Westworld: Season One 4K UHD (2016)

[victimofthecity]

Originally Posted by EarlyGrace

Nice! I am tempted to go grab it now since I am not a steel book fan. Thanks!

No problem!

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by Nothing371

I went to go play my Westworld UHD disc for the first time tonight. Something is just, really off about the colors. Everything is unnaturally dark and shaded. All the daytime scenes inside Sweetwater look like its dawn, or dusk. Like the brightness is really turned down or something. Anything know whats up with all of this?

Originally Posted by Nothing371

Okay, I figured out my problem. Disc 1 is bad. It usually won't read. Disc 2 & 3 play fine and colors seem normal.

Gonna have to try making an exchange so I can see if it's the disc for me also or my setup. Disc one is just incredibly dark for me without boosting dynamic contrast and it has the same disc read problems you had as well.

Originally Posted by victimofthecity

Picked up the 4K version tonight at Target. It wasn't the metal tin, it was similar to the bluray packaging. I'm glad, because the tin looked ugly honestly. It was priced at $49.99 on the shelves, but rang up $29.99.

I actually find the tin design very striking but hate that the case rattles inside and is generally cumbersome to get in and out. Hopefully Best Buy is willing to exchange the tin I bought last weekend for the new boxset if they have them in stock.

[Nothing371]

^ as a follow-up, I had a bad x800 player at that time which I returned and exchanged. So I'm not sure it was the disc.

The UHD discs still look incredibly dark on my x800 + 930E, specifically the blacks in the daytime scenes. All of the dark colors and shade become muddled together like a pool of uneven blackness. I honestly don't know what the problem is; I'm not familiar with technical settings. All the outdoor scenes look like dusk, is the best way I can describe it. Most of the non-Western scenes are fine. This is the only disc that I've viewed on my equipment where something is really off. It did not look like this on the TV broadcast and the BDs are significantly lighter overall.

EDIT: just tested the first four episodes again. yep, the standard blu-rays look better than the screwed up UHDs. The outdoor scenes are perfectly fine on the BDs.

[TURBO1112]

Do the codes redeem in 4k? Tempted to just buy the codes off a friend

[WestMan]

The version that came inside the metal case still had a regular 4K plastic case inside. Wasn't that big of a deal.

[singhcr]

Originally Posted by Nothing371

^ as a follow-up, I had a bad x800 player at that time which I returned and exchanged. So I'm not sure it was the disc.

The UHD discs still look incredibly dark on my x800 + 930E, specifically the blacks in the daytime scenes. All of the dark colors and shade become muddled together like a pool of uneven blackness. I honestly don't know what the problem is; I'm not familiar with technical settings. All the outdoor scenes look like dusk, is the best way I can describe it. Most of the non-Western scenes are fine. This is the only disc that I've viewed on my equipment where something is really off. It did not look like this on the TV broadcast and the BDs are significantly lighter overall.

EDIT: just tested the first four episodes again. yep, the standard blu-rays look better than the screwed up UHDs. The outdoor scenes are perfectly fine on the BDs.

What TV do you have? Are you playing the disc in HDR10 or Dolby Vision? Are you trying to convert to SDR, possibly, crushing blacks? This sounds like a tone mapping issue to me.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by RockyIII

I refuse to watch this on HBO....Way too good for streaming

If you watch it on HBO cable, it's not streaming. Not that you shouldn't buy the Blu.

[harpolini]

Originally Posted by BLeClair12

Has anyone experienced trouble with their set? I get small white lines occasionally during every episode playing through my Oppo 203, and my disk 3 just froze up entirely on Episode 9, about 12 minutes in. I can get it to jump to 22 minutes, but the. The freezing picks up again.

Originally Posted by NotASpeckOfCereal

While playing EP9 last night, it started to freeze. I cleaned it twice, didn't help, so I watched the EP on the HD BD. I then later put the UHD disc back in to see if I could watch EP 10 and the player wouldn't even play it. Has anyone else had this issue with UHD disc 3?

Just watched the entire series and my disc 3 froze only on episode 9. Rest played fine. I cleaned the disc and retried. Still froze. I switched to different UHD player. Same problem.

Anyone report errors on the other discs? I think I will go exchange at Bestbuy and have them just exchange just the defective disc. Don't want to come back with a brand new set with some other disc defective.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by singhcr

What TV do you have? Are you playing the disc in HDR10 or Dolby Vision? Are you trying to convert to SDR, possibly, crushing blacks? This sounds like a tone mapping issue to me.

The HDR grade on this is kinda weird, IMO. Very "dusky", for want of a better word. And yet, as I type this an advert for S2 is playing on TV (plain old SDR) and all the daylight exteriors are so dim they all look like they're taking place at sundown. Makes we wonder if that 'look' is something that was retrofitted to S1 in the HDR grade and will be carried on over into S2 no matter what platform you view it on.

[gwsat]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The HDR grade on this is kinda weird, IMO. Very "dusky", for want of a better word. And yet, as I type this an advert for S2 is playing on TV (plain old SDR) and all the daylight exteriors are so dim they all look like they're taking place at sundown. Makes we wonder if that 'look' is something that was retrofitted to S1 in the HDR grade and will be carried on over into S2 no matter what platform you view it on.

I thought the HDR treatment was rather well done. I was especially impressed by the wide shots taken in low sunlight, outdoors at "Magic Time." I was also particularly impressed by the set's TrueHD Atmos soundtrack. The surround effects were startlingly wonderful. I don't remember the LFE being anything extra but thought it was sturdy enough.

[Geoff D]

But that's the point, it makes almost every daylight exterior look like it's taking place at dusk (and how a display tone maps this is of crucial importance) whereas the BD is a bit more even-handed. Atmos: could not care less.

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by WestMan

The version that came inside the metal case still had a regular 4K plastic case inside. Wasn't that big of a deal.

It's certainly not the worst packaging I've ever dealt with but if I'm exchanging my set anyhow I think I'd prefer a standard slip.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

But that's the point, it makes almost every daylight exterior look like it's taking place at dusk (and how a display tone maps this is of crucial importance) whereas the BD is a bit more even-handed.

The footage used for the 4K menus has dramatically more natural lighting than the show itself as well. I think you might be right that the creators changed their minds about what kind of lighting they wanted the show to have and I'm not a fan of how the darker look affects exteriors. The American West has naturally beautiful bright sunshine and I don't understand why you wouldn't want to take full advantage of that for your show.

[Geoff D]

At least the HDR grade expands the highlight range, and quite significantly in some shots, so after a while you do kinda get used to it as a 'look' unto itself but again this is where the tone mapping comes into play. If a display is clipping those highlights then the image will look plugged-up at both ends of the range, what with the already-crushy blacks, but on the other hand if a display is mapping the container to fit only a few hundred nits peak output then it's going to kill the APL because the content already has a very low SDR-style level of average brightness. Fold that down with a 4000-nit tone map, say, and the APL will be for shit.

VERY intrigued to see how this looks in Dolby Vision on my TV though. Any month now, I'm sure of it...

[imsounoriginal]

Binging this season before the premiere tomorrow. Looks decent to me; not amazing, not terrible, just a set of solid/decent/whatever transfers. Definitely better than the broadcasts and HBO Go streams I watched as the season was happening, so overall I'm happy. Just nothing OMG about it.

[TpFox]

I've never watched this show but I've heard great things about it yet put off by the inconsistent reviews on the disc. (That's this format in a nutshell anyways for a lot of discs) Seems like people with Dolby Vision have a different experience. I also have a 40 dollar credit to amazon that I'd like to use...but is it worth? Or just sign up for a free HBO trial and stream both season 1 and 2? lol

[imsounoriginal]

If you've never watched it, go with the free trial. Wouldn't wanna waste your $40 credit on something you might not even like.

[TpFox]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

If you've never watched it, go with the free trial. Wouldn't wanna waste your $40 credit on something you might not even like.

Very true but then again I blind buy a lot of movies I haven't seen and I generally end up loving or liking movies that are mostly well received. Maybe free trial an episode or so..

[solarrdadd]

any idea why none of the episodes of this show on UHD opened or closed with the usual HBO "static hum sound?" it does when you watch it on HBO cable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Oh7HizY5I

every episode of every season of Game of Thrones did.

I'm sure there is a reason why this show didn't.

[Brandon B]

I think it was there as a leadin on each disk, just not each episode.

[RustinCohle]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

any idea why none of the episodes of this show on UHD opened or closed with the usual HBO "static hum sound?" it does when you watch it on HBO cable.

Probably because this was a WB release and not an HBO release.