4K discs via a non-4K display

[Doug Otte]

When I wanted to replace my blu-ray player a few years ago, I got a 4K player. However, I never had any 4K discs until last fall, when I bought a couple of the Halloween films and the Star Trek 6-movie collection.
I still don't have a 4K display. My Panasonic plasma is going strong, and I've debated whether investing in a 4K set would give me much advantage.
I watched the Halloween films last fall, and they looked fine. The player automatically downscales to HD based upon the display.
While watching ST IV a few weeks ago, I noticed a few scenes seemed overly dark. In particular the shot of Kirk, Spock, and Gillian sitting in her truck was very dim. Also, some of the hospital shots were too dark. I swapped in the standard blu-rays from the same set, and they look better. Also, the colors seem a bit muted on the 4K discs compared to blu-ray. I discovered the player had its HDR set to "auto". When I switched HDR off, the scenes looked better, but not the color.
I'll keep using the blu-rays until I upgrade to a 4K set.

 

[Ovation]

When I wanted to replace my blu-ray player a few years ago, I got a 4K player. However, I never had any 4K discs until last fall, when I bought a couple of the Halloween films and the Star Trek 6-movie collection.
I still don't have a 4K display. My Panasonic plasma is going strong, and I've debated whether investing in a 4K set would give me much advantage.
I watched the Halloween films last fall, and they looked fine. The player automatically downscales to HD based upon the display.
While watching ST IV a few weeks ago, I noticed a few scenes seemed overly dark. In particular the shot of Kirk, Spock, and Gillian sitting in her truck was very dim. Also, some of the hospital shots were too dark. I swapped in the standard blu-rays from the same set, and they look better. Also, the colors seem a bit muted on the 4K discs compared to blu-ray. I discovered the player had its HDR set to "auto". When I switched HDR off, the scenes looked better, but not the color.
I'll keep using the blu-rays until I upgrade to a 4K set.

Your TV cannot accommodate HDR nor the wider colour palette of most 4K UHD discs. Turning off HDR helps with one but not the other (colour palette). The Blu-ray colour palette is a much closer match than the 4K disc for your plasma.

 

[Smellmet]

When I wanted to replace my blu-ray player a few years ago, I got a 4K player. However, I never had any 4K discs until last fall, when I bought a couple of the Halloween films and the Star Trek 6-movie collection.
I still don't have a 4K display. My Panasonic plasma is going strong, and I've debated whether investing in a 4K set would give me much advantage.
I watched the Halloween films last fall, and they looked fine. The player automatically downscales to HD based upon the display.
While watching ST IV a few weeks ago, I noticed a few scenes seemed overly dark. In particular the shot of Kirk, Spock, and Gillian sitting in her truck was very dim. Also, some of the hospital shots were too dark. I swapped in the standard blu-rays from the same set, and they look better. Also, the colors seem a bit muted on the 4K discs compared to blu-ray. I discovered the player had its HDR set to "auto". When I switched HDR off, the scenes looked better, but not the color.
I'll keep using the blu-rays until I upgrade to a 4K set.

I always thought my blu rays looked great on my old Phillips LCD until I got my Sony 4k set. If you can get a 4k TV I highly recommend it. It has given several films a new lease of life for me as they look stunning in 4k. The new version of TMP being one of them, as well as Alien, The Thing, The Matrix, The Revenant to name but a few.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

I've had my 65-inch HDTV for a little over two years now, but until recently I had been led to believe it didn't support 4K playback. But earlier this month I decided to call the manufacturers, just to be sure...and to my surprise, they told me the exact opposite. I found a PDF version of the manual for my TV online, double-checked the specs, then bought a 4K player for $200. Because my monthly budget is still fairly restrictive, I couldn't buy any huge box sets this time around, but I did end up grabbing The Crow, Field of Dreams, and Highlander for just over $60 total. I'm planning on grabbing the first three Matrix films next month (don't have much interest in the fourth). I've also compiled a fairly-short "want list", just for tracking my own collection. Upgrading all my Blu-Rays would be completely insane at this point, so I'm focusing mostly on buying movies with rich colors or highly-stylized visuals. I want to make sure I'm getting the most "bang for my buck".

 

[Smellmet]

The first Matrix movie has been given a big going over for it's 4k release and look fantastic - the green 'beards' on peoples faces (when they're in the matrix) is gone now and looks far clearer and more natural.

 

[Doug Otte]

I'm going to post these comments in two threads. I actually upgraded to a 4k set about a year or so ago. It's a Sony A80k. But, I rarely watch discs anymore. Also, my Sony X800M (v1, not v2) player does HDR but not Dolby Vision.

I just realized that the Trek films and a couple of other 4k discs I bought last year came with digital codes. I thought: I'll never use them at home when I have the discs, but I'll keep them in case I'm traveling.

Then I realized that it would be fun to compare the picture and sound between the disc and streaming.

Tonight I did that w/ TMP Director's Edition. The differences technically are:
4k disc = Dolby Atmos sound
streaming via Apple TV 4k = Dolby Vision

When comparing a couple of scenes, I found that the DV gives a very slight enhancement to the contrast, but I actually preferred the HDR version on disc. And, the streaming version showed slightly fuzzier detail and slight smearing (e.g. in traveling star fields). The disc had much better sound (despite not having an Atmos setup, the AVR converted it and it still had a fuller, warmer sound with deeper bass).