Flow 4K UHD (Curzon)

[Jack Priest]

Mine only came with three cards (no Secretary Bird or Cat, the foil one), are you not meant to get the full set of five?

[ghostsofjoy]

Originally Posted by Jack Priest

Mine only came with three cards (no Secretary Bird or Cat, the foil one), are you not meant to get the full set of five?

Per the specs:

Three trading cards (of five possible designs)

[Jack Priest]

Originally Posted by ghostsofjoy

Per the specs:

Three trading cards (of five possible designs)

That's really odd. If they're not going to include the full set of five, they should include only one. Three of five is just annoying.

[MifuneFan]

Buy the set multiple times to catch 'em all!

[PondaBaba]

lol I just opened mine to find the three cards, don’t pay attention to tat specs so was not expecting them but they’re super cute and fun. I’d rather we got trading cards that have some personality in them like these for all LE releases rather than useless lobby/postcard things

[Show spoiler]I got dog, capybara and lemur

[fkid]

I'm not sure what happened here, but despite the excellent 7.1 surround audio, healthy grain and excellent level of detail, the Curzon 4K SDR grade/encode is far too dark, almost as if it was QC'd at the wrong gamma level or incorrectly tonemapped to SDR from an HDR master. I was able to bring back a ton of detail by forcing gamma of 1.9 on my LG C2, so the data is there, but that further indicates this may have been unintentional. Very curious to see how the Criterion disc turns out, but I doubt it will have this same issue.

If you are on the fence, I suggest waiting for Criterion, unless you can get the CG Entertainment ITA release, as they did an excellent job with their HDR grade *[although ironically, they probably raised black level a touch too far in the other direction]. If your Curzon copy is on the way, consider lowering your gamma temporarily via your player or display settings, if you find the image too dark.

The comparison below is meant to be viewed in HDR mode on an HDR display.

Flow - 2024 - PQ - CG ITA UHD Blu-ray (HDR) vs. Curzon GBR UHD Blu-ray (SDR) [25]

UPDATE:

Some folks have suggested they didn't notice any issue when viewing Curzon's 4K SDR disc, which I suspect was possibly their display was calibrated with raised blacks/lower gamma or had turned on tonemapping or similar feature on their BD player, but to each their own. As I stated before, the image data on Curzon's 4K video is there (i.e. not true black crush), they just either made an error with the gamma levels in final export or something else like level range.

For anyone unsatisfied with my original HDR set, here are two more examples in SDR of Curzon UHD BD vs. ITA regular HD BD: A and B. Remember, the director confirmed the cat is meant to be dark gray, not black. Having said all that, this is not the end of the world, because it will look great with a simple temporary tweak for 99% of consumers.

What remains true and I stand by my opinion, the ITA HDR grade is superb and arguably an improvement for this specific title, especially if you look at any scene with clouds, sun reflections, or complex lighting. The colours also seem more nuanced and expand range.

[BiggusDickus]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Buy the set multiple times to catch 'em all!

Takes me back to school in the early 80's and my Figurine Panini sticker album days ... bit pricier if doing it with 4k releases tho! Got my 4k yesterday, but will open it at the weekend when i watch it ...

[fkid]

Originally Posted by Jack Priest

That's really odd. If they're not going to include the full set of five, they should include only one. Three of five is just annoying.

To be fair, this may be aimed at the children in the household to have and compare/trade with their friends.

[88mph]

Originally Posted by fkid

I'm not sure what happened here, but despite the excellent 7.1 surround audio, healthy grain and excellent level of detail, the Curzon 4K SDR grade/encode is far too dark, almost as if it was QC'd at the wrong gamma level or incorrectly tonemapped to SDR from an HDR master. I was able to bring back a ton of detail by forcing gamma of 1.9 on my LG C2, so the data is there, but that further indicates this may have been unintentional. Very curious to see how the Criterion disc turns out, but I doubt it will have this same issue, as CG didn't have this issue on their regular SDR HD Blu-ray either.

If you are on the fence, I suggest waiting for Criterion, unless you can get the CG Entertainment ITA release, as they did an excellent job with their HDR grade *[although ironically, they probably raised black level a touch too far in the other direction]. If your Curzon copy is on the way, consider lowering your gamma temporarily via your player or display settings, if you find the image too dark.

The comparison below is meant to be viewed in HDR mode on an HDR display.

Flow - 2024 - PQ - CG ITA UHD Blu-ray (HDR) vs. Curzon GBR UHD Blu-ray (SDR) [25]

Yes i agree. But actually quite like some of the darkness/contrast on the Curzon because the IT does look a bit raised.

However the weirdness of the Curzon is apparent looking at any sky shot. The clouds have pretty much disappeared. It does indeed look like viewing HDR on an SDR screen without any tone mapping.

[TooOldToDieYoung]

Originally Posted by 88mph

Yes i agree. But actually quite like some of the darkness/contrast on the Curzon because the IT does look a bit raised.

However the weirdness of the Curzon is apparent looking at any sky shot. The clouds have pretty much disappeared. It does indeed look like viewing HDR on an SDR screen without any tone mapping.

For what's it worth, I saw it at the cinema and it didn't look this contrasty but much more like the Italian release.

[emailking]

Originally Posted by maverick22

Thanks for the additional info - feel better about my decision.

I actually received mine yesterday. The packaging is beautiful - lovely set! Just wish it had HDR. I assume it will still look wonderful! Haven’t popped it in yet to confirm. So many other discs I’m behind on

I'm confused, I thought this one does have HDR?

[maverick22]

Originally Posted by emailking

I'm confused, I thought this one does have HDR?

From what I understand, Curzon does not have HDR, and the Criterion release will not either.

Apparently the only one with HDR will be the Italian release.

[emailking]

Gotcha I'm getting all the releases confused I guess.

[WelshCollector]

I watched the Blu-ray last night (Curzon) and it looks stunning.

I don't currently have a 4K player so can't comment on that, but would be interested if anyone has compared the two, especially the cloud scenes, for future reference.

Very nicely packaged with cute extras like stickers and art cards (I got Dog, Capabara and Lemur).

A truly remarkable film. Visually it reminded me more of video games than cinema, especially The Last Guardian (not a criticism, as the best video games often look better than badly handled CGI films).

[Hedrox]

The French BD is much closer to the Italian 4K, in terms of contrast and shadow detail, so I think Curzon botched it. BTW, lovely HDR grade by CG Entertainment, you wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't native without prior knowledge.

[HDR Required] Flow (2024) : 4K Ultra HD vs Blu-ray Comparison - YouTube

[Sky_Captain]

Yeah, I watched the Italian UHD earlier and it's gorgeous.

Might even have gotten the feels, having cats of my own.

[EinCB128]

Is Amazon Italy the easiest way to buy the Italian version?

Thank you.

[aladdin123]

If you're more of a purist, let's hope that Criterion can deliver a SDR version that doesn't have issues.

[fkid]

Originally Posted by EinCB128

Is Amazon Italy the easiest way to buy the Italian version?

Thank you.

Yes, it's a viable option, but obviously depends on shipping to your part of the world. Your other option would be eBay, but make sure it's a reliable listing/seller such as this (USA) or this (UK). Cheers.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by fkid

I'm not sure what happened here, but despite the excellent 7.1 surround audio, healthy grain and excellent level of detail, the Curzon 4K SDR grade/encode is far too dark, almost as if it was QC'd at the wrong gamma level or incorrectly tonemapped to SDR from an HDR master. I was able to bring back a ton of detail by forcing gamma of 1.9 on my LG C2, so the data is there, but that further indicates this may have been unintentional. Very curious to see how the Criterion disc turns out, but I doubt it will have this same issue, as CG didn't have this issue on their regular SDR HD Blu-ray either.

If you are on the fence, I suggest waiting for Criterion, unless you can get the CG Entertainment ITA release, as they did an excellent job with their HDR grade *[although ironically, they probably raised black level a touch too far in the other direction]. If your Curzon copy is on the way, consider lowering your gamma temporarily via your player or display settings, if you find the image too dark.

The comparison below is meant to be viewed in HDR mode on an HDR display.

Flow - 2024 - PQ - CG ITA UHD Blu-ray (HDR) vs. Curzon GBR UHD Blu-ray (SDR) [25]

Did you not try forcing different levels on it instead? On my TV if I enounter something with obvious bodged clipped blacks I try switching the TV's levels to Full (PC), tho I think it works the other way around with computahs because everything's mapped to PC levels already? It's still bodged, but worth trying as a quick fix (although the bit depth might be mangled because of the incorrect levels e.g. the clouds would still be fooked).