Once Upon a time in the west Arriving on 4K

[dvdmike]

I’m still waiting for mine to ship on street date but basically:
DNR applied throughout, different more saturated color timing, no touching of the audio ending error so I assume it’s the Blu-ray audio recycled but likely hit with noise reduction or processing. The lossy mono will be the same bd source which was just a lossy version of the LD pcm with the same inherent defects.

But to make matters worse it’s shoved into a BD-66 so there’s compression artifacts everywhere.
Why Paramount why? I’ve been dreading this release for exactly these reasons.
And they have the audacity to charge $40 when the UHD film size is like 56gb and the streaming 4K version is 83 or so.

If FiM encoded it it would be fine on a bd66, Paramount really do not care.
If Captain Shill Hunt hated it then it must be terrible.
I wonder if it's like The Craft, where the apple steam in 4k looks better than Shouts disc!

[ifkg]

Is it still an upgrade over the blu-ray with the HDR/DV?

[dvdmike]

I wouldn't.

[captainsolo]

It’s far worse than I expected.
DNR is wall to wall throughout but inconsistent so some shots have the feeling of a smeary mess but others don’t. Nothing escapes some degree of grain management however.
The compression is a joke. The outdoor scenes are the worst offenders as the artifacts mix with what grain is left-and its stagnant grain-so that at times it looks like characters are walking through soup.
The color timing is better but doesn’t feel fully quite right either imo. You can tell this was a better new scan that they ruined. FOR NO REASON.
They charged premium price, used a BD-66, the download version is bigger, the two new extras are a joke-one is a basic short intro and the other is a pointless “commentary” by two podcasters which is now no 2 on the list of worst Leone commentaries, and of course retain the end music error and may have messed with EQ and noise reduction on the audio remix and mono.

Sure it’s not as bad as it could be but all of this was completely avoidable and shows such disdain for the film and the consumer. This is the kind of stuff that really makes me mad-where they’re almost daring you to say something.

Well…Paramount you’ve never seen me very upset. My intro will probably be 20m long.

[captainsolo]

Is it still an upgrade over the blu-ray with the HDR/DV?

In spite of the old bd not having the color quite right and having issues of its own and the new 4k source scan being obviously better before they screwed with it the answer is a definite NO!
Hang onto the 2011 BD for sure!

Seeing the new 4k master is like seeing a few basic upgrades but at such a tremendous cost that it’s not worth it. Switching to the 2011 disc even upscaled on oled and inspire of its noise and quirks the difference is night and day.

[dvdmike]

Yep BD for me

[Plissken1138]

Well…Paramount you’ve never seen me very upset. My intro will probably be 20m long.

#ReleaseTheWrathCut

[captainsolo]

Well…Paramount you’ve never seen me very upset. My intro will probably be 20m long.

#ReleaseTheWrathCut

Let’s put it this way…I found my old western cap gun in storage and the UHD is going to be in a duel.

[stwd4nder2]

Does the kscape version fair any beter?
(speaking of is there even any rips from there floating around?)

[captainsolo]

I’m currently looking at all my audio captures. Some later “monos” may be a downmix or have been processed so much they sound different. The difference is staggering in areas when you compare the pan n scan LD analog and LD pcm remaster with the dvd, bd and UHD.

The audio has never been properly restored and some of the artifacts in the LD analog make it through multiple releases.

Just when I think the UHD can’t get worse it does. I looked at the HDR10 version and it’s SIGNIFICANTLY worse than the Dolby Vision version which was already terrible. The hdr10 version is so bad anyone will notice the issues.