Is 4K worth it in 2022? - 4K UHD Blu-rays HDR 

I bought 4K discs only for new films or films I haven't collected yet on Blu-ray. Of course 4K format has better quality ini picture & sound than Blu-ray, but I think the difference isn't that much. Even for some movies I prefer watching them on Blu-ray although I also have the 4K discs, for example like Bourne, Inception and some other titles.

Elliot, can you please review Cinema Paradiso on 4k UHD when it comes out in november?-

@@johnlg2209 hi John, I definitely will review it when I get it. Cheers!

I've bought the 4k bluray collectors edition of The Deer Hunter solely based on your recommendation. Hopefully I'll get it by the weekend.

I am a cinephile, so yes I have upgraded to 4K. I got an OLED TV and upgraded my surround setup to 7.1.4. To me it's amazing that my home setup has better quality than cinemas, and for older movies being restored/remixed: they are better quality than what they would be in the cinema (where as the audio wouldn't be as good and the print would have loads of dust/etc).

Absolutely. I had a 4K TV a few years ago, one of the earlier models, that didn't even have the capability to use HDR!

Well fortunately a great 4K TV is easy to get these days.

Yes, I totally agreed with your comment.

@@osirismarbles5177 yeah I got an m series vizio 65 inch on sale for only 500, and it is head and shoulders above an entry samsung 4k I have from 2017. Much better colors.

@@shoopypit4884 anyone who watches tech or has a background in it knows product life cycles are exceptionally short (and get shorter as the years go by). early adopters of the latest tech are either 1) too rich to care or 2) not very smart when it comes to tech purchasing OR 3) in dire need and have no other option (probably not the case for TVs). Yesterday's "high-end" will always become tomorrow's "common-place" that's just cheaper and more improved upon. there are exceptions to this rule, but that's the general program. i'm a happy waiter :)

I agree that OLED makes a massive difference with HDR. I wouldn't swap my OLED display for anything now.

What about a QLED

@@TheyWantMeGone69 glorified LED, great for bright rooms when sitting central to screen but you start losing clarity when off center and QLED have many unavoidable issues regardless of what you hear, back-light bleed, dse, banding, clouding inferior darks to oled, all to some degree.

A Sony VW870ES 4K HDR laser projector and a fifteen-foot screen is what everyone needs to experience 4K at home. Speaking from experience. 😂

Damn. I have a Sony x900f led!

In time it's got to happen. Blu-ray was super expensive for the first few years and now they're very affordable.

They're very affordable now because 4K is on the scene. We'll have to wait for 8K to see major 4K price drops. It should happen because they're starting to push 8K displays, BUT it may not happen because the practical use case for anything beyond 4K discs will only exist for gargantuan screen watching. Should that be the case 4K could stay pricey for quite some time...unless market demands shift.

@@osirismarbles5177 The ONE thing I keep telling people, is that I wish 14/16-bit color will be available for 8K movies. When 16-bit screens become available, it will be worth it.

@@badreality2 interestiiiiiiing...never thought about that. Well...yet another legit reason to upgrade. But will it really be worth it over HDR? I suppose if it becomes cheap enough. But then there's buying/replacing discs again smh.

they try make movies look better with a new format but if u already happy with formats u got then why waste getting new ? i barelly get blu ray unless it comes with dvd any. seen compare pictures from dvd and blu ray and just sharper and see more details so no rush to go 4k anytime soon.

I putting up the GX tomo, very similar quality apparently, so I'm very excited about how happy you are with CX 😁

Too me audio makes the movie but if you can balance a good picture and audio together you got a great experience

Ah, glad to hear it! Thanks for watching as always :)

I dunno man 64K might as well work.

"going to"? 8k is already here and LG and Samsung are already pushing that garbage like it's the next coming of Christ. But you know what? If that makes 4k TVs even cheaper I say it's a win win.

@@yashwinning facts but from what I understand from people who are experts they all pretty much say that 8k is useless. I mean I’ve seen people game in 8k on high end PCs and I never really heard them talk much about a difference. I think 8k is gonna be a thing to trick normal people into dumping a lot of money into something that’s pointless. I feel like we’ve hit the peak with 4k and there’s no higher that we can go to. I really doubt we can notice much of a difference in 8k

​@@dominicarroyo6269 No you're right 8k is absolutely useless, it's marketing fluff and you literally cannot see 8k at the sizes they're currently being offered. Even 4k is pointless at anything less than 50". Like you said, we've technically already reached the maximum resolution that the human eye can perceive on sizes so small, and going beyond is pointless. I'm not saying 8k is completely useless but it only makes sense if you're buying TVs over 100" which will never become a thing. I think 8k should instead become a theater gimmick, that'd make a lot of sense. Theaters are already losing to TVs since 4k HDR is literally a better experience than theaters in my country. So 8k would be the perfect new marketing gimmick for gigantic screens since 35mm film is technically 16k and IMAX is around 32k, so in a lot of ways digitally we're still "catching up" to film. Making 8k almost exclusive to theaters would then make people in turn feel like their TVs just aren't giving them the "theater experience" anymore, and make them want to experience 8k in cinemas.

There's not enough storage on a blu-ray disc for an 8K movie

Thank you so much :)

Agreed. Thanks for not screaming like don't people

I'll get working on it. Cheers :)

In terms of Audio I can pretty much guarantee any 4k from Disney isnt great. Most of their visuals are 2k upscales and they just port over the audio mix from previous releases.. which is fine if it was already a good mix but Disney dont make any effort when it comes to 4k, you certainly dont get Dolby Atmos with Disney releases

@@ElliotCoen Yes we want it!

1 month ago he made a ‘Top 5’ video. I would be interested in seeing your worst list too

I've seen neither, but two of the bad 4ks I keep hearing knocks about are Die Hard 1 and Terminator 2.

The solution would be to just include a standalone 4K disc and make it 25-50% cheaper. Only then will I start buying 4K media and I’m sure many other people will do the same.

@@alpercinar5490 Indeed. In fact, in the era of instant streaming the only way to make 4K discs popular is to cut the price and add value, but I suspect that most of the companies who might make that work are investing heavily in streaming.

if u want watch a good movie with good sound u got go back on 1080p tv and 1080p bluray its better then 4k tv and 4k blu-ray dude and 1080p tv looks amazing compare to garbage 4k tvs

Ah, thanks for clarifying. I still haven't got my disc of Psycho yet but I'm intrigued as to how that mix sounds.

@@ElliotCoen No problem! My copy was shipped today, so I haven't had the chance to see any of the films in their current state yet either. The good news is that the rest of the releases seem to have the correct tracks.

There's been quite a few re-edits of the movie: the 4K version is supposed to be the best "uncut" version. Whether the current mono track is coming from edited elements used in a surround mix may be superfluous (as digital editing has matured, vs an original mono track of the era highlighting problems with noise, limited DR and FR, etc). I view it just like the restoration of these older movies in 4K: storage of a new digital medium that may have better resolving power and dynamic range than source.....and now a better experience you can have with them at home than what was possible at the theater. I'm not sure how many people are purists for older movies that only were in mono. Most movies made throughout time were in sound formats that were at best stereo or other channels that were behind the screen (even the first digital discrete formats in Sony SDDS: 5 central channels and 2 surround channels). I have found some older movies remixed to Atmos/DTS:X do seem more immersive....but Hitchcock movies like The Trouble with Harry are more involving just due to the great story and visuals.

@@dsr0116 They've achieved surround sound by remixing the original track. So they took the remixed version and simply made a mono version of it. It's not the mono that was originally released.

@@heruvim95 Yes, but any movie's sound is mixed with multiple tracks....even older mono mixes. A sound engineer takes multiple tracks (say music, dialogue, foley effects, etc) and then mixes to however many channels the delivery system is. My belief is that people may not really enjoy the "purist" approach of having an "original" mono track if it has excessive noise with limited DR and frequency range that's highlighted with modern audio systems.

Some normal blu rays have Atmos as well. My ghost in the shell blu ray for example has Atmos. You get 4k for the better picture, but for me HDR is where it matters with more natural colour and lighting.

Amazon Prime days this year

My collection is 98% brought from Pawnshops and paid $3-$7 for 4k except the one I brought on am

All 4K discs most of them have normal Blu Ray as well so you could upgrade one movie twice 4K and Normal Blu Ray if you just spend a little more

Source for Nolan on director's intent for only doing a 5.1? Just genuinely curious to read his thoughts about it.

My Blue Ray copy of The Dark Knight literally keeps jumping between aspect ratios? It's very odd. One minute it's full screen, then it's just flips into 16:9.

pk2702pk that's correct. They used a mix of IMAX cameras and standard. So for the IMAX shot scenes it will flip the ratio, then return to normal. A bit disorienting at first but you get used to it. There's no way to change it, it's director's intent.

@@pk2702pk mine too.

A method to avoid that situation might be buying a high end 1080p projector.

I know I'm starting to question if 4k blue rays are worth it. I can't tell that much of a difference with them. Might be because eyes are aging. I don't notice difference that much with sound either sounds louder but not better.

Oh yeah, The Shining is an amazing disc. I'm very excited to see how the BTTF set turns out :)

Holy shit picking this up ASAP!

@@tottenhamteacher you won't be disappointed

The Shining isn’t even a good 4K disc. If you thought that was good, you’ll be blown away by the best ones. Check out 2001 if you haven’t.

Yes exactly! The sound on a 4K disc can make or break the experience for me.

Definitely, I was always disappointed with sound on blu ray, 4k discs are so much better.

Absolutely well said, Roger!

Which surely goes to show the format isn't quite right?

@@metalbearuk it's more to do with HDR I dont know too much about it

Now you have a legitimate complaint. Some films do look too dark when in Dolby Vision and HDR10.

Sounds like an amazing setup you have there!

Hey Benn, cheers for watching! Yes they are more expensive but there are regularly deals on here, either 2 for £30 or even 2 for £20 at places like HMV. I typically only upgrade the films I really love to 4K, so for me it's well worth the price of admission. For example, The Shining or Apocalypse Now look so much better than the normal blu-rays to me, it's unbelievable. But yes, cost is definitely a factor so I completely understand :)

@fus149 Hammer Do you even know what you're talking about? The most recent revival of HMV (by Canada's Sunrise Records, which bought up many of HMV Canada's store leases and also just bought FYE here in the States) reportedly had over 100 stores in May 2019 (shortly after relaunch), with at least three in Central London per their website (though one of them is a Fopps, one of many former competitors HMV snapped up on the way down); it ain't just the Birmingham "megastore". Though I somewhat agree as to pixel count (barely noticeable, though perhaps more so with bigger screens) and AQ (Dolby Atmos & DTS:X systems are still relatively expensive & not all films will benefit from them), HDR makes up for that in improved colors & contrast. And though many newer films were shot on sub-4K digital cameras and/or assembled on sub-4K digital intermediates (2K DIs are just barely better than Blu-ray pixel-wise), older movies shot & produced on actual film commonly have better PQ in 4K, and HDR can help even films with 2K DIs. (Most currently believe the "resolution" of traditional 35mm film is around 4K, with 65/70mm film being 8K or better; that could change with the next generation as some used to think Blu-ray was close to native 35mm "resolution".) A lot of 4K fanatics are into older films, where the price comparison on 4K is more akin to what the Blu-ray originally sold for than what it sells for now. (Those people are often OK with Amazon, though here in the U.S. we still have some brick & mortar retailers left, mainly of the "big box" variety as opposed to our version of "high street" in the UK.) Finally, don't confuse proper digital restoration with mere upscaling; while any device can upscale (some better than others) and digital restoration can go overboard on the DNR (was as true early in the Blu-ray era as with T2 4K), a proper 4K digital restoration is wonderful. I have the Columbia Classics 4K set (less than 8,000 made in the U.S.); all six films in the set can be described as either home runs or triples (baseball metaphor apt as it includes A League of Their Own), especially the set's crown jewel Lawrence of Arabia.

@fus149 Hammer Excuse me, but I did NOT need a lecture on the history of HMV. I already knew they went bust twice, but I also know they came back BOTH times -- and even now it has FAR MORE than just a single UK location, though not nearly as many as when it had all those competitors. Perhaps the music & video stores of your childhood are gone, and yes less competition generally means fewer bargains; but there ARE still places to buy music & movies -- especially online. And you didn't even try to respond to my points about 4K & HDR as formats. Perhaps I know FAR more about the subject than you do!

@fus149 Hammer Well you keep talking back to me with insulting responses as if you were the idiot. Just because HMV closed all its Oxford Street stores (which I already knew, thank you) does NOT mean there is only one HMV store in the entire UK as you keep claiming; I already refuted that several posts back. HDR is NOT "store mode"; it objectively increases the color space AND contrast of home video, NOT just the pixel count. (Indeed HDR is actually independent of pixel count, though it's only been implemented in conjunction with 4K in consumer video.) IMO, HDR is a bigger improvement than 4K itself. You are entitled to your own opinion, but NOT to your own facts!

I like this answer!

Some 2K DI’s look fantastic - Aquaman, John Wick 2, The Martian etc.. obviously prefer total 4K, but w a good setup, not always easy to see the difference between 2K n 4K DI

@@brockt9762 Yeah agree, even some standard Blu Rays still look extremely good when done well. 2K isn't a bad resolution by any means but in my view the better 2K DIs that are mastered well and spruced up with a lick of HDR to be sold as 4K are false advertising and confusing to consumers in my view.

Awesome. Out of curiosity, are you getting the PS5 with the 4K disc drive or the digital 'no drive' edition?

@@ElliotCoen Disc Drive, Not a fan of Digital Media to be honest.

Steven Reynolds you’re missing out bro

@@brockt9762 Missing out on what?

Steven Reynolds oh I misread. Thought you weren’t a fan of ‘stand alone’ disc drives.

There's a difference between streaming 4k and watching 4k bluray. Not night and day, but a noticeable difference.

I don't have the Bill and Ted disc yet, but it sucks to hear the 5.1 track isn't on there. What a shame.

Yeah that really sucks cuz i love the soundtrack.

if u want watch a good movie with good sound u got go back on 1080p tv and 1080p bluray its better then 4k tv and 4k blu-ray dude and 1080p tv looks amazing compare to garbage 4k tvs

mastersofurmouth I started collecting three years ago but I only bought a true 4K tv this year and watching the movies again in HDR is such a joy! You’re gonna love it!

@@Loki-sk7bi looking forward to it!

Oh that's very cool. I look forward to checking that video out :)

@David Mander time will tell

They barely have any 4k source material, let alone 8k. Should have gotten an oled, LG is awesome...

@@soullessellie i have a lg oled. Always wanted a 8k tv.

If that's all someone has, better than internal tv speakers!

There will be blood would be amazing

if u want watch a good movie with good sound u got go back on 1080p tv and 1080p bluray its better then 4k tv and 4k blu-ray dude and 1080p tv looks amazing compare to garbage 4k tvs

I would absolutely love to, but my computer cannot handle editing 4K efficiently currently. Maybe in the future when I have some better editing equipment :)

Don’t go cheap on a player if you plan on using it a lot.

if u want watch a good movie with good sound u got go back on 1080p tv and 1080p bluray its better then 4k tv and 4k blu-ray dude and 1080p tv looks amazing compare to garbage 4k tvs

Hey Anthony. I've got a 65inch OLED TV from LG with Harman Kardon soundbar and subwoofer currently. I'd love to get surround sound at some point but my living space doesn't allow it to be optimal currently. Same with a projector, I'd love to try it. Just don't have the space at the moment!

Boutique Blu-rays with Elliot Coen a projector and a decent surround set up will change your life , you will re watch everything you already own 😀

Some movies that were filmed from back in the day weren’t created by the best of equipment. Therefore converting certain movies to 4K doesn’t impress me. I purchased The Superman Movie (1978) via VUDU and I was blown.

@@geraldlawson1011 Great point. I have noticed it varies movie to movie.

Exactly