The Piano 4K UHD (Studio Canal)

[andreasy969]

We can eventually rule out FiM at any rate IMHO.

[barrett75]

looks like criterion has the usual roll-off of the high frequencies with SC holding natural look not being "noisier" as in The Circle Rouge. seems a nice job. that monsterous 12mbs DV layer bothers me so much but i'll buy it anyway.

[cirik]

Actually it looks quite ok for you, HDR10 only guys. Checked disc on my torture settings and I didn't spotted huge compression issues.
Below a few screenshots compared to caps-a-holic ones from Criterion (interesting differences in color saturation i.e. on #6)

https://slow.pics/c/9TWsezTr

And graph:

[andreasy969]

Yeah, looks clearly (clearly as in I see a big enough difference downscaled) better than the Criterion, but I need more confirmations re. the SC being without any issues in HDR10 before I decide on double dipping.

[lgans316]

I am seeing about half a dozen sub 20 Mbps dips. Hope it was due to less demanding frames.

[andreasy969]

The problem with StudioCanal is really that they are very good with leaving the source the f alone (i.e. using no or very little filtering), but then tend to ruin that great mindset with poor compression.

[kmhofmann]

Notwithstanding some Studiocanal issues, that comparison # 8 shows clearly what's wrong with Criterion's UHD encodes... they're either filtered or badly encoded or both.

[MarkGubarenko]

I think it will go down in history that non FiM StudioCanal UHD is better than Criterion UHD. (based solely on caps, haven't seen it in motion).

[mande2013]

Aside from Le Cercle Rouge and the John Carpenter films, StudioCanal's UHDs haven't been all that bad honestly. Breathless, however, does have a compression slip-up in one brief scene towards the end.

Criterion's UHD encodes are all over the map. The Red Shoes and Raging Bull are stellar though, and Le Cercle Rouge does have a much improved encode on the Criterion disc.

[Jorvic]

StudioCanal's Le Cercle Rouge 4K UHD is actually a pretty good release.

[NoFro]

Originally Posted by mande2013

Aside from Le Cercle Rouge and the John Carpenter films, StudioCanal's UHDs haven't been all that bad honestly.

Don't forget the inexcusable macroblocking on Total Recall. Only time I've felt actually insulted by the quality of a 4K.

[barrett75]

Originally Posted by Jorvic

StudioCanal's Le Cercle Rouge 4K UHD is actually a pretty good release.

you mean it except first 5 minutes in the legoland world?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by mande2013

Aside from Le Cercle Rouge and the John Carpenter films, StudioCanal's UHDs haven't been all that bad honestly. Breathless, however, does have a compression slip-up in one brief scene towards the end.

Criterion's UHD encodes are all over the map. The Red Shoes and Raging Bull are stellar though, and Le Cercle Rouge does have a much improved encode on the Criterion disc.

Breathless’ compression is kinda shit too. Even in Dobly it looks very ‘fragile’. And Lock Up and Red Heat also say “hi”, the latter in particular is terrible. The Doors is another that’s a bit crunchy too. SC have this reputation for godawful compression for a reason, with Total Recall the gleaming turd in their crown of incompetence, as said above. Three Days of the Condor has some appalling artefacts too.

Criterion’s UHD compression is vastly betterer than what SC generally put out, but the thing with Criterion is that their authoring house seems to pre-filter everything. You get sturdier compression at the expense of losing a sliver of high frequency informazione. Tough call.

[kmhofmann]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

You get sturdier compression at the expense of losing a sliver of high frequency informazione. Tough call.

Except that I find Pixelogic's encoding not sturdy at all...

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by kmhofmann

Except that I find Pixelogic's encoding not sturdy at all...

If you're gonna zoom in to such extremes then both look like blocky shit. One looks like softer blocky shit, the other looks like sharper blocky shit. Still, be sure to get back to me when Pixelogic ever do something as tragibad as SC's Total Recall.

[Quake1028]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Breathless’ compression is kinda shit too. Even in Dobly it looks very ‘fragile’. And Lock Up and Red Heat also say “hi”, the latter in particular is terrible. The Doors is another that’s a bit crunchy too. SC have this reputation for godawful compression for a reason, with Total Recall the gleaming turd in their crown of incompetence, as said above. Three Days of the Condor has some appalling artefacts too.

Criterion’s UHD compression is vastly betterer than what SC generally put out, but the thing with Criterion is that their authoring house seems to pre-filter everything. You get sturdier compression at the expense of losing a sliver of high frequency informazione. Tough call.

Damn, and here I just bought Breathless also....

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

If you're gonna zoom in to such extremes then both look like blocky shit. One looks like softer blocky shit, the other looks like sharper blocky shit. Still, be sure to get back to me when Pixelogic ever do something as tragibad as SC's Total Recall.

Finally you have got a Stiff Competition.

[movie fan2021]

Hopefully someone will compare the Criterion and the SC for real soon enough

[Dubliner1]

First review...

https://www.avforums.com/reviews/the...-vision.20064/

[andreasy969]

amazon.co.uk just shipped and I was pleasantly surprised it being only £17.21 total now - didn't notice that the price temporarily dropped to £16.67 (with the German VAT that is). Nice.

Guess I should've waited for more thoughts on the compression, but I couldn't resist and hate missing out on slips.