Audio Video News

Update: Ultra HD Blu-ray Movies

SV Staff  |  Jan 13, 2016

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that its initial slate of 4K Ultra HD discs will include Dolby Atmos soundtracks. The previously announced titles, slated for release in “early 2016,” are The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Salt, Hancock, Chappie, Pineapple Express, and The Smurfs 2 with additional titles expected to follow later in the year.

Warner Bros. has said it expects to release 35 4K discs in 2016, including Mad Max: Fury Road, San Andreas, The Lego Movie, and Pan, which are due out early in the year. The movies will support high dynamic range (HDR). Man of Steel and Pacific Rim are also slated for release later in the year.

The Martian, due out March 1 at $29.99, is available for preorder on Amazon. 20th Century Fox has also announced Kingsman: The Secret Service, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Life of Pi, Exodus: Gods & Kings, and Fantastic Four.

COMMENTS
dommyluc's picture
Submitted by dommyluc on January 13, 2016 - 7:36am

About 90% of these titles are junk that most videophiles would not buy if they were marked down to $1.99 at the local WallyWorld.
"Fantastic Four"? Really, Fox?
And I'll bet they're going to try to ram it up our butts with pricing, just like they tried to do with Blu-ray when it first came out (I'm looking at YOU, Disney), but I honestly don't think a majority of people who own 4K TVs are going to pay premium prices for these discs if A.) the selection is crap, like most of these titles and B.) if their UHD TVs do a great job of video upconversion from 1080P to 4K, which would make a lot of people question the need for a true 4K copy of the movie.

pw's picture
Submitted by pw on January 13, 2016 - 10:42pm

Until they are up and Running these are tests, do they work, mass QC etc..
I will look for a player when Star Wars 7 and the 007 films come out in 4K.

jmilton7043's picture
Submitted by jmilton7043 on January 14, 2016 - 5:30am

Most of these were shot in 2K, or post processed in 2K. What makes them 4k? Up conversion?

jerrybruckheimerfan's picture
Submitted by jerrybruckheimerfan on January 15, 2016 - 6:15pm

Yes, you're correct, jmilton7043! True 4K needs to be 4K in every link of the chain from cameras capturing the image, to conforming, mastering, delivery/distribution. Movies filmed with regular Alexa cameras are not legitimate 4K. Some of them are filmed with Red cameras that do capture over 4K but not mastered in 4K, where the "digital intermediate" is 2K. These are all up-rezed.

True 4K needs to be the following:

- Shot in 35mm film or higher, or shot on a 4K digital cinema camera like the Sony F65 or Alexa 65. There's some debate as to whether cameras that use the bayer filter can be considered true 4K or not since it's only capturing 50% of the green, 25% of the red, and 25% of the blue. But that's another topic.
- Conformed and mastered in 4K. A lot of times, these digital intermediate master formats are only 2K. If shot on film, it'll need to be remastered again in 4K. A good example is Breaking Bad, where they went back and redid it for Netflix.

Just based on the list I see, the only 2 movies that fulfill all the pre-requisites are Salt and The Amazing Spider-man 2. There might be one or two more, but most of them have below 4K somewhere in the chain.

jerrybruckheimerfan's picture
Submitted by jerrybruckheimerfan on January 15, 2016 - 6:19pm

Correction: Alexa 65 is actually above 4K, at 6.5K open gate. They down-sample the image when mastering. The Sony F65 can actually capture 8K, but is rarely used in that mode. It's mainly used in supersampled 4K mode.

Warrior24_7's picture
Submitted by Warrior24_7 on January 15, 2016 - 6:30am

These are the same people who complained about the VHS conversion to DVD. Their boxes upon boxes of old VHS tapes felt threatened. Then they attacked the DVD conversion to Blu-Ray, saying the very same things! They were protecting their investments in hundreds of unwatched DVDs and the DVD stands used as living room decorations. Now it's UHD's turn, and none of them have a player or any of those movies. Things advance. It's only info folks, just info.

jerrybruckheimerfan's picture
Submitted by jerrybruckheimerfan on January 15, 2016 - 6:22pm

Frankly, my main criticism is not whether UHD 4K blu-ray will is superior to 1080p blu-ray. My main criticism has to do with whether the movies that released on UHD 4K blu-ray were really even legitimate 4K in the first place. See my reply to jmilton7043's comment for more details.

Warrior24_7's picture
Submitted by Warrior24_7 on January 15, 2016 - 8:31pm

This is no different than the arguments surrounding HD, 720p vs 1080p. True 4K is 4,096 x 2,160, UHD 3840 x 2,160 which is double the 1920 x 1080P. Not the same thing. I already knew that there was "another" 4K just like the 720P is "supposedly" HD until true 1080P showed up. So all of these arguments about what's what, are the same arguments during the initial adoption of HD, 720P vs 1080P. As far as those disks are concerned, they're just something to play on the new machines that are releasing with no software. And then there are people bashing all of the new hardware coming out every cycle. It's home theater stuff, people should be excited. This link will help to back up some of my claims.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/174221-no-tv-makers-4k-and-uhd-are-no...

mikem's picture
Submitted by mikem on January 15, 2016 - 9:35pm

The only way I'll spend $30 bucks for a UHD is if I hit the lottery. And since I don't gamble...............................

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