2023 Damn Fool Awards: The worst physical media disc releases of 2023
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- Опубликовано: 21 июл 2024
- #physicalmedia #worstdiscs #bluray #4kuhd
These are my awards for the worst in physical media and catalog title masters for the calendar year of 2023. There were unfortunately many compromised releases and masters but two so outshone the others that they dominate these awards: the desecration of American Graffiti and the Warner studio release of the Fleischer Superman cartoons.
And the specter of James Cameron looms large…
00:00 Intro goof
00:00:32 Introduction
02:24 WTF disc of the year:
04:03 Worst artwork:
05:05 Most disappointing audio:
05:48 Worst audio:
05:56 Worst over processing of preexisting audio source:
06:33 Worst audio desecration:
07:51 Disc most ruined by no original audio:
08:21 Cheapest feeling and least effort boxset:
09:38 Worst 4K UHD picture quality:
12:04 Worst Blu-ray Picture Quality:
13:21 Worst encoding, UHD:
14:21 Worst Encoding BD:
15:12 Dumbest Encoding UHD:
15:43 Dumbest Encoding BD:
16:04 Worst HDR:
16:47 Worst Supplemental Feature:
21:54 Most problematic and error ridden disc:
23:03 Most problematic boxset:
25:00 Cheapest reissue practices:
26:17 Most annoying reissue practice:
28:36 New Low for Film Preservation: James Cameron 4K remasters
29:53 Lifetime Achievement Award for continued Video Idiocy: James Cameron
30:09 Worst UHD of the Year:
32:25 Worst Blu-ray of the Year:
33:23 Special Award for Video Incompetence-
34:38 Worst disc of the year:
36:57 Top 10 worst
37:18 #10
37:34 #9
37:55 #8
38:24 #7
39:03 #6
40:02 #5
40:48 #4
41:03 #3
42:04 #2
42:36 #1
42:58 Final Summary
45:47 Outro Goof 
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Last year, I foolishly sampled the 4K editions of True Lies and Aliens on VOD, and I literally could not believe what I was seeing. True Lies was especially hard hit and made me feel like I was watching a rotoscoped feature from Richard Linklater and not a live-action spy movie from James Cameron. That Lifetime Achievement Award for Revisionism is well deserved.
I’d also like to say that you deserve your own award for the job you’re doing here. Thank you for making us, the physical media collectors, aware of a lot of the shoddy releases that are put out by studios and distributors on a regular basis. Not only do you save me a lot of money every year, but you also make me appreciate all the different editions I have across varying formats, whether it be one of the movies highlighted in this video or something else entirely. Keep up the good work!
Gosh, thank you so much! I really try to cram in as much research and info as I can into these videos. I knew Titanic's inclusion would generate discussion and a lot of comments but that's why I felt it so important to include. Any degree of the Cameronizing on these new masters is an immediate no-no.
The upcoming disc releases of the other three Cameron masters are just so disheartening and I'm going to finally do a video on the Cameron video craziness. As much as everyone has wanted these films on a new release for years these are just unforgivable. Most of all I'm really worried about what precedent this sets moving forward. We don't need others to follow in Cameron's footsteps.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader The way I see it, the use of AI to remaster older films is every bit as harmful to our cultural heritage as Ted Turner’s colorization of classic films in the late 1980s. However, because AI performs a type of remastering that the average movie watcher will probably find harder to spot outright than something as drastic as colorization, I fear this will not be met with the same level of outrage - although it is certainly deserving of it. Of course, to commit this atrocity against Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, and Titanic, Cameron got a little help from his friend, Peter Jackson, whose company Park Row Post handled the remastering of all four films. Peter Jackson also used the same AI technology on the documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, where it yielded the same kinds of results and received a similarly negative reaction from those who watched it. I definitely share your fear in terms of what this AI violation will lead to, but hopefully, if enough people (like yourself) calls this practice out, then hopefully, reason will win out in the end.
Cameron winning the Lifetime Achievement Award for revisionism made me laugh so hard.
Damn Fools > Oscars
I’m so glad others get my sense of humor. 😂😂
Cameron is annoying. The Titanic theatre rereleases are always in 3D too. Before we know it he’ll be artificially increasing the frame rate of his old films to 48fps 😂
He did that to the last Titanic and Avatar 3D screenings. He applied selective HFR.
@@matheus5230 omg 😂 and here I was trying to exaggerate
AI upscale on a disc. My god that sounds horrific. Like a dystopian future where zoomers have taken over physical media.
Also it's funny that WB took the place for worst label this year instead of Paramount. Let's see what Universal can bring to the table this year. Maybe they'll have a chance at winning the 2024 spot.
The Titanic verdict makes me fear for the much-anticipated upcoming 4K releases of THE ABYSS and ALIENS.
I can't believe I still need to keep my snapper DVD of The Maltese Falcon 😄🤦♂️
Thanks for the video
And I think I just sold mine because I found the Blu-ray for a dollar. Dang it!
Yep. That is the story of my video life... Comparing them will make it apparent in a few minutes.
So, I should’ve just gone on eBay instead of paying $23.99 on prime day 🇨🇦 😑 Making me question a lot of things. Looks like missing Titanic on 4K is a plus to the wallet… so, I guess that’s something.
I wish that these studios would hire you just to point out their horrible choices and mistakes, and to suggest better choices before the discs are released.
I wish they’d let me do QC. I’d do it for free and give them all of the notes I take for every release I look at!
I’m at the point where I no longer have any idea what American Graffiti is meant to look like. I have watched the existing Blu-Ray edition so many times, it’s become my de facto presentation of the movie. So I would very much like to see a good projected film print because I’m not positive that the blu-ray actually resembles how a print looks. I *did* find the 4K version unwatchable when I first saw it. But since then I have upgraded my display, and discovered that most of my problems with the 4K release were caused by the way my previous OLED was smooshing together dark areas and shadows within the image. Changing to an LG G3 OLED has opened up the whole image dramatically. This can be a problem with a lot of 4K HDR releases, where so much of the brightness capability of a display is used to hit those peak whites that the shadow areas may not have the gradation and detail that a grading monitor can show - so you may be losing big chunks of detail in dark scenes. And that’s a problem for a predominantly “dark” movie like Am Graf. But (leaving aside the question of where the film grain has gone) whether the 4K or the Blu-Ray is “right”? I need to see a film print.
I've seen a print and while the BD is closer to it-no video version has ever done the film justice. I'm curious, does your G3 have much trouble with chroma offshoot on near black areas? My Sony gets this awfully at times and it drives me nuts.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Thanks, interesting about the Blu-ray, because it has always seemed watchable, but a bit “hot” to me. I noticed the New Beverley were showing a print recently… which didn’t help me as I live in london 🙂. But maybe one day. I’ve only had the G3 running for a couple of days, but so far not aware of any issues or artefacts. The opposite, looks very clean and detailed and dare I say “like film”. But I’ll look closer over the next couple of weeks. It was quickly obvious (after I’d set it up properly and got black levels right) that it’s a big improvement over my previous LG OLED - has rescued a number of HDR discs that I previously found painfully lacking in detail in dark scenes.
I only have about 3 4ks usually stick to blu-ray which looks great on my 42 inch lg. I find it helps to fine tune your picture settings of course to maximize detail. Sharpness all the way up, contrast balanced etc
The recent True Lies UHD is the DNR awards darling of 2024. That's too many submarine voyages for old Jimbo, I think the pressure obliterated his few remaining braincells.
I'm trying hard to remain optimistic about a possible 'Strange Days' 4K release, but man it's looking bleak.
HAHAHA!
The German BD of Strange Days is thankfully solid-otherwise in the US all we have is the solid LD and the DVD port. Hopefully Cameron is kept away or someone else does it properly.
I still don't get why studios can't just keep their older movies untouched. Why make any changes to a product that is already perfectly fine? I honestly had no idea how widespread this problem was until I found your channel; before that, I figured it was just the original Star Wars Trilogy, and mayhe a few slight modifications in Disney films here and there.
I was the same way growing up...I thought it was just a few isolated cases...and then over time found more and more and more issues...
I enjoyed that. American Graffiti is unforgivable in my view. George Lucas has done a 180 on everything he stood for. The notion that a man could make a difference in the Hollywood sin bin machine, and then takes a dump all over his best film by a country mile, American Graffiti. It blows my mind to think Lucas sold out! and gave his company over to Disney, plus the added bonus that Lucas just couldn't be bothered with the industry anymore. James Cameron is another Hollywood 'hot shot' who embraced the wave of technological advances, but now Cameron has joined the regressive, backward movement in physical media undermining. I'm just glad I kept all my DVDs to be honest. It seems more clearer than ever that their is no excuse to produce such lacklustre media with no respect toward the legacy or the film. Today and the future, it seems physical media is being pushed continually to fail. Thanks for the insight and knowledge. It all helps join the dots to what's generally happening in the industry. It's almost Orwellian.
There's no evidence that Lucas was involved with this release.
@@beavisdoge237 Got the absolute proof of this?
Lately, I'm noting that studios and certain labels are seemingly dropping the ball with a lot of their releases, poor quality control, etcetera. One could be thinking that they don't want the 4k disc format to succeed. The big studios are the worst. Brilliant video man, a new subscriber here.
Came here from RetroBlasting's Warner FAIL video. Love it!! New sub here -- can't wait to watch more of your stuff.
Thank you!!
For this time next year I would like to nominate for worst packaging, Criterion’s new release of Trainspotting on 4K - literally it’s f***ing cardboard - the disks are in those horrible sleeve things which is always good news for 4K disks and to close the case (case is a loose term) you literally have a kind of catch made out of cardboard which you hook into a hole in the back and will be destroyed in a couple of years! On top of all that mine has arrived with some mild orange paint damage on the cover (guessing from the conveyor belt) and it’s so fragile, it arrived already dinged to hell. I’ve imported to the UK and it’s to much trouble to return so kind of stuck with it, but awful product at a premium price and not very happy. It’s a shame because the actual 4K transfer is amazing. I will be very careful with criterion going forward as they are putting some real lazy garbage out these days, you are better off sticking with older, standard, blu ray releases to be honest - this thing is literally like having your discs arrive packaged in someone’s birthday card 😡
It's absolutely awful. It seems the person who did Kane's hideous packaging is at it again...
Your breakdown and discussion of physical media releases is excellent. I always enjoy dipping into your channel and seeing the topic of conversation. I cannot believe how horrendous the Cameron releases are! Keep up the great work! Will you be discussing any recent Powerhouse Indicator releases or recent sale?
Thanks! I was thinking about doing a short video about my small indicator order when it arrives. I have several different Indicator titles to review as well.
Looking forward to this!
Never before have I witnessed the amount of self control that you displayed when describing the end product of these releases. At any moment I was expecting an outburst of verbage that would have embarrassed a Marine Drill Sgt!
It admittedly took a lot of self control to try to stay polite and on point....it really does when you run into things like this where people making decisions clearly don't care about getting things right.
If you want a really good laugh, the other day I was fishing through the $5 dvd bin at Walmart (sometimes I’m just looking for a cheap movie to watch at night; if I like it enough then I get the blu) and was shocked to find a couple blu-rays mixed in. After looking through them all, every single blu ray was a copy of the animated Superman shorts. All in the $5 bin at Walmart 😂
That's...very surprising since it wasn't a store release though I did once see it on the shelf at a Walmart for full price. That's probably walmart dumping their stock and $5 is still too much for that darn disc..haha.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader yeah I have no clue where the copies came from, but it’s still hilarious. Coincidentally, I found a copy of the Bosko Video release later that same day for 25¢ and snatched it up in a heartbeat. Surprisingly solid release even to this day. I like grindhouse presentations a lot, so it doesn’t bother me. Obviously though, the first priority should be a competent remaster
Kino had some great uhd blu ray releases like High Noon. But I haven’t picked up any of their reissues.
This is why I’m happy sticking with blu ray and not interested in upgrading to 4K. Blu ray isn’t perfect either but your videos have given me a huge heads up about the many problems these remasters have. I think it would be even worse if it was a film I had never seen before and not realise that I wasn’t watching the film as it was originally presented.
It really sucks when that's the first experience. 4K and UHD is full of great benefits but sifting through the crud is really difficult at times. But sticking with BD won't avoid the new master problems because issues will still be baked into 1080p SDR discs made from them as seen on The Godfather and others.
The vast majority of 4K discs, even the subpar ones, will still be overall superior to the equivalent blu-rays. And, more often than not, significantly superior in at least one major aspect, if not all.
Cameron's overuse of digital processing and color revision is so bad that it gives Lucas and Friedkin a run for their money lol. I knew from just one look at the Titanic 4k that there was something up with the picture as always with Cameron's HD releases. Its nice to know my eyes weren't decieving me when looking at reference images of that transfer.
😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅 18:09 18:29 😮😅😅😅
Warner showed little love for the Babylon 5 blu ray set. The set was bare bones and the packaging wasn't great. Picture quality on the series was good but they screwed up the pilot film The Gathering. It was upscaled from a standard definition 16:9 blow up and looked absolutely terrible. My original 4:3 dvd looks far better.
For the most part i like the uhd bd of Titanic. I only did a double take once where a small green light on a CU of Jack just before the ship breaks apart, now illuminates DiCaprio's face bright green! I had to double check the LD and 3d to see if i was imagining things. Previously it was only a subtle glow on his skin.
The 2012 3d bd is my favourite way to watch it.
I just dicover the other day the existence of those black boxed 4k UHD disk. Are they readable on a BRD player ?
Great video as usual! Agreed on the Sony steelie nonsense. Already owned Bram Stoker's Dracula on 4k and begrudgingly bought the steelbook for the Original 5.1 and stereo mixes. Especially annoying for Crouching Tiger since the original track is locked behind an expensive box set, so you either have to hunt down an individual listing or pony up! Another nuisance is that they don't consistently issue a standard release for the steelbook like with Lawrence of Arabia and Fright Night, but at least I was able to get the latter from a restock. These discs have generally been excellent, so it's frustrating to see Sony just needlessly bungle them in this manner. I look forward to the best discs
Taxi Driver to me was always baffling why it ended up a boxset exclusive until the steelbook announcement recently. It's a beloved title that would sell well on its own.
I couldn't believe how bad American graffiti turned out. You don't have to look close, I showed it to my wife who has no eye for this sort of thing and she immediately picked up on it. The dnr is so bad harrison ford looks like digitally de-agrd harrison Ford. And then the kicker is on the archival extras they talk about how the low budget grainy film stock created a documentary feel for the film that improved the overall presentation. Oops!
Universal did a replacing program to fix the encoding of Love Actually. It's true. The only other major studio that might do stuff like this, fixing a horrible encoding in a newly released UHD, is Sony. Can’t see Warner or Paramount doing this ever.
Now the disc of Love Actually looks nice, with the exception of the terrible DNR in the opening and ending camcorder sequences.
I love this channel💯
Great list. Question; If you play a uhd disc with hdr capebility turned off on your player does it play the intended sdr image or an approximation? If you would do this for example with the Maltese Falcon disc would your hdr issue be solved and would you just see a better version of the great 4k scan they did of the master?
Sadly no this would just give you the players attempt at SDR downconversion which can have varied results with artifacts. Panasonic does the best at this and I’ve played around with it but it never is as good as leaving the hdr as it is. It’s really meant for displaying on non 4k displays or projection.
I’m projecting 4K on a huge screen and can verify that turning off HDR on the 4K player introduces a washed out and contrastless image which can’t be compensated for using brightness/contrast settings. Unfortunately, HDR on a projector produces an overall darker image which pretty much requires me to increase the lamp brightness to maximum and turn up the brightness setting a few steps. Only then does it begin to look good and sometimes excellent. I’m not a fan of HDR, but leaving it on is definitely preferable to turning it off.
I was looking at getting Full Metal Jacket 4k, The fifth element 4k, Truman Show 4k, and Who framed roger rabbit 4k, are they worth picking up or are they awful in your view? (U.S releases)
FMJ is solid but has no original audio and like most of the Warner Kubrick titles could be better-but it is a big leap over their old crummy BDs. Fifth Element is Sony upgrading that film once again and I haven't seen the others yet. Roger Rabbit will of course have the light censoring that's on all video releases except the initial LD and VHS.
Don’t worry titanic in dts on laserdisc came yesterday I will be sending it and a bunch of titles for you on Monday hope you enjoy what’s coming
So for The Maltese Falcon, would you recommend turning off HDR manually and watching it in 4K SDR? Or does that have other side effects?
Unfortunately, it does because you’re then forcing your player to do SDR downconversion and it’s not an exact science. Panasonic players are usually the best at doing downconversion, but it can still cause artifacts. You’d have to have an SDR new Blu-ray to look at the new transfer, but usually HDR issues are baked into the source master, and will turn up to degrees on the SDR version.
Sony should get a special award for their forced pop-up menu that appears at the end credits of most of their recent Blu-rays and some 4k discs. I’ve simply stopped buying their titles because of this; idiots like Bill Hunt won’t even call them out on that.
The American Graffiti release is terrible. I can't believe a bootleg of the theatrical cut from a long ago telecine is preferable but it is.
Love the intro.
I don’t hate James Camron’s Titanic. But my favorite Titanic movie is A Night To Remember. I think that’s the best film based on The Titanic sinking. Yeah I know the ship didn’t break in half. But it was the 1950s they didn’t know if the ship broke in 2 or not. But what ever I think A Night to Remember is an excellent movie.
A Night to Remember is still the definitive Titanic film for sure. I've always felt Cameron merely glued together elements of it plus the 1953 Fox film with some bits of Somewhere in Time.
Supposedly Night to Remember may have used scenes from the German 1940s release.
There's gotta be a better version of Duel somewhere. Hopefully, I'll come across it one day.
Sadly you have to cobble together your own. The Laserdisc is very good but is theatrical cut only-but it does have the correct ratio, best mono audio and a solid transfer without the slight dvd edits.
I would never have known The Quatermass Xperiment saw a reissue from Kino Lorber on a double-layered Blu-ray if I had not watched all of this video and paid close attention. Only bought the older Blu-ray in 2022.☹
I’m in the same boat. I was going to do a review of the Blu-ray and then they came out with that re-encoded reissue so I have to rebuy it.🤦🏻♂️
HD-Numérique did an interesting review of Titanic UHD. Their review was mixed. They said that while the image was still often dazzling and impressive, there are artifacts caused by the AI processing if you look closely (and some screenshots they shared showcase these artifacts). They talk about these artifacts and also say they don't like that such technology was used here. It certainly wasn't necessary by any stretch. So, they ultimately said they have mixed and conflicted feelings on the UHD.
Mixed and conflicted is a perfect way to put it.
I was referred here by the RUclipsr who deals with the toy side of geekdom. (My memory is terrible so forgive me please for not looking him up, but I do like and admire his work, and he said we should support you.)
I have a serious question. At what point should we start looking for a lawyer to wage a class action lawsuit against these studios for false advertising and breach of contract under the consumer protection laws of various states? I'll do it once I graduate but that will take a few years...
There’s no telling. I think there should be at least a level of protection in place for films being properly preserved.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I'm going to investigate this a bit and see what my state's consumer protection laws offer us.
We'll see. I also have a sense that, as a hearing impared person, the closed captions on most movies are awful in clear violation of federal law.
There's a lot of work to do.
Looking forward to this even more than Dune, Part II, which I’m sure will also be very interesting and entertaining. Spencer, did you consider broadcasting these awards in IMAX aspect format and Dolby Atmos? 😂
I'd shoot in 70mm if I could. 70mm six track mag of my nerdiness...
I'm a bit surprised the 4K UHD of The Exorcist did not make your Top 10.
Aside from the color at the end, dropping extras and other modern warner quirks it's much like their Enter the Dragon UHD and overall the best version we've gotten and has a form of the original mono to my absolute shock.
Blurays look way better than any dvd or laserdisc to me personally. They last way longer too
I personally disagree about your viewpoint on Titanic. But nonetheless I appreciate your content regardless even if we don't always agree on everything.
That’s perfectly understandable. I knew including Titanic would be a point of contention but I wanted to stress the negative aspects of the new processing that was applied. I was honestly a bit afraid to have it in here given the praise it’s gotten but I felt ultimately it was important to highlight.
Thank you for such a nicely worded comment!
No problem my friend. Life experience has taught me not to be so abrasive anymore. lmao@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader
The Titanic 4K is terrible, I strongly encourage you to take another closer look!
I wont be able to catch it live unfortunately. Im seeing Once Upon a time the West in the cinema. So i have a good reason 😂. Unfortunately its a digital projection but better than nothing!
I was 6 years old at the time, but my dad took me to see Once Upon a Time in the West in the cinema when it came out. Thanks Dad! One of my favorite films to this day. I have it on dvd and blu-ray. Totally stoked about the 4K, I just hope to God that they do a good job with it.
Enjoy the viewing, I wish I could see it in a proper cinema again.
What transfer issues does rosemary’s baby have?
I gotta say I kinda like the rosemarys baby cover. I think some slight tweaks could help but it has potential. It definitely took some figuring out and the moon as thr devils eye is pretty creative. Maybe they could do a reversible cover someday if they release it again. I think most people who'd buy rosemarys baby probably know what its about but i do like that the original cover doesn't say anything about the devil in someone somehow doesn't.
Staying Alive and The Black Phone are a couple other 2023 misfires. The former being a weak transfer for a movie with a lousy reputation with the latter looking overly darkened and having compression issues to near Love Actually levels.
I’m not surprised about staying alive since all of these new Paramount 4K masters are such a scattershot affair, even when they hand them off to Kino. I hadn’t heard about the issues on the black phone so I’ll look into that. You don’t normally think about modern releases having such bad compression problems, but nothing would surprise me at this point.
And with the recent release of The Boogens, Paramount 4K masters continue to be spotty in quality. The Olive Blu being better than the Kino 4K.
I don't understand how you can put the Titanic 4k, so closely associated with the truly bad American Graffiti 4k.
One movie has small artifacts, only noticeable with freeze frames, while the other was consistently bad throughout.
As far as the Titanic having a line or two of dialog missing on a 3 hr movie, I can honestly say I never noticed. I last saw the movie over 20 years ago, before seeing the 4k version a couple of months ago.
I yet to buy a 4K player or any 4 k disc
Speaking of Warners, what did you think of The Fugitive 4k disc?
I’m glad they finally revisited it but hate that they remixed the audio. I’m digging around some of the previous format versions audio for comparison.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader so satisfied with the PQ though?
Will there be a “best of 2023” awards as well?
Yes! I’ve pretty much got it all set, but there were a few more releases I wanted to check out. My trouble is I can never afford to purchase everything I’d like to review and then I feel bad that I can’t include more releases in my annual awards.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Thank you!! I’m looking forward to both
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderGreat!
Just had my eyes assaulted by the 4K Starship Troopers. I've no idea when this was released on the public but God almighty....!!!! Just one long smeared mess. I use a 150 inch projection with Epson 4K machine and im starting to wonder if 4k is worth it at all??
I haven't seen it yet but I've heard nothing but positives on that one and it's a Sony master who usually does the best job in the business. They also just spiffed up the encode and added Dolby Vision on the steelbook UHD reissue that just came out.
Do you have any motion interpolation modes engaged by chance?
Something must be wrong with your projector or player settings. That UHD is not DNR'd or smeary. In fact, it's grainy as hell, one of the grainiest UHDs one will ever see.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderThe only complaint I've actually seen about Starship Troopers is actually people ranting it is grainy as hell. Extremely grainy, one of the grainiest UHDs you will ever found. The HDR grade is probably the mother of all light-cannons in how bright it can get, which also doesn’t do the grain any favors.
I bought kino's reissue of Juggernaut and compared with their first release I had and the new release was clearly better encoded, but it's still an outdated master, so why not give it a new transfer? The runtime listed on the back for the older bluray of Juggernaut is incorrect by the way. They fixed it with the newer release. I see that they did an encode upgrade (but not a new master) for Enter the Ninja, The Emerald Forest and Coming Home, which had awful compression flaws. But again, with them not having a new master means I know these aren't definitive and I'll want to buy the movies again. Kino, please, just do new scans, no more of this reissue of an older master.
You’re doing god’s work
Titanic the 3D master what was released on Blu-ray looks really good why didn't he use that to make the 4K version
The problem is they took those source files and then processed them in this way instead of dong a brand new scan.
12:57 Oh come On, Since when has WB been making mistakes
Are you planning on doing the best list?
Yes I hope to have the video up in the next week or so. I was just waiting on a few more titles I wanted to review that I had to wait for my wallet to catch up...
A little surprised by Titanic I seen one 4K review on it saying they fixed the night issues compared to the Blu-ray version while the Blu-ray version the nice scenes you don't see the stars but on the 4K version you can see the stars so is all that bullshit?
The UHD is still based on the same 2012 files made during the 3D conversion and reissue and is technically much improved but has a good degree of the crazy new Cameron supervised processing and AI algorithm usage weirdness going on as seen in the other new masters except here it's much less and more hidden by having a higher quality source file to start with vs the other films. Any degree of his crazy processing to me is an immediate red flag no matter how good the presentation is otherwise. It also seems as if the color timing has been tweaked a bit over the years and fans have noticed a few missing lines of dialogue on the UHD. Basically is you want a good and more hands off version, hang onto the 2012 BD. Most people aren't videophiles and will think the new UHD looks great which is understandable but I felt it was important to include it here to underline Cameron's insane processing usage.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Wow seems like James Cameron can't make a good 4K release but thank you for this information I'm not really a Titanic fan but my friend is he was thinking about getting the 4K release I'll definitely tell him that and he's better off saving this money and getting the Blu-ray. One more question can you name one James Cameron movie is good on 4K at least one maybe like the first avatar at least
Do you work in the film industry at all? You seem to have a good technical background.
I would agree on almost everything in this list, specially American Grafitti, but I have to say I disagree on Titanic. I understand your points but I feel the 4k disc is fantastic.
I get that. I knew it would be a point of contention but I felt the new Cameron tinkering in any degree was abhorrent so it immediately made its way here. I will say that thankfully it's nowhere near as bad as some of the others.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I have not seen the other three. I prefer to wait for the disc versions to have an opinion so I am crossing my fingers. The word out there is not great to say the least.
@@TheSergiouser they’re atrocious. All three will likely dominate next year.
Damn....I bought that MF's Superman.
Since you've got the BD definitely check out the presentation and the clips of the DVD master in the extras and see what you think. But definitely hang on to the older releases if you've still got them.
@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader MY only other copy of ANY of it was an old VHS from my childhood thats LONG gone. I was excited when this came out but had NO idea WB shit the bed on this release. I guess it's fine since I have nothing to compare it to...but DAMN...this set sounds like a dumpster fire.
@@thatcannonguy it sadly is in my opinion. I definitely suggest checking out. the fan made mild mannered edition here on RUclips, which combines the old Warner DVD master with audio from the Bosko video DVD. Those are the best existing physical media releases, and by combining them you’re able to not have the Warner audio errors. It’s not perfect but it’s at least a solution for now. Thankfully the wonderful people at Fleischer cartoons are working on their own restorations, and have already finished several of the cartoons as part of their overall project to try and restore the entire Fleischer library.
Thanks l was going to get Duel on 4k and ltailan job after seeing your video .I wont be now . Its so annoying and James Cameron Titanic it's wrost 4k ever seen . Thanks .l want Laura on 4k 😢
Well you don’t have to put up with this bad 4K titanic as the dts laserdisc and many others are on the way and will be at your place wensday the 28 of February 🎉for your watching pleasure
😂😂 Dont agree at all regarding pq on Titanic. Maybe the wrong settings on your TV?
That’s why it is best just to stick with the old BDs and DVDs. So much money wasted on incompetence.
The vast majority of UHDs are better than the BDs of their films.
You need to explain why Duel is one of the worst 4K Discs in terms of picture quality. I mean the theatrical version of course and not the tv version abomination
I have in the worst overall list for the poor audio remix, lack of any original audio, lesser encoding for the feature and still having the DVD edits and no original ratio.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader thats true but would you really say that the lesser encoding makes the 4K video presentation that bad? Could you maybe go a little bit in detail? So what did the encoding exactly messed with? I definitely don't agree that this is a ultra stunning 4k video presentation but it doesen't looked that bad for me when I watched the 4K. So maybe you can tell me what I need to focus on in terms of encoding when I watch the 4K the next time. I really like your channel and content. This is not criticism but I need more thorough explanation to understand you point
9:48p.m. 3/2/2024
I'm one of the very few that prefer T1 over T2 and will never watch T2 again. But I did want to see True Lies and Abyss in HD. It's unbelievable that my DVDs will still be needed. I truly hate the Avatar series, and I truly hate James Cameron.
I’m firmly in the T1 > T2 camp. I enjoy the sequel for what it is-a bombastic but less focused followup.
You’d think they could have left new scans alone but that’s the sad part-these aren’t even new scans. True Lies is some old hideous Lowry master even and was then given this new coat of wtfery all over it.
@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader The terminology (rather statement of fact) "4K" really has been completely misrepresented by companies to purposely mislead customers and film fans as catch-all for "best quality version" of a movie.
4K should only be used for new scans done at 4K or higher. Anything else is an upscale. Remember when when Sony labelled some Blurays "4K On 2K," we need that back but in reverse. "2K On 4K."
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I love both films and thankfully I've kept my old DVD's pre the terrible Cameronizing revisionism of the HD era. That original Mono (especially the THX Mono track on the 1997 DVD) is a godsend, and the Mono of the Special Edition DVD aint half bad either. Also the transfers of the original two films just look way more authentic regardless of their imperfections and are my preferred versions on rewatch. The new remasters are the most teal crap in existence and are absolutely dreadful.
@TrouUlysses I love the Avatar films, but Cameron is really using that film's success to a huge disadvantage. Its like after that film made billions for his pocket, he started becoming obsessed with the overly blue color grade, crushed blacks and DNR applications to make his film seem more modern. I really don't understand his thought application on this.
@Eva0102-03-04-00 My opinion is James Cameron hates the fact fans LOVE his OLD movies. I truly believe Cameron thinks his back catalogue is meaningless to him and only the technology of Avatar is important and what he does next. JC wishes people would only talk about his "new creations" because he sees the Avatar movies as his legacy. Not Terminator, not Aliens, and not The Abyss. It is very sad.
Perhaps the 'A New Low' award could be named after George Lucas?
There is nothing wrong with To Live and Die In LAs audio. I own it and out of curiosity I just looked a reviews online to see if I missed something and every review was overwhelmingly positive. Bluray gave the audio 5 stars.
Most reviewers don't give proper attention to audio and don't have anything to compare it with. If you would hear the 2.0 track on one of the vintage laserdisc releases vs. the Kino 4K you would realise the Kino disc sounds like garbage.
I'm still surprised reviewers didn't highlight the major audio issues. The 5.1 remix sounds okay until you compare it with past releases of the same 5.1 remix where it seems some kind of tweaking or processing happened at some stage making it sound lesser. The 2.0 on the Kino is completely defective and sounds HORRIBLE. The best and only proper release of the original Dolby Stereo mix is on the old Vestron video master. If you listen to the 2.0 track on the Kino you'll hear extremely harsh high end, consistent distortion, the music sounding terrible in places, volume spikes and major compression. That should've been caught by Kino or MGM and certainly by other reviewers. Sadly audio never gets the proper attention paid to it.
If you think Titanic’s transfer is bad, you’re just a contrarian trying to get views.
Complete bullshit. Damn fool is not one of those clickbait slop RUclipsrs. He has a wealth of knowledge and well trained eyes and ears to spot these anomalies. Do some research on the history of James Cameron releases and you'll know what to expect.
I was reacting to Cameron's insane level of processing applied to all of these new 4K masters. I knew it would be a bone of contention but I felt it was important to include here. Thankfully Titanic has it the least but its still there plus some fans have found the new soundmix is missing a few lines of dialogue here and there on the US disc.
You spent a lot of time & energy on Duel T.V. cut, that nobody will watch 😴
He listed reasons in the video of its importance, you obviously weren't paying attention.
Worst disks of 2023= every 4k release. 4k is a dying format. Nobody wants it .
My main issue with 4K is that most films I'd consider upgrading to for 'the best in picture quality' look better on Blu-ray. The resolution bump is there on 4K, but colour grading and image treatment is better on the Blu-rays I already own. The only 4K I currently own is the Scream Trilogy, because the remasters are a marked improvement over the Blu-rays included in the 6 Movie Collection, which are washed out and poor quality. Something like the Burton and Schumacher Batman movies, or The Matrix Trilogy, or even HEAT, look way worse on 4K with false and revisionist colour grading choices and such.
@@systemmonitor5295The blu-ray of The Matrix is revisionist, with excessive green tint, not the UHD.
Overall, almost every UHD is better than the blu-ray.
For Heat, you just have to blame Michael Mann.
@@matheus5230 The UHD is also wrong. While the Blu-ray is revisionist, it at least matches the sequels to create a coherent viewing experience. The DVD is piss yellow and the 4K UHD is a horrible mismash of aqua, teal and pink skintones. It looks nothing like the 35mm prints that survive of the movie.
Also, both Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions got revisionist colour grades on 4K to match the first movie, and now all the Matrix code is shifted towards blue while the real world scenes are vastly more grey than blue. It's all wrong. I'd rather stick with the Blu-ray trilogy as at least the sequels are the correct colour grade and the first movie retroactively matches it.
@@systemmonitor5295The UHD of The Matrix has far more natural skin tones than the blu-ray. The UHD was also personally supervised by the film's cinematographer, he made sure that the color timing was correct. You can search online details about how close his supervision was.