Too bad TMS botches their 4k remasters by applying extreme grain removal, otherwise the HDR color timings looks better than the BDs if a bit overcooked.
IMO, still such an odd choice for Discotek's first 4k UHD. I wonder if their BD sold well enough to go through with putting out their own UHD disc (with contents largely ported over from their BD and TMS's JP UHD). Maybe we'll see US UHDs of the Lupins since those are more well known, but at the cost of also using botched 4k HDR restorations.
Nice, mine has shipped from Rightstuf too so I'm glad I didn't cancel it. I've never seen this movie so paying a few dollars more to get it a month early is fine with me.
So I watched Cobra on UHD last night. Wow. It's interesting to say the least.
When I first saw screenshots of the Japanese UHD, I, like many of you was disgusted. The amount of DNR used was insane, and it gave an often flat appearance in those screenshots. Even with SDR conversion, it still looked rather poor. So, when Discotek announced their release of it, I was glad, in that another indie label was joining the 4K party that I would support, and hopefully the issues would be fixed. After all, the Galaxy Express 999 films had rather strong DNR, so a grain filter emulating a late 70s/early 80s film stock was used and it turned out beautiful. It didn't produce more detail, but it resulted in a filmic look. Due to the complexity of HDR and the resolution, and this being Justin's (Sevakis, the compressionist) first UHD, no such grain filter was being added. I had heard that the HDR was amazing, and the huge saving grace of the transfer... and that's 100% true.
The HDR in Cobra is so good and hypnotic that for long stretches I completely forgot about DNR due to the trance I was in.
The reason the HDR is so good lies in the film itself and its striking direction by the legendary Osamu Dezaki (the most important anime director outside of Tezuka, and yes, that means he’s more important than Miyazaki- you heard that right), the framing and compositions are often times breathtaking due to the sheer complexity of the artwork and the color usage. The latter of which has a major upgrade with HDR. The background artwork was handled by another legend, Shichirou Kobayashi, famous for his work on Castle of Cagliostro, Berserk '97, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Angel's Egg, and many other famous works. After watching the “HDR Comparison” extra on the disc, I don’t think I’ll be checking out the 1080p disc as often due to the sheer amount of improvements with HDR.
The HDR10 layer is rather striking, and is probably one of the best looking HDR experiences I've personally seen, up there with both Blade Runner films and Aquaman on UHD. Color is hypnotic.
Now, this is with an asterisk. The DNR. Yes, it is very, very severe. However, in motion with the HDR, it's not as terrible as the screenshots make it out to be. I sit 15 feet away from a 55 inch HDR10 capable TV and from such a distance, the image is rather striking, but sit or stand closer, and it's a disaster. After watching the film, I checked back to certain scenes but standing in front of my TV- the HDR was just as strong, if not more so, but the DNR was horrible. Simply put, only watch the disc from a distance, as then the HDR will shine and you'll have a harder time being pissed off with the DNR. On which, the DNR is very strong, with no film grain left in the image, but I didn't notice any lines of artwork being removed- something Disney did with Cinderella's BD- and in more close up shots the smearing was less noticeable than in shots with characters in the background, whom were badly drawn to begin with and the smearing didn't do any help.
The main reason the UHD works is due to the sheer quality of the visuals the film has to offer. The artwork and imagery is breathtaking, resembling a strange combination of Godard's Pierrot le fou, Tarkovsky's Stalker, and Star Wars, with the hand drawn look of classic cel based anime.
The video compression is as good as you'd hope. There was no visible artifacting both sitting at a distance and up close. The bitrate is rather variable, often sticking below 30 mbps in less complex scenes, but when the surreal kicks in, the bitrate hovers between 70 to 90 mbps, with a few spikes over 100 mbps for good measure.
I watched the film in its original Japanese with English subtitles (which are yellow, with blue color when the songs are subtitled), presented via a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix at 48kHz, 24-bit (I believe, given the bitrate which averages around 4 mbps). It sounds rather good, with no issues whatsoever in regards to clarity, and no sound effects seemed to be re-done (a sad trend, that many 80s and 90s OVAs and films have had new effects for 5.1 mixes, like the Gundam works of the era). However, I was disappointed to see that the original Dolby Stereo audio mix was not on the disc. The Japanese UHD had an LPCM 2.0 mix at 98kHz 24-bit, but I have zero clue if it was the original mix or a downmix of the 5.1 mix. I would've loved an LPCM 2.0 mix for the purist in me, but as it is, the 5.1 mix is not offensive in any way, so it's unfortunate, but no deal breaker. The English dub is presented in LPCM 2.0 at 48kHz 16-bit, for those who care about dubs.
Overall, I am somewhat conflicted with Cobra on UHD. The HDR is insane and worth the price of the disc, but the severe digital noise reduction is the major drawback to an otherwise top notch release. Had there been no major DNR, I would have no problem giving the video a perfect 10/10 due to the strength of the high dynamic range presentation, but as it is, I'm leaning towards a 5 or 6/10 for that reason. As for the audio, I'd give a score of 7/10 due to the quality of the 5.1 mix and the slightly lower score due to the lack of the original Dolby Stereo mix.
At the low price it is at now, it is 100% worth picking up. TMS sadly will keep using Q-Tec for their UHDs to come, but what is presented here is acceptable, if a very revisionist approach to film restoration- one which strongly utilized the HDR format to its strengths, but with the downfall of a degrained image lacking an appearance films of its era should have.
I sit 15 feet away from a 55 inch HDR10 capable TV
At that distance, you wouldn't see any detail the DNR scrubbed away, anyhow.
Speaking of which... from your look at the disc, would you say that it only appears to be film grain that the DNR pass has removed or is there animation detail missing as well?
At that distance, you wouldn't see any detail the DNR scrubbed away, anyhow.
Speaking of which... from your look at the disc, would you say that it only appears to be film grain that the DNR pass has removed or is there animation detail missing as well?
The DNR pass just removed film grain. I didn't notice any removed outlines, and looking at shots of the 1080p BD confirms that.
Just watched this and my eyeballs almost melted. It has a pretty high APL so all of the colors and highlights have even more of a punch. Watching it on a 75" from 8 feet away I didn't notice any grain so yeah, the DNR is pretty heavy.
This was my first viewing of the film so it didn't really bother me much though, I have no attachment to any previous versions. And as professorwho said detail still seems good, which probably isn't too hard to retain with DNR given the animation style. All in all this blew me away, loved the movie and it's really a showcase for what HDR can do with older animation.
Haha Crystal Bowie did something to me, he scares me. Now I want to check out the series. From what I can see there is no blu ray release of the series with English subtitles?
I just checked out the HDR to SDR comparison bonus feature on the disc (it plays both split screen) and the difference is pretty crazy. Now it makes me wonder what's going to happen with Akira.
Watching this now and Holy crap this has so much HDR in it O.O. I need to wear shades. Giant Robo got a 4k scan and would look just like this on 4k if they made one and hopefully with grain.
Ive always been confused about this film because i remember seeing this in london at a special screening and i remember loving the soundtrack but all the verisons I've seen since never sound like what i remember. Now it makes sense, I saw the verison with Yello
I'm glad to see people looking at the bright side.
However there's really nothing hdr can do to correct dnr, and dnr is just bad. I still bought this release (received today actually), great film, hyped to see it, and want to support Discotek with their first 4k release. That being said I hope in the future they go the grain filter route again.
Actually dnr definitely "can" wash away detail on top of flattening the image in certain situations. The worst case of dnr I've seen on classic anime other than Dragon Ball was First Gundam TV series original on blu ray (all other Gundam releases with dnr are glorious in comparison). I hope Cobra doesn't suffer from any loss of detail.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
.
Linear Mode
