Home Improvement: The Complete Series (1991-1999) is a popular and acclaimed sitcom that follows Tim Allen, the accident-prone host of a Detroit, Michigan television program about tools, as he raises his dysfunctional family. The show stars Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson, Earl Hindman, and Taran Noah Smith. The DVD version of the show is available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.
Home Improvement: Season One (1991-92) is directed by John Pasquin, with Tim Allen as Tim Taylor, Patricia Richardson as Jill Taylor, Earl Hindman as Wilson, and Taran Noah Smith as Earl Hindman. The series is set to release on Blu Ray on September 5, and the complete series is expected to be released on Blu Ray on September 5.
A 24-disc Blu Ray box set showcasing all 203 half-hour episodes, including 100 Complete, 100 Uncut, and 100 Unedited, is also available. The 20th Anniversary Complete Collection DVD is rated unrated and has 4.4 2,694 ratings. The DVD version of Home Improvement: Season 1 Digital is available for purchase at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.
In summary, Home Improvement: The Complete Series is a popular and acclaimed sitcom that follows Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson, Earl Hindman, and their three children, Brad, Randy, and Mark.
📹 UNBOXING: Home Improvement – The Complete First Season DVD
Is Blu-ray being discontinued?
Blu-ray discs are still available in select retail stores like Walmart, but many like Best Buy and Target now only offer them through their online websites. This limited in-store selection, primarily focused on new releases, can be a drawback for customers seeking a more diverse shopping experience. Stores often neglect to maintain a robust inventory of older, highly desirable items due to the lack of demand for these items in their sales.
Which is better DVD or Blu-ray?
DVD and Blu-ray are optical disc formats with different storage capacities and video and audio quality. Blu-ray discs can hold up to 25 GB of data on a single layer and 50 GB on a dual-layer disc, and use a different type of laser for better data reading precision. DVDs are physical discs containing data or video, while streaming refers to accessing and viewing content over the internet. Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu offer a vast library of movies and TV shows that can be viewed instantly without the need for physical media. Most modern computers have a DVD drive and software for playing DVDs, and Windows PCs can use Windows Media Player or other media players like VLC.
Why did they stop Home Improvement?
The series ended after eight seasons in 1999, with Patricia Richardson and Tim Allen being offered $25 million and $50 million respectively for a ninth season. However, they declined the offers, leading to the series’ end. The cast included Carmen Finestra, David McFadzean, Matt Williams, Bob Bendetson, Elliot Shoenman, Bruce Ferber, Charlie Hauck, Tim Allen, and Laurie Gelman. The series featured a diverse cast, including Earl Hindman, Taran Noah Smith, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Zachery Ty Bryan, Richard Karn, and Debbe Dunning.
Is 4K better than Blu-ray?
4K UHD discs offer a superior viewing experience compared to Blu-ray discs, with a resolution four times higher. This resolution provides greater clarity and detail, making the viewing experience closer to that of a theater. Additionally, 4K discs are equipped with High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, which enhances the definition, contrast, brightness, and color of 4K videos. These discs also have greater storage capacity, available in dual and triple layers, ranging from 66GB to 100GB. Unlike Blu-ray discs, which have single and double layers, 4K UHD discs have a larger storage capacity, allowing for data storage from 25GB to 50GB.
Is Blu-ray better than 4K?
HDR technology enhances the quality of 4K videos, surpassing Blu-ray in terms of definition, contrast, brightness, and color. 4K UHD discs have greater storage capacity than Blu-ray, with dual and triple layers available, ranging from 66GB to 100GB. Blu-ray discs have single and double layers, allowing data storage from 25GB to 50GB. Region codes indicate the zone or region where the disc can be played, while 4K UHD can be played anywhere in the world as long as a player is available. Blu-ray discs have their own region coding, while 4K UHD can be played anywhere as long as a player is available.
Do people still use Blu-ray?
Blu-ray discs may seem expensive, space-consuming, and easily damaged, but they are still popular due to their superior picture and sound experience. In 2023, most streaming services offer 4K content, but the quality of the picture varies. Netflix and Apple TV+ have video bitrates between 15 Mbps and 40 Mbps, while Netflix’s maximum is 17Mbps. The 4K Ultra HD versions, which offer a maximum video bitrate of 128 Mbps, provide even more detail. Despite the same resolution, Blu-rays offer more detail, making them the definitive home video versions of films.
As of 2023, most streaming services can deliver a 4K picture with a video bitrate between 15 Mbps and 40 Mbps. The 4K Ultra HD versions, the best Blu-rays, can deliver a 4K picture with a video bitrate of 128 Mbps.
Are 4K Blu-rays dead?
4K Blu-ray may become less popular as time goes on, but there is an exciting future for cinephiles and movie fans. Smaller and specialist companies like Arrow Films, The Criterion Collection, Shout Factory, and 101 Films are releasing 4K Blu-rays, often remastering niche, lesser-known, or older movies. This breathes new life into these oft-forgotten titles and gives movie enthusiasts a chance to experience them again at a quality level not before possible.
Even A24, a distributor and slightly more mainstream company, is joining the restoration efforts with a 2023 4K remaster of Stop Making Sense, the Talking Heads’ 1984 concert movie. This shows that 4K Blu-rays can still be a valuable tool for movie enthusiasts.
Is Home Improvement on Disney+ plus?
The fifth season of the television programme Home Improvement is now available for viewing on the streaming platform Disney Plus. It features a selection of popular releases from the Disney and Marvel filmographies. To gain access to the aforementioned special, the following steps must be followed:
What was the first Blu-ray movie?
The first BD-ROM players were shipped in mid-June 2006, but HD DVD players were introduced a few months later. The first Blu-ray Disc titles were released on June 20, 2006, with the earliest releases using MPEG-2 video compression. The first movies using 50 GB dual-layer discs were introduced in October 2006. The first audio-only albums were released in May 2008. By June 2008, over 2, 500 Blu-ray Disc titles were available in Australia and the United Kingdom, with 3, 500 in the United States and Canada. In Japan, over 3, 300 titles had been released as of July 2010.
The DVD Forum, chaired by Toshiba, was split over whether to develop the more expensive blue laser technology. In March 2002, the forum approved a proposal compressing high-definition video onto dual-layer standard DVD-9 discs. However, the DVD Forum’s Steering Committee announced in April that it was pursuing its own blue-laser high-definition video solution. In August, Toshiba and NEC announced their competing standard, the Advanced Optical Disc. It was adopted by the DVD Forum and renamed HD DVD the next year, after being voted down twice by DVD Forum members who were also Blu-ray Disc Association members.
How long will Blu-ray last?
Ern Bieman, a digital preservationist with the Canadian Conservation Institute, posits that commercially produced Blu-rays should have a minimum lifespan of 20 years if stored correctly. The Yahoo website employs the use of cookie policy cookies for a variety of purposes, including the provision of services, user authentication, the implementation of security measures, the prevention of spam and abuse, and the measurement of user activity.
📹 4K HDR Blu Ray – Is it worth it?
Is the latest “upgrade” from the entertainment industry truly a step in the right direction, or is it another half-baked semi-upgrade …
I know this is an older article, but let me tell you, I used the Xbox one S for my 4K movies for a full year before finally deciding to upgrade to a Panasonic 4K player. This player made such a huge difference. The Xbox did not reproduce correct blacks and was a much dimmer display overall. I think it would be great if you revisited this review with a proper player.
I’m pretty damn confused.. I just got back from the TV store and i saw their 4K HDR displays, i was absolutely amazed at the lifelike picture quality, never has 1080p wowed me like that at any viewing distance. How anyone couldn’t immediately see the difference between 1080p and 4K is hard for me to believe.
Here’s my tip for you people if you already have a large blu ray collection particularly steelbooks or special editions: ONLY upgrade movies you love and are gonna watch alot and/or movies that are gonna highly benefit with the 4k treatment i.e. Revenant, Pacific Rim, etc… TIP #2 for Special edition blu ray collectors: Buy the 4k, chuck out the dvd from your steelbook, digibook, etc and replace it with the 4k disc, and discard the 4k packaging or sell it whatever, that way you get the best of both worlds. Your steelbooks wont become obsolete and you get the best of both worlds. BOOM. That’s my plan anyway.
One problem, not everyone wants to fiddle with settings just to get an HDR experience. You have to factor in that an HDR tv with HDR blu ray automativally produces the better colors. While you can simulate it with blue ray, you’ll gave to re do any corrections every time the white balance or color grading changes
I wish these reviews came with a disclaimer. You CAN’T actually see the HDR in this article. It’s footage recorded from an HDR TV with a non-HDR camera, rendered into a non-HDR article, uploaded to non-HDR youtube, and you’re perusal it on a (presumably) non-HDR screen. That said, it leads to a question: Because the HDR footage he showed DID look better on my non-HDR monitor (let’s say because the shadows were darker, the scenes didn’t have as much of a blue tint etc), doesn’t that mean all of those effects could have been achieved in post, by just color-correcting the bluray master? (aside from the actual HDR that we can’t even see here).
Five years on and streaming is still sub par when you compare it to a 4k UHD disc. This needs to be revisited. I have just gotten into buying 4k discs a year ago. On my Sony 4k HDR projector paired with the panasonic UB820, a well mastered 4k UHD disc really makes my Home Theater sing, the picture and audio quality can be absolutely mezmerizing.
Good article and agree with the conclusion….. however, you did choose just about the worst player… I’ve looked at the Xbox One S side by side with my Panasonic DMP-UB900 on my LG 950V 65″ OLED and the Panasonic blows it out of the water. The Xbox One S tends to over-saturate the colours compared to a “reference” player like the Panasonic DMP-UB900 and misses out on subtle features such as 4:4:4 chroma upscaling. Sound is also a bit of a joke from the Xbox where you are limited to PCM output rather taking the disk’s bitstream directly to the amp. The biggest issue with UHD right now is the disks where a great many are poor conversions. I’m sure the ratio of good to bad disks will improve over time as the studios learn how to get the most from the format. You have to remember the dynamic range offered here is even better than you get at the cinema, so this is new ground for the disk graders. I really do hope that the format takes off, as this is my only option for 4K / UHD – living in a rural area with a maximum of 3 Mb/s internet connectivity, online 4K streaming is not an option! Even if it were, online 4K / UHD is just horrible and standard Blu-Ray blows it out of the water in a side-by-side comparison. This would be a good comparison for you guys to do – show the masses what they are missing with terrible streaming quality!
PROBLEM: The fundamental problem with HDR, Dolby Vision, and HLG is that in order to actually “see” the benefits of the different colors, you need a TV that displays light somewhere in the range of 1,000 nits to 4,000 nits. The LG OLED TVs meet this requirement, but they are very expensive. There are only three LED HDTVs I know of other than OLEDs that meet this requirement, and they are also very expensive – over $1,500. NONE of the HDTV sets lower than $1,500 displays over 1,000 nits. Most of the HDTV sets lower then $1,000 display only 400 nits, which means their specs can talk about HDR and Dolby Vision all they want, but you will never see the full benefits. As a result, it is safe to say 4K and HDR/DoblyVision.HLG are a complete waste of money at this point in time – unless you are willing to spend at least $1,500.
Streaming is great for things like youtube when you want to watch something random or while multitasking. But for a serious movie experience Blu ray, 3d or 4k is the only way to go. Use quality cinema headphones if you don’t have space for speaker setup as this will let you hear the subtle sounds you normally would miss. It’s the small things that add the details, it’s like seeing a quality photo of a person compared to seeing them in real life.
Without perusal the article, my prediction: The 4K is going to depend on what you watch. A lot of digital films were mastered at something like 2k and will never be able to produce a 4k film. They might be upscaled, but the disc has more room for bonus content if they don’t go the route of full 4k. HDR I haven’t seen a monitor/TV that supports it, so I can’t comment on the full colour spectrum it produces. EDIT: After perusal the article: seems about right, though how much of the difference is HDR and how much comes to the producers simply trying to make a better grade is still a bit of an uncertainty to me.
What so many people do not understand about new formats is that they are made for the collector market! Very few such formats find their way into homes of the general public. And, each time the upgrade their format, they don’t quite upgrade the product. So people are perusal a VHS transfer on a 4K set up. That is it really what you’re expecting when you do all this kind of collecting. The companies don’t seem to realize that yet.
I have too many DVDs, I used to just stream and I wanted to switch to 4K but I don’t see the point, it’s so expensive, yeah you can pick up some cheap movies but some are like £30 and up and it’s ridiculous. I hardly watch the same movie again unless it’s a favourite. I’m not one of those people who can tell the difference but these articles with 4K made me want to but it’s just a lot of money starting it, I wouldn’t want to keep my DVDs and 4K, I rarely have time to watch a movies anyway but it’s tempting
I’d rather have increased frame rates where possible rather than 4k. And for HDR, you are gonna need a really decent OLED TV for that, I know when I went from CRT to LCD the colour depth was a huge downgrade especially when perusal films that have dark scenes, the contrast was between light and dark was just missing entirely. I think HDR for the most part where films are considered is a bit of a gimmick, what matters is the display itself, sure more colour depth is always good but only if the TV is good enough to display it.
Most of it is not true 4K, it is re-mastered 1080P upscaled, with HDR added, for that extra pop wow factor. Not to mention the greediness and high cost of the fake UHD 4K blurays should send this companies to prison. Having said that true UHD Bluray’s that are filmed and mastered at close or at least that resolution and that cost No more than $14.95 for AAA new release titles, and $9.95 for older titles. The only reason UHD is not setting records is because most of it is fake 4K, and the high prices are insane.
In order to see the benefit of HDR, the HDTV set needs to process light at a rate of between 1,000 nits to 4,000 nits. … But, only a handful of large HDTV sets on the market have the ability to do that. And each of them are very expensive. Anything less than $1,500 doesn’t even come close to 1,000 nits. So, you cannot tell the difference between SDR and HDR anyways. … Consider the difference between 8-bit SDR (16.7 Million colors) and 10-bit HDR (1 Billion colors). And then consider the super tiny difference between the 10-bit HDR (1 Billion colors) and 12-bit Dolby Vision (65 Billion colors). The difference between each of those is very minimal.
One thing you might want to mention is that practically every 4K UHD title released includes the Blu-Ray disc as well; so if a viewer wants to take your advice and hold off on the leap to 4K….he or she could still invest the extra buck and get the 4K release of a movie they’re interested in (provides it’s been released) and have the best of both worlds. It future proofs you and still provides you with something you can watch on your current blu-ray player or game system.
Years ago I sold my vast dvd/bluray collection to a then open music/dvd store “Fye” because of streaming services. I soon learned they only have some movies and very few of what my previous collection had. Years later, I now have restored that collection and added more. I will never get rid of these movies and shows again. Many are so rare you can’t find them anywhere to stream or to buy.
I shelled out for a proper soundbar to get clearer sound while perusal movies. It’s wider than my 40″ cheapo TV that I bought in 2014 that doesn’t even have smart features, and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I probably could, but I’d also be significantly poorer. Also I’ve not figured out how to calibrate my TV to my unreasonable standards, so I dropped it down to “does it show a picture? Does it seem to display the correct colours? If yes, close enough”.
From an average buyers guide perspective, most of your comments were right. From a technical point of view, for which I usually watch your website, your evaluation was seriously flawed. Admittedly I’m the kind of geek that has a 7:4:2 Dolby Atmos sound system costing more than most households pay for all their electronics including the washing machine. That said, I’m talking about a purely technical not price and value point of view. The flaw in the review that I’m talking about is that you used the xbox for your disk drive. There is a common misconception that a disk drive is a disk drive and all it needs to be, is compatible with the disk it’s spinning to push out the zeros and ones. This is definately not true. ( As an optical drive for a PC, true, no arguement ) I have seen this when I play a Bluray through my PS4Pro and then play it through an Oppo bdp103. The difference is worlds apart. I believe that if you used Oppo’s new udp203 or 205, your impressions of 4K HDR would have been totally different. There’s the flaw. you didn’t “really” see the difference between normal Bluray and 4K HDR at it’s best, to reach a fair conclusion.
“HDR Effect” is just for SDR content to try and replicate HDR. For changing settings in the real HDR mode you first need to put on HDR content and THEN adjust. In other words: The native HDR settings are not avaliable in the meny before actually putting on HDR content. So there is a few flauds in this test..
It is better in general. It is the real deal the problem is in mass production processing and the ability to have a TV that can truly displays 4k at it’s best. The TV you is top the line. That really helps. The major problem is that I can see is tech varies widely with the quality of the equipment. It is all over the place and that hurts on so many levels. The average consumer can only get the basic quality of new products. I have the Panasonic plasma TV It is about 10 years old and still works great with the blu-ray disc’s. So hold off on the 4k until they work the bugs out. Now with streaming issues the false claim is that the service you use and buy the movies from does not stream in HD because the service itself is unable to. Most is at a lower level and you are buying in reality a lower quality than just buying the blu-ray. That is me experience to date. Great article. 😎
So what does this mean for older movies as far as film grain goes ? Will the film grain be even more visually apparent on older movie such as say movies from the 1980’s ? I dont mind film grain on blu ray being there, but some people hate it so much that they turn down the sharpness, but then that obviously loses you colour and detail in the picture.
Linus I love your website but this article was horrible. You guys are out of your element here. You made no comment in respect to 99.9% of us are viewing this on REC 709 monitors, you failed to comment on what HDR and or 4k even is, and your use of the tint (and other) controls to mimic anything is just so wrong and misguided you showed you have no clue what those controls do. Sure most people don’t calibrate their displays, but to do a review of a new product tier on a non-calibrated display defeats the entire point of why HDR exists. You don’t need to make a 30 minute article sampling things you have already said on Tech Quickie but man this article was poorly put together and only served to misguide and confuse people. You are all so much better than this.
6:41 One thing I hate about HDR and similarly ray tracing is that they can display more realistic blacks and more realistic light bouncing but that often means losing details in exchange fore pure darkness. Above his head you can barely even see that there is art up there and it shades out a lot of the woman in the bottom left. Why does this happen? Is there a way to capture details of faint light imagery and still have deep blacks where needed?
It seems to me that if you can see “more details” in the HDR version, the transfer to SDR was just done badly. The thing that HDR can do “better” than SDR is having blindingly bright small details – an open flame in a dark dungeon or sunset would be a perfect example. See the comparison image of Life of Pi on a youtube article on an SDR display. The “HDR” variant shows correct skin color, shadow and details in the cloth – on a SDR screen. The Blu-Ray version looks like slightly overexposed film transfer. So you’re seeing the difference between bad mastering and correctly done transfer.
9:40 I completely agree. Blu-Rays I buy look *amazing*, but when I went back to collect some older Blu-Rays, some of them are just very obviously upscales. I bought Army of Darkness and it was very obvious that they just increased the sharpness, especially in daytime scenes. It makes me appreciate back when the extended Lord of the Rings blu-rays came out and they were all like “We didn’t just upscale the DVDs, we took out the ol roll of film and encoded it all over again” and it shows if you’ve seen those Blu-Rays. So when I go to Best Buy and see “Wow they have Ghostbusters II in 4K” I’m just kinda like lmao doubt. I’m gonna wait a few years until these guys actually figure out how to do it.
I agree in regard to HDR, but that’s because it’s something I’m looking for when getting good dynamic ranges. As for resolution.. I can see people’s arguments regarding 4k and distant objects, but only that. You get diminishing returns above 1080p, which I stick with to this day for cost reasons. (And that’s coming from a tech guru.) For higher dynamic ranges, I’ll usually use a native specialized article format. There was a day before streaming people! heh!
1080p (FHD) with HDR is plenty good enough… Though my Netflix acc. allows 4K streaming i wont be upgrading my Sony KDL WD75 1080p HDTV for a long time… Question you gotta ask yourself regards the latest tech… Do i really need this? If i dont immediately adopt this tech. will my previous gen. tech. be good enough anyways? Thanks Linus for another great vid. thumbs up
I got suckered into a 4K movie because I collect the bonus material offered with it. As I don’t have the funds as you do, I look for hardware I can afford so my 4K setup is very conservative. The 4K led TV I found at a steal so as to stockpile parts if a repair is needed. Not so with the 4K Blu-ray player but cost effective that I was able to purchase a second unit (same brand) as a backup. I would like to see you do a budget review on a 4K setup to get your take on it. I’ve started mine on Goggle+ if your interested. So far my opinion on the players is my 8 year old Sony holds it’s own against the Samsung. I’ve spent a week perusal all 3 formats on the 4K vs the 2 on the Blu-ray and the only edge I can give the 4K is a slight improvement viewing a DVD vs the Blu-ray. Both players are connected to a Vizio 50 inch 4K TV using the same HDMI cable rated at 21Gbps with the 4K connected to the recommended 4K port. In short, a good “budget” 4K TV, Blu-ray player, and quality cables will give a pleasing viewing experience without breaking the bank. I am also a movie collector and have been at this since the first 2/4/6 VHS players along with Beta Max and Laser Disc.
I’m pretty sure the max speakers is 7.1.4 for the xbox one Atmos setup, which is actually pretty good considering the xbox one is quite new to object based surround period. But if anyone can shed more light to my knowledge of the xbox one s/x please feel free to reply. I wonder if the xbox one x will get HDMI E-ARC support as an update.
The main reason I buy any disc version of movies or shows over streaming is because of playback quality & playback in general. Streaming is only as good as the network you use and frankly most networks are just not there yet. Until they get the internet upgraded to stream content at it’s full potential without any issues then it won’t beat physical sources. Streaming has it’s benefits though. I personally always go for combo pack ks that include the digital copy and the most formats. I particularly love the ones that come with both the 4K & 3D versions. That is very few and far in between though. But personally the 3Dbluray versions are what I go for the most. If it doesn’t have that then I’ll get the 4k. Deadpool is a good example. For me I love 3D and sadly the market for it went down hill her in USA because of a few reason. Mainly the companies building TV didn’t fully support adding it. If they would’ve added it as a side feature to all TV then it would’ve done better. But I digress. Hopefully the new glasses free panels will give 3D the boost it deserves. After all StreamTV said that all their panels of all sizes will be able to support Ultra D. Anyways back on subject. If you ever tried streaming a 3D movie or UHD/4k you will know that the physical copies are far superior. I bought Frozen 3D on Vudu and man was that a mistake. I should’ve just imported it on 3Dbluray. In any case the physical copies are currently the best ways to view content hands down.
HDR is the biggest gimmick we’ve had to date. The only time you can truly notice a ‘huge’ difference is when the screen flashes from gunshots or explosions. Such scenes with HDR blind you, simulating what’s its like in the real life by physically making you wince. The electric baton scene in Ghost in The Shell is a perfect example
I agree with you on much of that. It is only the early adopters and articlephiles that generally will deal with the extra cost and complexity— as is the case with many things. However, as price performance, usability and AI-driven operation and experience optimization enters this arena, higher quality will simply come along with other features, such as immersive viewing/exploratory reality/VR and freestanding holographics. People will initially choose based on the types of viewing experiences they want, and things like automatically calibrated article and audio that is pretty much indistinguishable from reality will come along with it. There will be a substantially greater level of emotional impact and ability to much more fully suspend disbelief, which will be the underlying drivers for many. As that happens in an accelerating fashion over the next roughly 15 years, debates over things like 4K Blu-ray vs HDR-10 and such will seem like splitting hairs over the relative difference between VHS and Beta.
I think Blu Ray looks much better than when on HDR, HDR adds detail but it’s way too dark, the darkness hides too much of the detail, HDR only seems to excel when there’s a bright light in the middle of all the darkness, I like to be able to see everything on the screen specially when playing games or perusal a movie, I guess you have to see it for yourself to truly decide which is better.
You should do this by calibrating both picture modes: standard and HDR (greyscale, color and luminosity) and not tinker off with the “enhancements”. For comparison, test with various movies including some true reference releases like Dunkirk and possibly do frame by frame and scene comparisons. Of course, in order for us to see whatever difference there is, the article you put out has to be in 4K HDR and viewed with adequate setup to allow us to see the difference in color depth, brightness and simple resolution. Even better, do analysis on the 4K Ultra-HD blu-rays you use to to test whether they actually include colors outside the bt.709 gamut and exceed the targeted nits of standard blu-ray releases. Not all of them do, like Blade Runner 2049. In my opinion the image quality of the 4K Ultra HD blu-rays is far above any blu-ray let alone streaming service. Proper use of HDR is the biggest leap forward. The main problem with the format is their availability and that their pricing is absurd. They are also not created equal.
To me, anything recompressed, streaming, reconverted are no longer acceptable for me cause I’m so used to original blu-ray quality now. I do callibrate my oled tv, has atmos surround, movie collections more than Netflix but I don’t have a 4k tv yet. The main reason is I didn’t wanna sit too close to tell the difference between 1080 and 4k! Guess I’m a still a movie nerd then lol FYI, if you get too tired of switching discs, you could rip them onto an 8TB hd (only $130 for now).
Watching a UHD disc on my old plasma made me realize that the source material is usually the limiting factor in picture quality. They look absolutely stunning. The TV doesn’t support HDR but it does support 10-bit color which gets rid of the banding and color gradation that you get from ordinary Blu-ray or most streaming content. perusal a 4K article on a 1080 screen also gives you about 95% of the detail you get on a native 4K screen at a typical seating distance – it’s like 4x super-sampling.
They news to REDO this test using a TV that can reach a 1000nits. That said they are using a great TV that reaches a relatively high brightness etc Honestly.. since I’ve started perusal HDR I can’t go back. And I somt know how they didnt notice or.talk about this. Maybe it’s the whole oled thing and the lower nits. But the absolute best thing about hdr is how when someone is standing in a dark room holding a flashlight, the flash light is eye seeringly bright while the test of the room stays dark. These brightness differences are in ever scene and it’s what makes HDR so beautiful. Even in daylight scenes when you suddenly see the sun and almost have to squint a little its fucking amazing. My TV reaches a 1000 nits and I really wish it could do 2000 lol Also Netflix streams HDR in fact it streams Dolby vision
Hey, I’m trying a Polarized 3D experiment on my Xbox 360. Namely Sonic Generations-the stereoscopic game and my 3D Blu ray rips I can convert into Xvid+AC3 movies like Lego Batman 3D, Adventures of Tintin 3D, and Kung Fu Panda 1-2-3 in 3D. 2 of those movies got serious promotions with Tintin getting 35.3mbps and Kung Fu Panda 2 getting 40mbps, regular Blu ray goes up to 48mbps max, normal movies use 20+mbps. 40mbps is already starter 4K Blu ray quality for Pete’s sake Kung Fu Panda 2 is a special movie to me and it gets treated REAL NICELY. Xbox 360 HD-DVD player can play HD-DVD-Rs right, it’ll play transcoded H264-21mbps+AC3 640kbps-core because VC-1, H264, and DTS are what HD-DVD players read/played right, no different from Blu rays besides lower bitrate/capacity. HD-DVD players ought to allow me to play formats and containers that otherwise couldn’t be streamed over WMC or WMP 11/12 due to FILE CONTAINER RESTRAINTS like no MKVs and AVI not allowed to use VC-1/H264 or MP4 not allowed to have AC3 or DTS.
Most people are like I don’t see no difference or I see a massive difference. Fact of the matter is 4k is negligible in terms of resolution detail. Unless you are zooming in the difference is only there if you compare two shots at the same time and only really make an impact in wide angled shots. SD to HD was massive. HD to 4k not so much. HDR is another story but it’s hit and miss from title to title. To make the story short if you own a decent 60″+ 4k tv you will have a better viewing experience but for most people it’s not really worth it until prices go way down and all movies start getting shot in true 4k.
My problem is not the technology, but again the pricing structure. I have been here many time by now it is worse. In the U.K. now we are being asked to pay £10 for a new film on DVD, £15 on Blu-Ray, £25 on HD. On most films I don’t, and nor do many of the people I know, care about the total look as, we keep getting told, the story is the most important. Similar to Linus I won’t even be considering this as I don’t intend to have players around the House, that is what my NAS is for. Player manufacturers, start making NAS devices.
purchasing physical disc is better. Better quality music, movies, games. And also you can sell or trade it. And also if you die, you and leave it to your friends and family. Purchasing content through downloading is selfish and stupid. If the Online Service goes out of business, you lose your digital collection once your device you have to downloaded to stops working. Even the cloud will evaporate if that company that provides that service is gone.
You should have turned sharpness to 0 since yours is turned to 15 and Aspect Ratio to “Just Scan”. Also the Expert picture mode is even better for the best original image. It’s also hard to judge the article since it’s not even uploaded in 4KHDR. Also 4K Blu-ray quality is not intended for “average people” who watch the movies on their midrange TV. But it really benefits if you’re passionate about movies and have a good home theatre where there will be a clear difference with the higher bitrate quality and more immersive sound (the difference between 4K and 2K resolution is btw minimal, it really comes down to the bitrate exept if you have an reall extremely large projection screen). It’s an expensive hobby just like sports cars or luxury watches. But the best medium for ultimate immersiveness is still stereoscopic 3D, unfortunately it doesn’t support HDR and HFR for consumers as of now and is still in very low 24FPS which is why you unfortunately have to use motion interpolation for some movies like Avatar because they’re just unwatchable in 24FPS realistically speaking
Yes I am her in 2020 I get that a 4k-blue-ray player is expensive but would love to see something like the Panasonic UB820 compared to the quality of a console, and if you are gonna spend money on 4k HDR blue-ray discs you might as well go with a good player dedicated to picture quality and not something meant for gaming… 2020 revisit?
Streaming HDR on Disney + is beyond superb. I don’t have bluray HDR, but I seriously doubt the picture will be better. Further,, bluray is so damned hard to use and finicky because of HDCP protections, it just isn’t worth the trouble and cost. I have bluray on my computer and it works reasonably well and produces great sound and picture quality. But the disks have to be pristine or they won’t play. Streaming is the future. Bluray has killed itself with its high cost and constant buggyness.
first of all, Linus has come a looooooooooooong way as a presenter in the last 7 years. today he is much less wooden, to the point you can’t tell he is reading from a teleprompter. secondly, this article needs a revisit now that HDR mastering has matured and oled have become more common and much better overall.
the problem with screaming is you are at the mercy of you internet provider ….. your favorite movie could run slow and stop completely if you have internet problems. Too many time you have to wait while your show is booting or waiting for ads to run before you watch the show. With a DVD you just pop in the disk and start perusal the movie (you can always fast forward thru the commericals ) and get to the show. Another advantage to DVD is MENU that lets you go directly to different chapters or sections of what you want to watch without haveing to “fast forward” thru the entire movie to get where you want to go
This article was made in 2016, when the 4K blu rays were upscaled and the HDR was in its infancy. Today the story is completely different: movies are shot in 4K or even 8K and downsampled and they are HDR native. Of course, not all the studios do that, and not all of them do a good job at creating a decent 4K BD experience, but you can always double check in 4kmedia.org/real-or-fake-4k/ and stick to the “Real” 4K ones and you’ll get what you’re paying for.
Technology of 4k hdr is superb. It all depends on the quality of the movie itself. If its 2k master upscaled to 4k, its shit. If its 6k master downsampled to 4k, its a masterpiece. Rambo I, Gladiator. Those 4k hdr discs blow you away if watched on a good LG tv…worth every penny for me. Same as Star Trek Discovery in Dolby Vision. It is worth buying hdr tv.
This deserves a 2020 revisit considering tech has improved, films have improved etc. BTW there are still very few PC BD-XL drives that can read 4K bluray not only that but to watch 4K bluray via a PC is still very complicated (ie, Intel picky secure hardware and PowerDVD requiring such secure hardware)
Unbelievable! Almost the first thing you say is 3D Blu Ray was an abortion. Have you ever watched a good 3d movie on a home projector on at least a 120″ screen? Far better entertainment value than upgrading to a 4K setup. If you was blown away by Life of Pi on 4K you really need to see it on a 3D projector, amazing. You can get a 3D 1080p PJ for around $500 – $600 and amaze your friends and family. Most TV companies gave up on it too soon, just to push the next big thing (4K yawn!!) but on all the new 4K projectors its very much a must have feature.
Linus knows nothing when it comes to 4K UHD Blu Ray. I have an LG UDH 4K OLED 55″ TV that supports HDR Cinema Theater, HDR, HDR10, Dolby Vision HDR, and HLG HDR. I have a Panasonic DMP-UB 900 4K Blu Ray player. Nothing in the 1080p world comes close to it. Both the TV and the Player support 4K upscaling. Even DVD’s look great. And, regular 1080p Blu Ray upscales fantastically. But then it all depends on the original film media and the mastering. But, that always matters. LINUS KNOWS NOTHING ON THIS TOPIC. On the other hand. The technology for 4K HDR Blu Ray is not all there yet. I built a system that worked but was not stable. Reboots and Player Software restarts were required quite often. I eventually sold the components on eBay.
Many people have 4K screens these days yet still just watch TV or Netflix or Amazon article. Lol so many people spend extra to get a 4K TV yet stick with content that isn’t even 4K. 4K titles from Netflix or Amazon don’t even come close to actual 4K. 4K player image quality varies from device to device. Newer Xboxes have 4k bluray play but they are not as clear as a standalone 4K player.
“It costs the same as the standalone players anyway while having much more functionality” The reason it costs the same is because the UHD player that’s built into the X-Box is a lesser quality than a standalone. If you’re going to do a test, get a good quality player designated just for 4K discs, not a game console that just so happened to read the discs.
Can you please make a article about Netflix Certification and why they have this setup. Example: Android Phones have all Netflix apps to only get SD which is 480P and 520i AppleTV 4 can get up Netflix HD which is 720P max AppleTV 4K can get Netflix Full HD which 1080P Max There is a very little amount of PC with hardware compatibility that can get Netflix in 4K. If you could help us out, since I do not have good equipment & the pc with Best graphics card, and now it cost too much, I can’t create this article.
If you had any idea about the things you are reviewing here, you’d know that the xbox does not show colors correctly with 4K discs at all, to test uhd, you’ll need an actual player, not a game console. Maybe you switched to one in the article, if so I apologize, but it was too painful to sit through the entire thing.
great review. love the comment about the transition period from each stage. I barely got into VHS and never held a collection by the time DVD came around. I immediately adopted as soon as it came out. have only been into blue-ray since about 2008 . the description of 4K UHD really helped me understand whether or not to transition into the new medium right now. Definitely a time to wait (if your not a rich, early adopter). I really hadn’t noticed Blu-ray uhd vs blue ray.. will have to watch more closely on the labels
Ooof, I have to disagree with your views on stereoscopic Bluray. I am aware that the hardware varied a lot in quality, and I fear that a lot of people’s zealous hate for 3D is that they only experienced it on a $99 98inch Black Friday TV and not on a decent display. Obviously that’s going to look disappointing if you are expecting it to recreate the experience of the IMAX showing you saw of the same film. In the end the low adoption rates came down not to the noisy haters but to the very quiet majority who simply don’t care… I know a lot of people who still buy DVDs and don’t have HD because they really don’t care enough to pay extra for the extra quality. Why would those people pay extra for 3D, 4k or HDR? Just look at how many bluetooth headphones are sold with APT-X, APT-X HD and LDAC vs those that aren’t… Most people don’t care about sound quality either. Look at how many burgers McDonalds sells… most people don’t care about food quality. In summary, what I’m saying is that if you don’t like Bluray 3D then you probably think Beats headphones are good and a Big Mac is the epitome of haute cuisine.
Nope. Kids today don’t even know what an effing Blu ray player is, I’m not joking. My 8-year-old nephew has been dying to watch Godzilla King of the Monsters lately, so I bought it on Blu ray, I’m not into that streaming Sh*t. Actually, I was able to BUY the blu ray for less than it would cost me to just RENT the title on a streaming service(I got it with a promotion on top of the sale on Black Friday, so I paid less than $3.50, but I digress) so yeah, that alone tells me that discs are a dying medium, at least for many/most people. Anyway, when I went to set it up(I took my blu ray player to his house because they don’t have one), I took the blu ray player out of the box and he said, “what’s that?”, then I said, “it’s a blu ray player,” and he said, “what’s a blu ray player?” And from there on, I could only shake my damn head in utter disgust. He thought we were going to watch the movie on Amazon Prime or FandangoNow, even on his G’dam phone. Hell No.
HDR is the key feature, 4K is not a big deal bur to get HDR you usually gotta get 4K UHD Blu-Ray’s are awesome but most people should ignore them That said Pro’s 1. higher and consistent bandwidth 2. Proper FPS (Most consoles and streaming boxes lock everything at 60fps) 3. HDR and 4K just work (Streaming services are not consistent) Cons 1. not convenient (Tip Remove all the slip covers and store them aware so they are not in the way when changing disks) 2. You need a big piece of hardware to play them (No UHD Blu Ray sticks) 3. High Price per movie (Tip: Get used ones on Ebay I never pay more then $15 for a disk and the average price is $8.00 as long as I do not need the digital code) That said if you get a Shield TV or Apple TV 5th gen you can stream UHD movies at close to what you see on a UHD Blu-Ray just be sure to set it for 24FPS. (PS: A lot of smart TV’s also stream UHD’s properly just be aware of the FPS and HDR setting you are getting when streaming)
Sure: Until we get some sort of “holodeck light”, we’ll probably not get the same wow-effect that you got switching from a VCR to a DVD for the first time. Still: I got into 3D TV “by default”. Back in 2014 when I upgraded my entire home cinema system, you just couldn’t get TVs or BRD-players that didn’t have 3D built in. But I’m still glad I am now on the newer tech. 1080p looks so much nicer than even the best DVD-release. And when done right, 3D movies can look great and I still buy some of the ones that get great reviews for their 3D. Not too sure about 4k myself. From what I’ve seen in stores, I would imagine that you’d need a rather large screen to get the most out of the format. And if you don’t have a large enough living room, getting a huge-ass TV doesn’t really make much sense.
Thing is though, that at its best when people had the rare used double Dvd that could hold over 8 GB and thus have a few films on it, people kept buying blu ray. The problem is, even with 4 times the storage on blu rays vs dvds, damn tech always needs updates for “firmware” or other stupid shite. Even if wifi is coming outta the ass all over the place, its annoying and fairly inconvenient. I still have an original PS3 that runs perfectly and does everything a console should. But when I try to play a blu ray, every few years, it wont do it without an update. I have been telling folks to buy multiple copies of their favorites films and shows on dvd before dvd is fully wiped out by streaming and blu ray, because theres just so many benefits.The industry could make the quality of dvds twice what they normally are, but they dont usually do it anymore, thus dvd gets the shaft by being relegated most of the time to quality around 480p. Sure you can upscale, and with tvs that can do better than true 1080p which I think is referredto as 2k…screens and tech can go beyond 1440p, and the now forgotten 1800p straight to the now powerful 4k 2160p. AND THEN THERES 8k slowly overtaking cinema and coming more and more to camera tech and devices and consoles and computers and tvs for public purchase. *Smfh *. IN 10 years, 16K will be all over, and by then, full immersion Vr will be about 2/3 as good as it can be, so what need will people have for real life *shrugs *. Sit back, and enjoy the ride of sillyness lol.
I’m done with owning movies. I still have my DVDs and a few BluRays. But to be honest – I’m sick of standards changing all the time. And every time prices get a notch up. Sorry – too expensive. For me it’s streaming and movies on NAS. Quality level has reached a point where it’s good enough at a reasonable price. No way I’m paying a fortune for marginally better quality on hardware and media soon made obsolete because they’re replaced by the next standard. If I have too much money to spend I’d rather buy a larger car, do something about my home, go on a vacation or heck even buy (small) gold bars. I’m done with being on the cutting edge regarding AV – especially the part that requires special hardware. Sure I can understand buying state of the art monitor, external soundcard, amplifier and so on – as long as it’s generic hardware that’ll still be usable 10 years from now without restrictions. Hey one of my computer monitors is from 2004(!) A (back then) outrageous expensive IPS display bought by the company I worked for. Fate would it failed after a year or so and being a b2b buy it was out of warranty. I was allowed to take it on the condition I’d never bring it back to work – deal! 10 minutes with a soldering iron and it was working again and have worked flawlessly ever since. Perhaps a bit on the small side for todays standards but still a very nice useful monitor.
A year and a bit later, most comments overlook a very pertinent statement you made: very few people watch on equipment or under conditions where 4K (even at its best) would make any difference to them. Even Blu Ray has little advantage for the average viewer. (Yet, very oddly, so many people want mobile devices with 1080p screens where that resolution provides no benefit at all!) Yes, the true enthusiast who can afford it, will move to and enjoy the benefits of the improved technology. For me, on my budget, a good Sony Projector on a 9 foot screen and Dolby Atmos (when provided – yes, I managed to afford that with my latest home cinema receiver/amp) and Blu Ray 1080p is great and I can’t justify upgrading essentially all my equipment to go to 4K – I haven’t the money, and even if I did, for me I think the quality increase isn’t enough to go to the outlay and effort.
The problem with HDR is that it’s married to 4k, instead of being used over a variety of formats, despite the fact that it’s a technology that all formats could benefit from. Add in the fact that, once again, you need all new stuff to utilize it for what is yet another marginal increase…sadly, as much as I want it to succeed, HDR is going to fail.
I have similar equipment, and have spent all the money on testing this out myself…. I find the same, unless i’m sitting 2 feet from the screen I almost see no difference 80% of the time. BUT MAN THAT OTHER 20% IS AWESOME. OH, and there is a difference in players…. spending 400+ on an HDR player does make a difference.
I’m 10 feet away from the TV, I can barely tell the difference between 480p and 720p from there. It’s so much worse when there’s teeny tiny text in a game and I have to physically get up and get closer to the screen to read it, when I’m already wearing my glasses. All I can say is thank God that the Swich works so well in handheld mode.
I say that 4K isnt worth it as a article format, because most of the movies released on 4K “Ultra HD” are just slightly cleaner and more expensive blu-rays. And being that most films on both formats are mastered in 2K/HD, it seems unnecessary to release it on an expensive and slightly cleaner format, and they should’ve waited at least several years to remaster any (if all) movies to look very detailed!
The player you chose is mostly causing the poor image. If you play those on a dedicated HD player like a Sony ubp-x700 will give you better quality. Don’t take my word for it I just read expert reviews of them. I’m sorry but streaming quality isn’t close to Blu-ray quality. It’s good better than DVD but it still suffers from occasional buffering etc. My internet speed far surpasses the min specs for streaming 4k on many devices at once. but every now and again the quality drops off or the movie stops. I still buy Blu-ray in the bargain bins and rent from Redbox. If I like the movie I buy it. I will be upgrading to a good Sony 4k TV soon. Also don’t expect to see great picture quality unless you spend at least $2k for a tv. Walmart TV’s aren’t worth buying.
Man,if you’re gonna find an excuse to make less less good quality appear like hdr with the use of different colour schemes on the tv,then you might as well stick to streaming them online.Plus,the sound of Blu-ray is light years ahead of anything available with streaming .Plus,remember that optical media DO last longer than flimsy hdd or ssds that might just give up if unpowered for too long,meaning that if you had a collection on an hdd,you would still have to back it up to at least another hdd if not more .That would be easy you might say .I guess not,if you have multi-terabyte collection,which any collector should be,otherwise they’re not a collector and might as well stick to streaming them online,for real.Plus,even if someone was to pirate the entire BD files of the disk,you will still often end up with files that have frames missing,and most definitely do NOT contain extra content which is not accessible in any other way,either by pirating or not. But then again,if you don’t care about all this,then like I said stick to your online or NAS streamingJust don’t convince yourself that it’s about the same,because it clearly isn’t on so many levels. On a final note,remember that it will be more expensive to store them on a hdd or ssd for the reasons I explained above,because let’s face it,you still end up buying hdd or ssds if you were to pirate them coz you’ll run out of storage,and you will have to go through each one of them frame by frame to see if there’s any issue (which you should do if you’re pirating them,coz if you’re not and you’re just ripping them then that kind of defeats the whole purpose here ) Also if your NAS or whatever is connected to the internet in any way,then you better have some rock solid antivirus,and even then,you might just lose the files (remember the nas failure a while back,it wasn’t necessarily caused due to virus but you get the point ) .
So I’ve just discovered that the UHD Blu-ray players require an internet connection to play physical media UHD discs! Hassle aside from setting up another internet connection, this could well mean that these players will be dead brick useless when the support for them stops!! Thanks, but no thanks!!!
I do get the perks of streaming and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t do it constantly at uni. But my big problem is that you’re at the mercy of the streaming company with what you can and can’t get, point and case being that Inglourious Basterds just got taken off Netflix in the UK and I am fuming. Also Gladiator, IMO one of the best films ever made, is nowhere to be found on any streaming platform. With regards to upgrading to Blu-Ray, do it! I made sure to get Mad Max Fury Road on Blu-Ray rather than DVD and holy crap, it just looks so much better. Worth it
It’s 2019 and well…look if you have a 75″ 4KUHD HDR TV….well knock yourself out and get 4K Blu-rays… I have a 43″ 4K HDR TV and I still watch regular Blu-ray movies….the reason… It’s cheaper. I still rent Blu-rays from Netflix $10 a month. Until Netflix has an option to rent 4K Blu-rays…