Saving Private Ryan - 4k/Blu-ray Comparison

All screen captures used here are from caps-a-holic.com/.
List of featured discs:
2004 Paramount Pictures UK DVD
2010 Paramount Pictures US Blu-ray
2018 Paramount Pictures US 4k Ultra-HD Blu-ray

[@darthwarren4599]

This disk is worth it for the atmos upgrade alone. Picture is outstanding but atmos makes this movie especially in opening scene

[@RobertK1993]

4K Ultra HD Blu day the best version.

[@BeierFilms]

I just recently invested in a 4K blu-ray player and I am loving how good 4K transfers really let you appreciate the grain structure in movies shot on film. It's the kind of little detail normal blu-rays couldn't quite capture (unless the grain was very intense) and a way of viewing it that's so much closer to what we might have seen in the theater.

[@tinycat]

4K is the best thing to ever happen since sex

[@fmulder1989]

I noticed one minor transfer flaw at the end of the movie. It happens when the camera is turning around old ryan , at the end of this is the scene i meant. Some odd flickering in old ryans coat.

[@StephenLuke]

I have the 1999 DVD.

[@shzuku5419]

I bought the 1080 HD because it was on sale not realize there was a 4k UHD version of it smh

[@matthewdorrington4348]

1998 vhs👍

[@PaulStewart91]

They did a terrible job for both blu ray and 4k. Despite the good image resolution, the unique color style of this film, made with the technique of bleach bypass, is completely gone! They also added warmer colors, which were absolutely not there originally, making it look "happier", instead of raw and sad.

[@brandonthemainstreetelectr1204]

2004 wins because it's zoomed out and uncropped

[@SoulbentAnime]

Exactly! What the hell is with all these 4K UHD versions slightly cropping the films? It's noticeable in films originally shown in 2:39.1 but the 4K UHD will be cropped to 2:40.1 so a few lines of information are missing at the top and bottom. It's a small difference but my question is why? Why crop it? Why not release it the way it was meant to be? Also what's with all the color grading not matching the orignals? The films should be color corrected to match the original prints. They sometimes remove a lot of grain too. Interesting how the blu ray got cropped a ton. The 4K UHD restores some of the picture but not to the extent of the DVD. So it's better than nothing I guess.

[@smithfan22]

@@SoulbentAnime the 4K is how it looked in theaters.

[@SoulbentAnime]

@@smithfan22 color grading wise it probably looks pretty similar but the crop isn't the same. Pretty much all 4K movies released these days bare zero resemblance to their 35mm theatrical counterparts due to completely different color grading, being degrained, poorly DNR'd, oversharpened, and I'm talking about cropping.

[@antoniovaldespino6650]

2004 DVD

[@matthewdorrington4348]

1998 vhs

[@classicgalactica5879]

Another 4K re-release of a classic film with the legs cut off of the LFE track. Unbelievable.

But doesn't the 4k come with the theatrical audio? Either way, that's not really the point of my videos; my videos are for comparing the picture quality, not the audio quality.

[@nestorperena8629]

besides the resolution the dvd looks better

[@ThyHeraclez]

😂

[@tinycat]

no it doesn't.

[@WH250398]

You're supposed to keep your eyes open when looking at the bluray and 4k.

[@alexmart16]

Why Dvd looks better? lol

[@tunit20]

How so?

[@solidsnake6405]

Bluray looks better.once again 4k is a money grab.

How does the Blu-ray look better? The 4k is way sharper, has more natural colors, much better contrast, and way more visible highlight and shadow detail.

[@solidsnake6405]

@ maybe on your phone,but once the video is Stretched to a 75" 4k tv it doesn't look that way. Even on my phone I see the grain with the 4k and that is something that I very much dislike in movies.also the 4k looks much dimmer then the bluray. Honestly there is very little difference between the two,and if you had to choose between the bluray for $5 and the 4k for $25 it's a no brainer. This is one aspect of 4k bluray market that I HATE! The format as a whole has become nothing more then a money grab for these Greedy cropos.they take the bluray release, dim the image,call it HDR and release the disc to individuals that believe they are getting something that they aren't. This is why these "review" videos have become so popular as of late as people are starting to notice it. Me personally, I do not buy 4k movies for bragging rights.the release needs to Actually offer something worthwhile. Many of my 4ks I feel burned on as I bought them believing I was getting a much better image then dvd or bluray, but have been disappointed so many times. now EVERY SINGLE movie I think about getting in 4k i must go watch a 4k vs bluray video so that I don't get screwed.and that is frecking horrible!! I've lived through the Vhs days and remember what it was like to see a DVD for the first time,and I remember what it was like to see a bluray on a HD TV for the first time.it seems for each new advancement in movie formats, the impact becomes less and less worthwhile.

​@@solidsnake6405 Have you ever actually watched a 4k Blu-ray on an HDR television? Because on most 4k Blu-rays, the HDR is noticeably brighter than its Blu-ray counterpart. The 4k images in my videos usually look darker than the Blu-ray because the HDR is being converted to SDR, but when you actually watch the 4k in HDR it'll be the other way around. And the film grain is supposed to be more visible in the 4k; the grain is where all the sharpness and detail comes from. I think you're being a bit hyperbolic in your statements about format; 4k isn't about having "bragging rights," it's about having the best version of the movie. Is the 4k always the best version of the movie? No, but even in the days of Blu-ray, the Blu-ray wasn't always the best version of the movie either. The Blu-ray on this movie still looks pretty good, so if the upgrade isn't worth the extra cost for you, that's perfectly understandable. No one is forcing you to spend money on things you don't think are necessary. But to say that 4k worse, and is nothing but a cash grab that doesn't offer anything, is completely disingenuous and simply isn't true. HDR does offer improvements that go beyond what Blu-ray is capable of: higher contrast; brighter, more detailed and impactful highlights; better shadow detail; more nuanced and natural colors, ect. Those improvements may not be enough for you, but they are improvements nonetheless, and to other people, those improvements are enough to justify the extra cost.

[@solidsnake6405]

@ hdr as a whole is a Gimmick! You don't seem to understand how most of these companies use it. most of the time movies and games have their whole image dimmed so they can show off Specular highlights.i find this to be a Disgusting use of hdr as usually what is shown off are frecking lamp posts or headlights. I have done a side by side comparison on my 75q825 mini led TV which is one of the brightest on the market,and outside of a couple movies I found on Disney+ (namely Moana) HDR is garbage!! Take the Mandalorian for example,on Disney+ it's so dark because of HDR that many scenes it looks like my Tvs brightness has been turned down from 50 to 20.yet if I stream it in a non hdr format the image is gorgeous.and this isn't just this tv,I also tested this on high end Samsung and Sony tvs. Specular highlights ARE NOT the entire movie,yet are treated as the whole reason to use hdr.. So for me any where I can I turn hdr off.you should dive into this topic and watch some comparison videos of movies and games with hdr on vs off,it's very eye opening how they have pushed that Gimmick.. I didn't believe it at first till I did my own comparison, and hdr off has looked better 99% of the time.colors have much more pop because they have more luminous when displayed in SDR.

@@solidsnake6405 If SDR looks brighter on your TV, then either your SDR is too bright, or your HDR is too dark. SDR viewed at its intended level of brightness is noticeably darker than HDR viewed at its intended level of brightness. I have an LG CX, which is nowhere near the brightest HDR TV, and yet 80-90% of the time I still see a noticeable increase in overall brightness compared to SDR. The brighter highlights in HDR are not just about having brighter highlights, they're also about giving the rest of the image more room to breath. When you expand the dynamic range by increasing the highlights, it allows for more control over the image as a whole, and you can see details more vividly. You know how everyone complained that the season 8 episode of Game of Thrones, The Long Night, was too dark and you couldn't see any of what was happening? This was absolutely true when I first watched the episode in SDR. But then I had the opportunity to see the episode in HDR, and the difference was massive. In HDR, it was much easier to see everything that was happening on screen, and it was a huge improvement. So even though most of the episode takes place in darkness without a ton of bright highlights, the extra headroom afforded by the brighter highlights made it easier to convey the rest of the details in the extreme darkness. If HDR was a gimmick, I think more people would have caught on to it by now. 3D Blu-ray was seen as a gimmick by most people, so much so that it got to the point where sales were so low they basically stopped making them altogether. That is clearly not the case with 4k Blu-ray which, despite a decline in physical media sales due to streaming, is still selling well enough to warrant major studios to continue releasing old and new movies on a regular basis.