4K - 8K Resolution and/or Dolby Atmos/DTSX Content Reviews

[Tankini]

Alien4 was really fun. Ripley being part-alien and the alien being part-Ripley was cool. So in the end on the ship headed for apocalyptic earth, how Ripley killed her alien “relative” or “offspring” was cold.

Yeah, I want all 6 Alien movie in 4K.

Who on AH has watched the 1st Alien move on VHS? Rise your hand!! Me!

 

[isolar8001]

I liked 3 and 4 also, just not as much. If they remaster them, I will play baseball lol. 3 was actually good. 4 was fun but went wrong somewhere toward the end.

I've got 4K AI Upscales of Alien 3 and 4 extended...both look very very good.
You are right, Alien 4 was great until that baby thing showed up !!

 

[isolar8001]

Who on AH has watched the 1st Alien move on VHS? Rise your hand!! Me!

I was in the audience a few days after it premiered...you could smell that someone had thrown up recently.
People forget just how shocking that movie was for the time.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Who on AH has watched the 1st Alien move on VHS? Rise your hand!! Me!

Hells yeah. I saw Alien on VHS also. Probably saw Aliens on VHS also.

 

[j_garcia]

Alien4 was really fun. Ripley being part-alien and the alien being part-Ripley was cool. So in the end on the ship headed for apocalyptic earth, how Ripley killed her alien “relative” or “offspring” was cold.

Yeah, I want all 6 Alien movie in 4K.

I liked the kill, but not how they tried to make it sympathetic. I also like all the failed attempts, that was a cool scene. Basketball scene was also fun.

I saw Alien at the drive-in LOL, AND on VHS. I actually think I have seen all of them after Alien in the theater.

 

[dolynick]

Something about the infant alien human hybrid has always struck me as the most disturbing and unsettling of all the creatures in the Alien series. It's betrayal and death is also unique, but I suppose that fits after the last statement.

I've also seen Alien on VHS.

 

[panteragstk]

I was a sucker for all video formats - VHS, LD, DVD, HD-DVD, and then BD/UHD.

The only one I never owned out of that list is HD-DVD.

I had a cartridge based LD player back in the day along side my Betamax.

Remember Divx?

 

[j_garcia]

The only one I never owned out of that list is HD-DVD.

I had a cartridge based LD player back in the day along side my Betamax.

Remember Divx?

Yep, I owned them all except LD. NO DIVX lol. LD was just about dying when I bought the first Panasonic DVD player released. I actually bought my DVDs from a place called LaserLand, which was an A/V shop who rented and sold discs and was one of the few places that had LD players and LDs.

 

[Movie2099]

Yep, I owned them all except LD. NO DIVX lol. LD was just about dying when I bought the first Panasonic DVD player released. I actually bought my DVDs from a place called LaserLand, which was an A/V shop who rented and sold discs and was one of the few places that had LD players and LDs.

I miss Suncoast and Sam Goody! Such fun places to shop back in the day.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Something about the infant alien human hybrid has always struck me as the most disturbing and unsettling of all the creatures in the Alien series. Its betrayal and death is also unique...

To me, that's the one thing that sets Alien4 apart from all the other Alien movies and most creature/monster movies.

We normally only see from the protagonist's POV - the humans are the protagonists and the aliens are all evil bastards that must die, die, die.

The alien-human-hybrid infant never asked to be born or made. It was an infant. It was never taught what's right or wrong, good or evil. How much HUMAN was in this infant, how much alien was in it? Does it have any good human traits?

How much "alien" was in Ripley?

Just very different subject than all the other Alien movies.

 

[dolynick]

We normally only see from the protagonist's POV - the humans are the protagonists and the aliens are all evil bastards that must die, die, die.

I'll disagree on that one. The humans in the aliens movies are largely just another antagonist in many cases - or at least the megacorps representing the controlling interest. The protagonist in all of the first four movies is actually more specifically Ripley herself. The fourth is consistent with that, even if it does flip her perspective and allegiance leanings a bit.

But yes. Overall a different take from the others. Or perhaps a slant on the growing schism between Ripley and human interests behind her strife over the previous movies.

 

[dolynick]

Watched the UHD copy of The Abyss Special Edition tonight.

In general the movie looked spectacular, given it's 1992 release date. The video monitor footage is, as you might expect, pixelated but that's just part of the feel in those scenes. There were only two scenes where old full-screen CGI scenes looked notably DVD era - The far shot where he's tumbling down the wall with the candle and (rather anti-climatically) the far shot of the mothership with the human ships sitting on it at the surfacing climax. Other than that, the majority of the shots are remarkable and obviously taking advantage of the 4k resolution.

Film grain is there but it's very mild. I know a lot of reviewers and film fans insist that grain is critical but I've never minded some tasteful DNR. The Abyss 4k strikes a really nice balance, in my opnion. There's lots of really sharp detail in faces and everything yet but at times it almost looks more like a modern digitally shot film in certain scenes (meant in a good way). I was watching on the 106" screen (JVC NP5) and I repeatedly was caught thinking "Wow! That picture looks so good!" There was a clarity to many of the shots that was clearly beyond 1080p.

I've always liked this movie and this 4k viewing was really a treat.

 

[Movie2099]

Watched Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom last night on 4k disc.

PQ: Excellent. Shot in 8k and IMAX. The picture was beautiful. Unfortunately, the graphics were not as good in this one vs the first one.

SQ: Good. I feel it wasn't as great as the first Aquaman, but still pretty solid. The bass was shaking! I just didn't really hear too much in the surrounds or overhead.

Overall: I'm giving this sequel a 4/10. The movie itself outside of PQ/SQ is absolutely horrible. The entire writing team must've been wasted or high when they were writing this. It's all over the place. I heard when this was released that it went through many, many reshoots over a year or so. I swear I could see actors look different in their weight later in the movie in some shots. Some of the cast from the first one come back, but I think 50% of their screen time they were all CGI. With how bad the script was, the actors looked like they were just having a blast on screen. They knew how crappy it was going to be so they just went bonkers. It's non-stop action from start to finish. I feel since the story was so weak, they just decided to throw every action piece they could into this. It really sucks that James Wan is attached to this. It doesn't even feel like something he would do. He's an established director by now. This seems like a movie that was made by a rookie from the previous crew.

If you don't end up seeing this movie, you will be fine. There is nothing coming after it. hahaha!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Watched Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom last night on 4k disc.

PQ: Excellent. Shot in 8k and IMAX. The picture was beautiful. Unfortunately, the graphics were not as good in this one vs the first one.

SQ: Good. I feel it wasn't as great as the first Aquaman, but still pretty solid. The bass was shaking! I just didn't really hear too much in the surrounds or overhead.

Overall: I'm giving this sequel a 4/10. The movie itself outside of PQ/SQ is absolutely horrible. The entire writing team must've been wasted or high when they were writing this. It's all over the place. I heard when this was released that it went through many, many reshoots over a year or so. I swear I could see actors look different in their weight later in the movie in some shots. Some of the cast from the first one come back, but I think 50% of their screen time they were all CGI. With how bad the script was, the actors looked like they were just having a blast on screen. They knew how crappy it was going to be so they just went bonkers. It's non-stop action from start to finish. I feel since the story was so weak, they just decided to throw every action piece they could into this. It really sucks that James Wan is attached to this. It doesn't even feel like something he would do. He's an established director by now. This seems like a movie that was made by a rookie from the previous crew.

If you don't end up seeing this movie, you will be fine. There is nothing coming after it. hahaha!

Great PQ, decent SQ, writing/directing is shite about sums it up.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Watched the UHD copy of The Abyss Special Edition tonight.

In general the movie looked spectacular, given it's 1992 release date. The video monitor footage is, as you might expect, pixelated but that's just part of the feel in those scenes. There were only two scenes where old full-screen CGI scenes looked notably DVD era - The far shot where he's tumbling down the wall with the candle and (rather anti-climatically) the far shot of the mothership with the human ships sitting on it at the surfacing climax. Other than that, the majority of the shots are remarkable and obviously taking advantage of the 4k resolution.

Film grain is there but it's very mild. I know a lot of reviewers and film fans insist that grain is critical but I've never minded some tasteful DNR. The Abyss 4k strikes a really nice balance, in my opnion. There's lots of really sharp detail in faces and everything yet but at times it almost looks more like a modern digitally shot film in certain scenes (meant in a good way). I was watching on the 106" screen (JVC NP5) and I repeatedly was caught thinking "Wow! That picture looks so good!" There was a clarity to many of the shots that was clearly beyond 1080p.

I've always liked this movie and this 4k viewing was really a treat.

Grain always reminds me of “old picture quality”, so I never want grain if possible. So I appreciate some good balanced DNR.

 

[dolynick]

Grain always reminds me of “old picture quality”, so I never want grain if possible. So I appreciate some good balanced DNR.

So I snipped this from a review of Aliens in 4k:

“optimized” by Park Road’s proprietary deep-learning algorithms—to create a new 4K Digital Intermediate. Photochemical grain has been greatly reduced, though not eliminated entirely, and it should be noted that this isn’t the usual Digital Noise Reduction with which people have long been familiar (a dreaded and blunt instrument). Unlike an image scrubbed with DNR, this process hasn’t removed all of the fine image detail. Not only does that detail remain, it too has been “enhanced” algorithmically. The image has then been graded for high dynamic range, with both Dolby Vision and HDR10 available.

The result is remarkable clarity and detail, but it is a bit jarring. Applied to Titanic (reviewed here), this unique remastering process feels completely appropriate. Applied to Aliens, which has always been a film with a grittier look, it takes more getting used to. The film looks almost modern now as opposed to vintage late 80s, which appears to be Cameron’s intent. On the other hand, I’ve just spent the entire morning going back and forth between the Alien Anthology Blu-ray and the new 4K Digital presentation on Vudu, Apple TV, and Movies Anywhere, and I definitely prefer the 4K (with a caveat that the forthcoming physical UHD should release improve upon it). There’s no doubt that this is James Cameron’s Aliens looking better than you’ve ever seen it before. There’s still light photochemical grain visible. There is plenty of fine image detail visible (though it’s a little less nuanced looking than the fine detail on Titanic). The color palette is vibrant, with the cool blue-gray tones it’s always had, and it’s close enough to the Blu-ray palette that you wouldn’t notice a difference unless you compared the images side-by-side. Blacks are incredibly deep, highlights are genuinely bold. This 4K image certainly isn’t perfect—it often looks a little… processed is the best word I can come up with. But the more I look at it, the more I like it, and I suspect that most fans will feel the same. But I also suspect that some viewers will really dislike it, because it’s definitely different, and I certainly appreciate that perspective too.

The description here sounds very much like what I saw in The Abyss last night. So not DNR in the classic sense but more of an AI treatment. It does look just a touch surreal at certain (very brief) moments, and just stunningly clear for a movie of its age at others - like it was shot last month on modern cameras. Overall I thought it was very good and the by far the best I've seen the movie look. I can see there being some push-back on it too though.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

So I snipped this from a review of Aliens in 4k:


The description here sounds very much like what I saw in The Abyss last night. So not DNR in the classic sense but more of an AI treatment. It does look just a touch surreal at certain (very brief) moments, and just stunningly clear for a movie of it's age at others - like it was shot last month on modern cameras. Overall I thought it was very good and the by far the best I've seen the movie look. I can see there being some push-back on it too though.

James Cameron was one of the very first directors to embrace digital cameras, unlike some directors who are still hanging on to analog cameras with dear life.

So I am not surprised and very glad that Cameron chose the AI-enhanced 4K treatment.

Also glad Cameron remastered his movies with ATMOS, unlike some directors who are still hanging on to DTS-HD with dear life.

 

[Tankini]

James Cameron was one of the very first directors to embrace digital cameras, unlike some directors who are still hanging on to analog cameras with dear life.

So I am not surprised and very glad that Cameron chose the AI-enhanced 4K treatment.

Also glad Cameron remastered his movies with ATMOS, unlike some directors who are still hanging on to DTS-HD with dear life.

When I first started watching TWD, after the 1st season when AMC canned the director started noticing the Grain, thought it was my 4K TV. So started researching come to find out AMC and the Producers and the director were using a lower film grade. Some episodes of The Walking Dead especially the night scenes actually pretty grainy. Well as one would expect, AMC started getting complaints about the grainy issues.

AMC came back a response with, we want to give TWD an more realistic feel of an apocalypse.
When in reality was to reduce cost of the production, which is why AMC fired the director of the first season.

 

[Movie2099]

When I first started watching TWD, after the 1st season when AMC canned the director started noticing the Grain, thought it was my 4K TV. So started researching come to find out AMC and the Producers and the director were using a lower film grade. Some episodes of The Walking Dead especially the night scenes actually pretty grainy. Well as one would expect, AMC started getting complaints about the grainy issues.

AMC came back a response with, we want to give TWD an more realistic feel of an apocalypse.
When in reality was to reduce cost of the production, which is why AMC fired the director of the first season.

Which was Frank Darabont. Who gave us all Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist. Guess he doesn’t know what he’s doing….

 

[dolynick]

When I first started watching TWD, after the 1st season when AMC canned the director started noticing the Grain, thought it was my 4K TV. So started researching come to find out AMC and the Producers and the director were using a lower film grade. Some episodes of The Walking Dead especially the night scenes actually pretty grainy. Well as one would expect, AMC started getting complaints about the grainy issues.

AMC came back a response with, we want to give TWD an more realistic feel of an apocalypse.
When in reality was to reduce cost of the production, which is why AMC fired the director of the first season.

I definitely noticed this on a recent watch through. There are some episodes where it is really noticeable and looks rather shoddy.

I don't think it's until the last season or two where it clears up.