Heat 4K UHD (1995)

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

But Auto should select the correct levels unless you’re doing something weird with the levels at the playback source e.g. that darned PC.

Yes, THAT'S my excuse. It's normally supposed to be on Auto. My PC is plugged into HDMI 2. At least HDMI 3 (ARC) has separate picture settings that allow me to keep it on Auto. Just checked my PlayStation to make sure.

ARC on this receiver is kind of crappy. A transformer or capacitor starts buzzing after a while sometimes, another reason on top of the receiver reducing the PC video signal to Limited that I prefer sending the picture to the TV and the sound to the receiver now. But since I barely use the PlayStation and Nintendo anymore I can deal with it for those.

Glad you got Heat sorted but does this mean that the flashing black bars of doom will return for an encore?

I keep checking the same two movies when I'm trying to verify this, because I remember where I posted about them with timed screenshots/text.

One Sings the other Doesn't (Criterion's Varda collection)
1 hr 21 min 33 sec

Dimly, yes. Better than how it was.

Fistful of Dollars UHD
56 min 39 sec
1 hr 7 min 5 sec

No.

I didn't expect to see the flashes with the gradient looking like in that photo. It's only 66, one bar before the reference black of 64, that I can't see. Maybe a limitation of the TV. That I still see the flashing bars in Varda's collection a little bit doesn't surprise me. It's Criterion compression after all.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by McCauley

Finally got my steelbook from Best Buy and this looks great. Maybe a little dim, much like other HDR releases. Watch it in a dark room or turn up your TV's backlight if it really bothers you. It's not like there's any loss of detail from black crush or anything. Am I really watching the same disc people have been complaining about?

Some of the most prolific complainers here haven't even seen it, but youtube and/or other second hand sources told them what to think.

[JPK]

Insert 2c. Looks good to me!

[Tuc0]

How do we get a poll here? I haven't a clue but I sure would like ro see the ratio of like/dislike from THOSE that have seen it. Kind of what we had with Halloween '78. Yes, no?

[Dubliner1]

Originally Posted by McCauley

Finally got my steelbook from Best Buy and this looks great. Maybe a little dim, much like other HDR releases. Watch it in a dark room or turn up your TV's backlight if it really bothers you. It's not like there's any loss of detail from black crush or anything. Am I really watching the same disc people have been complaining about?

...can you be more specific. Which other HDR releases does it look similar to?...

[Ben_C]

Originally Posted by Vilya

You do not appear to own this release and I therefore wonder if you have even seen it. If you haven't and you are bashing it sight unseen that makes your opinion rather worthless. If that's the case, adopting the opinion of someone else is kinda sad, but I have no tears for the willfully ignorant.

Pretty funny really isn’t it. We have someone who’s readily admitted to not owning the disc, yet seems to be spending a lot of time and effort telling us all how terrible it is

[KENTA]

Originally Posted by RipleyLV426

What are thoughts on the 4K from those with projectors? I'm on the fence. I think I'm gonna pop in the blu and compare a few scenes again after watching the 4k.

Looks great on my Epson 9400 via madvr HDR to SDR mapping.
Doesn't look too shabby with the HDR slider turned to 1 either, but no comparison to when you let madvr do the work.

[Nlandeh]

Originally Posted by KENTA

Looks great on my Epson 9400 via madvr HDR to SDR mapping.
Doesn't look too shabby with the HDR slider turned to 1 either, but no comparison to when you let madvr do the work.

I have the same projector. I think it looks great. But just like you I have the HDR slider cranked up to 1 on this one.

[Dasko]

Originally Posted by Nlandeh

I have the same projector. I think it looks great. But just like you I have the HDR slider cranked up to 1 on this one.

Watching on an OLED and I’m cranking the HDR Optimiser on my Panasonic disc player to +8, it really solves the problem and brings Heat in line with the rest of my collection.

I’m sure most players have an equivalent feature so, if you’re finding this release too dim, then give that a try. Once I discovered this I was happy to own this disc (apart from the new ‘slate grey’ colour timing that replaces the blue steel look the film originally had - that really is a tragic loss thanks to Grampa Mann who can’t stop molesting his own films)

[Dasko]

Originally Posted by TheSweetieMan

Anyone dogging this disc has adopted this format for all of the wrong reasons.

BD-66? Who cares. The compression and all around encode is incredible.

Grain is consistently present. Not a single detectable moment of macroblocking, posterization, black crush, or any other sort of visual anomalies that we get with even modern films on this format (The Matrix and IT immediately come to mind) — the much subdued HDR pass aside, I don’t know what else anyone could possibly complain about with this disc.

And even with a virtually non-existent HDR grade, this makes the one dude crying about the lack of Dolby Vision all the more amusing…

Surely an adopter of this format can reasonably expect there to be an HDR grade of their favourite film? It’s plastered on the packaging and there’s nothing in the box.

Given that this is the same lazy transfer they dumped on iTunes years ago (roundly criticised in this forum), you have to wonder if Disney shoved the film in an HDR container, which instantly dimmed the film, with a view to grading it. Then they realised they couldn’t be bothered and were like ‘nah, just send it out like that for now. If we feel like it we can do a grade in a few years and double our cash.’

[BluFan24]

Just finished and I thought it looked pretty good. The only part that looked dark to me was when Hanna goes back to his wife after visiting the murder scene at the beginning of chapter 20. It was just hard to discern much more than the actors themselves. My tv hasn't been professionally calibrated though so maybe Geoff can give an opinion on that particular scene sense he has the same tv. I also messed with the advanced contrast enhancer which I normally have on low. When turned off there was a lot more detail. I'm not sure why I have that set to low as most picture settings I looked at for the Z9D probably had it off. Maybe I thought it helped with blooming. Any thought's from Geoff would be welcomed.

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by Dasko

Surely an adopter of this format can reasonably expect there to be an HDR grade of their favourite film? It’s plastered on the packaging and there’s nothing in the box.

Given that this is the same lazy transfer they dumped on iTunes years ago (roundly criticised in this forum), you have to wonder if Disney shoved the film in an HDR container, which instantly dimmed the film, with a view to grading it. Then they realised they couldn’t be bothered and were like ‘nah, just send it out like that for now. If we feel like it we can do a grade in a few years and double our cash.’

You can also take your face for a shite.

Originally Posted by Dasko

Irrational hostility in the face of reasonable criticisms of this controversial disc really weakens the case of the defenders.

I could do a literal poo on my desk, take a photo of it and post here and it still wouldn't reach the level of excrement posted by Team Rtings here.

[Dasko]

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

You can also take your face for a shite.

Irrational hostility in the face of reasonable criticisms of this controversial disc really weakens the case of the defenders.

[cybersoga]

Got this today and just compared it with itunes streaming. Brightness is the same, but there's much more texture detail in the UHD BD. The itunes stream does look "mushy" in comparison. Very happy with my purchase

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by TheSweetieMan

Watched this for a second time tonight. My thoughts have not changed one iota.

Anyone dogging this disc has adopted this format for all of the wrong reasons.

BD-66? Who cares. The compression and all around encode is incredible.

Grain is consistently present. Not a single detectable moment of macroblocking, posterization, black crush, or any other sort of visual anomalies that we get with even modern films on this format (The Matrix and IT immediately come to mind) — the much subdued HDR pass aside, I don’t know what else anyone could possibly complain about with this disc.

And even with a virtually non-existent HDR grade, this makes the one dude crying about the lack of Dolby Vision all the more amusing. What would be the point? Regardless of the preferred HDR version this is very much an SDR film placed within an HDR container. The dynamic metadata isn’t going to amount for much other than some minor dynamic metadata improvements, that still won’t make the disc noticeably brighter.

Again, to reiterate, I’ve watched this twice on a 65-inch B6 OLED. A 2016 model. This thing is antiquated compared to what’s coming out in 2022, and it still looked incredible on that set. I have all of my entertainment rooms consistently blacked out from morning to night, so I wouldn’t see a brightness or lack thereof issue with this disc regardless.

But hey, that’s something any home theater enthusiast would take into consideration when getting into this hobby. Learn how to optimize your setup and gear.

Anyway, final thoughts are that this post likely won’t convert any doomsayers. But the reality is, this is a more than fine presentation of Heat. And it blows away any prior home release without exception.

Yep, DV would be a help not because it would make the source brighter or more “dynamic” in itself (that’s not how DV works) but because their content-derived metadata would still provide more accurate tone mapping than what some TVs can manage. It’s the great irony of HDR that this kind of SDR in HDR container is one of the trickiest things to tone map properly because that processing is geared up to tame brightness and highlights, not to preserve average luminance and lowlights.

Originally Posted by BluFan24

Just finished and I thought it looked pretty good. The only part that looked dark to me was when Hanna goes back to his wife after visiting the murder scene at the beginning of chapter 20. It was just hard to discern much more than the actors themselves. My tv hasn't been professionally calibrated though so maybe Geoff can give an opinion on that particular scene sense he has the same tv. I also messed with the advanced contrast enhancer which I normally have on low. When turned off there was a lot more detail. I'm not sure why I have that set to low as most picture settings I looked at for the Z9D probably had it off. Maybe I thought it helped with blooming. Any thought's from Geoff would be welcomed.

I’ve already done a review (it’s buried in the thread somewhere, just search for ‘review’ under my username) and mentioned that exact same scene. I never have ACE on though.

[BatmanvJoker]

Originally Posted by BluFan24

Just finished and I thought it looked pretty good. The only part that looked dark to me was when Hanna goes back to his wife after visiting the murder scene at the beginning of chapter 20. It was just hard to discern much more than the actors themselves. My tv hasn't been professionally calibrated though so maybe Geoff can give an opinion on that particular scene sense he has the same tv. I also messed with the advanced contrast enhancer which I normally have on low. When turned off there was a lot more detail. I'm not sure why I have that set to low as most picture settings I looked at for the Z9D probably had it off. Maybe I thought it helped with blooming. Any thought's from Geoff would be welcomed.

First I would check to see what other people can see on that scene with a good setup. Describe it exactly and I'll check tonight because I have ASBL disabled, so it should be a good judge of what you're supposed to see in the scene.

[RipleyLV426]

Originally Posted by KENTA

Looks great on my Epson 9400 via madvr HDR to SDR mapping.
Doesn't look too shabby with the HDR slider turned to 1 either, but no comparison to when you let madvr do the work.

That's great to know! I don't have all this "madvr" that people are talking about though lol. Not sure how to get or use that in conjunction with the projector.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by RipleyLV426

What are thoughts on the 4K from those with projectors? I'm on the fence. I think I'm gonna pop in the blu and compare a few scenes again after watching the 4k.

It looked excellent on my JVC NP5. The frame-by-frame DTM makes a really big difference as does proper overall calibration.

[Darth Marcus]

I watched my copy last night and thought it was beautiful. The HDR was subtle, and it looked wonderfully filmic. Best presentation of the film I've ever seen on home video.

Full disclosure: I watched on my A8H with Dolby Vision Bright mode. Yes, I know that's blasphemous, and yes, I know this doesn't come with a Dolby Vision encode. But Dolby Vision on my TV handles blacks so much better than the standard HDR mode, even on discs without a Dolby Vision encode.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by RipleyLV426

That's great to know! I don't have all this "madvr" that people are talking about though lol. Not sure how to get or use that in conjunction with the projector.

madVR requires a HTPC in this case. AVS has some good guidelines on how to set it up.