Although my wife has been tested to have an IQ of 170, she mostly likes big budget action movies (I get to see all the slow intellectual social-realist movies alone :blush: ). In fact she greatly likes Transformers - well, I kinda do too due to the awesome special effects. Now - somehow I missed this one - and I'm considering buying the 4K version (even if it's fake 4K), anyone knows if it's complete garbage? The trailer looks cool ($209 mill budget - it's one of the most expensive movies ever made - in comparison Transformers 5 (Last Knight) had $217 mill budget and a slightly lower IMDB rating ๐ ๐
Saw this movie last night - my first true 4K experience on the Sony 85" using my Sony X800 4K player:
The special thing about Revenant is that the movie was filmed in 4K - so compared with the majority of 4K blu-ray films it's not upscaled. My impressions:
I sat about 1 meter (3 feet) from the TV, also moved to 3 meters (9 feet) which felt better, and I had the normal (2K) blu-ray so I could swap and compare (using the exact same player and TV).
This was truly a deluxe experience - I have never seen better image quality in a movie, not even the best IMAX certified cinemas have delivered anything close to this image clarity - possible because it's difficult to get perfect sharpness in the cinemas due to the extremely large screens. Everything felt like moving photographs - in that perspective 8K doesn't make much sense, can anything look better than real? (Now 4K + 120 Hz + 3D would be an entirely different discussion).
Still blu-ray upscaled 4K also looked amazing, I tried to take a few pics of the TV screen comparing real and upscaled 4K, but I don't think I can capture the difference correctly like that. It's more a sensation of absolute clarity when the movie is running - it's in the flow ๐ Also I noticed no color banding whatsoever in 4K, which I a few times have noticed on 2K blu-rays. Furthermore HDR worked nicely and didn't provide too much light in Revenant compared to my HDR experience using Netflix.
When everything moves fast you can't see any difference between true and upscaled 4K (from 2K blu-rays). I guess 60-70 % of the movie contained scenes where it's impossible to see any difference between real and upscaled 4K. Real 4K seems more like a very expensive solution for the few viewers rejoicing and truly enjoying the sacred moments when the camera-man for a few milliseconds got everything into perfect focus (and kept the damn camera still) - and where you can observe details you've never seen in upscaled 4K before.
Or maybe I could say the difference between real and upscaled 4K is like the difference using ss 1.6/1.7 on the Rift and then compare it to ss 2.0 ๐ Not everyone will see the difference. I'll probably need to watch a movie for 30 minutes - and to really focus on the visuals - to be able to tell true 4K from upscaled 4K (remember the upscaled 4K also feeds your brain with 8.3 mill pixels per image). So real 4K has HDR and seems totally clear - simply perfect image quality - while upscaled 2K blu-rays have a slightly more "grainy" appearance although it still has great sharpness and awesome colors (probably thanks to the advanced image processors in the Sony 85" which really do create some true magic - if you don't have similar processors in your TV or better, maybe 4K vs. upscaled 4K may be more pronounced).
Also the TV has 1000 Hz motionflow - it may be worth considering what's happening inside the TV, like:
Real 4K: True image shown - Computer generated image shown (for God knows how many times, but probably more than 1 is generated) - True image shown.
Upscaled 4K: Upscaled real image shown - Computer generated image shown (for God knows how many times, but probably more than 1 is generated) - Upscaled real image shown.
In both cases many of the images I see are computer generated and not completely true images - which may make it even harder to tell true 4K from upscaled 4K.
In short - Revenant in true 4K was the best image quality I have ever experienced in a movie - it was nearly like being present in the movie. It's hard to believe that image quality can be further improved, because everything simply looked real.
Upscaled 4K looked nearly as good - and it's impossible to see any difference in high-motion scenes - but it didn't have the same perfect clarity, although my mom probably would never be able to tell the difference ๐ And I think you need a really big TV to observe any difference between real and upscaled 4K (especially if you have advanced image processors build-in like Sony, LG and Philips use).
I think I'll buy 4K for non-3D movies filmed in true 4K. Not sure about the rest - especially when 2K blu-rays are so much cheaper and still look awesome upscaled to 4K.
BTW, X800 is near-silent - had to really listen for it to hear anything - the XBox One X should be much more loud according to reviews. But do get the XBox instead if you like pancake gaming, you'll probably get much more bang for the bucks than getting a standalone 4K player (I believe X800 to have much higher WAF, although she just complained about it, still XBox One X in our living room would probably push the Doomsday Clock much closer to midnight).
The special thing about Revenant is that the movie was filmed in 4K - so compared with the majority of 4K blu-ray films it's not upscaled. My impressions:
I sat about 1 meter (3 feet) from the TV, also moved to 3 meters (9 feet) which felt better, and I had the normal (2K) blu-ray so I could swap and compare (using the exact same player and TV).
This was truly a deluxe experience - I have never seen better image quality in a movie, not even the best IMAX certified cinemas have delivered anything close to this image clarity - possible because it's difficult to get perfect sharpness in the cinemas due to the extremely large screens. Everything felt like moving photographs - in that perspective 8K doesn't make much sense, can anything look better than real? (Now 4K + 120 Hz + 3D would be an entirely different discussion).
Still blu-ray upscaled 4K also looked amazing, I tried to take a few pics of the TV screen comparing real and upscaled 4K, but I don't think I can capture the difference correctly like that. It's more a sensation of absolute clarity when the movie is running - it's in the flow ๐ Also I noticed no color banding whatsoever in 4K, which I a few times have noticed on 2K blu-rays. Furthermore HDR worked nicely and didn't provide too much light in Revenant compared to my HDR experience using Netflix.
When everything moves fast you can't see any difference between true and upscaled 4K (from 2K blu-rays). I guess 60-70 % of the movie contained scenes where it's impossible to see any difference between real and upscaled 4K. Real 4K seems more like a very expensive solution for the few viewers rejoicing and truly enjoying the sacred moments when the camera-man for a few milliseconds got everything into perfect focus (and kept the damn camera still) - and where you can observe details you've never seen in upscaled 4K before.
Or maybe I could say the difference between real and upscaled 4K is like the difference using ss 1.6/1.7 on the Rift and then compare it to ss 2.0 ๐ Not everyone will see the difference. I'll probably need to watch a movie for 30 minutes - and to really focus on the visuals - to be able to tell true 4K from upscaled 4K (remember the upscaled 4K also feeds your brain with 8.3 mill pixels per image). So real 4K has HDR and seems totally clear - simply perfect image quality - while upscaled 2K blu-rays have a slightly more "grainy" appearance although it still has great sharpness and awesome colors (probably thanks to the advanced image processors in the Sony 85" which really do create some true magic - if you don't have similar processors in your TV or better, maybe 4K vs. upscaled 4K may be more pronounced).
Also the TV has 1000 Hz motionflow - it may be worth considering what's happening inside the TV, like:
Real 4K: True image shown - Computer generated image shown (for God knows how many times, but probably more than 1 is generated) - True image shown.
Upscaled 4K: Upscaled real image shown - Computer generated image shown (for God knows how many times, but probably more than 1 is generated) - Upscaled real image shown.
In both cases many of the images I see are computer generated and not completely true images - which may make it even harder to tell true 4K from upscaled 4K.
In short - Revenant in true 4K was the best image quality I have ever experienced in a movie - it was nearly like being present in the movie. It's hard to believe that image quality can be further improved, because everything simply looked real.
Upscaled 4K looked nearly as good - and it's impossible to see any difference in high-motion scenes - but it didn't have the same perfect clarity, although my mom probably would never be able to tell the difference ๐ And I think you need a really big TV to observe any difference between real and upscaled 4K (especially if you have advanced image processors build-in like Sony, LG and Philips use).
I think I'll buy 4K for non-3D movies filmed in true 4K. Not sure about the rest - especially when 2K blu-rays are so much cheaper and still look awesome upscaled to 4K.
BTW, X800 is near-silent - had to really listen for it to hear anything - the XBox One X should be much more loud according to reviews. But do get the XBox instead if you like pancake gaming, you'll probably get much more bang for the bucks than getting a standalone 4K player (I believe X800 to have much higher WAF, although she just complained about it, still XBox One X in our living room would probably push the Doomsday Clock much closer to midnight).
Yes, The Revenant is an awesome movie, I think 8/10 is spot on. I did see about 50% of the movie a few years ago, but I'm glad I waited for the 4K version, the quality really added a lot to the movie.
This evening we saw I movie I didn't expect ever to see due to the bad ratings - but it wasn't that bad. My 11 year old son rated it 6/10 - I'd agree to that:
This movie is "fake 4K", so it's upscaled from 2K (originally shot in 2.8K and 3.4K then downscaled to 2K). Although I didn't compare with the blu-ray, clearly this movie did not seem as real as Revenant - but it wasn't bad either. This review seems quite close to my experience - especially HDR was nice:
"The UHD disc offers minor-to-moderate, but evident, refinement. Colors -- even rather flat shades of dark blue -- are more precise. Finer fabric details are more revealing. Perhaps most immediately noticeable is the improvement in facial definition. On the Blu- ray, Kate Mara's skin is so smooth it almost looks like plastic. On UHD, it retains that sense of flawlessness, but with a more richly defined skin texture that captures the very finest pores, makeup applications, and lines in her lips that on Blu-ray are only crudely visible, all evident even in medium shots. A good place to compare may be found in chapter four in a scene featuring Kate Mara and Miles Teller speaking to one another at a library table. It's well lit and shows ample opportunity to compare her face and his shirt (and her plaid shirt, for that matter) in close-up detail. The differences, while not awe-inspiring, certainly demonstrate the casual improvements audiences will enjoy with the new format, even from material that's not natively 4K.
Other improvements and general observations of the transfer's best moments include the scars on Richards' face, fine pore and facial hair strands on both Richards and Doom, pores and scars on Johnny's face following his car accident, small smudges on the space suit helmets, scuffs and longstanding wear on an interrogation table, Thing's rocky texture and both the intimate crevices and raised ridges alike, and the fine detailing on the Fantastic uniforms, and Johnny's meshy getup in particular. Colors, boosted by HDR (High Dynamic Range) support, enjoy deeper, but not significant, saturation. The movie isn't abundantly colorful to begin with, but fiery oranges, the toxic green alien colors on the alternate dimension planet that later infuse Doom, blue hazard suits, computer display readouts, and other small colored accents satisfy beyond the 1080p Blu-ray's capabilities. Skin tones are a little more flush, but still favor the movie's cooler, pastier look. Black levels find good balance, though minor variations in depth appear along the UHD experience.
Further, Fox's 2160p UHD presentation is never excessively noisy. Macroblocking and banding are never an issue, and neither is aliasing [...] This isn't a showcase UHD disc to be sure, but that doesn't make it without its benefits and merits."
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Fantastic-4-4K-Blu-ray/145681/
Borrowed the movie from a colleague, still waiting for Blue Planet 2 to arrive from Amazon UK.
I have to buy all my movies - streaming other than Netflix isn't really great anymore (Netflix is fine though, it's fully supported by the processors in the TV), but the Sony processors need a lot of data to work with so MKV, MP4 etc. are really bad to look at, haven't tested X800 though - but the QDeo chip on my Philips high-end blu-ray player doesn't have power enough to both clean up MKV and then upscale to 4K, QDeo 4K upscaling works awesome for blu-ray discs though. I'm on the look out for The House Jack Built, haven't ordered it yet. I'll probably dump the $60 for Venom 4K (wife and son want that movie) and Battleship 4K first, sigh... ๐
This evening we saw I movie I didn't expect ever to see due to the bad ratings - but it wasn't that bad. My 11 year old son rated it 6/10 - I'd agree to that:
This movie is "fake 4K", so it's upscaled from 2K (originally shot in 2.8K and 3.4K then downscaled to 2K). Although I didn't compare with the blu-ray, clearly this movie did not seem as real as Revenant - but it wasn't bad either. This review seems quite close to my experience - especially HDR was nice:
"The UHD disc offers minor-to-moderate, but evident, refinement. Colors -- even rather flat shades of dark blue -- are more precise. Finer fabric details are more revealing. Perhaps most immediately noticeable is the improvement in facial definition. On the Blu- ray, Kate Mara's skin is so smooth it almost looks like plastic. On UHD, it retains that sense of flawlessness, but with a more richly defined skin texture that captures the very finest pores, makeup applications, and lines in her lips that on Blu-ray are only crudely visible, all evident even in medium shots. A good place to compare may be found in chapter four in a scene featuring Kate Mara and Miles Teller speaking to one another at a library table. It's well lit and shows ample opportunity to compare her face and his shirt (and her plaid shirt, for that matter) in close-up detail. The differences, while not awe-inspiring, certainly demonstrate the casual improvements audiences will enjoy with the new format, even from material that's not natively 4K.
Other improvements and general observations of the transfer's best moments include the scars on Richards' face, fine pore and facial hair strands on both Richards and Doom, pores and scars on Johnny's face following his car accident, small smudges on the space suit helmets, scuffs and longstanding wear on an interrogation table, Thing's rocky texture and both the intimate crevices and raised ridges alike, and the fine detailing on the Fantastic uniforms, and Johnny's meshy getup in particular. Colors, boosted by HDR (High Dynamic Range) support, enjoy deeper, but not significant, saturation. The movie isn't abundantly colorful to begin with, but fiery oranges, the toxic green alien colors on the alternate dimension planet that later infuse Doom, blue hazard suits, computer display readouts, and other small colored accents satisfy beyond the 1080p Blu-ray's capabilities. Skin tones are a little more flush, but still favor the movie's cooler, pastier look. Black levels find good balance, though minor variations in depth appear along the UHD experience.
Further, Fox's 2160p UHD presentation is never excessively noisy. Macroblocking and banding are never an issue, and neither is aliasing [...] This isn't a showcase UHD disc to be sure, but that doesn't make it without its benefits and merits."
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Fantastic-4-4K-Blu-ray/145681/
Borrowed the movie from a colleague, still waiting for Blue Planet 2 to arrive from Amazon UK.
I have to buy all my movies - streaming other than Netflix isn't really great anymore (Netflix is fine though, it's fully supported by the processors in the TV), but the Sony processors need a lot of data to work with so MKV, MP4 etc. are really bad to look at, haven't tested X800 though - but the QDeo chip on my Philips high-end blu-ray player doesn't have power enough to both clean up MKV and then upscale to 4K, QDeo 4K upscaling works awesome for blu-ray discs though. I'm on the look out for The House Jack Built, haven't ordered it yet. I'll probably dump the $60 for Venom 4K (wife and son want that movie) and Battleship 4K first, sigh... ๐
