Are you ready to buy your entire Blu-ray collection all over again?

[JustThatPenguin]

I don't plan on upgrading all my blus to uhd. I am happy enough with blus. But if the movie was mastered at 4k, I see no reason not to double dip.

[cmdrdredd]

Originally Posted by Nightopian

Seems we have a few time travellers here who have been to the future and know the fate of UHD already...or perhaps its denial?

So the belief is that in 10 years time UHD won't have the same amount of titles ported over as Bluray currently has? Do you think it will be abandoned for 4K streaming or there simply won't be people buying them? Or the companies just wont be bothered with it? Are we even at a stage where our internet can cope with 4K streaming and maybe that could persuade people to get their content in disc form?

It will be interesting to see how well it takes off. I'm guessing it will be a slow burn like Bluray was for a few years...however, I think the way they have marketed it is a lot more clever...People go in to buy a new 4K UltraHD TV and seeing that these new discs are called 4K UltraHD, it will make sense to the average consumer to make the purchase. It will also be straight forward to the shop assistant to sell it to them without having to go into detail...

When 1080p Full HD TV's came out they were marketed as that. When Bluray's came out they were just called Bluray with no reference to 1080p Full HD resolution in the name whatsoever. The average Joe Blow didn't have a clue that to get the most out of his new 1080p TV he needed to watch Blurays...Hell, I still hear those same people referring to them as "Bluray DVD's".

It will be interesting to see how well they push 4K discs...they may well take off better than Bluray. People who never made the jump to Bluray may completely bypass it and go straight to the 4K discs.

A few things come to mind. UHD Blu-Ray comes with HDR which is the game changer. Just playing 4k movies on netflix without HDR isn't that much of a jump. Watch some of the UHD stuff that has HDR on Amazon Video and it's incredible. Streaming cannot give me Atmos or DTS:X audio.

Personally I'm going to buy new movies I don't own on UHD and that's it. I won't rebuy everything I had, I didn't do that with DVD even.

[cmdrdredd]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

Maybe 15% of my blus will not benefit from 4k being from a 1080p or below master.
Then add 3d that is not going to cross over at all, then add the 2k masters, then add the UHD HDR regrades of older movies where they will be bought on a case per case basis.
Bluray is the last format for most movies for me.

Do people really want UHD HDR 28 days later?

There are very good processes for taking a 2k master and bringing it over to 4k. It's not as simple to just say "the source is 2k so it gets no benefit". I've seen many movies in 4k with HDR that I also own on Blu-Ray and the quality difference is huge, absolutely huge. The depth of the colors and the specular highlights are incredible. It didn't matter that the master was 2k. Besides, once there is UHD Blu-Ray out there to buy then more studios will have 4k masters for new productions.

[cmdrdredd]

Originally Posted by Dex Robinson

The only time travellers were members of the BDA and they got it wrong.

The people in denial are people who think they'll be getting most of their old collection available on UHD.

Look at the top sticky in this forum about 4K Blu-ray being "confirmed' for late 2015. That thread goes back to 2014. We see links in that thread telling us:

"According to Victor Matsuda, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee, the BDA expects the specs for 4K Blu-ray to be finalized in the first half of 2015, paving the way for commercial availability by the end of the year. " and:

"He added that they expect consumers to be able to buy the first 4K UHD Blu-ray discs in time for Christmas. The expectation is that 4K Blu-ray players will also appear around that time."


Well, they missed Christmas. And, despite those people who want to down play the fact, missing a Christmas season at this point in a format is bad...especially considering that they seemed confident over 15 months ago when they started making promises.

Now, we are days away from 2016. Many of the major studios have told us NOTHING of their UHD BD plans. Players don't even availability or pre-order dates. We know nothing about disc testing from production equipment. Has anybody seen a clip of a production disc being put into a UHD BD player?

Those of us predicting a less than stellar future for UHD BD are taking our cues from the BDA itself who have fallen way short on every promise and prediction that they have made.

Actually the players and disks came to Japan first via Panasonic. There are dates in late February for North America to see the first disk releases. CES will bring the official dates to us and really showcase HDR to the fullest to prove it is a big jump over standard Blu-Ray.

[Adrian Wright]

The entire collection, not at all. I have however sold some of my BD's in anticipation of their UHD incarnations. Totally aware of the fact that some of these will be upscales, but I am sure that the addition of HDR, WCG and Immersive Audio will make the newer versions a worthy upgrade

[Cobolisdead]

I went a little crazy buying and collecting Blu-rays in the past 8 years or so. I would buy a blu-ray rather than redbox it, leading to having this massive collection of films that I haven't ever seen but once maybe twice. I think that this next time with UHD Blu-rays, I will just get my favorites that I know that I will re-watch.

[AgentOrange]

I don't think that will be a possibility anyway, so no. UHD seems like it's set up to fail. I'm sure there will be catalog, even deep catalog, but in even less numbers than there were for blu-ray. Blu-Ray actually amazed me with some of the deep catalog film that came out (and continue to come out), but it is still missing huge swaths of major studio films. I'm sure UHD will be far worse.

I can see myself upgrading where there is a new 4K restoration. I'm willing to do that. There would be a good number of candidates for that - where the blu-ray was "mediocre" and could really gain from a new restoration. Anything from 12 Monkeys to Far and Away (large format!) to Big Lebowski. It just depends on how many films they are actually willing to give new 4K restorations to. The problem with alot of these blu-rays is that they just weren't willing to restore them properly for 2K - are they then going to take these to proper 4K?

Of course I'm sure I will be a sucker and buy Star Wars on UHD, I will buy Die Hard on UHD, 2001 Space Odyssey. There are probably a couple of hundred double dips for me that I would buy if they are available. Otherwise, I don't see myself upgrading en-masse like I did from DVD>blu-ray. There's no point, but like I said even if I was willing I severely doubt the availability of many of these blu-ray titles.

[Cobolisdead]

Originally Posted by Cobolisdead

I went a little crazy buying and collecting Blu-rays in the past 8 years or so. I would buy a blu-ray rather than redbox it, leading to having this massive collection of films that I haven't ever seen but once maybe twice. I think that this next time with UHD Blu-rays, I will just get my favorites that I know that I will re-watch.

I think that these will be the only ones that I will be buying 4K versions of:

LOTR
Harry Potter
V for Vendetta
Star Wars
Star Trek
Hobbit
Marvel Cinematic Universe Films(Ironman, Captain America, Thor, etc)
Disney Animated films(Aladdin, Lion King, etc)
Pixar films
Kung Fu Panda
Dark Knight
Xmen Films
Avatar
Tron Legacy

[shireguy]

Originally Posted by cmdrdredd

Actually the players and disks came to Japan first via Panasonic. There are dates in late February for North America to see the first disk releases. CES will bring the official dates to us and really showcase HDR to the fullest to prove it is a big jump over standard Blu-Ray.

so which mainstream B&M stores will these players and discs be sold at ?

[Jimmy Smith]

Originally Posted by Cobolisdead

I think that these will be the only ones that I will be buying 4K versions of:

LOTR
Harry Potter
V for Vendetta
Star Wars
Star Trek
Hobbit
Marvel Cinematic Universe Films(Ironman, Captain America, Thor, etc)
Disney Animated films(Aladdin, Lion King, etc)
Pixar films
Kung Fu Panda
Dark Knight
Xmen Films
Avatar
Tron Legacy

The only ones of those that are not 2k finishes are the original Star Wars trilogy, the original Star Trek series of movies, and The Dark Knight

[Pizzamorg]

Probably no. It took me years before I could afford to upgrade to Bluray and I only made the decision because the difference between DVD and Bluray is heaven and Earth. I haven't sat down and analysed it myself but I've seen very few reports that suggest 4k is really all that much of a leap, unless you have thousands deep pockets for your upgrade and even then 4k is more rather than better, or so the reports suggest.

Likewise in the UK, there are still plenty of films, as primarily a indie and horror film fan, which are still either coming out on DVD, stuck there or released as very poor Bluray options unless you want to shell out on importing. So if the BD library is so incomplete for my needs already, for what purpose would I have to upgrade?

The only way I can see it happening is if money no longer becomes an issue, or somehow 4k makes BD and DVD obsolete to the degree they release 4k and nothing else, which will never happen.

[richieb1971]

90% of my blu collection will never come out on UHD. Just like 90% of DVD's never came out on Blu.

[Alan A]

I'm not in a hurry to upgrade till I see UHD most of the films I like have a lot of CGI which are done at 2K so they will be up converts, can you imagine watching a Blu-Ray where the CGI was done at 480P (Like Firefly) I have doubts just how good it will look.

[richieb1971]

Not sure why anyone is upgrading if they are already happy with what they have.

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by richieb1971

Not sure why anyone is upgrading if they are already happy with what they have.

just because something is "good enough" doesn't mean you can't want "the best."

[JustThatPenguin]

Originally Posted by spectre08

just because something is "good enough" doesn't mean you can't want "the best."

exactly. I plan on buying an oled 4k in the next year or two anyway. I am sure blus will still look great on it but I might as well use a source that can fully use its potential.

[Race Bannon]

I would never upgrade on a large scale. Just case by case when I'm ready to watch a particular film again.

[RAILERSWIM]

Luckily I live near a couple of Hastings. I'll trade them in their when I pick up UHD copies of movies I already own. Unless I own the 3D version... which I'll just have to bite the bullet and pay for it. Which will be difficult, which might mean waiting a while. It sucks paying for a wedding haha.

[Rorschachian]

If I could choose any 3 things to own on 4K disc, it would be the complete franchises for both Fast & Furious and Star Wars, along with The Crow. Give me these and I wouldn't care if anything else from my current BD collection didn't make it to 4K.

[Nightopian]

Originally Posted by richieb1971

90% of my blu collection will never come out on UHD. Just like 90% of DVD's never came out on Blu.

Just checked out your collection and it's pretty mainstream, nothing out of the ordinary really. From the 10 or so UHD titles I've seen announced so far, you have them on Bluray which means they can be replaced...That's already 2% of your collection and the format isn't even out yet. I think it's a safe bet that more than 10% of your collection will have a 4K release...Considering there are more than 200 3D Blurays on the market and that is a niche market, I think it's a safe bet that at a minimum UHD will see several hundred titles, majority of them being all the popular ones and if that is what your Bluray collection consists of, you're out of luck.