Worst 4K Release List?

jerryfudd

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Hi,

2nd post in a day but I've been saving my questions up.... I've seen lists on 'best 4K releases' but is there any quick reference to the worst - plus any that are just as good or better upscaled from HD BluRay?

I picked up Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and it was TERRIBLE (on LG OLED 55" B8), completely unwatchable and some research later after the fact agreed with what others had said which was like ants crawling round the screen. The only saving grace is that Amazon gave a full refund when I complained and said keep the disc so I just watch the HD BluRay instead which is fine (I'd already paid for the DVD so they've had money from me one way or another, and VHS before that).

Just seems a pain having to research multiple sites and opinions before a purchase when in my opinion you should be parting with a premium for what it says on the cover.
 
Crouching Tiger UHD is mastered at a very high nit level. On my LG E6 it had crawling ants, on my E8 from my UB820 with HDR Optimiser on to tone map it to 1,000 nits, there is no problem.

It wasn't the disc but the inability of some TVs to properly display it. It also played fine on some high nit capable LED TVs. As a 35mm film 4K scan the UHD shows more detail than the previous blu-ray. The HD blu-ray which accompanies it also benefits from the new scan of the movie.

AFAIK there is no definitive list of the worst UHDs. There was the real or fake 4K site but reading that would place some fine 2K DI UHDs into the fake (so poor) category when they are anything but. Pacific Rim is an example of that. Also that site for Crouching Tiger would show it as a better UHD as it is true 4K being a 4K film scan so not upscaled.
 
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thank you, though I'm tempted to say the release is still at fault if specific hardware beyond the standards printed on the cover is required.

Is there anyway to know in advance if another title is the same?
 
thank you, though I'm tempted to say the release is still at fault if specific hardware beyond the standards printed on the cover is required.

Is there anyway to know in advance if another title is the same?
The only releases similar are mostly the other Sony 4K 35mm film scan UHDs which are mastered at high nit levels. None of them showed the crawling black ants grain like Crouching Tiger.

As an aside it looked poor on my LG E6 due to the poor HDR handling that model year had. When played in forced Dolby Vision on my E6 it didn't have the ants. As your B8 doesn't have the new Alpha processor it may be using one similar to the older model years hence why you saw a problem with it.
 
Thanks - every time I pick up an older film released in 4K I hope it comes out looking like Blade Runner (1982) as that seemed very impressive to my untrained eyes.
 
@doug56hl

are there any articles you could point me towards in regards to the high nit level scanning and tone mapping specifically regarding this issue so I can read some more as I just purchased the Predator Trilogy and had exactly the same problem with Predator 1 & 2. Would this only affect 4K scans? Had a bit of a Google but couldn't find anything of use just that nit is a level of brightness.....

Dan
 
Just read some articles that suggested that 'high grain levels' were a choice of the release to show its 35mm origins......watching more of Predator its only the very bright colours like sky blue that are the most grainy everything else is actually good.
 
@doug56hl

are there any articles you could point me towards in regards to the high nit level scanning and tone mapping specifically regarding this issue so I can read some more as I just purchased the Predator Trilogy and had exactly the same problem with Predator 1 & 2. Would this only affect 4K scans? Had a bit of a Google but couldn't find anything of use just that nit is a level of brightness.....

Dan
Never seen any. Info gained from comments here and in other forums.
There is an old list which is no longer updated which shows the maximum nits levels for some UHDs
metadata_v5
the column which shows that is the MaxCLL one. Crouching Tiger is shown as 8985, one of the highest values.

Beyond that you need to know if a disc has a 4K 35mm scan or was digitally filmed. The latter normally/often doesn't have any grain. Combining the two sets of info together would let you guess if the high nits in combination with grain could result in the grain becoming more prominent. Or just read the UHD reviews for anything you're thinking of buying.

The later Panasonic players (UB420, UB820 and UB9000) have a HDR Optimiser feature where the player tones maps high nit levels down itself and passes a lower level to the TV giving it less work to do with its own tone mapping. Two hands make light work...

Just read some articles that suggested that 'high grain levels' were a choice of the release to show its 35mm origins......watching more of Predator its only the very bright colours like sky blue that are the most grainy everything else is actually good.
Predator always was a grainy film in the first place. And grain always shows up most on blue skies or light features like walls.
 

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