It's a Wonderful Life 4K UHD Steelbook - $9.96 at Walmart / Amazon

[MifuneFan]

Walmart has the 4K Steelbook for It's a Wonderful Life down to a low of $9.96, and Amazon has matched. This is (in my opinion) a beautiful Steelbook featuring classic artwork, and includes a mini poster, Blu-ray with just the colorized version (it does not include the remastered B&W version), and digital copy as well.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/It-s-a-Wo...Copy/816405792

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Its-a...lu-ray/275000/



Unboxing (not mine):

It's a Wonderful Life 4K+2D Blu-ray SteelBook Unboxing - YouTube

[BunyipPouch]

Picked this up as soon as as I saw it in the deals section. No brainer for a 4K UHD Steelbook of a classic. I'll sell the bluray disc I already own and the digital code from this and it will almost pay for itself

[Monterey Jack]

...because everyone has a hankerin' to watch It's A Wonderful Life in JULY.

[jkoffman]

Only thing to note for those someday-I'll-be-4K folks limping along like I am:

The studio has also released the film to the Blu-ray format, but the Blu-ray included therein is not bundled with this set. Rather, it's colorized version from 2009. The remastered Blu-ray is only available separately.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

...because everyone has a hankerin' to watch It's A Wonderful Life in JULY.

Christmas in July has a surprising following. It even has its own Wiki entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_July

[erlinmeyer]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Christmas in July has a surprising following. It even has its own Wiki entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_July

Hallmark is still making millions off it, on their channels and in the stores. Will be picking up 5 new release ornaments tomorrow morning.

[WillieMLF]

Yet another one of those titles that shouldn't be in 4K. Going to stick with Harris' word at HTF.

[mikesncc1701]

Originally Posted by WillieMLF

Yet another one of those titles that shouldn't be in 4K. Going to stick with Harris' word at HTF.

Lol. "Shouldn't be". I'd read this first.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=459

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by WillieMLF

Yet another one of those titles that shouldn't be in 4K. Going to stick with Harris' word at HTF.

Except, Robert Harris changed his PQ rating from a 3 to a 5, after adjusting his setup, and updated his review:

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/com...lu-ray.364306/

RAH has been wrangling with HDR and Dolby Vision parameters since Caesar was in power.

Attempting to get Aurens to play properly finally caused things to come to a head.

When reviewing It's a Wonderful Life, I had problems in projection with DV, which is as expected, but also with a Sony OLED panel, which is not. When the panel kicks into Dolby Vision, it tells you, with a legend in the upper right corner that can be seen from space.

It was a no go. Clotted black levels. Tried making certain adjustments. Purchased a JVC 4k player to replace the ancient Oppo 4k. The JVC allows HDR and DV to be shut down entirely, or so it seemed.

Nothing helped.

Finally, I went into the "expert" menu, and located additional controls, which allow further control of gamma, black levels, etc, and finally, the image is proper.

As far as I can discern, there are different settings necessitated to make DV play nicely, apart from the automated re-setting of contrast and brightness, which are set automatically.

Now the question of being able to save settings for each function, without having to go back to a list and reprogram.

Which means that this review is being updated, and corrected.

I've sent bouquets of digital flowers to the folks at Paramount, along with corrections.

In the olden days, one would turn on a TV, wait for the tubes to warm up, and if you saw anything but a native American test pattern, you knew you had some sort of programming.

No longer.

It's at the very least, a weekend at MIT.

Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, has received a 4k make-over from the OCN, and with the help of Dolby Vision, it all seems to work for the best.

We gain a far more stable image, that's also more highly resolved, with gorgeous grain structure.

The gray scale appears fine, with rich blacks, white whites and attractive shadow detail, except possibly in dupes.

While the disc still has problems playing in projection - projectors have neither the ability to play DV, nor the requisite luminance to achieve it if they did.

Along with the new 4k, one gets a godawful colorized version, but no standard issue Blu-ray.

Image – 5 (Dolby Vision)

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Upgrade from Blu-ray – Yes

Maybe don't put so much weight into one person's words, especially one who has gained a bit of notoriety on here for flip-flopping.

[WillieMLF]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Except, Robert Harris changed his PQ rating from a 3 to a 5, after adjusting his setup, and updated his review:

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/com...lu-ray.364306/



Maybe don't put so much weight into one person's words, especially one who has gained a bit of notoriety on here for flip-flopping.

I hadn't really seen the updated thread, as I only remember the original contentious one. One really shouldn't have to go into the guts of the system to get these setting correct, and then change them back to watch everything else.

I hold his opinion more credible than any expert here. He's not a Youtube influencer, so for most here, that gives him no credibility, but they can't all be as credible as Svet or Tooze.

[BunyipPouch]

anddddddd the deal is already gone on Amazon. That went quick, glad I got one.

[gpete]

Can anyone tell me what you get as far as the digital copy that's included? B&W, Color, Both? I'm upgrading from a DVD so this is a no brainer for me.

[filmbuffTX]

Originally Posted by gpete

Can anyone tell me what you get as far as the digital copy that's included? B&W, Color, Both? I'm upgrading from a DVD so this is a no brainer for me.

As far as VUDU goes the digital for the UHD gives you B&W plus three featurettes. The digital for the remastered standard Blu-ray gives you B&W, the colorized version, plus the three featurettes.

I redeemed the digital codes from both the 4K UHD and standard Blu-ray and that’s what I got.

[ctujackbauer]

Originally Posted by gpete

Can anyone tell me what you get as far as the digital copy that's included? B&W, Color, Both? I'm upgrading from a DVD so this is a no brainer for me.

If the steelbook 4K version digital copy is the same as the standard 4K version digital copy, then I suggest redeeming on iTunes.

iTunes extras gives the colorized version in iTunes extras, plus a lot of other extras. One of which goes into the restoration process and how the original degraded and needed a new scan.

I don't know if the colorized version is in 4K Dolby Vision like the black and white original though. Anyone with an Apple TV?

[vseven]

Originally Posted by BunyipPouch

anddddddd the deal is already gone on Amazon. That went quick, glad I got one.

Maybe they restocked. I just went to the page and it said 7 left in stock so I grabbed one.

[ctujackbauer]

Back again at $9.96 at Walmart (mifunefan's original post has a Walmart link) and this time Amazon price matched: https://www.amazon.com/Wonderful-Life-Steelbook-Blu-ray-Digital/dp/B08FP5NQBB/

Walmart and Amazon reviews are saying the digital copy expired though.