UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Aliens -- in 4k UHD (2 Viewers)

[Lord Dalek]

I say we nuke the entire thread from orbit.

Only way to be sure.

 

[UNdetectableMAN]

“Du point de vue éthique, l'approche ici décrite suscite des réserves. Il est de notre avis que les pratiques utilisées ici, sur la base de vieillissants scans, devraient être plus clairement rejetées par la presse spécialisée et autres influenceurs, afin d'éviter que d'autres œuvres cinématographiques de renom ne soient exposées à de semblables traitements au combien discutables. Cela ne signifie pas que l'utilisation de ces outils soit entièrement dénuée de légitimité. Mais l'absence de modération dans leur emploi, telle qu'observée aujourd'hui, et sur un scan vieillissant, est particulièrement préoccupante”

“Surtout, une impression surfaite, proche d'un univers gaming, porte à nos yeux structurellement atteinte à la signature 35mm organique, cette signature qui pourtant avait été préservée dans l'édition Blu-ray de 2010. Et c'est facheux”

Test 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray : Aliens, le retour (1986)

Et voici notre test complet de l'une des éditions 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray certainement les plus attendues de l'année 2024 : Aliens, le retour (1986) de James Cameron. Bonne lecture !

www.hdnumerique.com

 

[UNdetectableMAN]

 

[Wayne Klein]

Flip Wilson, politically correct.

Some folks like it. More power to them. It certainly had what appeared to be AI generated clarity. It’s Cameron’s film. I didn’t make it so he has the right to do what he wants. On the other hand, I have the right to watch the prior Blu-ray (though there was a fair amount of clean up there as well). We do have choices which is the good news.

Between the two, “The Abyss” is more tastefully done. It also had advantages that “Aliens” didn’t have when it came to source and workflow iMHO.

”True Lies”, on the other hand, looks the worst of the bunch.

 

[tenia]

View attachment 217651

Not sure if facial hair or leper.

 

[Robert Harris]

I’ve seen Ben-Hur. Definitely a leper.

After over 35,000 reads, and over 500 replies, no one, including yours truly, is going to get the disc they desire. Zarathustra has spuck. We have our disc.

Like it or not.

Next up, Todd Erwin’s extremely honest review of The Color Purple II.

 

[Bryan^H]

I watched it yesterday with the 2 channel stereo mix. Reading all the negative comments I was expecting to be disappointed. I'm not, I think it looks great. I'm happy I purchased it even though it seems I had to wait forever for it to arrive.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

Next up, Todd Erwin’s extremely honest review of The Color Purple II.

Ah, yes... Color Purple II: Lost Caverns.

 

[jayembee]

Zarathustra has spuck. We have our disc.

That's my new word of the day.

 

[Clinton McClure]

That’s the secret word of the day.

 

[Lee-c]

One thing that is rather shocking, is the scan. I mean, come on, a brand new 2024 4K Blu-ray of Aliens, one of the best sci-fi movies ever and a fan favorite sure to get sales when released, and we don't get a 4K scan of the film to base the new disk master on?? Seems a little crazy... Having said that, one things seem clear, as someone else pointed out, a good 2K scans holds an impressive amount of detail. Still, it should have been a 4K negative scan, then we'd be all set with max detail and maybe even less need for as much grain removal. The only good news on that front is that there is room for another release later on that has a 100% 4K transfer chain from film to disk. Which should yield ultimate detail, and also allow for a more perfected DNR/advanced grain removal technique to be used with less artifacts and such.

 

[mi_z]

One thing that is rather shocking, is the scan. I mean, come on, a brand new 2024 4K Blu-ray of Aliens, one of the best sci-fi movies ever and a fan favorite sure to get sales when released, and we don't get a 4K scan of the film to base the new disk master on?? Seems a little crazy... Having said that, one things seem clear, as someone else pointed out, a good 2K scans holds an impressive amount of detail. Still, it should have been a 4K negative scan, then we'd be all set with max detail and maybe even less need for as much grain removal. The only good news on that front is that there is room for another release later on that has a 100% 4K transfer chain from film to disk. Which should yield ultimate detail, and also allow for a more perfected DNR/advanced grain removal technique to be used with less artifacts and such.

I don't think it is clear yet if it was a 4k scan or not. It was finished in 2k and upscaled for the 4k release, but it may have originally been from a 4k scan. Needless to say the technology has improved since then so a new scan would have been better. It's apparently that Cameron doesn't want to apply all the "fixes" that went into the previous master, and so they went with the upscale route.

 

[TonyD]

I don't think it is clear yet if it was a 4k scan or not. It was finished in 2k and upscaled for the 4k release, but it may have originally been from a 4k scan. Needless to say the technology has improved since then so a new scan would have been better. It's apparently that Cameron doesn't want to apply all the "fixes" that went into the previous master, and so they went with the upscale route.

I think it’s very clear it’s from a 2k scan.

 

[JoshZ]

I don't think it is clear yet if it was a 4k scan or not. It was finished in 2k and upscaled for the 4k release, but it may have originally been from a 4k scan.

In one of these Cameron threads, someone did post confirmation that the 2010 Blu-ray came from a 2K scan.

One thing that is rather shocking, is the scan. I mean, come on, a brand new 2024 4K Blu-ray of Aliens, one of the best sci-fi movies ever and a fan favorite sure to get sales when released, and we don't get a 4K scan of the film to base the new disk master on?? Seems a little crazy...

As I posted a bunch of pages back, my suspicion is that Cameron was still happy with the work Lowry Digital did on the 2010 Blu-ray and wanted to use that as a starting point without redoing everything from scratch.

 

[John Sparks]

...so, almost all of the posts above are conjecture?

 

[JoshZ]

...so, almost all of the posts above are conjecture?

In what regard? We do now have confirmation that Aliens was upconverted from the 2K scan and master from 2010. But no, we don't know why a new 4K scan wasn't performed. Short of James Cameron explaining his rationale for that, which seems unlikely, all we can do is speculate.

 

[Robert Harris]

In what regard? We do now have confirmation that Aliens was upconverted from the 2K scan and master from 2010. But no, we don't know why a new 4K scan wasn't performed. Short of James Cameron explaining his rationale for that, which seems unlikely, all we can do is speculate.

A new 4k scan, with color, could run $30-40k. Aliens won’t sell enough copies to warrant that expenditure.

 

[SPlow67]

A new 4k scan, with color, could run $30-40k. Aliens won’t sell enough copies to warrant that expenditure.

I'm not deeply familiar with the cost of a new scan, but looking through my collection for movies that I believe had either recent 4K scans, or scans specifically for their UHD disc release, I see films like, The Princess Bride, Die Hard, Speed, Glory, The Thing, The Mask of Zorro, I think Aliens would easily outsell or at least match the sales of several of those titles. If a scan could be done for those I really don't see why Aliens couldn't be done.

 

[JoshZ]

A new 4k scan, with color, could run $30-40k. Aliens won’t sell enough copies to warrant that expenditure.

How much to do it without color?

I must be very gratifying to the makers of something like China O'Brien or Dust Devil to know that their movies are now more popular than a James Cameron blockbuster and can merit those expenses where his can't.

 

[SD_Brian]

How much to do it without color?

You'd think they'd at least get a discount for only using teal and orange, amiright?