AMERICAN GRAFFITI 4K UHD BLU-RAY REVIEW
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- čas přidán 16. 11. 2023
- This is a great 4K disc considering its lower quality origins probably therefore one of the most impressive I've seen this year. American Graffiti was a TechniScope shoot so it has no business looking as good as it does on this disc but is perhaps an illustration of how good the image quality of the film was in 1973 for anyone lucky enough to see a premiere house master print. Many people had messaged me to say this disc was awful but I'd already had a couple of sneak peaks so I was of the opinion they were all wrong but I do think they have valid reasons for thinking the cine transfer of the TechniScope two perforation high 35mm negative had been overly processed to reduce film grain. It's likely more image noise reduction than normal has been applied but scrutinizing the end result in here on my ten foot wide projected image confirms to me that the work is invisible and has achieved wonderful results. That doesn't mean to say it's not there, it's just not obvious and if the end result looks as impressive as this then that's good enough for me. I go on to explain why I think other reviews that I'm told have been almost entirely negative are likely incorrect so this video is bound to be a little controversial. I have intentionally not looked at any other reviews as I do not ever want to risk being influenced which I do think goes on across CZcams.
The image aspect ratio is 2.35:1 approximately (the TechniScope frame as originally shot which was optically processed to produce standard, full frame anamorphic 35mm prints for release to cinemas). Sound is DTS-HD 5.1 and combines nicely with the newly superlative imagery to enhance the overall film.
Chris Ball got the shots of me in the projection team at The Phoenix for the Super 8 'Scope screening of SPEED and as Chris has his own channel: / @christopherjohnball - Krátké a kreslené filmy
The original GLADIATOR Blu-ray release was marred by so much DNR, arrows in the sky were scrubbed away from existence. Audiences rejected it, then Paramount re-released a beautiful remastered Blu-ray, grain and glory intact. Universal should do the same for AMERICAN GRAFFITI. This film and its audiences deserve better efforts.
They've just done that with this 4K so no need to bother with the comparatively poor Blu-ray any longer. I expect there has been image noise reduction but I could thankfully still see all the detail. There might have been some arrows mistakenly erased though! John.
I agree with Tomlinson. American Graffiti 4K is not a good effort from Universal. Universal have released lovely, beautiful film transfers such as the Universal Monsters Collections, and the Hitchcock Collections in 4K. They should have given American Graffiti the same treatment as those.
@@subvertedexpectations2272 I think you need to say that it's not good on your system. If you saw it on mine you'd probably return home and try to match what you'd seen. It may not be possible of course but it's also possible that some digital 'enhancements' have accidentally been left on and they're just making a horlicks of some discs for you. I've had it in the past myself when settings have somehow switched themselves back on. That or the phantom 4K flubber has been in overnight and messed with the remote control while I've been sleeping! John.
Greetings from my side of the planet. Have you heard about the James Cameron films coming to 4k on March 14th? Among them are True Lies. I am quite excited about that.
@@moviecollector5920 It's not good on my system, John. Professionally calibrated JVC DLA-NP5 with Panasonic UB9000. No horlicks or messed with settings in my theatre, just 30+ years of passion and AV technician experience. Cheers!
This is an incredibly well informed review and I learned a lot! My review is posting soon but I will be sure to point people in your direction for more info. Great work.
That's jolly nice of you Jeff. I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I. I think I'm concluding that many home movie disc collectors are finding that it doesn't look so good on their tellies but that's probably down to the comparatively diminutive size which means they can't see all the detail that is there. It's certainly been an interesting one.
I should have received the 4K of OPPENHEIMER today but postie didn't deliver, damn it. That will be my next video though so a good excuse to show the real McCoy running through the IMAX GT projector at the BFI IMAX again.
John.
I can always count on you John to a review a movie with dispassionate analysis and a proper sprinkling of whimsy.
Other people who have this disc have confirmed what I saw in the comments. It's odd that others think the image is bad but it's likely something set incorrectly on their system or perhaps some sort of incompatibility between disc and player or telly/projector or perhaps both.
John.
Nice to hear something positive about this release John. I've been put off buying it until now.
Just don't expect it to look like TENET. Clearly a lot of work went into it but to get TechniScope looking like this is incredible. People did tell me a number of times that the Sergio Leone 'Dollars' films were among the best looking 4K discs they'd seen so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. They were all cheapo TechniScope too.
John.
I really enjoyed this 4k transfer. As far as I am concerned it matched what I remember in the cinema.
I haven't watched any other reviews but apparently people have been rather critical because it doesn't look good on their systems. Evidently it does on both of ours Angel Fish. John.
Learning a lot from you, John. Every review is great and it's a pleasure listen and watch you.
Not release yet in Spain, we have to wait to check that DNR controversy.
Thanks for your nice job.
I've had some informative comments come in on here which appear to confirm that image noise reduction may not have been excessive. It seems that very fine grain negative stock was selected to offset the comparatively diminutive scale of the TechniScope. This 50% smaller picture area of TechniScope does mean that there will be less detail in the final image but combine that with it being a fine grain and then you have a recipe for modern video disc collectors misunderstanding these factors for excessive digital image noise reduction. I can't be conclusive about this of course but that seems to be why other reviewers have reached a different conclusion. It's understandable though because to most people a 4K disc is a 4K disc which of course it's not as there are so many different origins to the films.
John.
You need to see the fan film scan and restoration of Star Wars. There is nothing like it. A film without grain is something missing half its image. You can't separate the original medium from the thing it was capturing and the only way to remove grain is to remove the image.
I've seen the most recent one. I don't think it looked that good in the cinema I saw it in. John.
Thanks John. Excellent review by someone who knows what they're talking about. Refreshing. 👍
I always liked American Graffiti but I had never seen it like this. Now I love it. What a great film. John.
I agree with you. I did see this in original release the year after I graduated high school. It was grindhouse fare and was monophonic at the time. I watched it again years later at the theater when they remixed it in echoey Dolby Stereo. It's not a favorite of mine, too cutesy, but I enjoyed it well enough get the 4k disc because it needs all the improvements in sound and image that it can get.
And it's got those improvements if the results I got in here are anything to go by. Wonderful to see it looking and sounding so good. Shame not everyone has got the best out of their own systems for it though. John.
Thanks for the excellent review again John, I have never watched this film and when it was released on 4k the first review I watched slated the transfer, thank you for reviewing and imparting your knowledge on where the film fails and shines, it is back on my shopping list again.
Don't ever let anyone put you off purchasing a disc Colum because no one is going to get every review right. I feared there may be excessive image noise reduction but hopefully I've given enough evidence and clarification to advise that it doesn't appear to be the case. I do believe it has been applied as it always is but it hasn't removed the detail as far as I can see... and I do watch on a slightly larger image than most so you'd think if something awful had been done it would make itself obvious in here. I think it's a great 4K disc and I now love American Graffiti as a result. And anyway, who cares what has been carried out in the mastering of a disc if the end product looks good?
John.
I think there's a bandwagon of people going off on this 4K release as a travesty... but this isn't true.
I watched it the other night. I thought the image was great. The colours fantastic. And like you, I could still see plenty of film grain.
I'm MORE than happy with this release.
I think it's one of the most impressive this year. Particularly when you consider it was shot half 35mm for crying out loud. It's possibly an illustration of how good the negative stock was even in 1973. I wanted to make the point that I thought it was better to look at than Mission Impossible 7 which was why I set that up a bit in my MI7 review but after so many comments went a bit nuts about how bad the 4K of American Graffiti is I thought I'd better not push things that far. What a film though and what a disc. A great steelbook too and all for just £25. Amazing.
John.
Really happy to see this review and see it recommended from movieguy365's channel. I have no idea why your videos are not being recommended by the algo. You are by far my favourite physical media/movie channel. I will have to specifically click your channel on the regular.
To be fair to Adam with his review it does appear that many televisions are turning this 4K to mush so it's not his fault it didn't look good on his system. It could be that he's got some digital image 'enhancements' activated on his set though but that's a common mistake. I've even found that some have turned themselves on in both my video projectors so bugs in the software can also be to blame. Rest assured the film grain is present in the 4K of American Graffiti and so is the detail. Whether or not all the detail is there as it appeared on the negative I cannot be sure without seeing a brand new 35mm master print struck from the negative but I would expect some to have disappeared as all cine to video transfers are done by scanners now and exacerbated film grain is a side effect of that that has to be reined back in. Two sprocket high 35mm would not have had the detail for full frame four sprocket high 35mm so don't expect it to be the quality of most other 35mm releases on 4K disc. TechniScope is lower quality than 4K so what we're looking at is an upscale and in that regard, it's outstanding. Fortunately, I didn't get the waxy faces Adam had to endure. Must have been such a disappointment but at ten feet wide it was like looking at a film print and that's good enough for me.
John.
John, thank you for the comment. Due to your review I picked this up and think I will quite enjoy it. Thank you.
@@Mowglibaloo2 I hope it looks as good on your system as it does on mine. A great film and amazing that it's turned out so well given its low quality origins.
John.
Thank you for another well balanced and informative review, John. Clarifying the way that the film was shot (in Techniscope) provides some important resolution context which many other reviewers have overlooked. Your review of the Saturday Night Fever 4K disc was similarly at odds with most other reviewers, but I bought that disc on recommendation of it and was glad that I did, so will definitely get the American Graffiti disc with your comments in mind.
I thought Saturday Night Fever was very good but I think this is even better. I haven't compared them directly though but I've not been as impressed by a 4K disc too often, if at all. Taking TechniScope into consideration that is. I don't know why others have been critical of it but if the first person to review is an influential CZcamsr then others may be unlikely to go against that first review. Slagging something off does tend to generate more views so that could be another reason.
John.
Great review.
@@waynevia6976 Thank you Wayne. I expect I've opened a can of worms with this one but I only call it as I see it. John.
Thank you for another honest, wonderful review. I was almost going to pass on this but now I will keep an eye out for a good deal. I *wish* I could watch American Graffiti (or any other movie) with you in your theater (nice of you to invite viewers!). No doubt I would have the time of my life taking in a good flick with a very distinguished gentleman in a beautiful theater.
I'm sure we'd have a lot of fun. I think I'd always put a clip from American Graffiti on just to prove to anyone that sees it that it is a great 4K disc. I can't be certain of what has gone wrong on other enthusiasts home video systems but the comments on here have come up with some very good pointers. Fine grain negative stock combined with diminutive picture area results in less detail to fool people today into thinking something has been done to re-process the image. It originated on 35mm but not the usual 35mm formats so that's what's fooled most other reviewers. Can't be certain though. John.
Great review, John! Thanks as ever! I've managed never to see this film in my entire life, so I'm definitely going to get the 4K disc on your recommendation. It's weird how many 'obvious' films people never get to see in our lives. It took me until I was 40 (almost a decade ago) to get around to seeing Godard's Breathless, even though people had been nagging me to see it since I was in my teens! I loved it and sat there kicking myself for not watching it before! American Graffiti just passed me by, although I've always known about it and intended to see it. I've learnt something new yet again about film stock, thanks to some of the reviews of American Graffiti! I had no idea that this shooting format existed, although it makes sense that it would and, of course, how economical it would be for low budget filmmakers. The Twin Flicks channel has discussed some of the technical aspects of this film with a cinematographer who has shot down most of the complaints about the 4K. It appears this 4K is pretty much how the film was intended to look in the 1970s and the film image would inevitably be smoother and less detailed due to the use of Techniscope, even with the fine grain.
Since I adopted 4K, my love of real film (reel film? 😉) has been restored. I really regret that it's getting too expensive to take my stills camera out and take photos on film anymore. It only seems five minutes ago that I could buy three reels of 36 frames of film for under a tenner and now it costs tens of pounds even before processing!! I've been thinking about buying one of those cameras that shoots 72 frames on a normal 36 frame film stock, which would be a bit like the American Graffiti format! I've still got a Canon Super 8 camera in my cupboard. Last time I went to Jessops and asked for a reel of Super-8 film, back in the mid 2000s, the young bloke working there looked at me like I'd talked gibberish, walked away and came back with a Hi-8 tape! 😄 They'd changed from a proper camera shop into a Curry's type store by then! I've not used the Super 8 in years, sadly, although the camera's still in great condition. I love the look of Super-8 images. Super-8 is kind of the filmstock of nostalgia.
Funny you should mention The Ten Commandments: I just bought the steelbook 4K release which has the 1956 film on 4K and the 1923 film on Blu-ray. I'm a huge silent film fan, so I jumped at it when I saw it on Amazon and the 1956 film is one of my all-time favourites! Best wishes, Dominic Husband
Noel Pratt recently repaired my Canon 814 Super 8 camera so if you have one of these models then it's one of the best Super 8 cameras ever brought to market. Kodak just re-launched Super 8 in September so I'm hoping it will be more readily available again and I can shoot the odd reel down the years. I miss having proper home movies of family, friends and special occasions. Video just doesn't do the same timeless job somehow.
American Graffiti is a film I always liked but as a result of this great 4K release I now love it. I still haven't watched any other reviews so thank you for telling me about the Twin Flicks channel. I had concluded that the negative stock used to shoot this was of particularly fine grain but couldn't be sure. What you've said seems to confirm it and makes sense because the finest grain stock available for a half size 35mm shoot would then succeed in resulting in optically produced full frame 35mm anamorphic release prints that looked as good as most other 35mm releases. If Super 8 can look as good as it did on The Phoenix cinema screen then I'm sure TechniScope could produce far superior results and judging by this 4K it clearly did.
I now also need to see Breathless as I think that's one of the many that has passed me by.
John.
@@moviecollector5920 Hey John! It's a Canon 514 XL-S. I got some lovely images with it. I a couple of my student films on it in the 1990s. I hadn't realised Kodak had finally got around to the Super 8 relaunch: I registered my email with them to say I was interested when the announced their intentions some years ago, but never heard anything more! I'll have a look now!
I'm not a big Jean-Luc Godard fan - I find much of his stuff pretentious and he kind of created the cliché of the pseudo-intellectual French arthouse film - but Breathless definitely has something special. The new Studiocanal release on Blu-ray was much better than the previous one available. I just wish I'd bought the 4K now! 🙂
@@DomH75 I included a bit of the trailer for Dead Community Guild in the BFCC video early in May and the reason I mention that is because that film was shot entirely using a Canon 514 Super 8 camera. It's another great Super 8 camera. I want to get back into shooting Super 8 but it's going to be a while yet. It won't be cheap, that's for sure.
Breathless is going on my shopping list!
John.
Thank you, John, for this review, been waiting for it. As you say, it may depend on each person's set up, and their prior experience of the film, or of the Lucas productions. I love how you contextualize and explain the film stock being used and so on. The set up includes how calibration and whether one uses a projector or an OLED or some other TV tech. That said, I use OLED so perhaps it will be over-saturated, and I did watch other reviews prior to yours, and most were dismissive. I have seen the film, but only on TV. I do want this movie in my collection, yet I will wait until a sale some time in the future.
I hope it looks as good on your system as it does on mine when you do get it. Don't miss that beautiful steelbook though. John.
When an image looks that pristine, it feels more nostalgic, to me. If you want an example of this, bizarrely "Last Christmas" by Wham! (Have to include the exclamation mark) is a 4K video on CZcams. If it wasn't for the feathered haircuts, it could have been shot yesterday. It just takes you back to your first viewing. A grainy picture with muted colours is just a reminder of the passage of time.
Whatever may have been done to this 4K of American Graffiti Andrews, who cares when the end product looks this good? Now I'm going to have to look at that Wham! video again. I thought I'd get away with that until nearer Christmas! John.
@@moviecollector5920 view it as a technical exercise, rather than festive fun. 🎄 It's quite an eye opener. You can see a couple of shots weren't recorded with the same fidelity which just makes the rest of the music video look even better.
Hi John. I noticed turning my LG OLED’s HDR Tone Mapping on improved the picture quality immensely. It preserved the vivid color palette while resolving contrast issues. Does that make sense? Watching your review reminded me not to be averse to adjusting settings to improve the picture accordingly.
That is a jolly good tip and perhaps good advice for many fellow home movie disc collectors out there Jose. We've had this UHZ50 video projector since February and I'm still fiddling. In fact, I tend to fiddle with just about every disc I put through it as few match the quality of the previous disc we've projected and it's mainly down to how it's mastered with HDR being the main culprit as it's often applied overly bright. John.
Thanks for this review. I have never seen this movie and I am glad you think this 4K is worth it. I just bought it and have heard some people were not happy with it. I’m looking forward to it now.
I hope you like it as much as I do Adam. I suspect many people are running digital processing on their tellies which could be messing it up but in here on the big screen, it looked wonderful. It sounded pretty darned good too.
John.
You are the only one who is giving this a good review. Everyone else is giving this a thumbs down and recommends the blu ray instead!
I do suspect the first person influenced others. But it's also possible others have inadvertently left some digital 'enhancements' on on their systems and that's making a pig's ear of the image. John.
Thanks for a more thorough and especially reasoned review on the video quality, good to know overall the 4k disc is well worth watching and this is probably the best it will ever look.
Thank you Pete. I think many would seem to have preferred more visible film grain which I expect should have been there but none of us can be certain of without having seen the original cine transfer of the negative. It's possible the negative stock was a very fine grain but I don't know enough about the quality of the stocks back in 1973. All I can say is that Kodak introduced the T stocks in about 1982 and they were reputedly finer grain than what had gone before.
John.
This is NOT the best it will ever look! The grainy look of the film is part of the film’s character. The colours have also been massively toned down and the new audio mix is crap.
I was interested in what you said about your setup. Could you make a video on what colours what contrast brightness you have on your projector on TV. Not because I want to copy it just interested in what people are putting these on
The settings on my current video projector are completely different to the UHD550X now sat in the other room so it wouldn't be relevant unless you have the same Optoma UHZ50. I make the settings by eye but try to keep the final resultant image looking as close to how I tend to find film prints look. This generally means darker and that's where I think a lot of people go wrong with their tellies and video projectors. If you have a UHZ50 then brightness is about -10, contrast about +10, all digital 'enhancements' off or minimized, hue is actually at +5 which I've never changed from 0 on anything before, colour is about +10 which I've never had to set so high before and even Brilliant Colour is about +5. This projector has a laser as the lamp and for that reason a lot of discs are too bright so I usually mess about with every disc at the start to rein the lamp in and get it just right. Some discs are best with the laser output set to 50% which is it's lowest setting. Dynamic Black is unusable owing to the flicker effect it generates when going from light to dark and vice versa but a good compromise for this is Constant Luminosity set to 85% or lower sometimes if the disc has been mastered a little too bright or vibrant.
None of the above is probably of any help at all but just in case I thought I should give you a basic run down.
John.
Was wondering just the other day when this would be out. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. One of my favourite films.
I've never enjoyed it so much so I hope you get as much out of it as I did. Not everyone is getting great image quality from it like my system is though so you may have to play a bit to get it looking tip-top. John.
@@moviecollector5920 ~ Thanks John. I have three calibrations I set up in my Sony player that usually keep me right with the various 4Ks, so hopefully this'll be the same.
You mentioned problems playing the Blu-ray; I used to have problems playing the previous Blu-ray, and when I did get it working I could never get the picture-in-picture commentary to play. I always have trouble getting THX 1138 to play too, I remember having to pull the plug a few times after the player would freeze up.
Anyway, I really appreciate your knowledgeable and honest reviews, and I love your passion for film. 👍
@@CastlesForEyes I was getting a little frustrated with the Blu-ray of American Graffiti but if necessary I'd have hooked up another player so that I could see it. I've left the internet connection turned off as I never use it anyway. If you have the same issue the chances are that's what it will be.
So far there have been largely positive comments about American Graffiti but it seems that many had been put off purchasing a copy up to now. If I thought a 4K disc was crap I probably wouldn't review it but even if I did I think I'd always try to find some positives even if there were obvious problems otherwise I'd be responsible for a company who releases home videos for us not getting as much of a return on their investment as they would have. I don't think that would be right. John.
@@moviecollector5920 ~ Just ordered it. I'm a huge fan of George Lucas' pre Star Wars work and I've seen them countless times, so it would take a horrendous disc to upset me. As long as there's some improvement I'll be happy.
I never even considered that the internet connection might be the cause of the disc playback issues. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a go.
Keep up the great videos.
You’re really the real deal, John.
I encourage you to create similar content in the future, controversial or otherwise (you can guess if the ‘controversial’ spin on your usual ending line made me smile). Erik.
Evening Erik. I felt that I had to scrutinize this one more than usual as quite a few negative comments about the 4K of American Graffiti came in after I mentioned it at the end of my MI7 review. I don't know what is wrong on their systems but given the evidence of my eyes in here (and my wife's eyes too) I think it is a great 4K disc. Given its TechniScope origin it may be one of the best 4K discs yet.
I rather enjoyed being a little controversial but if I'd have had any doubts about the quality of this 4K I don't suppose I would have enjoyed it half as much.
John.
Thanks for your efforts once again, John, as they are very much appreciated by myself, and no doubt many others.
It was fun, if a little time consuming, going into this in such detail. The comments after I mentioned it in the MI7 review forced me to scrutinize it thoroughly though. John.
I watched it. Looks pretty good. Definitely better than True Lies and Aliens 4Ks for example. I have never had it on Blu-ray though so can't compare. I would give it 8/10 image quality
That's just about what I would give it too. There are some scenes which look a little odd but that's a minor gripe considering this was TechniScope. The Blu-ray is in the pack with this steelbook and it's sub-standard to look at compared to the 4K. I wouldn't have enjoyed the film so much at all had I have watched just the Blu-ray.
John.
Oh yes. Might check the bluray to compare.
@@ps5andstuffhere Dull and lifeless compared to the 4K. But perhaps the if I'd have seen the Blu-ray in isolation it wouldn't have appeared to be anywhere near as disappointing.
Hi John, Really interesting video. American Graffiti was one of my all time favourites. I screened it in the cinema when it came out in glorious mono. Like you said, it was a huge hit, but only in the US. I have it on DVD these days. At the end of the day, any film (35mm re-prints) are only as good as the Master. I like a movie to look like a movie. I don't want it to be perfect. Loved the review and your video. Thank you.
I put quite a lot of time into this one Fred. I recorded much more to camera but then slashed it to try to keep the running time down but it was still too long really. I did mention the TechniScope 'Dollars' trilogy 4K discs which people tell me are excellent. Up to now I've responded to ask "how can they be because they were shot TechniScope?" It just shows that we can all jump to conclusions at times. American Graffiti was a really nice surprise and a film that I liked is now a film that I love as a result.
John.
This is a great coming of age movie John, even though, Richard Dreyfuss, who is my favorite actor of all time, was 26 at the time, playing a teenager. John, I have to say, your cinema room is amazing, it's a credit to you.
Richard Dreyfuss has been good in everything I've seen him in. I thought he was good in this but it was an early role for him and I think he learned a lot of what was to make him great through making this one. The crew weren't bashful about telling him where he might be going wrong which doesn't tend to happen once you've hit the big time.
The cinema has turned out nicely. I did want a slightly bigger screen but given we're only sitting about 11 feet from it, it does provide quite a big impact and helped this great 4K of American Graffiti come across even better.
John.
Thank you John! Ive still never seen this movie. Ive always wanted to. I blind bought the blu-ray earlier this year. You're right, some people are really trashing this release online.
I think it's one of the best discs I've seen this year. But not everyone has a video projector and even fewer have one setup to make a video look like film. The Others was another surprise so it's been a good time in our home cinema lately. Actually, The Flash was a nice surprise too and I got that because of your review I think. John.
@moviecollector5920 yes you did! I was very flattered to be mentioned in your video
Another great review John :)
I haven't seen American Graffiti but it seems like a nice film so I added it to my watchlist.
I've always liked it but thanks to this 4K now I love it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I just did. John.
Bed stricken with the novovirus and this is just what i need, thank you !
Now that's nasty. Get well soon Zero. John.
Saw this in the Theater back in the early 70s. First time I had ever seen a movie like this, even as a kid, I marveled at the director for the Music, Filming, Acting and how all the characters had endings that brought out so many emotions for each person.
-Cool to see the movie Got a TV Pilot that was first shown on "Love, American Style", then get it's own show (Happy Days)...great memories watching the TV Show.
Did not know who George Lucas was, but I knew when I saw the movie that very special and that could never be repeated.
It was not until 4 years later that I and the entire world found out who George Lucas was because of Star Wars.
Thanks for the review, I will be buying this for myself for Christmas. Tradition every year to buy myself movie that I like/want, that way my family will not get it wrong.
We have to buy our own discs too Bob so you're not alone there. You'd think a phone call to check if there was a title we'd like would do the trick but alas... I always liked American Graffiti but thanks to this beautiful 4K disc which suits the film so well, now I love it.
John.
Thanks for another wonderful review, John! Yes, Techniscope, in low light at night necessitating fast film, American Graffiti NEEDED some grain reduction.
Morning Mike. You've made a good point there which I think I failed to mention in this video. With regard to this so-called 'DNR', in the short documentary about the restoration of the Jaws negative Universal told us that all scans of films require at least some image noise reduction as the scanning process exacerbates the appearance of film grain. Paramount told us the same and I think that was within the extra on the 4K disc of The Sting about the restoration of that negative. So even if image noise reduction hasn't been applied excessively to American Graffiti there will have been some. If it has been excessive then it appears to have worked extremely well even if I may have preferred that there was a little more evident grain. I'm not saying I would as I think the work that has been done was entirely successful but I may have preferred it. I think many others would have done judging by some of the comments but not all by any means.
John.
@@moviecollector5920
Format produces heavy grain, especially at night which much of this was shot, plus the UHD transfer adds grain.
That doesn't create fine grain w/o heavy DNR.
Hi John I've bitten the bullit and purchased the panasonic dp ub820 fantasic player have u had any 4k discs freeze I know Sony 4k players have had issues I'm gonna get jaws and probably indiania jones on 4k can review those
I'd like to get one of those myself Dave but so many moths keep getting into my wallet these days! I hope it's everything you hope for though.
John.
Hi John! Just returning from a lower back injury so a bit behind on your vids... I do wanna buy this and love this film for many reasons. Also because it's an experience of one night in the past I wanna see the color and definition as if I was there just like the quality of as you said once Get Carter puts you in that environment. We can see it and almost sense the atmosphere as it really is. (in the sense of a film as an 'out of body experience' great to be back i'll be working through the reviews i've missed asap and all the best to you and your great subscribers meantime .. D in BC!!
I hope you didn't do anything too serious Dave. Back pain can be debilitating so I hope it's improving quickly.
Not everyone appreciates the work that has been done to American Graffiti and Richards Linde made a good point just before you which I'd been thinking about and that is that it doesn't look like it should on all tellies. Video projection does seem to display this how it should be seen so it's possible it was mastered while watching a projected image. Being bigger does mean you can see everything more clearly so it's how I'd do it but may have messed things up for some tellies.
John.
Thanks, one of my favourite films of all time and just purchased, will watch it tomorrow (the full 5.1 sound sold me).
I hope you like it the same as I did Daniel. John.
Excellent video here, John. Will you be reviewing Oppenheimer this week ?
I intended to watch the 4K last night but it wasn't delivered as it should have been. The Royal Mail isn't what it once was. Hopefully they will put it through the door today. But I think we all know it's going to be one of the best 4K discs so far and possibly the best owing to its 15/70 and 70mm origin. John.
@@moviecollector5920 Royal Mail is incredibly inconsistent. I used to get my pre orders early. Yes I’m sure this will be one of the best, both visuals and sound should be excellent. I’ve heard there’s a lot of great special features too !
I finally bit the bullet and got it for 15 Euros. I can't stand DNR, and love me some beautifully fine-grained film, but I expected this to look far worse than it does. Sure, DNR seems to have been applied across the board, but in a much more sophisticated manner than those previous Universal BD "efforts". Details are still there, although never spectacular. shadow detail is much improved, colours look lovely, and contrast is far better too. The BD is very fuzzy, but also suffers from an egregious amount of EE, and DNR, so this is easily the best it's ever looked on home video. Far from perfect, as there is some distracting macroblocking in the backgrounds, some smearing in a handful of shots, and of course, all that DNR, but it's very watchable and still a joy, even at a distance of 4.2ft (130cm) from an LGC9 65inch OLED. I simply love this film, and am very glad I got the UHD, despite its shortcomings. I recommend getting it.
I'm pleased you find it similarly to me Alienadin. I can't recall any of that digital blocking or smearing but I could tell some of the darker scenes had been pushed a little too far for the TechniScope frame but I appreciate the effort and work that clearly went into this. We watch from about 10 feet away and the screen is 10 feet so everything does show up pretty well at that size and that distance. I never would have believed American Graffiti could have looked so good and it's wonderful to own it... for just £25! Amazing.
John.
Thanks for the review! Will pick this one up. I also project on a 100 inch screen, so I will take a chance on this.
If you think there are any problems with it Bob then it's likely to be some digital setting that isn't off or minimized on your projector. Although I think other people have mistaken the quality of TechniScope for full frame 35mm and therefore think some of the detail has been erased. John.
@@moviecollector5920 Yes, I do suspect that many of the 4k UHD reviewers here on youtube do not know the distinction between TechniScope and full frame 35mm, so you might be quite right :) Thanks.
Much more than enjoyable comments from you, wonderful loved listening to you.
I did infact see it in the cinema but that's so long ago I really couldn't compare with the new 4k print. I trust you on your review of the colours and look forward to buying a copy.
Regarding what you said about "Star War's" I saw that on a 70mm screen and it popped right out at you, grain and all. I do have the 4K of it but didn't watch so far.
Till the next time Graham
Afternoon Graham. Hope all is well. The trouble with the 4K disc of Star Wars is it's not the Star Wars we know and love. I'm okay with it up until Jabba The Hut appears and then I can't concentrate on it. I do like the new versions of the Death Star battle though so it's not all bad by any means, I just want to see Star Wars as it was. I've been given one of the 4K transfers from a Technicolor print though so apart from my grainy Super 8 copies I've also got a computer file of it in 4K now too.
John.
Great to hear all that. Like you I'm a purest,always want the best possible copies and prints of everything film. A good night to you. Everything great this end. Till the next time.
Hi John , off topic , but will you consider doing '12 angry men 4k review ?
If I ever see it sitting on a shelf singing like a bird! John.
I have the American Graffiti 4k, and I think it looks great. I’m not a fan of heavy film grain. This movie looks digital, overly sharp, perhaps, but super clean. Works for me.
My philosophy is that if a movie looks good then who cares what may or may not have been done to it? There is still film grain there but I don't think it's visible or obvious on tellies and smaller projections. John.
Ordered this after watching your review. Looking forward to watching it and yes, I am aware of other negative reviews but I do love this movie.
If it looks a mess Robert check that no digital 'enhancements' are inadvertently wrong. This could be why so many are being critical but in here it looks beautiful so I hope it does on your system too. One of the best I've seen this year actually. John.
@moviecollector5920 thank you, I'm sure I'll find it enjoyable. Keep up the good work.
Thank you John.
You're welcome Cheekster. John.
Very nice review and walk through this release.
For this release I think I will wait upgrading.
Just don't wait until all these beautiful steelbooks are gone Per. John.
True John.
I think I will treat myself a copy for Christmas 🎄
Nice work again John.... Thanks for sharing 👍
Thanks Roy. John.
Bought on 4K and had my wife give it to me for Christmas...got what I wanted.
So much fun to watch this again...and in 4K this time, INCREDIBLE!!!!
The "Making of..." Extras shows once again how George Lucas had a Vision and he was NOT going to give into the "Hollywood Heads".
Did you know this was one of the first movie with NO Credits in the beginning...all the credits at the end.
Something he did again in Star Wars.
Lucas really did change so much of Movie History.
It is a great film Bob. I'd only ever seen it on television broadcasts years ago before this 4K disc release. I didn't know about the opening credits situation. Yes, that young George Lucas certainly brought in some welcome changes. Opting to shoot a Star Wars movie on high definition video probably wasn't his best ever decision but it paved the way for what has proved to be a bit of a disaster for cinemas so far. I do hope the industry can get its mojo back and sort that out though. I think getting 70mm into bigger cinemas for occasional genuine 70mm (shot and finished on film) screenings would attract audiences and also the D:150 system with the 150 degree curved screens and the prints and lenses to make it work. That could be done with video projection so might prove to be a real boon as it would be something different and better to what you can realistically do at home or watch on your telephone.
John.
Well said. @@moviecollector5920
John, you and I appear to be around the same age and have very similar interests regarding film and how we enjoy experiencing it. I have an Epson 4K projector and 115" inch 2.35:1 screen. I'm running identical LCR speakers (each powered by a monoblock amplifier), two wall-mounted surround speakers, and two subwoofers. I wouldn't have it any other way. I've never minded an old film being "cleaned up" to look and sound its best, as long as we don't get into revisionist territory. DNR is a tool which can be used effectively in moderation, but it's certainly been abused on film transfers before. Lucas definitely lost his way on the original Star Wars trilogy, and I was worried about this one. As long as American Graffiti's image is focused and film-like and the colors aren't too far off from its original theatrical release, that's what is most important. I don't mind a film's original soundtrack being remixed for multichannel, but I believe we should always have the option to hear the soundtrack in its original form, whether that be a mono track or simple stereo. I trust your opinion and will therefore purchase this disc. Thank you!
I'm chuffed to bits with this disc. It's one of the best I've seen this year and that's got to be down to the work that's gone into it as much as it being a great film. I can still see film grain but it's finer than I would have expected so that suggests there has been some - or possibly a lot - of image noise reduction applied but when the end product comes out looking this good then I don't give a monkeys. The sound is better now as far as I'm concerned. The Blu-ray was poor on all counts by comparison and yet some do think it's the better choice. John.
@@moviecollector5920 I suspect James Cameron utilized DNR on the upcoming Aliens 4K release, which I remember being especially grainy when I saw it in the cinema. I read it had something to do with the new film stock at the time, with which Cameron was never happy. If DNR is used with skill, I can imagine Aliens looking better than it ever has. If not, it can easily look like crap. Of course, we're also hoping for the best with The Abyss and True Lies.
Hi John thanks for the review. I have never seen American Graffiti so I’ll have to rent it one day to see if it’s worth the purchase. Just finished watching Duel in 4k on my Projector, everyone was raving about the image but it didn’t blow me away it’s nice but not super detailed, close ups were very nice though . Would be interesting to know your opinion maybe one day. Cheers Danny
I was thinking about purchasing Duel Danny by it might have to wait a while. Many people do seem to focus too much on close-ups which is not the thing to look at as they all look good. The distance shots are the best clues to judge how good a film or video is. John.
@@moviecollector5920 Agreed!
@@moviecollector5920 thanks John I’ll take note of that next time I give the disc a spin. I bought Rocky 3 recently, absolutely phenomenal the bright lights in the boxing ring actually look real, one of my favs as a kid
Duel was shot in 1970 , released in 1971 , given the camera equiment Steven had, it's a marvel of a film. More of a showcase of Spielbergs early talent.
Great review as always !
Thanks for the honest review.
-Chuck 👍
You're welcome Chuck. No doubt I've upset a few people by not slagging this one off. John.
Thank you for a sensible review.
Thank you Kleetus. John.
Good evening John.
I’ve actually never seen American Graffiti, so your review has put this on my radar.
Because our screen is calibrated my wife has mentioned that she thinks the colours can be muted compared to other screens she’s seen (friends and family) which haven’t and she liked the over saturation compared to more natural presentation I’ve strived for, and that’s on OLED.
I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.
We’ve just finished the first three Indian Jones films and we were really surprised by the presentation they put to screen. Grain is in tact and gets heavy with optical shots (to be expected) over all though they looked fantastic.
We’ve now got the dreaded Terminator 2 to watch, which is apparently plagued by very overzealous DNR. We will see I guess. The Lord of the Rings films really suffered is some shots with heavy DNR and Edge Enhancement to the point I prefer the standard Blu-ray.
I’m really looking forward to Prey this month and then The Abyss and Aliens UHD next March.
It seems to me that you need to compromise a little and put the colour up a few notches on your telly Martin. It only takes a couple of button presses on the remote control to put it back down again if a disc appears too rich in future. You may find you both prefer it most of the time with the colour up a little. But it's encouraging to know that the person who calibrated your set produced a more natural look because I'd just got concerned that perhaps these people don't know what they're doing following some of the comments on here lately.
I have two of the Indiana Jones films on Super 8 so I know them pretty well. These were struck from 35mm general release prints so if I do ever see the 4K discs I'll have a good idea of how accurate they are. I haven't seen Terminator 2 on 4K but people tell me it's similar to the Blu-ray of Predator that was produced years ago in preparation for a 3D abomination of the film. It's probably okay if you don't know the film but I have it on Super 8 so know it too well and that particular Blu-ray version is dreadful. If you don't know T2 particularly well then it may be quite impressive. I saw it as a 70mm blow-up and can remember how it looked quite well but in addition to that I have it on Super 8 and a colleague has the 35mm print which was used to create those Super 8 prints so I don't think I'd enjoy the 4K at all.
I saw the 70mm blow-up of Aliens three times at the Odeon Leicester Square but then I saw a general release print and that was a substantially lesser experience. I have it on Super 8 and it's a bit grainy so I hope my memory of the 70mm master print is correct and it will look a whole lot better when the 4K is finally out. Nothing is ever going to trump having it on Super 8 though. Similarly with The Abyss, that's another I have on Super 8 but that one's a beauty despite being a 'Scope print when the original shoot was Super 35. If Fox had have supplied a television negative then we'd have probably got a full frame Super 8 with microphones visible and all sorts of things. Jurassic Park is a bit like that (it was shot full frame and issued that way but with mattes in the gates of all projectors I think) but only because it goes into 1.85:1 for shots with computer generated imagery and at those points there is all sorts of information visible at the bottom of the screen.
John.
👏🤩🍿🎥Excellent review thanks John
Thank you for saying so. Took quite a long time to cut down from all the waffle I did record. John.
Another great and informative review John,a beautiful looking steelbook too,another to be added to my Amazon basket 👍
Even if the image quality isn't as good on your system as it is on mine Marty (and I don't understand why it's not on everyone's system but digital processing not being off on all options perhaps) it's still one of the loveliest looking steelbooks I've seen. £25 for this package is great value. I hope you like it as much as I do.
@moviecollector5920 Well hopefully it should look good for me,I've the same panasonic 4k bluray player as you,I've lg oled and a 1080p projector, should look good on all 🙂
Wow, there’s a lot of mixed reviews about this film, I guess I’ll find out for myself when I receive my copy. Honestly, I don’t have high expectations, but from what I’ve researched on this film, apparently, George Lucas had a heavy hand in this release. I think I’ll try not to be so critical, and enjoy the experience. Thanks for the objective review sir John…much appreciated.
I was expecting the usual flurry of slagging off reviews as my first impression was that TechniScope could not look as good as this. Thankfully my system handles it so well that no one who ever happens to see it here could possibly say anything other than it's a very good or excellent 4K disc. But keep in mind that it's taken from a TechniScope original shoot so not up there with full frame anamorphic 35mm shoots and some shots do look decidedly processed to try to match up to the rest (and fail somewhat in that regard). Also, make sure you haven't inadvertently got any digital 'enhancements' turned on if you're watching on a telly because that may be what is turning this one to mush for so many people. I looked through the menu on my telly this morning and it's frightening how much of this sort of rubbish is in there but they're all off or minimized on mine even though I don't watch movies through the telly. Best of luck and I hope you get as enjoyable an experience with this one as I did. One of those rare occasions I watched a video disc twice in a short space of time. Second time was when friends came over with their 20 year old daughter and I thought she'd enjoy it. I wouldn't have put it on if the image quality had have been at all suspect.
John.
@@moviecollector5920OK, John, You we’re absolutely right. This film looks like it could have been shot yesterday. The DTS sound mix really boasts an impressive range dynamic sound that I wasn’t expecting.
I ran this disc on a OPPO UDP-203 player and took your advise and turned off the enhancements to “Direct Playback” as well as turning off any motion control or picture enhancements on an LG OleD C9…then that’s when the magic you were talking about blew me away…the Neon Signs popped, the film grain, good skin tones, heck, you could see every pimple on Ron Howard’s face, lol!
I’m really impressed, but it’s a shame how much hate this disc has generated from reviewers, undeservingly so.
You were right though, it’s a spectacular 4K disc that catapults one back to the 50’s here in the states which I think is what George Lucas had in mind. I’m happy to have it in my collection. Cheers John!
As someone who has seen American Graffiti close to 10 times now, I can say that the 4K version is as good as it’s ever looked. I’ve seen the movie enough times that I know where the focus is slightly off, and where they changed cameras because the image looks a bit blurry. After watching parts of the 4K version, I can understand why some die-hard enthusiasts would be disappointed, but for me I don’t think a niche, low-budget movie like this necessarily needed outstanding quality. As you stated, the cameras used were of lower quality due to the tight budget, so I didn’t really expect the same image quality as a movie shot with great equipment and a huge budget in the same time period.
I also had the privilege of seeing this in theaters this year for the 50th anniversary, which was the 4K version played on the big screen-and I immediately saw all the colors, faces, and sounds pop out unlike the standard Blu-Ray. For people who like American Graffiti, the 4K version is a must-have, but for cinephiles in general, I can see why they would be disappointed.
I think it's as good as most and better than many of the 4K discs I've seen this year. All our equipment is different though and even besides that, if a digital 'enhancement' is left on for whatever reason then it could be destroying image quality of perfectly good video discs. Who knows? What I do know is that American Graffiti in here from this 4K disc looked sensational. Whether or not a master print would ever have looked this good is another matter though.
John.
John- Thanks for an honest review. I do believe the DNR used was more-than-necessary and I would've preferred the original film grain along with the resultant higher resolution. However, the 4K image is still quite lovely and very viewable. I agree with you the [excessive amount] of negative reviews of this disc are a bit misplaced, and suspect most viewers will find watching the disc enjoyable - although there is no shortage of naysaying naysayers of negativity...
I think I'd have preferred a little more obvious film grain too Nanook but then again, maybe not. I think this one looks so good, particularly when considering its origins. In that regard it may be the best I've seen this year so far. As for the criticism it's come in for, I don't suppose many people actually understand what TechniScope is so hopefully I've cleared that up and been able to illustrate that I'd also underestimated it by showing the Super 8 of Speed and being able to report that that looked pretty good on a 30 foot (ish) cinema screen despite the printed frames on that being only 6mm across. John.
Thanks John for your review of American Graffiti (and all your reviews) - I watched my blu-Ray not that long ago and I thought it was very grainy and the 5.1 was somewhat “echoey”. I saw it in its original release in Sydney at the Forum Theatre, which was one of our prestige Todd-AO 70MM cinemas. Screen was masked down in height for 2.35:1 and it was definitely not a grindhouse presentation. You would probably call it a master print. Mono sound but very clear. So I look forward to the 4K as I regard this as one the great films of the 1970s.
Tezza, you and Dominic who typed in a comment just after yours have confirmed that this film indeed looked good when first released to cinemas. A master print is a 35mm print that has been struck directly off the camera negative rather than the internegative which is two generations further down and used to mass produce general release prints. The internegative can suffer wear as a result so a new internegative would then be struck from the interpositive if wear has occurred. What you saw was almost certainly a master print given you were watching in what sounds like a premiere house in a major city centre. I don't know if 70mm blow-ups of American Graffiti were struck but they would have been master prints too so whatever you saw you are remembering the film looking great and that confirms that the production used a very fine grain negative stock which resulted in superior full frame 35mm anamorphic prints despite the Techniscope origin. That half height 35mm process would have been why a fine grain stock was chosen and why the end results were so good.
I hope you enjoy the 4K as that screening you saw all those years ago.
John.
Hello my friend how are you I just ordered the English series Allo Allo on dvd too bad its not on bluray.
That's funny Robert because I was at my parents place a few days ago and that same DVD series was on their shelves. "I was pissing by your window"! John.
for STAR WARS the best way to watch is to get the project 4k77.
I have it. Actually, it might be a later fan based transfer now that I think about it. Looks beautiful as it's come mainly from a Technicolor print and I never saw one of those. John.
I have the original laserdisc release with the mono audio which is sadly pan & scan but I also have the widescreen laserdisc which unfortunately has the rerelease stereo audio with a few extra/ rearranged scenes not originally in the theatrical cut.
Like all George Lucas & Steven Spielberg films. They have edited their films drastically over every release.
I’m excited to get this 4K since I have no extras on the LDs but this does seems to still be edited. Since he changed the color of the sky at the opening which originally was more vibrant which isn’t what is now on this modern edit of the film. Glad they didn’t dnr this to hell like they have done previously with lord of the rings 4K but I feel like this will be the same as the 4K for jaws or poltergeist or Star Wars where I can see the modern edited mixed with the original film so obviously that I only use it for the extras on the disc
The mono mix was never released on home media. All laserdiscs use the stereo remix.
Interestingly I can report that Lord of the Rings looked pretty awful in the Odeon Leicester Square but whether or not that was worse than the 4K I can't confirm because I still haven't wanted to see it again after the mess I saw that night at the Odeon. I have the 'Scope trailers to the two sequels on Super 8 and they look fabulous though so one day I may generate the enthusiasm to try all three. As for American Graffiti, I think it's a great film as it is on this 4K disc irrespective of the few minutes George Lucas managed to put back in. I dare say I'd likely prefer the original cut though because I usually prefer shorter, theatrical versions of films.
John.
@@wright96dthe laserdisc discovision release I have doesn’t state stereo audio anywhere, either on the jacket or any of the 3 CAV discs themselves. They read as a pcm 44.1 2.0 track; I don’t hear anything that sounds like the stereo widescreen LD or any streaming company I’ve seen that has obviously panned audio or sounds comping from just one side.
@@moviecollector5920the dvd copies look very good and faithful to the theatrical releases which have not been altered like many blu-rays and all 4K discs.
I compared the 4K of Gandalf in fellowship to the same on dvd and you can see how the dvd has detail they scrubbed away on the 4K. Very shameful and sad use of a 4K discs
I always wanted to see this movie. Thank you, John!
I hope you love it Dmitri. I always liked it but now I think it's great and that's down to this 4K disc. Amazing work. John.
Great review John , that's it in a nutshell people need to see it on a big screen to realy see the big picture pardon the pun .
It does seem to be at least part of the solution Paul. John.
Ten Comandments is a great looking film. American G is a classic. Good going John
There have been so many great 4K disc releases by now Craig. I think American Graffiti is another of them given it's TechniScope origin. John.
salut belle et bonne vidèo sur la revue de se film bien comme toujour
Merci Alain. American Graffiti c'est on tres bien 4K disque. John.
I ordered
I hope you like it as much as I do. Amazing what has been achieved from TechniScope. When people were telling me 'A Fistful Of Dollars' was an excellent 4K I didn't believe them. I did after seeing American Graffiti.
John.
I have a fistful of dollars 4k. Looks very good.
@@ps5andstuffhere Stop it, otherwise I'm going to have to spend yet more money purchasing those Leone 'Dollars' TechniScope 4K discs. John.
Funny you mention the loop on the blu ray, i watched a blu ray this week and encountered the same issue, turned wifi off on my player and it worked, that was a universal title also
This one wouldn't get around it Aidey. I think I went through it all four times and wasted about half an hour. I don't think I'll be reconnecting the internet router as a result. John.
I'm sure its a universal disc thing at the moment then as i just tried another blu ray from them and it just stopped at the logo, had to unplug wi fi again to get it moving!!! @@moviecollector5920
Where were you in ’62?
Not in existence! John.
Ditto. So did American Graffiti ever connect with you, on a personal level? @@moviecollector5920
I bought that release and I really enjoyed it and thought it looked great. If you enjoy the movie buy it. I think it is worth the upgrade from the bluray.
Judging by the comments on here quite a few of us are in agreement so far Christopher. Thank you. John.
If you haven’t run across The Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader, I think you will find his content extremely interesting. Both of you are obvious lovers of real film and technical geeks (in a complimentary sense), but your opinions on restoration couldn’t be further apart. I’ve linked his review of the 4K American Graffiti. It’s certainly clear and sad that a restoration preserving American Graffiti’s original Techniscope qualities and original mono sound wasn’t also performed.
I have nothing against a director revising his own work, but believe the original work deserves to be preserved, at least for its historical value. Lucas is a #1 offender in this regard. I’ll ask, along with millions of others, where are the restorations of the original theatrical cuts of the Star Wars trilogy, if only for posterity? What a damn shame that the versions which forever changed the landscape of world cinema are being suppressed by the very guy responsible for them!
Most importantly and in the end, I love both of you guys and agree with points made by both of you.
czcams.com/video/p99PJ6Siafk/video.htmlsi=9NI5Ipk1pQPhwIY3
I'll try to have a look sometime so thank you for the link. Take a look at the Blu-ray in the same pack and if anyone thinks that is better then fair enough. After looking at the amazing imagery on the 4K I couldn't watch the Blu-ray. It's not a good Blu-ray but that's likely evidence of a general release print used as the master. John.
@@moviecollector5920 I haven’t seen the 4K disc, so no real opinion on it yet. I just find it funny that you and The Damn Fool are rabid film and physical collector fans and appear to think similarly about film in so many ways, but your opinions on AG are wildly different. Both of you are obviously intelligent guys and know your craft very well, so such conflicts are always so interesting to investigate.
@@1165mac I will take a look. I expect the fact that I've lived with film since the age of 2 or 3 has a bearing. i've been reviewing films for almost 30 years now so I've done a lot of thinking and scrutinizing of the quality of film prints. They tend to look a little different when transferred to video but 4K has come closest. I rarely see film grain on a film as we see it on 4K but there are reasons for that which I'm still analysing. To understand film you have to know film and there will certainly be others out there who understand it better than I. One of the reasons I started this channel was because I couldn't find anyone reviewing home movie discs that had their beginnings in any of the film gauges so I couldn't see how they could ever hope to fully understand a 4K or Blu-ray disc. I think the understanding of many CZcams reviewers is much better now because many are finding out how a film was shot before reviewing a disc release of said film. No two films are ever shot exactly the same way and the slightest difference can make a bit different to the end result in terms of image quality.
John.
I'll never understand people's objection to improvement. I remember a bluray review of American Graffiti that was very grateful that no surround sound mix had been created and offered. Well, if ever there was a movie that cried out for surround sound it's American Graffiti. So, I'm even more grateful that, for the 4K release, the effort was made to create and offer a wonderfully immersive soundtrack.
And, considering the low res manner in which it was originally filmed, I was stunned by the improvement in the picture quality as well.
There have been a few comments that don't agree with us Tim but overall people so far are surprised and pleased by how good it looks. There have also been some informative comments offering suggestions as to why this particular 4K looks the way it does and one of them said that the half sized 35mm would inevitably result in less detail being visible. Combine that with a fine grain negative stock (although whether it was as fine grain as this 4K cine transfer suggests is open to debate) and the end result is a clean looking frame that is well defined if a little lacking in detail. That would all go towards explaining why people don't believe American Graffiti could look this good.
One other thing had crossed my mind and that is that it's quite likely that people looking at this on a fairly normal sized television would see it similarly to how I did on my own telly (which I don't use for watching movies) and immediately think the image noise reduction used was too excessive. It requires a fairly sizable telly or video projection to be able to see all the detail from the diminutive TechniScope frame is there.
And the sound is wonderful now too, so all in all I consider this to be a great release.
John.
I agree, quite a stunning improvement over the bluray. Wonderfull! @@moviecollector5920
John: "So I'll be encouraged to carry on creating similar *controversial* content like this in the future."
LOL!
A few people do seem to be a little upset that I haven't confirmed other reviewers opinion Cheekster. I haven't said any of them are wrong though, just that they probably didn't think American Graffiti should look this good.
John.
Well all I can say is that I enjoyed watching the 4K of this. I haven’t tried the Blu-ray Disc.
I nearly couldn't try the Blu-ray Stephen but I had to persevere for this review. It's pretty awful compared to the 4K. John.
I have that same issue with the blu-ray for Conan the Barbarian, where the Universal logo spins forever and won't load.
It might be the wireless connection to the router then. Worth turning it off. I'll be leaving mine off as I rarely use it. John.
Yes it is the case, not sure where this nonsense started from and why others are buying into it or who is on Universal's payroll at this point, but George scanned the negative in 6k, this was HEAVILY processed, then someone (probably not George) added fake grain on top of it cuz they knew how soft the image looked now that it had been SCRUBBED to hell... this is a huge disservice to this film, and I question anyone who says otherwise....
That does not seem to explain why all the detail is still there. Other information has come in through the comments and it appears that a fine grain negative stock was selected to minimize the lower quality that would obviously ensue from shooting TechniScope. Less detail would be present in a TechniScope shoot but the fine grain disguised much of the inferiority. The 4K doesn't have much evidence of film grain but it is there and looks natural even though I expect significant image noise reduction has been applied. As all the detail is still there it couldn't have been overly used so I'm sorry you weren't able to get the best out of it. Make sure any digital 'enhancements' on your system are off or minimized so that next time you watch you may see it the same way most of us are. It might also mean you get more out of every other disc in your collection as well as those yet to be added. Above all, have fun with the whole home movie collecting pastime. John.
@@moviecollector5920 It's not all there though it's been smudged out even compared to the old blueray (or other films on 4k shot in the same 35 mm(Eastman 100T 5254) format. Jaws, Taxi Driver etc all look natural and not DNR'd and NEAT'd to death with a fake layer of grain laid over top... and neither Good Bad and the Ugly or Fistful look that bad and they are 2 Perf...)
@moviecollector5920 I'm a professional too trust me I have all that shut off*
@@MidnightsEdgeAfterDark I expected you would have but I've been caught out before. Some of this home equipment has a habit of deciding things need to be reactivated. Bugs just like all computers and if you select something to make a change then other things can go wrong. If you get a bad experience with a disc again just have a quick look through to make sure. John.
Saw this movie on some Showtime broadcast recorded on VHS when I was 10 years old back in 1989 and recently I've seen it like a million times on Blu-ray ,it does look ok on 4K I don't think it's the worst movie ever but it looks okay the thing I'm more concerned about is why is it the special features that includes the screen test those look better than the 4k transfer of the movie . The screen tests they look like almost like they're 35 mm which I know they're probably 8 or maybe even 16 mm but they still look better than the movie . to me that is just crazy .
The screen tests don't look better than the 4K on my system. Perhaps there's some processing going on with yours that only acts on 4K data going through it. How odd. But it seems that many others are getting different results so it's another release similar to the most recent remake of DUNE where even cinemas achieved different results with some being far more successful than others. It's one of the best 4K discs I've seen this year in here, particularly when considering it's TechniScope and therefore just one step up from 16mm.
John.
One thing I have to say is I prefer the original theatrical poster artwork with the caricatures of the actors.
I'm about half and half with steelbook purchases... If they use "Photoshop" posters, I won't buy the steelbooks at least half the time.
With this one, I was on the fence about the steelbook. Having seen it's another "Photoshop" poster release, I'm getting the regular 4K Amaray release which has the original theatrical poster artwork.
I did the same with Animal House. The regular release had the original caricature artwork produced for 1978, the steelbook (which was a US Best Buy exclusive) had that awful Photoshop poster. I really don't care for the practice of creating "new poster art" from photos or stills from the movies. They are re-issuing Animal House as a new steelbook giftset but I don't like the film enough to double-dip.
I don't think the business of creating new "Photoshop posters" is a licensing issue. The studios generally own all the promotional materials created for films. I think some people in the home video departments of these corporations believe people WANT the Photoshop look. I think the new "posters" look awful and wish they would go back to releasing most films on 4K with the original theatrical poster art. Most of the time, the artwork on the original theatrical posters looks better than well over half of the new creations they produce now.
It is a very nice steelbook Avenger but if it doesn't appeal to you then you're making the right decision. However, Amaray left the home movie disc case business at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic so you won't find it's an Amaray case although you might be lucky if someone is purchasing the Amaray cases now being produced under licence. I don't know if they're remanufacturing the 4K cases though as the market is so limited but they're certainly doing the original Amaray DVD cases and I think the Blu-ray cases. They were always considered the best but my preference was for M-Lock although they cost more than Amaray. 4K's these days tend to come in the cheapo cases without the patented Amaray buttons retaining the discs that we all know so well.
John.
Isn't the film "The Phantom Menace" stuck in 720p resolution forever? No wonder people have pre-judged American Graffiti 4k.
I think The Phantom Menace was shot 35mm (in some form) but much of it was added to in computers so it would have lost a lot of quality. The 35mm prints are surprisingly good though and I can say that with some authority because I have one. It also looked very good at the Odeon Leicester Square. This was just at the start of the era of the downturn in image quality though so it gathered a pace after this time with the next Star Wars film being the worst quality I've ever seen in a cinema. American Graffiti is better than all of them and so it should be.
John.
Here's a scary thought: if this movie came out today, the tagline would be "where were you in 2012?"
It doesn't have quite the same ring to it Nick. But thinking about it, I was even busier in 2012 than I am today. Now that is frightening. John.
Alan Ladd jr was impressed with the success of this film for George Lucas and financed Star Wars because of it . Full marks to Ladd and 20th century fox as everyone else rejected SW.
Alan Ladd probably took an enormous risk now that you've made me think about it because most people may have rejected it owing to the volume of special effects work that would obviously be required. And who would be able to produce anything like that? Thank gawd Alan Ladd gave it the green light. John.
I believe you, but I’ll stick with the Blu-ray.
Cheaper that way Gary. But it is awful by comparison. John.
I think it looks darn good. I've been amused by all the complaints. It's the EXACT same complaints you hear every, single time a Lucas film gets a new release. Also the brutal hyperbole of the binary thinking that's ruining criticism.
Is it "Perfect" No. Is it some sort of nightmare transfer along the lines of T2 or the original PREDATOR transfer? Not even close. Not even remotely close.
What you have is Lucas + "hot takes" + internet culture = clickbait reviews.
I haven't seen any of the other reviews but anyone who has said this is rubbish (or words to that effect) is wrong. But it could be they've got digital 'enhancements' on on their tellies and that's made a cods of it. John.
There are far better releases that are available for less than 25 pounds. I don't really see why standard UHD pricing should impact our expectations of quality. I have purchased nearly 1000 UHDs and this would be in the bottom 10-15 in terms of the quality of the transfer.
Look through the comments on here Brad and you'll see that that is not really the case. I did try to explain it as thoroughly as I could be evidently I didn't do well enough for you. I think we have all the information now as to why it looks the way it does and it's down to a very fine grain negative stock being chosen to minimize the lower quality nature of TechniScope. In that regard this is one of the best image quality 4K discs I've seen so far. Yes, there are better of course but possibly not when yo consider the origin.
John.
@@moviecollector5920 The lower grain levels barely scratch the surface of what is wrong with this release. If the only issue you're seeing is a lack of grain then you don't really know what you're looking at. At the end of the day, film should look like film, regardless of the stock, the camera, the lighting, etc...This release does not look like film. It's been digitally filtered to hell and back and there are scenes where the actors barely look human. It's definitely a stand-out release, but for all the wrong reasons.
@@bradnoyes1471 Quite a few people have reported similar issues but thankfully in here it looks very much like a film. That's to be expected though as I still project film on different gauges up to 35mm and therefore always aspire to get the video projection equipment to match the results of film as closely as possible. Good luck with playing with yours. Sorry you're not happy with this particular disc but hopefully the next one you look at will come across better. John.
@@moviecollector5920 Luckily it didn't stop me from enjoying the movie itself, but it's still a very disappointing release. I bet it's not as large as yours, but I still have hundreds of movies in my collection which have been shot under any infinite number of variables and very few of them look quite as unnatural and lifeless as this release. The lovely thing about the UHD format is how closely it can allow us to view movies at home and have it closely match the results of original film projections. But of course that's not always going to be the case. I will take your word for it that this particular release is at least better than its bluray counterpart.
this release is only tolerable on a qd-oled like star wars 4k
The Star Wars disc is probably just as good it's just I don't like to see the re-edited versions as it ruins the film for me. But I do like the re-hash of the Death Star battle so it's not all bad. You'd have to have a very big telly to get the best out of either disc though. Both can still be very impressive though irrespective of what you're watching on. Telly isn't for me though and never has been so I'm not the best person to comment on that.
John.
It shouldn't look new!
It's a half century old on half a frame. Heavier than 35 mm grain not fine grain. It's been DNR'd & lacks detail; compare from your chair.
However, compare it to the Blu-ray and it's so much better. I realize the Blu-ray probably came from a general release print but even though there is that obvious difference it really shouldn't be possible to achieve such good results from the negative when you see how the Blu-ray looks. This is an example of the new technology working even if it's not perfect for all of it.
I think I know the reason why You and some others like this transfer. Because You watch movies on projector. I just watched this movie on my high quality TV and it is disaster. Completly lifeless picture. No contrast, no punchy colours, no small details. Way worse than any other 50 year old movie I have seen. Even Terminator 2 looks much better with it's DNR.
Sorry, but projectors are outdated technology and You can't judge movie picture quality on them.
The bigger image does mean you see much more Richards. I did wonder if tellies were making a cods of this one though but it seems that not all tellies are judging by the comments. I haven't seen the Terminator 2 4K but I understand it's like the similar master created for the Predator 3D that was released as a flat Blu-ray so it's odd that you think American Graffiti is worse than that. Something is evidently going on with different systems but the most important thing is that it looks great in here. And I think that's largely because it's a bigger image than any telly and that I do the best I can to replicate the appearance of film. Good luck with getting yours sorted out. Keep fiddling until you get a generally filmic image on everything and then you should find you only need to tweak the brightness of the image and the HDR on occasion. Wish I could give you more assistance but without actually seeing what is wrong by being there it's rather difficult.
John.
@@moviecollector5920 no, my tv is one of best ever un beautifully presents artist intention.
My point is that projectors(cinema, home) have much worse picture quality than modern high quality tv with pixel level control, infinite contrast. So all movies on projector look similar - bad.
On TV You can see much bigger difference between bad, average and great movies.
Projectors have low contrast, low brightness, poor black levels, low colour volume, less details.
So in the end 2001: space odyssey won't look much better on projector than American grafitti. But as high end tv can do 2001 justice, difference is massive between movies.
Agree! This is BY FAR one of the worse 4k transfers ever - It looks horrendous on my OLED TV and I have 100s of 4k's in my library and like you said the image looks atrocious. This isn't even an average transfer its far worse and no positive review will change my mind lol though most reviews have given this an "Average" at best - To be honest i'm shocked at all the people saying positive things about it on here. I'm not that picky either - i don't mind mediocre compression issues and minor DNR but this looks just downright awful in every aspect.
@@dy1497 The information that's come in does indicate that there is a bit of an issue with some OLED tellies so that could be why you're seeing an image noise reduced mess. Rest assured the film grain and the detail is there but the comparatively diminutive size could mean it's hard to see. I can't image the TechniScope negative would have looked quite as clean as indicated on this 4K disc but shooting poor man's 35mm would surely have meant the finest grain negative stock would have been selected. I haven't seen the Sergio Leone 'Dollars' trilogy films on 4K but apparently they're beautiful too. There will be less detail than standard 35mm releases though as TechniScope is half the size. But I expect I'm telling you things you already know so I'll shut up now.
John.
just pre order blood on satans claw 4k . witchfinder general 4k. gold - roger Moore, the amityville horror 4k. comin to 88 films 2024 also first image of the first omen film due out next yr a prequel
Now The Omen is a very good film. I saw that on re-release as a double bill with the sequel. Sat right down the front at the Reading Odeon which had a very big screen at the time. Another memorable cinema occasion. It should look pretty darned good as a 4K disc. John.