UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Columbia Classics Volume 4 -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[Noel Aguirre]

My set was supposed to be delivered today, but was delayed by the USPS. Ah well, that'll make tomorrow even better.

The sun will come out ……!

 

[jayembee]

If you have the Crit, you'll want to keep it, as it contains Front Page 1931

Of course, you can get the 1931 Front Page from Kino, too.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Of course, you can get the 1931 Front Page from Kino, too.

View attachment 213760

It’s actually a completely different version - they used one set of takes (the better ones) for the U.S. release, and that’s what’s on the Criterion “His Girl Friday” disc, and the lesser takes were used to assemble a secondary version for the U.K., which is what is on the Kino disc.

 

[compson]

I have had some issues with each of the four collections. I have a 65” Sony Bravia OLED monitor model A90J. I have all motion control and motion smoothing turned off. On all of the films, if there is a panning shot accross vertical lines such as a fence or even buildings there is a kind of strobe. Maybe it’s just me.

I haven’t noticed that. Can you give a disc and time stamp of an example?

 

[Robert Harris]

I haven’t noticed that. Can you give a disc and time stamp of an example?

At 24fps, that’s normal. “Picket fence’ effect

 

[compson]

Note that Zavvi is selling the UK release. I assume that means no digital codes. I can‘t tell if the 1080p discs are region-free. The Rarewaves listing includes: “Region Code: Region B.” BR.com’s listing notes “A, C untested.”

 

[davidmatychuk]

I'll be picking the set up this weekend at my local video retailer. I know it's substantially pricier than the previous three, but I will then have them all. For my American friends, in U.S. dollars I will be paying $154, not much more than $25 each. NOW...I'll be 69 years old in a couple of months. I just can't see how waiting for prices to drop on items I want to enjoy in my lifetime benefits me. What would I be waiting for? I felt the same way when I got married last April.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Good for you and congrats on your nuptials. IMO, how people spend their monies is their individual business.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Good for you and congrats on your nuptials. IMO, how people spend their monies is their individual business.

Thanks, Robert. Danielle's a home theater nut like me, so the relative cost of yearly Columbia 4K box sets is not an issue at chez Matychuk, but we do like to get the most for our money too.

 

[David Weicker]

I'll be picking the set up this weekend at my local video retailer. I know it's substantially pricier than the previous three, but I will then have them all. For my American friends, in U.S. dollars I will be paying $154, not much more than $25 each. NOW...I'll be 69 years old in a couple of months. I just can't see how waiting for prices to drop on items I want to enjoy in my lifetime benefits me. What would I be waiting for? I felt the same way when I got married last April. View attachment 213773

Congratulations

But does she know how many times your name (our name) is uttered in BUB

 

[davidmatychuk]

Congratulations

But does she know how many times your name (our name) is uttered in BUB

You bet she does. I counted again with her when we watched the Criterion Blu-Ray last year.

 

[madfloyd]

I have had some issues with each of the four collections. I have a 65” Sony Bravia OLED monitor model A90J. I have all motion control and motion smoothing turned off. On all of the films, if there is a panning shot accross vertical lines such as a fence or even buildings there is a kind of strobe. Maybe it’s just me.

The brighter your image the more you will notice this.

 

[madfloyd]

Watched His Girl Friday last night (for the first time). Exhausting affair! I was blown away by the frenetic pacing of this movie and the superlative performances from the cast. Impeccable and brilliant timing on the part of Grant and Russell and the writing is very clever. Wow. It's non-stop. I don't think there's a 2 second pause in dialogue throughtout the movie lol.

I can't say I loved the video quality - at least on a lot of the brighter scenes where I felt the grain was too dark and gave the 'bugs crawling on faces' effect. Most B&W films look amazing to me, but not this one.

 

[John Maher_289910]

When I was a kid, my favorite movie studio was Columbia. For some reason I liked every B-movie they showed at the plethora of neighborhood theaters we had. I never realized, until these box sets, how many Columbia A films I actually don't like. I haven't purchased a single one of these sets. There is maybe one in each set that I want. Have they begun releasing 4K separate editions of these films? I can't say that I've noticed.

 

[OliverK]

Watched His Girl Friday last night (for the first time). Exhausting affair! I was blown away by the frenetic pacing of this movie and the superlative performances from the cast. Impeccable and brilliant timing on the part of Grant and Russell and the writing is very clever. Wow. It's non-stop. I don't think there's a 2 second pause in dialogue throughtout the movie lol.

I can't say I loved the video quality - at least on a lot of the brighter scenes where I felt the grain was too dark and gave the 'bugs crawling on faces' effect. Most B&W films look amazing to me, but not this one.

I know exactly what you mean, The Bridge on the River Kwai is another title where the film grain is just a bit too much and there are a few others. For those titles I will make sure to not have any sharpening active anywhere in the signal chain and if scaling is involved I will use an anti-aliasing algorithm. If tone-mapping is involved it can also help to use less aggressive settings which is something I now do routinely for older movies as their HDR grade is often "hotter" than I would like and I try to make their grading more similar to what it would have been with a 4K SDR release.

 

[madfloyd]

I know exactly what you mean, The Bridge on the River Kwai is another title where the film grain is just a bit too much and there are a few others. For those titles I will make sure to not have any sharpening active anywhere in the signal chain and if scaling is involved I will use an anti-aliasing algorithm. If tone-mapping is involved it can also help to use less aggressive settings which is something I now do routinely for older movies as their HDR grade is often "hotter" than I would like and I try to make their grading more similar to what it would have been with a 4K SDR release.

I appreciate your thoughts. I was thinking something similar with setting up a separate tone-mapping setting for this reason. I couldn't experiment with it last night as I had a guest, but I will going forward.

 

[OliverK]

I appreciate your thoughts. I was thinking something similar with setting up a separate tone-mapping setting for this reason. I couldn't experiment with it last night as I had a guest, but I will going forward.

Good decision and I am sure your guest was very impressed with the presentation as it was!

 

[Konstantinos]

So, the disappointing thing is that I think most people bought this set for Starman, and so they do not sell it on its own at ebay.
(I see a couple of listings about the series though).

 

[dpippel]

So, the disappointing thing is that I think most people bought this set for Starman, and so they do not sell it on its own at ebay.
(I see a couple of listings about the series though).

If you stream, Starman is currently available in 4K via FanFlix at Movies Anywhere, although MA shows it as HD or SD at all retailers. I'm one of those who purchased CC Vol. 4 primarily for this title, but part of me thinks I should sell the set, buy the 4K streaming version, and wait for the (hopefully) 4K physical release.

 

[Konstantinos]

If you stream, Starman is currently available in 4K via FanFlix at Movies Anywhere, although MA shows it as HD or SD at all retailers. I'm one of those who purchased CC Vol. 4 primarily for this title, but part of me thinks I should sell the set, buy the 4K streaming version, and wait for the (hopefully) 4K physical release.

I don't stream, and anyway I live in Greece, so I don't think we have those services here.
Well, if you sell, please let me know. I would be interested in this title and His Girl Friday.