These 'worst' videos are much more helpful, because people just want to buy movies they like, but they want to be aware of lemons. It's just the practical reality. Life isn't a cheerleading squad. And there's probably some agenda to push people to 'streaming only'.
Your view doesn't seem to make any sense! Are you going to not let us know about bad movies because they're bad if you're a movie reviewer? The same is said true about reviewing the quality of discs! But I guess that's just me. The way that you're circling around trying to avoid the word worst is very cringe! Like really really cringe.
While I know you don't like making these, I think they're a necessary evil. Especially to remind people in the holiday season which 4ks to avoid. Appreciate it man, have a great new year 👍
It's not evil. When companies put out a bad product, the only remedy is to tell all the customers about it. Otherwise, they're going to keep crapping all over you and your giant 4K television. "Uh, did you try turning off motion smoothing?"
@hxhdfj ifzir st c I'm more referring to when he said he didn't like making these videos because it spreads negativity, and he wanted to celebrate physical media. But yes, that response was ridiculous. "oh I see you're a channel that specialises in 4K blu rays and has been doing so for at least 5 years, you musy have no clue what you're doing"
You nailed it man, kept it all in perspective while informing people where they should look out. This is the right format for this video, other channels should take note. You should be proud not only for listening to feedback, but for incorporating the feedback into your goals for a positive channel. Well done.
Thanks for doing this. This isn't "negative" content. This is content that keeps some pressure on companies to put out high quality products and that's a positive thing! Be interesting to have a very nerdy follow-up video that explores how the industry does try to balance brightness among monitors like OLED vs others. Maybe do a podcast with some TV engineer willing to do it where you can ask lots of technical questions.
This was very helpful especially for the budget conscious collector like me. I may be only able to grab a few 4K movies every few months and being able to avoid problematic or disappointing disks is key. I understand you don’t want to amplify the negative but in this case I see this as a public service for collectors in general. Great job!
when I first started buying 4k movies I was replacing a lot that I had on Blu ray I realized 4K doesn't always mean better and now I look at different reviews before purchasing
Thank you! This is reassuring because it allows the consumer to hear perspectives from others in order to avoid purchasing these films. Studios like Disney need to listen!
I was so disappointed with the Pirates 4k, I love that trilogy so much and to see Disney put no effort into making a quality disk was so disappointing. Luckily the old Blu rays have excellent video and audio so we can still enjoy those.
So sad... Pirates of the Carib collection is one of my most favorite blu ray sets & most anticipated 4k sets. heres to hoping if one waits for the complete set.. Disney will get it right!
Yeah its def a silver lining that the BDs were excellent. Probably a similar story across the board with Disney: They were top tier with BD, esp in the early days, so on the one hand its very sad they've fallen so far, but pragmatically: makes it easy for me to save my money and just stick with my BDs when it comes to disney. Unless of course.... There weren't any BD releases of certain movies that they own... say by a certain famous film maker, who's currently relevant again after a decade.. Rumors are really building for The Abyss this year, and True Lies just all of a sudden appeared on Disney+, the stream is HD but looks old and average.. rumors always have the Cameron movies bunched together for 4k release.. We are going to see a nervous collectors community this year I think... The way things stand: Avatar: Good BD, likely to 4k this year, HDR will be critical Titanic: Good BD, likely to 4k this year Abyss: No BD, No good version at all yet, likely to 4k this year True Lies: No BD*, 4k unknown.. *There's a spanish bluray of all places, but if the new D+ stream is indicative of quality, I can understand why it didnt see wider release..
The Road warrior also had sound issues that had to be recalled. To Warner brothers credit. They sent me an updated corrected release AND complete mad max 4K set to make up for it which was really awesome.
@@nickchang5293 absolutely. I didn’t send an “angry” email either. Just to be clear. Lol. Just the standard replacement request. Was a very cool, random surprise.
I didn't find the Atmos downmix to 5.1 "defective" at all and Warner included the 1080p blu-ray with the 4K if I want to hear the old "quaint" 5.1 mix, so no complaints here.
It was your review of Pirates earlier in the year that made me cancel my order. As uncomfortable as the type of video might be you are very appreciated for making it. Thanks for all you do for the hobby and for the future of physical media. Happy New Year!
I somehow hadn't heard about the 12 Monkeys and A Hard Day's Night recalls (although I think I bought the latter late enough that it doesn't matter; I'll be checking, though). Just applied for the 12 Monkeys replacement disc. Thank you so much for making this video; I may never have heard about the replacements otherwise. Love your channel! You really are performing a public service with these videos.
Disney seems to have a reputation for mastering their 4K Catalogue for streaming first, and physical as an afterthought. Low-bitrate encodes and film grain don't seem to get along, so they scrub movies with DNR so they look better on Disney+
I definitely understand how you wanted to focus more on the positives rather than the negatives, I do think that videos like this are still very helpful and informative for us to make better purchasing choices. And I think this video was well done; there is no need to completely bash and trash-talk companies and whatnot and be nasty, but rather explaining what the issues are with these discs and what you think makes them bad (with the positive and constructive goal of being helpful and informative) like you did here.
I wonder if Disney purposely did shoddy work on their 4K transfers to steer people to their streaming service. The outgoing CEO was big on growing Disney's streaming service. Maybe the new & returning CEO will focus on better 4K transfers and quality.
I doubt it's on purpose. It's just their mindset. Much of Disney's stuff tends to be rather effortless these days. They think they can maximize profit with shoddy products and making everything woke. It's pretty surprising that they haven't learned yet. Disney grew big on quality, but it seems they have forgotten.
@@thenonexistinghero This conversation isn't about political leanings or theory. This is about business practices regarding quality products for consumers and collectors. Take a day off.
Thank you so much for doing this list. I understand your position about keeping it positive, but it is nice, at least for me, to have year in summary lists like this from someone whose opinion I trust to refer back to when looking to purchase movies. Have a great new year!
Knowing which disks to avoid is just as important to a collector as knowing which disks to prioritize. If I'm paying 4K prices, I expect 4K quality, you know? This is very useful information to have, so don't regret putting out videos like this.
Even on a perfectly calibrated OLED, there are certain scenes in Heat that are too dark. A good one for comparison purposes is the scene where Pacino picks up Natalie Portman from the bus stop. It's a scene in broad daylight and it looks oddly shaded, like watching it through sunglasses, while the blu-ray version looks like natural daylight. It's like they applied some a blanket color-grading filter to the whole film, rather than going scene by scene. And it is disappointing, because Heat is a film that's never had a perfect home-video transfer. Remember the weird DVD release that had an incorrect aspect ratio that stretched all the actor's heads vertically? Ughh. Maybe one day Heat will have a truly definitive release, but we're not there yet.
Dont think you can ever get clear no noise movies from 90’s backwards. Even saving private Ryan which I see you thought was great still had that grain look to it. Is this normal?
Happy new year. Just wanted to say thank you for all the great info. I recently picked up a Sony oled TV on sale using info from your channel. Congratulations on 100k this year.
I don't care for UHD discs in the same way I don't care for the soap opera effect: they look either unnatural or too natural, blurring the line between fiction and reality. A nature documentary in UHD can be fabulous, but a fiction film in UHD can detract from the experience. I'm quite happy with Blu-ray and sometimes with 4K (non-UHD) Blu-ray.
I got replacement discs for 12 Monkeys, Escape from LA and A Hard Days Night. I heard that from a projectionist in UK that Heat was dark in the cinema when first shown so the master was closer to directors intention.
Great video Jeff. Regarding Heat. It is actually a near perfect representation of it's theatrical release. There's a channel called Movie Collector run by a John Clancy. Not only did he remember the film looking dark when he saw it in theatre on release but 2 Cinema projectionists confirmed it was a dark print. One of them even thought his projectors lamp was on its way out so changed screens. His comment is pinned to the top of the comments in John's review of Heat. John also knows a lot about actual film and the processes used back in the day. I too find it sad that people with cheaper TVs are missing out but the film/TV industry works to a set of picture standards and I don't think it's right for them to compromise on a movies look just so everyone can enjoy it. That's not presenting the film makers true vision that was originally intended. That would be like saying "You did an amazing painting but we are going to change it so a wider audience will like it" Artists don't do work for everyone, They mostly work for what they like and hopefully other people like it. Believe me I wish everyone could see and hear these titles in the best way possible without having to remortgage their house. Trevor
Yes, when it comes to 4K releases on disc, John is by far the most knowledgeable reviewer out there. I am surprised his channel does not have more subscribers.
@@michaeldee3380 Yes a lot of people wait for John's reviews. He does have 30k subs and his channel is only 2 years old. Also he's not a prolific poster. I think when he interviewed me it became his most viewed video which he's now surpassed. We are hoping to do another collaboration at some point possibly regarding picture. I love Jeff's channel, I've been watching it for years but he still has quite a bit to learn. Despite my time in the disc manufacturing industry there's still so much I don't know. My channel is tiny compared to John and Jeff's. Trevor
@@doublebillmovies I have learnt so much from John's channel. What I also appreciate is that he goes out of his way to respond when a question is raised about a particular topic. I had a very interesting exchange with him about CGI and the way this is perceived by the viewer, i.e. some find it more distracting than others (when not executed correctly) and this will therefore ruin their viewing experience. My main takeaway from John's postings is that good 4K discs sourced from film come very close to what the movie would have looked like in the cinema. I will check out your channel. Keep up the good work! P.S. John was right about his review of Heat, the only one who was positive regarding the transfer. He is also a lot more forgiving about Saturday Night Fever which I watched a few days ago. Unlike John I remember exactly what the picture looked like in the cinema and the 4K transfer comes pretty close. Again, I think it's because people have a preconceived idea of how a film should look like but fail to understand that the source material will always be a limiting factor.
@@michaeldee3380 The problem I had with CGI for decades was getting the lighting wrong. It seems to be mostly down to how they could render what they had created and the limitations of the software. They would though have properly calibrated monitors and the CG image would look better on those monitors than after the final video compression applied when putting the finished film on DVD. Which would of course limit the dynamic range of the image. I better most films looked better in the cinema from 35mm because the CGI wouldn't be compressed in anyway as it was going on film. Once DVD came along and no one's TV would have even been set up picture wise, let alone professionally calibrated. The CGI would look awful. Thus everyone complained. Even now very few viewers will have set there TV or projector up correctly and in most cases will only have relatively cheap TVs/projectors. Nothing below a few grand even set up will do justice to the actual image on the disc. Half the time, the image things people complain about can be improved with some simple settings and almost fixed with higher end equipment. We don't all have money for it so the problem will persist. Trevor
@@doublebillmovies Excellent point. I have long wondered why CGI can sometimes look so awful and never realized that this could be down to compression and lighting. With John from moviecollector we had a discussion about this very topic. I never saw Jurassic Park in the cinema. My first experience of the movie was on my own home theater setup in the late 90s (Laserdisc image in 480p displayed onto an 8ft wide screen from a professionally calibrated CRT projector) and the results were simply breath-taking, at least to my eyes. Recently I revisited the film in 4K Ultra HD and what a disappointment it turned out to be, the rendition of the dinosaurs was so distracting to the point of making the film nearly unwatchable. I thought that this was due to the higher resolution. John claimed that when he first saw JP in the cinema the CGI did not look that great, although most people at the time would have had a completely different experience. The way we perceive an image is highly subjective. My brother who is in the movie making business is far more discriminating than me. I am happy that my eyes are more forgiving as it allows me to enjoy certain films with what some would consider as mediocre CGI without it ruining my viewing experience.
I think the worst part about the Planes Trains & Automobiles 4K are the new special features. The fact they're only on a 4K with horrific DNR and lacklustre audio with no Blu-Ray alternative most likely proves that Paramount rushed the release out in time for Thanksgiving, not giving enough time for an actual 4K restoration, especially for a holiday classic like Planes Trains & Automobiles as most of the attention was towards the unearthed special features.
Thank you so much for making this video. I had no idea there were issues with the 12 Monkeys disc. I haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Just finished the replacement request through Arrow.
Thanks for the video! I bought the 12 Monkeys disc a few months ago and didn't know about the issue. Funny thing is I bought it after the replacement program started and still ended up with the error disc. I probably never would have known if I hadn't seen this vid. Cheers!
Heat had a lot of blooming which has more to do with lcd tv, but surprised how the lighting appeared off at time to where I had to adjust tv from normal settings.
You're right about wanting videos like these for a reference - as someone who is mostly buying films fresh (not upgrading from previous releases), I tend to assume by default that the UHD blu-ray is the best format. I guess what I would really like (maybe you could do this as a video you update every year or 6 months?) is a definitive list of releases where that isn't the case, and there are superior non-4K older release (e.g. Terminator 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Apollo 11 doco with the pink tint, that sort of thing).
Information isn’t always positive. Objectivity should be a North Star (which I think you do a great job of) and without sharing disappointment and why it’s hard to show up as objective. Happy New Years!
1. Pirates of the carrbian curse of the black pearl 2. Planes trains & automobiles 3. Saturday night fever 4. Heat 5. 12 monkeys (only recall issue) 6. The Beatles - a hard day's night (another recall) 7. Escape from la (audio sync issue recall)
You mention the jumbled cutting in the 4K disc for A Hard Day's Night. I experienced something similar with my 4K disc for District 9 when I got it. It's the scene where Wikus's arm is being tested with the alien weapons. A small chunk of the scene is duplicated and overlapped on audio that doesn't sync a couple seconds before it plays again in sync with the correct audio. Sony has yet to take notice, or they just don't care.
D9 is one of the all time worst movies I've ever seen. If someone gave it to me for free, I'd immediately throw it in the garbage. No doubt, the people making the 4K edition couldn't stand to watch it one more time.
Let's also remember that Saturday Night Fever 4K also has a neutered audio track too. WHY did they break it? As far as anything from Disney, the BD66 and lack of Dolby Vision (only HRD10) is killing their discs. They are intentionally making the HDR10 version dark and offering the brighter Dolby Vision transfer to streaming only. As far as disc replacements, I tried doing some with Disney a couple years later and they said too bad, out of luck.
amazon is allegedly still selling the Mad Max anthology with the wrong audio mixes from last year, people may be thinking they are getting a deal on it but it’s the wrong set
Happy New Year everyone...may we have a great physical media year in 2023!! You wonder if studios are really doing their disc mastering in house or are they, more and more, quietly using indifferent independent facilities so they can cut more of their costs and staff. At least there are still great specialty labels like Arrow and Shout Factory, but it is sad how the movie studios are now even shoving their packaged media sales to the bottom of their financial reports and putting the emphasis on their streaming channel futures... Bring back the mid-2000s Golden Age of home entertainment:)
Your reasoning on why the 4K of Heat is disappointing is very refreshing. Accessibility for all is important, regardless of if they have an OLED or LED. You're a man of the people! Keep on keepin' on, I love your videos!
You don’t need an oled to watch Heat 4K. The film looks just as it is intended to look but a lot of people are used to seeing the overly brightened sdr bluray. Moral of the story..get your tv settings and viewing environment sorted.
@@Gurminder_S In 2018, I bought what I consider to be a pretty higher-mid/high end 4K LED (Samsung NU8000). Fine tuned it to be as accurate as possible, always viewed in a completely dark room. 4K disks were still way too dark. I can see why the new Heat disk would be a turn off for those who only have an LED.
@@MrChuck1928 my tv is an led tv. Sony X90J and the film looks great. It’s filmic, atmospheric and just as Mann wants it to look. The look represents the themes of the film in a perfect way. It’s a very cinematic and moody film and the previous Blu-ray just didn’t do the film any justice imo.
Visually speaking I really think quite a lot of movies aren't worth upgrading to 4k. Especially movies with lots of visual effects, miniatures, matte paintings and so on made before the 2000s. They give away too much of the old "magic" tricks. And the thing is that the most recent movies aren't also worth watching on 4K in my opinion because as I gather, CGI technicians do not work on 4k because of the humongous amount of memory/storage space it would take to do so. In terms o colour correction issues I might agree. Some movies like the LOTR trilogy may actually benefit from the upgrade.
It's not a negative list. If these multi million/billion $$$ companies did it right to start with, these movies would not be in this list. Great job Jeff!!!! Happy new year.
Did you do a review of Used Cars on 4k from Shout Factory? If not, it’s a great 80s movie to have for 4K, but there’s one shot in there when I watched it that was completely a blur between focus and color grading
Considering the cost of 4K movies, it is expected that the companies deliver at least decent quality that stays above Blu-ray and defenitely over DVD. It is bad when the colors in a 4K is worse then on the DVD version made several years prior (!). Love your reviews and honest reviews !!!
One thing, among many, I think you do very well is to give balanced opinions and you do not fall in to the all to common trap of: "worst/best ever!". Keep up the good work!
It's always subjective, but I'm going to have to agree with Paramount here. Their Planes, Trains & Automobiles 4K UHD Blu-Ray looks the best I've ever seen the film look. I'm playing it on the Sony UBP-X1100ES with Sony X95H combo in Custom profile with Motionflow & Cinemotion turned off. I watched in both HDR-10 (with Sony 12-bit 4-2-2 up-conversion enabled) and in Dolby Vision. It's not 100% consistent, but it is true to the source. Remember, PTAA was conceived long before the digital era, so differing film/cameras had to be used for different scenes. When shooting on film, grain will vary greatly with exposure settings, film stock and so on. The NY chase scene, for example, clearly wasn't filmed the same as much of the rest. However, I found grain to look consistent (relative to the apparent exposure) throughout & PTAA never looked better! Paramount, if you're reading this, when are we going to get Ferris Beuller's Day Off 4K restoration? No other John Hughes film is in such dire need of a restoration IMHO.
One thing that came up when they talked to you about Planes was they viewed it and it sounded like they might say compression can cause an issue. I wonder if they're only watching their master release copy before it's compressed to be put on the discs and that's what they were comparing against and not actually looking at the final product when they responded?
Let's be honest. Nobody is watching anything. No version is being watched. They have no pride in their job and they're schlocking them out without even checking which scenes are in what order. They're basically taking orders at McDonalds and cramming it into a bag for you. There ya go.
It’s no surprise that this year has been the best for 4k releases. We’re getting over our crazy fear of Covid and even though 4k has been around for years, a lot of people were on the fence because they got tired of buying all the different formats for their favorite movies. It’s like everyone was waiting to see if 4k would stick around or if it would die a slow death. Well it looks like it will stick around but things like these disappointing releases will just make people wary again. Hollywood needs to take this seriously and put more effort into these transfers. You’d think they’d want to make money but they’re acting like we owe them something.
Well, with Paramount announcing that Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West being released on 4K this coming year, hope Paramount has their act together on that one.
Glad I watched this, as I was unaware of the Escape From LA disc. I just got it from Amazon during Black Friday deals. It has the white UPC. I found site and filled out info. Thanks for heads up!
I gotta totally agree with you on Planes Trains and Automobiles. I've never seen the movie prior to me buying it but I knew I'd love it based on the cast. I really enjoyed the movie itself and unfortunately the quality of the 4k image was so bad I had to return it. Truly a sad day indeed.
My biggest disappointments are tied. They would be receiving damaged items due to pathetic packaging and receiving day 1 copies of movies that already have scratches on them straight from the factory. It seriously ruins this hobby for me. Instead of being excited about a package coming in the mail, I am mostly just focused on the condition of everything. I still occasionally buy audio CDs and I still regularly buy games on disc and while they can still be damaged in transit, the discs are always immaculate straight from the factory. This is a movie industry-specific problem.
Don't get too worked up about small things. And here's a tip that might help you. Take your scratched discs to a local shop that sells used video games and have them polish the discs. They'll have a pro polisher. Buy them a 6 pack of beer from the store next door. Actually, you might rather just buy a motorized disc polisher for yourself. They work very well. I say it's better to put your energies into solutions than stress.
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 Yeah, I don't think so. If I buy a brand new product, then it should come in brand new condition. This didn't used to happen. They have obviously cut corners while raising prices and something they did has resulted in very poor quality control. I have heavily used discs from the 90s that are still spotless and these idiots can't even transfer brand new discs one time from the workstation that made the disc to the workstation that puts it in the case without scratching the disc along the way. Seriously, go buy 50 brand new games and 50 brand new CDs. Odds are, you will have 100 pristine discs. Go buy 10 brand new 4K movies, odds are, at least a few of them will be all scratched up.
It is important to amplify failures as they are the best way to develop understanding. Nothing is perfect, but people will hold off on buying any Blu Ray if no one will tell them what to watch out for.
When a 65" TV is considered a monitor even by companies. And here I was wanting to upgrade my 40 something inch TV to a 65. Apparently that's small now lol
Too dim, until oled…. Thats usually the opposite my friend. I’d like to know what your previous tv was cause it sounds like it couldnt hit high big window nits
Pirates of the Caribbean in 4K is redundant, because the original Blu ray movie was better and had lots of bonus features! Also this year, lot of retailers are discontinuing 4K Blu Rays for classic movies. They’re no longer having a shelf space for 4K movies anymore, it’s just a DVD Blu ray combo pack at Target and Walmart!
Want something more positive? Here’s my Top 10 4K UHD of 2022 video: ruclips.net/video/nZZL8-3dfaI/видео.html
These 'worst' videos are much more helpful, because people just want to buy movies they like, but they want to be aware of lemons.
It's just the practical reality. Life isn't a cheerleading squad. And there's probably some agenda to push people to 'streaming only'.
We know you didn't want to be negative, but this really helps us!
Thanks for this info Jeff! Just want to wish you and the family a Happy New Years!
Your view doesn't seem to make any sense! Are you going to not let us know about bad movies because they're bad if you're a movie reviewer? The same is said true about reviewing the quality of discs! But I guess that's just me. The way that you're circling around trying to avoid the word worst is very cringe! Like really really cringe.
@@JimmyTheItalianMovieguy 👍
While I know you don't like making these, I think they're a necessary evil. Especially to remind people in the holiday season which 4ks to avoid. Appreciate it man, have a great new year 👍
It's not evil. When companies put out a bad product, the only remedy is to tell all the customers about it. Otherwise, they're going to keep crapping all over you and your giant 4K television. "Uh, did you try turning off motion smoothing?"
@hxhdfj ifzir st c I'm more referring to when he said he didn't like making these videos because it spreads negativity, and he wanted to celebrate physical media.
But yes, that response was ridiculous. "oh I see you're a channel that specialises in 4K blu rays and has been doing so for at least 5 years, you musy have no clue what you're doing"
I love that you've become my go to channel for 4K releases! It's actually a really good community here at your channel.
Thank you! That means a lot. All I’ve ever wanted was to create a solid community
You nailed it man, kept it all in perspective while informing people where they should look out. This is the right format for this video, other channels should take note. You should be proud not only for listening to feedback, but for incorporating the feedback into your goals for a positive channel. Well done.
Thanks for doing this. This isn't "negative" content. This is content that keeps some pressure on companies to put out high quality products and that's a positive thing! Be interesting to have a very nerdy follow-up video that explores how the industry does try to balance brightness among monitors like OLED vs others. Maybe do a podcast with some TV engineer willing to do it where you can ask lots of technical questions.
This was very helpful especially for the budget conscious collector like me. I may be only able to grab a few 4K movies every few months and being able to avoid problematic or disappointing disks is key. I understand you don’t want to amplify the negative but in this case I see this as a public service for collectors in general. Great job!
when I first started buying 4k movies I was replacing a lot that I had on Blu ray
I realized 4K doesn't always mean better and now I look at different reviews before purchasing
Thank you! This is reassuring because it allows the consumer to hear perspectives from others in order to avoid purchasing these films. Studios like Disney need to listen!
Or at least Disney should let Criterion or KINO do their 4k movies.
I was so disappointed with the Pirates 4k, I love that trilogy so much and to see Disney put no effort into making a quality disk was so disappointing. Luckily the old Blu rays have excellent video and audio so we can still enjoy those.
it was probably to spite johnny depp, they fired him before the trial was over. kind of makes sense
@@SumDumGy lol true
So sad... Pirates of the Carib collection is one of my most favorite blu ray sets & most anticipated 4k sets. heres to hoping if one waits for the complete set.. Disney will get it right!
Yeah its def a silver lining that the BDs were excellent.
Probably a similar story across the board with Disney: They were top tier with BD, esp in the early days, so on the one hand its very sad they've fallen so far, but pragmatically: makes it easy for me to save my money and just stick with my BDs when it comes to disney.
Unless of course.... There weren't any BD releases of certain movies that they own... say by a certain famous film maker, who's currently relevant again after a decade..
Rumors are really building for The Abyss this year, and True Lies just all of a sudden appeared on Disney+, the stream is HD but looks old and average.. rumors always have the Cameron movies bunched together for 4k release.. We are going to see a nervous collectors community this year I think... The way things stand:
Avatar: Good BD, likely to 4k this year, HDR will be critical
Titanic: Good BD, likely to 4k this year
Abyss: No BD, No good version at all yet, likely to 4k this year
True Lies: No BD*, 4k unknown.. *There's a spanish bluray of all places, but if the new D+ stream is indicative of quality, I can understand why it didnt see wider release..
@@mattr8750 yes! Disney used to have the best transfers back in the day. They were fantastic and now they have the worst, it’s sad.
This video is much better and more informative than last year. Thanks for not complaining about packaging and focusing on the transfers.
The Road warrior also had sound issues that had to be recalled. To Warner brothers credit. They sent me an updated corrected release AND complete mad max 4K set to make up for it which was really awesome.
Wow that’s a very generous compensation!
@@nickchang5293 absolutely. I didn’t send an “angry” email either. Just to be clear. Lol. Just the standard replacement request. Was a very cool, random surprise.
how long ago did you get a replacement disc? WB emailed me a confirmation but never sent one out… what a headache
@@CoinOpTV it was several months ago. Maybe 2-3? It randomly arrived without a heads up. Email them again. That’s annoying.
I didn't find the Atmos downmix to 5.1 "defective" at all and Warner included the 1080p blu-ray with the 4K if I want to hear the old "quaint" 5.1 mix, so no complaints here.
It was your review of Pirates earlier in the year that made me cancel
my order. As uncomfortable as the type of video might be you are very appreciated for making it. Thanks for all you do for the hobby and for the future of physical media. Happy New Year!
Bottom line for 2023 wait for reviews on Disney & Paramount 4k movies.
@@ricogomez4020 Good thing Paramount's Top Gun: Maverick 4k was a winner though.
I somehow hadn't heard about the 12 Monkeys and A Hard Day's Night recalls (although I think I bought the latter late enough that it doesn't matter; I'll be checking, though). Just applied for the 12 Monkeys replacement disc. Thank you so much for making this video; I may never have heard about the replacements otherwise. Love your channel! You really are performing a public service with these videos.
Disney seems to have a reputation for mastering their 4K Catalogue for streaming first, and physical as an afterthought. Low-bitrate encodes and film grain don't seem to get along, so they scrub movies with DNR so they look better on Disney+
I definitely understand how you wanted to focus more on the positives rather than the negatives, I do think that videos like this are still very helpful and informative for us to make better purchasing choices. And I think this video was well done; there is no need to completely bash and trash-talk companies and whatnot and be nasty, but rather explaining what the issues are with these discs and what you think makes them bad (with the positive and constructive goal of being helpful and informative) like you did here.
I wonder if Disney purposely did shoddy work on their 4K transfers to steer people to their streaming service. The outgoing CEO was big on growing Disney's streaming service. Maybe the new & returning CEO will focus on better 4K transfers and quality.
Probably something like they can say "Look! Our streaming video looks as good as a 4K disc!"
I doubt it's on purpose. It's just their mindset. Much of Disney's stuff tends to be rather effortless these days. They think they can maximize profit with shoddy products and making everything woke. It's pretty surprising that they haven't learned yet. Disney grew big on quality, but it seems they have forgotten.
@@thenonexistinghero This conversation isn't about political leanings or theory. This is about business practices regarding quality products for consumers and collectors. Take a day off.
7. Pirates of the Caribbean
6. Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
5. Saturday Night Fever
4. Heat
3. 12 Monkeys
2. A Hard Day’s Night
1. Escape from LA
The only one on this list that I might have bought was Heat.
Escape from la is bad no matter what transfer its on
Props and respect to you for still doing a video on the most disappointing list and yea it’s different than a worst list in my eyes. Happy New Year 🎉
speaking of recalls - anyone ever get their Road Warrior 4k disc replacement from WB? Never got mine… bummer
Thank you so much for doing this list. I understand your position about keeping it positive, but it is nice, at least for me, to have year in summary lists like this from someone whose opinion I trust to refer back to when looking to purchase movies. Have a great new year!
Mine was Heat (1995). A 3 hour + movie crammed on a BD-66.
Is the blu ray disc included in the Pirates 4k new or from a previous release?
Thanks for the heads up on Escape from LA. I bought it when it released, white upc. I don't know how I missed the news. :(
Need to know what 4K discs to avoid to prevent regret. This video is a public service, here’s your like
Knowing which disks to avoid is just as important to a collector as knowing which disks to prioritize. If I'm paying 4K prices, I expect 4K quality, you know? This is very useful information to have, so don't regret putting out videos like this.
Happy New Year! Love the channel....🧨❤️
I received my Escape from LA replacement UHD months ago and the quality is simply amazing.
Even on a perfectly calibrated OLED, there are certain scenes in Heat that are too dark. A good one for comparison purposes is the scene where Pacino picks up Natalie Portman from the bus stop. It's a scene in broad daylight and it looks oddly shaded, like watching it through sunglasses, while the blu-ray version looks like natural daylight. It's like they applied some a blanket color-grading filter to the whole film, rather than going scene by scene. And it is disappointing, because Heat is a film that's never had a perfect home-video transfer. Remember the weird DVD release that had an incorrect aspect ratio that stretched all the actor's heads vertically? Ughh. Maybe one day Heat will have a truly definitive release, but we're not there yet.
Regarding Heat wouldn’t it look better on some of the QLED’s that are known to get really bright?
Happy New Year Jeff! Thanks for the content and congrats on 100k
Dont think you can ever get clear no noise movies from 90’s backwards. Even saving private Ryan which I see you thought was great still had that grain look to it. Is this normal?
Grain is part of how the film was made. If you're trying to remove it you're doing it wrong. It's like colourising B&W films, a bad idea😉
Happy new year. Just wanted to say thank you for all the great info. I recently picked up a Sony oled TV on sale using info from your channel. Congratulations on 100k this year.
I don't care for UHD discs in the same way I don't care for the soap opera effect: they look either unnatural or too natural, blurring the line between fiction and reality. A nature documentary in UHD can be fabulous, but a fiction film in UHD can detract from the experience. I'm quite happy with Blu-ray and sometimes with 4K (non-UHD) Blu-ray.
I got replacement discs for 12 Monkeys, Escape from LA and A Hard Days Night. I heard that from a projectionist in UK that Heat was dark in the cinema when first shown so the master was closer to directors intention.
Great video Jeff.
Regarding Heat. It is actually a near perfect representation of it's theatrical release. There's a channel called Movie Collector run by a John Clancy. Not only did he remember the film looking dark when he saw it in theatre on release but 2 Cinema projectionists confirmed it was a dark print. One of them even thought his projectors lamp was on its way out so changed screens. His comment is pinned to the top of the comments in John's review of Heat. John also knows a lot about actual film and the processes used back in the day.
I too find it sad that people with cheaper TVs are missing out but the film/TV industry works to a set of picture standards and I don't think it's right for them to compromise on a movies look just so everyone can enjoy it. That's not presenting the film makers true vision that was originally intended. That would be like saying "You did an amazing painting but we are going to change it so a wider audience will like it" Artists don't do work for everyone, They mostly work for what they like and hopefully other people like it.
Believe me I wish everyone could see and hear these titles in the best way possible without having to remortgage their house.
Trevor
Yes, when it comes to 4K releases on disc, John is by far the most knowledgeable reviewer out there. I am surprised his channel does not have more subscribers.
@@michaeldee3380 Yes a lot of people wait for John's reviews. He does have 30k subs and his channel is only 2 years old. Also he's not a prolific poster.
I think when he interviewed me it became his most viewed video which he's now surpassed. We are hoping to do another collaboration at some point possibly regarding picture.
I love Jeff's channel, I've been watching it for years but he still has quite a bit to learn. Despite my time in the disc manufacturing industry there's still so much I don't know. My channel is tiny compared to John and Jeff's.
Trevor
@@doublebillmovies I have learnt so much from John's channel. What I also appreciate is that he goes out of his way to respond when a question is raised about a particular topic. I had a very interesting exchange with him about CGI and the way this is perceived by the viewer, i.e. some find it more distracting than others (when not executed correctly) and this will therefore ruin their viewing experience. My main takeaway from John's postings is that good 4K discs sourced from film come very close to what the movie would have looked like in the cinema.
I will check out your channel. Keep up the good work!
P.S. John was right about his review of Heat, the only one who was positive regarding the transfer. He is also a lot more forgiving about Saturday Night Fever which I watched a few days ago. Unlike John I remember exactly what the picture looked like in the cinema and the 4K transfer comes pretty close. Again, I think it's because people have a preconceived idea of how a film should look like but fail to understand that the source material will always be a limiting factor.
@@michaeldee3380 The problem I had with CGI for decades was getting the lighting wrong. It seems to be mostly down to how they could render what they had created and the limitations of the software.
They would though have properly calibrated monitors and the CG image would look better on those monitors than after the final video compression applied when putting the finished film on DVD. Which would of course limit the dynamic range of the image.
I better most films looked better in the cinema from 35mm because the CGI wouldn't be compressed in anyway as it was going on film. Once DVD came along and no one's TV would have even been set up picture wise, let alone professionally calibrated. The CGI would look awful. Thus everyone complained.
Even now very few viewers will have set there TV or projector up correctly and in most cases will only have relatively cheap TVs/projectors. Nothing below a few grand even set up will do justice to the actual image on the disc. Half the time, the image things people complain about can be improved with some simple settings and almost fixed with higher end equipment.
We don't all have money for it so the problem will persist.
Trevor
@@doublebillmovies Excellent point. I have long wondered why CGI can sometimes look so awful and never realized that this could be down to compression and lighting. With John from moviecollector we had a discussion about this very topic.
I never saw Jurassic Park in the cinema. My first experience of the movie was on my own home theater setup in the late 90s (Laserdisc image in 480p displayed onto an 8ft wide screen from a professionally calibrated CRT projector) and the results were simply breath-taking, at least to my eyes.
Recently I revisited the film in 4K Ultra HD and what a disappointment it turned out to be, the rendition of the dinosaurs was so distracting to the point of making the film nearly unwatchable.
I thought that this was due to the higher resolution. John claimed that when he first saw JP in the cinema the CGI did not look that great, although most people at the time would have had a completely different experience.
The way we perceive an image is highly subjective. My brother who is in the movie making business is far more discriminating than me. I am happy that my eyes are more forgiving as it allows me to enjoy certain films with what some would consider as mediocre CGI without it ruining my viewing experience.
I should have watched this video earlier lol. I just placed an order the other day that included both PTA and Saturday Night Fever!
I think the worst part about the Planes Trains & Automobiles 4K are the new special features. The fact they're only on a 4K with horrific DNR and lacklustre audio with no Blu-Ray alternative most likely proves that Paramount rushed the release out in time for Thanksgiving, not giving enough time for an actual 4K restoration, especially for a holiday classic like Planes Trains & Automobiles as most of the attention was towards the unearthed special features.
And a very very happy new year Jeff to you and the family too, keep up the great work in 2023 🥂
Thank you so much for making this video. I had no idea there were issues with the 12 Monkeys disc. I haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Just finished the replacement request through Arrow.
Thanks for the video! I bought the 12 Monkeys disc a few months ago and didn't know about the issue. Funny thing is I bought it after the replacement program started and still ended up with the error disc. I probably never would have known if I hadn't seen this vid. Cheers!
I bought my first 4k in December and it is something I always wanted.. The Matrix series
Heat had a lot of blooming which has more to do with lcd tv, but surprised how the lighting appeared off at time to where I had to adjust tv from normal settings.
I appreciate these vids just hope they never stop making discs at all
You're right about wanting videos like these for a reference - as someone who is mostly buying films fresh (not upgrading from previous releases), I tend to assume by default that the UHD blu-ray is the best format. I guess what I would really like (maybe you could do this as a video you update every year or 6 months?) is a definitive list of releases where that isn't the case, and there are superior non-4K older release (e.g. Terminator 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Apollo 11 doco with the pink tint, that sort of thing).
Information isn’t always positive. Objectivity should be a North Star (which I think you do a great job of) and without sharing disappointment and why it’s hard to show up as objective.
Happy New Years!
1. Pirates of the carrbian curse of the black pearl
2. Planes trains & automobiles
3. Saturday night fever
4. Heat
5. 12 monkeys (only recall issue)
6. The Beatles - a hard day's night (another recall)
7. Escape from la (audio sync issue recall)
I didn't know about the Escape from LA issue. Thanks for the heads up.
By public demand!
Wishing you and your family a wonderful New Year and a great 2023, Jeff.
You mention the jumbled cutting in the 4K disc for A Hard Day's Night. I experienced something similar with my 4K disc for District 9 when I got it. It's the scene where Wikus's arm is being tested with the alien weapons. A small chunk of the scene is duplicated and overlapped on audio that doesn't sync a couple seconds before it plays again in sync with the correct audio. Sony has yet to take notice, or they just don't care.
D9 is one of the all time worst movies I've ever seen. If someone gave it to me for free, I'd immediately throw it in the garbage. No doubt, the people making the 4K edition couldn't stand to watch it one more time.
Sounds like a branching issue, maybe? Are there extended/outake versions of that scene you can watch?
2022 was the year I got into 4K discs and back into physical media. 🎉
Thanks Jeff, another great video after an excellent year from you. Thanks for what you do!
$5.00 Paramount 4k price drops? $7.99 maybe on Black Friday. But I never see Paramount drop the UHD titles to $5.00.
Let's also remember that Saturday Night Fever 4K also has a neutered audio track too. WHY did they break it? As far as anything from Disney, the BD66 and lack of Dolby Vision (only HRD10) is killing their discs. They are intentionally making the HDR10 version dark and offering the brighter Dolby Vision transfer to streaming only. As far as disc replacements, I tried doing some with Disney a couple years later and they said too bad, out of luck.
amazon is allegedly still selling the Mad Max anthology with the wrong audio mixes from last year, people may be thinking they are getting a deal on it but it’s the wrong set
Thank you for letting me know about Escape from L.A.! Love the channel! Happy New Year!
Happy New Year everyone...may we have a great physical media year in 2023!! You wonder if studios are really doing their disc mastering in house or are they, more and more, quietly using indifferent independent facilities so they can cut more of their costs and staff. At least there are still great specialty labels like Arrow and Shout Factory, but it is sad how the movie studios are now even shoving their packaged media sales to the bottom of their financial reports and putting the emphasis on their streaming channel futures... Bring back the mid-2000s Golden Age of home entertainment:)
Your reasoning on why the 4K of Heat is disappointing is very refreshing. Accessibility for all is important, regardless of if they have an OLED or LED. You're a man of the people! Keep on keepin' on, I love your videos!
You don’t need an oled to watch Heat 4K. The film looks just as it is intended to look but a lot of people are used to seeing the overly brightened sdr bluray.
Moral of the story..get your tv settings and viewing environment sorted.
@@Gurminder_S In 2018, I bought what I consider to be a pretty higher-mid/high end 4K LED (Samsung NU8000). Fine tuned it to be as accurate as possible, always viewed in a completely dark room. 4K disks were still way too dark. I can see why the new Heat disk would be a turn off for those who only have an LED.
@@MrChuck1928 my tv is an led tv. Sony X90J and the film looks great. It’s filmic, atmospheric and just as Mann wants it to look. The look represents the themes of the film in a perfect way. It’s a very cinematic and moody film and the previous Blu-ray just didn’t do the film any justice imo.
We asked and he delivered!!! Thank you for doing this. Happy new year, hopefully it's better all around
Visually speaking I really think quite a lot of movies aren't worth upgrading to 4k. Especially movies with lots of visual effects, miniatures, matte paintings and so on made before the 2000s. They give away too much of the old "magic" tricks. And the thing is that the most recent movies aren't also worth watching on 4K in my opinion because as I gather, CGI technicians do not work on 4k because of the humongous amount of memory/storage space it would take to do so.
In terms o colour correction issues I might agree. Some movies like the LOTR trilogy may actually benefit from the upgrade.
Hi how much time you spend on watching movies per week?
I'm building my own personal physical media collection. Do you have your steelbooks separate or do you keep them with the same movies?
@@SumDumGy Electric dehumidifiers are extremely inexpensive.
@@SumDumGy Maybe try coating the metal in a very light film of oil. Not too much!
Heat. Little dark 🔦. Even on my oled, some scenes were not bright enough . Clarity and colors looked amazing.
They filmed some scenes with no lights on. AT NIGHT. It's supposed to be dark at night.
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 dumb. Night scenes looked good. Just dumb
Last year having to do the disc replacement for Donnie Darko was a pain in the ass.
Hi what did you think of 48 hrs/Another 48 hrs ? thanks
Great videos ! Happy new year guys 🎉
It's not a negative list. If these multi million/billion $$$ companies did it right to start with, these movies would not be in this list. Great job Jeff!!!! Happy new year.
Love the positivity from this vid. Great work g!
Did you do a review of Used Cars on 4k from Shout Factory? If not, it’s a great 80s movie to have for 4K, but there’s one shot in there when I watched it that was completely a blur between focus and color grading
Considering the cost of 4K movies, it is expected that the companies deliver at least decent quality that stays above Blu-ray and defenitely over DVD. It is bad when the colors in a 4K is worse then on the DVD version made several years prior (!).
Love your reviews and honest reviews !!!
One thing, among many, I think you do very well is to give balanced opinions and you do not fall in to the all to common trap of: "worst/best ever!". Keep up the good work!
It's always subjective, but I'm going to have to agree with Paramount here. Their Planes, Trains & Automobiles 4K UHD Blu-Ray looks the best I've ever seen the film look. I'm playing it on the Sony UBP-X1100ES with Sony X95H combo in Custom profile with Motionflow & Cinemotion turned off. I watched in both HDR-10 (with Sony 12-bit 4-2-2 up-conversion enabled) and in Dolby Vision.
It's not 100% consistent, but it is true to the source. Remember, PTAA was conceived long before the digital era, so differing film/cameras had to be used for different scenes. When shooting on film, grain will vary greatly with exposure settings, film stock and so on.
The NY chase scene, for example, clearly wasn't filmed the same as much of the rest.
However, I found grain to look consistent (relative to the apparent exposure) throughout & PTAA never looked better!
Paramount, if you're reading this, when are we going to get Ferris Beuller's Day Off 4K restoration? No other John Hughes film is in such dire need of a restoration IMHO.
One thing that came up when they talked to you about Planes was they viewed it and it sounded like they might say compression can cause an issue. I wonder if they're only watching their master release copy before it's compressed to be put on the discs and that's what they were comparing against and not actually looking at the final product when they responded?
Let's be honest. Nobody is watching anything. No version is being watched. They have no pride in their job and they're schlocking them out without even checking which scenes are in what order. They're basically taking orders at McDonalds and cramming it into a bag for you. There ya go.
The most important vid of the year.
Happy New Year!
All the best in 2023.
Jeff, love the videos, what's your hoodie?
It’s no surprise that this year has been the best for 4k releases. We’re getting over our crazy fear of Covid and even though 4k has been around for years, a lot of people were on the fence because they got tired of buying all the different formats for their favorite movies. It’s like everyone was waiting to see if 4k would stick around or if it would die a slow death. Well it looks like it will stick around but things like these disappointing releases will just make people wary again. Hollywood needs to take this seriously and put more effort into these transfers. You’d think they’d want to make money but they’re acting like we owe them something.
Well, with Paramount announcing that Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West being released on 4K this coming year, hope Paramount has their act together on that one.
At least Arrow and Criterion admitted there were problems. Kino, as far as I know, still says their Silence of the Lambs 4K disc looks terrific.
Glad I watched this, as I was unaware of the Escape From LA disc. I just got it from Amazon during Black Friday deals. It has the white UPC. I found site and filled out info. Thanks for heads up!
These videos are very important for physical media collectors. Please don't shy away because of some negativity.
What’s your opinion of iTunes 4K movies vs the disk
Do you have a Letterboxd account? Wouldn't mind following you on there too
I gotta totally agree with you on Planes Trains and Automobiles. I've never seen the movie prior to me buying it but I knew I'd love it based on the cast. I really enjoyed the movie itself and unfortunately the quality of the 4k image was so bad I had to return it. Truly a sad day indeed.
What about the craft from shout/scream factory?
Happy New year bro. I agree with your honest review. I already have all thses movies on blu-ray and did not upgrade to 4k.
My biggest disappointments are tied. They would be receiving damaged items due to pathetic packaging and receiving day 1 copies of movies that already have scratches on them straight from the factory. It seriously ruins this hobby for me. Instead of being excited about a package coming in the mail, I am mostly just focused on the condition of everything. I still occasionally buy audio CDs and I still regularly buy games on disc and while they can still be damaged in transit, the discs are always immaculate straight from the factory. This is a movie industry-specific problem.
Don't get too worked up about small things. And here's a tip that might help you. Take your scratched discs to a local shop that sells used video games and have them polish the discs. They'll have a pro polisher. Buy them a 6 pack of beer from the store next door.
Actually, you might rather just buy a motorized disc polisher for yourself. They work very well.
I say it's better to put your energies into solutions than stress.
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 Yeah, I don't think so. If I buy a brand new product, then it should come in brand new condition. This didn't used to happen. They have obviously cut corners while raising prices and something they did has resulted in very poor quality control. I have heavily used discs from the 90s that are still spotless and these idiots can't even transfer brand new discs one time from the workstation that made the disc to the workstation that puts it in the case without scratching the disc along the way. Seriously, go buy 50 brand new games and 50 brand new CDs. Odds are, you will have 100 pristine discs. Go buy 10 brand new 4K movies, odds are, at least a few of them will be all scratched up.
Great video Jeff, love the content and can't wait to see what you've got in store for 2023!
Happy new year! Here’s to a 2023 filled with great releases and crisp remasters🙏🔥 keep the reviews coming
It is important to amplify failures as they are the best way to develop understanding. Nothing is perfect, but people will hold off on buying any Blu Ray if no one will tell them what to watch out for.
If not for your video- I wouldn’t have known that 12 Monkeys and Hard Days Night had issues. Doing the recalls. Thanks for the heads up.
When a 65" TV is considered a monitor even by companies. And here I was wanting to upgrade my 40 something inch TV to a 65. Apparently that's small now lol
Good compromise. Happy new year!
Too dim, until oled…. Thats usually the opposite my friend. I’d like to know what your previous tv was cause it sounds like it couldnt hit high big window nits
Happy new year 2023 films at home and everyone🎆🙂
Wow I never knew about the escape from LA , now I’m going to have to check mine. Great video
Pirates of the Caribbean in 4K is redundant, because the original Blu ray movie was better and had lots of bonus features! Also this year, lot of retailers are discontinuing 4K Blu Rays for classic movies. They’re no longer having a shelf space for 4K movies anymore, it’s just a DVD Blu ray combo pack at Target and Walmart!
Happy new year 2023 Jeff and Family..
Happy new year Jeff
Why do so many of us have trouble with hearing dialogue audio ( in any format)?
And why doesn't the industry fix it???
8:42 i agree. But sadly….hdr isnt budget consumer friendly.
Most $1,000 tvs should be able to hit those high nits but they dont
will you review the terrifier 2 4K by any chance?