Close Encounters of the Third Kind 4K UHD (1977) (40th Anniversary Edition)

[jh901]

Which cut is generally considered definitive?

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by jh901

Which cut is generally considered definitive?

The 'Directors Cut'

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by jh901

Which cut is generally considered definitive?

However, I'm finding that I prefer the theatrical cut more and more.

[Ray_Rogers]

Hoping Sony will have seamless branching for all three cuts on the UHD disc instead of solely one cut only. More companies need to have all different official versions available as such if it were already seamlessly branched on the BD.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

Hoping Sony will have seamless branching for all three cuts on the UHD disc instead of solely one cut only. More companies need to have all different official versions available as such if it were already seamlessly branched on the BD.

If it were a perfect world, I would rather see them release the three cuts on separate discs.

Let's say they do Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos... both take up more space and more of the bitrate budget. Then you have to take up room for each branch...

less data for each cut... lower overall compression quality unless they apply an unwanted filter.

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

If it were a perfect world, I would rather see them release the three cuts on separate discs.

Let's say they do Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos... both take up more space and more of the bitrate budget. Then you have to take up room for each branch...

less data for each cut... lower overall compression quality unless they apply an unwanted filter.

Seamless branching is far superior over a completely new M2TS title on the disc, at least. It'd just be a stream entry on the disc, correct? Could be a BD100 instead of a BD66 for seamless branching, obviously.
How many UHDs have proper seamless branching though instead of solely one cut on the disc? Off the top of my head, only the titles I'm aiming for, around 3~5?

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

Seamless branching is far superior over a completely new M2TS title on the disc, at least. It'd just be a stream entry on the disc, correct? Could be a BD100 instead of a BD66 for seamless branching, obviously.
How many UHDs have proper seamless branching though instead of solely one cut on the disc? Off the top of my head, only the titles I'm aiming for, around 3~5?

Streaming branching is a "cool feature" for lazy people just not an important one if you want the best video quality for each cut.

The studios mainly do this because they're too cheap to produce a multi-disc set with each cut having its own disc.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

However, I'm finding that I prefer the theatrical cut more and more.

even though Spielberg prefers his 'director's cut' as the defacto cut - I've always like the theatrical for the mere fact that the "they can fly rings around the moon, but years ahead of them on the highway" is exclusive for the theatrical cut

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

even though Spielberg prefers his 'director's cut' as the defacto cut - I've always like the theatrical for the mere fact that the "they can fly rings around the moon, but years ahead of them on the highway" is exclusive for the theatrical cut

I really don't think the extra parts of Dreyfuss' unraveling family structure in the DC helps much... it actually kind of bogs things down with just more shouting and door slams. The theatrical cut explains things pretty well that he has lost his support structure due to his crazy antics and a wife who doesn't understand... and it does it with a bit more humor too.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Streaming branching is a "cool feature" for lazy people just not an important one if you want the best video quality for each cut.

The studios mainly do this because they're too cheap to produce a multi-disc set with each cut having its own disc.

Third time tonight, I'm gonna wear this mofo out:

I think branching is a fabulous feature for encoding different versions, you make it sound like it's the quality equivalent of two entire encodes stuffed onto one disc. It's a pain to author and it certainly needs more bitrate, as Fox made a boo-boo when they did it with the intensely grainy 4K version of ID4 + loads of alternate language tracks stuffed onto a 66GB but that was a limitation of space, not a damning indictment of branching itself.

[singhcr]

Two hypothetical movies: One is 125 minutes, the other is 127 minutes as it has two minutes of new footage inserted throughout the duration of the film as it's a director's cut. The 125 minute movie is approximately 40 GB in size.

Seamless branching basically allows a total of 127 minutes of content to be put on the disc. The player jumps to the extra scenes if you watch the director's cut, it does not if you want the theatrical.

Otherwise, you have to have one 125 minute long movie file and a 127 minute long movie file for a grand total of 252 minutes. You either have to have two discs, or half the bitrate to fit on a single disc. The first option is expensive. The second results in poor video quality. Seamless branching solves both problems at once. End of discussion.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by singhcr

Two hypothetical movies: One is 125 minutes, the other is 127 minutes as it has two minutes of new footage inserted throughout the duration of the film as it's a director's cut. The 125 minute movie is approximately 40 GB in size.

Seamless branching basically allows a total of 127 minutes of content to be put on the disc. The player jumps to the extra scenes if you watch the director's cut, it does not if you want the theatrical.

Otherwise, you have to have one 125 minute long movie file and a 127 minute long movie file for a grand total of 252 minutes. You either have to have two discs, or half the bitrate to fit on a single disc. The first option is expensive. The second results in poor video quality. Seamless branching solves both problems at once. End of discussion.

*cough* your running times are off
Original theatrical: 135
Special Edition: 132
Director's cut: 137

[singhcr]

Note that I said two hypothetical movies. The times are arbitrary to explain the benefits of seamless branching.

[Dubstar]

^ ahh gotcha

[StingingVelvet]

I think the only version I've seen for 20 years is the director's cut. Should try the theatrical at some point, which I assume is what I watched as a kid?

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I think the only version I've seen for 20 years is the director's cut. Should try the theatrical at some point, which I assume is what I watched as a kid?

Interestingly the only (35mm/DCP) version available to theaters now is the director's cut

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I think the only version I've seen for 20 years is the director's cut. Should try the theatrical at some point, which I assume is what I watched as a kid?

You can, though the Director's is more aligned with the theatrical cut than the Special Edition anyway.

Personally I always liked the theatrical over the Special Edition, which cuts out too much and adds the needless mothership ending. I understand why Spielberg wanted to do the SE -- because the movie was rushed through post-production to meet its release date -- but he had to include that bit as a studio mandated marketing hook, and it adds nothing dramatically to the film.

Overall, I think the DC is the best compromise between all the versions -- it walks back most of the trims from the Special Edition while retaining its additions, except the mothership part. Basically. lol

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

You can, though the Director's is more aligned with the theatrical cut than the Special Edition anyway.

Personally I always liked the theatrical over the Special Edition, which cuts out too much and adds the needless mothership ending. I understand why Spielberg wanted to do the SE -- because the movie was rushed through post-production to meet its release date -- but he had to include that bit as a studio mandated marketing hook, and it adds nothing dramatically to the film.

Overall, I think the DC is the best compromise between all the versions -- it walks back most of the trims from the Special Edition while retaining its additions, except the mothership part. Basically. lol

I thought there was a hybrid network tv cut that basically reinstated all the cut scenes together. And yes, the caveat of doing the special edition was the guarantee for the 'Directors cut' version. Interestingly the fourth Criterion "theatrical" cut had the shot of the UFO's shadow over Neary's truck which Spielberg always liked and was an obvious visual homage to "Jaws"

[Viking61]

Fnac.com has the 40th Anniversary Collector Edition available for pre-order with the French release date as September 20. I suppose the US release will be around that date too.

One 4K UHD disc and two BD bonus discs.

http://video.fnac.com/a10793149/Renc...uss-Blu-ray-4K

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I think the only version I've seen for 20 years is the director's cut. Should try the theatrical at some point, which I assume is what I watched as a kid?

I watched the theatrical cut last year for a change, and enjoyed it. I did miss some scenes though that I'm used to seeing. IMO, there's no "perfect" version since all 3 have unique scenes that would ideally be put together. The Director's cut is excellent, but is missing a couple great moments that are in the theatrical or special editions. The special edition is broken due to the huge cuts and "inside the mothership" ending, though it has a couple nice moments unique to that version.

I'm still glad they're including all 3 cuts remastered in 4k. I remember the old laserdisc let you create your own edit by cutting in the scenes you wanted. I wish we could do that with the UHD. We all have our favorite bits from the 3 films. How awesome would it be to assemble our own cut in the player?

There's some info out there somewhere (I can't remember where I found it now) that tells you how to assemble the different chapters from the Alien disc to make your ultimate edition using whatever combination of scenes you prefer between the two versions. I haven't tried it yet but I plan to for fun at some point. Supposedly the end result is seamless just by stitching the scenes together with software. I wish it was possible to do that with Close Encounters, but I doubt if it would be seamless.