 7.9 overall for video and an 8.2 for audio. I thought most of the people commenting on the video were more critical than Shane was.

[GoCeltics]

Is this a limited edition? The copy I preordered is USPS delayed in transit. This message, with a package shipped out of Spokane Washington, always means it is lost in the mail. I only live 300 miles as well.😞

[Kinsella5]

Originally Posted by GoCeltics

Is this a limited edition? The copy I preordered is USPS delayed in transit. This message, with a package shipped out of Spokane Washington, always means it is lost in the mail. I only live 300 miles as well.😞

I think all SteelBooks are limited in nature, but I suspect that more will be produced at a later date, much like they did with Tombstone (which can still be a hard one to find) and Kingdom of Heaven most recently. It is a matter of when, but also "if", they decide to make more of Master ad Commander. If they feel they moved enough of the SteelBooks and dont want to produce more, they could always switch a standard case release.

With regards to your order being delayed, I would not worry about it...yet. Check your tracking number on the USPS website later on today or this evening and see if it updates. There is a chance it may have not technically shipped out yet, but just that a label was generated. While not impossible, it is a bit difficult for packages to get lost in the mail, I knew a lot of USPS employees and they said it can happen but very rarely. It just may be delayed for various reasons, or has not technically shipped out yet. I say give it a few more days, if you don't have it by Saturday and you confirm it shipped out, then I would contact the place where you bought it from.

[moviemaker]

Got my shipping notification. September 17

Since I just saw it in the theater I'm happy to wait, and wait... and wait.... and wait.

[jett]

It's crazy how people act like chicken littles. It's clearly a huge visual upgrade over the garbage-tier blu-ray.

[Driver78]

Jerkwads at Amazon shipped my backup copy in a bubble mailer. It's intact from what I can tell but there's a floater