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A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Last Reef -- in 4k UHD Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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In the lifetime of UHD 4k Blu-ray, March 1st, seems far longer ago than it is.

Between the birth of the new format and mid-September, Shout Factory has become the go-to purveyor for large format IMAX-style productions. They released their initial large formats on June 7th. Universal will test the waters on September 13th, the same date that Shout will be releasing their sixth and seventh programs.

Although I knew the latest from Shout was coming, I was surprised not to see them listed on Highdefdigest's schedule, which does a fine job of keeping release up to date.

Things have been changing in 4k-land recently.

A firmware upgrade from Sony, permitted their projectors to play more nicely with the Samsung player. The Panasonic players hits the street this week in the US, and it remains to be seen how easily that unit will work with different devices.

Between the time that I was previewing Shout's The Last Reef, and Wonders of the Arctic, Samsung came on-line with another firmware update for their player, but seems to be oriented toward playing nicely with Netflix..

The icing on the cake was aid from calibration guru extraordinaire, Kevin Miller, who offered some new potential settings to get around some of the Samsung problems.

Bottom line, is that I'm now able to view UHD / HDR programming at close to perfection.

I mention that because Shout's The Last Reef is the first UHD / HDR programming to go through the newly calibrated, firmware-upgraded system.

And it shines!

Filmed with High Resolution gear, The Last Reef is the latest of a myriad of "reef" productions produced for large format distribution during the past four decades, and so far, the only one that comes to life on home video.

Resolution is astounding, while color, in both HDR, and SDR formats (both are available) pops off the screen.

Audio, in Dolby Atmos, is magnificently room-filling.

For those who have not yet made the move to 4k, The Last Reef is one of the those films that you can comfortably put on your screen for your friends, and they won't think you've lost your mind with home theater gear.

Even if the truth might be otherwise.

An absolutely magnificent 4k UHD Blu-ray.


Image - 5*

Audio - 5

4k - 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Highly Recommended

RAH
 

Robert Harris

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Since many have achieved 4k status since this review was posted, I'm bumping, as Shout Factory remains a top purveyor of 4k, large format, which are also packaged with 3D, where applicable.

They're a class act.
 

DavidMiller

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I haven't got this one yet. I know the prices are dropping on these so I may have to pick them up. Have a ton of 4K Blu-rays coming in the next couple months so I may have to hold off.
 

Robert Crawford

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RAH,

Have you sample or watch Planet Earth II yet? I'll buy your recommendation one day.
 

DavidMiller

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RAH,

Have you sample or watch Planet Earth II yet? I'll buy your recommendation one day.

I watched a couple sample minutes of it. Haven't sat down and watched it all the way through. It looked stunningly good to me. I was amazed how good it really looked. I hope to watch through more of it this weekend.
 

titch

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RAH,

Have you sample or watch Planet Earth II yet? I'll buy your recommendation one day.

I wish I had a 4K projection set-up for this - the reviews have certainly been superlative

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017...w-tv-propaganda-if-you-get-the-right-version/

http://www.avsforum.com/planet-earth-ii-ultra-hd-blu-ray-review/

Although I would point out that the AVS reviewer does not use a projector that displays true 4K resolution (the JVC DLA-RS500).

The 1080 blu-ray picture is marvellous, though.
 

Robert Crawford

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The other day, Amazon dropped the pricing of this release down to $11.62 and I watched it today. Wow! Just a beautiful video presentation and the Dolby Atmos audio track was fantastic. I highly recommend this disc to show off the benefits of 4K/UHD with how they displayed the different coral reef colors throughout the world.
 

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