The Fifth Element (1997) 4K Dolby Vision review, UK UHD disc. HDR metadata: DCI-P3 colour primaries. Mastering display levels: 1000/0.0001 max/min nits. Maximum Content Light Level: N/A. Maximum Frame Average Light Level: N/A.
Having gushed over the Sony UHD here for pretty much everything but the sharpening:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=584 it's safe to say that I've found something betterer, though it's definitely the same transfer/restoration/whatever you want to call it as the Sony underneath, as the framing is identical at first glance and there's regular little specks of white dirt that are in the exact same places on both editions. Both have the burned-in captions too.
First, the colour: I loved how the Sony looked but it feels strangely subdued in comparison to the StudioCanal, not that the latter turns it into a total dayglo romp but it warms it up from the cooler Sony look, it's now got a golden orangey sheen. Skin tones still have breadth and nuance but they just seem a bit livelier now, this doesn't however feel like a total scene-by-scene regrade but more of a blanket tint - although it works for me because it's not obnoxious with it, and makes it feel a bit less gritty than the Sony UHD.
Ditto for the sharpening or general lack thereof, it makes the Sony look harsher and crunchier and strangely video-like at times while the SC is slightly softer and way more film-like. There are still some soft sections to be sure as the movie was released in 1997 and has various opticals for the dissolves and title overlays, as well as that odd dupe section when Cornelius is explaining to the President about the evil that awaits, that whole scene isn't from OG neg though it's always been that way. But what the SC doesn't do is pile sharpening atop that occasional softness which is what makes the Sony look more 'false' and unnatural. Same goes for the digital VFX, there's some baked-in ringing and aliasing which has always been there and the extra sharpening on the Sony just ramps up those artefacts something chronic. The Diva scene with the composited planet backdrop behind her will always have those edge halos, but it's tolerable now rather than looking as eye-wateringly abrasive as it does on the Sony (which I did mention at the time).
One thing that surprised me though was the dynamic range, as it was obvious from the moment the lights of the Mondoshawan ship shine into the Egyptian temple that the SC was clipping the highlights something fierce. (This is the trade-off I was mentioning upthread.) Not that every scene looks horribly blown out because they don't, but sources of the brightest light are quite noticeably clipped throughout the movie. Things like windows and suns and skies are fine, it's stuff like light bulbs and headlights that burn out much earlier in the SC than they do on the Sony UHD. I give Sony a lot of shit for them employing their Light Cannon™ HDR grading as much as they do but their version of Fifth Element escaped that fate, it's actually way more subdued than the SC grade at times.
As a the result the SC looks by far the zestier of the two, I gushed over how the Diva's glittery make-up looked on the Sony disc but it's improved even more on the SC, there's more light bouncing off her and more colour too. And the clipping just becomes part of that 'pop', it's not so pervasive that it wrecks the image. They've raised the black level slightly on the SC, blacks are not quite as dark as the Sony and I'm fine with that, it helps to open up the SC's image at the darker end of the scale so it doesn't feel plugged up, considering the slightly frazzled highlights.
(Yes, I double checked the clipping against the DV playback in the OPPO, DV in the Panasonic 820, the HDR10 base layer and the HDR10 base layer adjusted with the Panasonic HDR Optimiser: the clipping is baked-in on the SC grade while the Sony resolves far more in some shots. If I may go off on a tangent, THIS is exactly why I keep pushing back against the myopic hero worship of Dolby Vision in some quarters. Not that it's doing anything "wrong" here as such re: the clipping, my point is that DV doesn't do anything at source that HDR10 can't do, indeed you don't grade HDR in either 'format' but in the ST.2084 transfer function first of all. It ably demonstrates that DV is just there to serve the wishes of the colourists and content creators, so if they want their HDR highlights clipped in the grading then clipped in the grading they shall be.)
The Sony disc is on a UHD66 while the SC has a triple-decker encode, it doesn't mean much in practice as the Sony still has excellent compression but the SC is damned near transparent anyway, not that I'd expect anything less from a Fidelity in Motion™ encode. And there are no extras or even extra language tracks on the SC UHD, it's just got English subs, English Atmos and that's it. In some ways I'm quite proud of the state of the UHD market that SC would produce a Fifth Element UHD just for lil' ole Britainland.
So, to sum up, even though the Sony reveals more highlight information in some parts it comes at the expense of a duller blue-tinged grade which, when combined with the rampant sharpening, makes the Sony look a lot grittier than the SC and not in a good way. The SC is more vibrant, more punchy and - most importantly - just more pleasingly film-like on the eye. I'll gladly take the loss of some highlight info to get rid of that weird Sony sharpening. Took some photos, they're not great but they give you an idea.
THESE IMAGES ARE NOT INTENDED TO CONVEY THE ENTIRETY OF EITHER SDR OR HDR WITH 100% ACCURACY BUT ONLY SPECIFIC ASPECTS. THEY CAN ALSO BE MUCH DARKER THAN THE CONTENT ACTUALLY APPEARS OWING TO THE EXPOSURE NECESSARY TO CAPTURE THE DYNAMIC RANGE.
The lights on the Mondoshawn ship. Clip very heavily on the SC.
Sony UHD
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StudioCanal UHD
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And again, but you can see how much brighter they are on the SC.
Sony UHD
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StudioCanal UHD
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The President. Skin tones are more orangey on the SC.
Sony UHD
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StudioCanal UHD
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The Diva. Sony looks very 'cool' and blue, while the SC warms up the whites and there's just more separation between the blue of her costume and the planet behind her, on the Sony it's all a bit samey.
Sony UHD
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StudioCanal UHD
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Last one, Fhloston Paradise. You can see the extra warmth on the SC.
Sony UHD
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StudioCanal UHD
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