Akira 4K Blu-ray Review & Comments

[dms]

I got a replacement disc today, took 2 weeks to arrive.

To me the disc physically looks identical I expected there would be something printed differently to tell them apart! Is there really no difference to the printing at all?

I just I have to put it in the old Panasonic 820 and check the information on the status to see there really is HDR data?

 

[samdavies]

Am I right in assuming the UK 4K disc doesn't have the 192khz JP track? Even the replacement disc?

Does anyone have the German 4K disc? Does that one definitely have the 192khz track? Bluray.com suggests it does, but I'm not convinced.

 

[Marlew]

Am I right in assuming the UK 4K disc doesn't have the 192khz JP track? Even the replacement disc?

Does anyone have the German 4K disc? Does that one definitely have the 192khz track? Bluray.com suggests it does, but I'm not convinced.

It's slightly more complicated than that, even.

The 5.1 JP track on the UK 4K disc is different to the 192kHz JP track on the JP 4K disc. The UK track is mixed differently, sounds muddy, mixed towards the rears and the mids and vocals sound recessed. It's a bit of a disaster and I really don't know how it happened. The JP track is undoubtedly better.

However...

The 192kHz JP track is also mixed differently to the 192kHz track on the standard BD (both UK and JP), and the BD mix is the better version to my ears. I understand that the JP 192kHz 4K track is a newer mix, and some people may prefer it to the BD mix.

If I have to choose, my personal favourite version on the 4K disc is the JP 2.0 mix, which is only on the JP disc - again, why? My favourite version overall is the JP/UK BD 192kHz which is obviously not available with a 4K HDR picture.

God's honest truth, I was much happier before this whole 4K debacle. Knowing that the best picture and best audio are on two different versions of the film has pretty much killed my enthusiasm to watch it again at this point.

 

[samdavies]

It's slightly more complicated than that, even.

The 5.1 JP track on the UK 4K disc is different to the 192kHz JP track on the JP 4K disc. The UK track is mixed differently, sounds muddy, mixed towards the rears and the mids and vocals sound recessed. It's a bit of a disaster and I really don't know how it happened. The JP track is undoubtedly better.

However...

The 192kHz JP track is also mixed differently to the 192kHz track on the standard BD (both UK and JP), and the BD mix is the better version to my ears. I understand that the JP 192kHz 4K track is a newer mix, and some people may prefer it to the BD mix.

If I have to choose, my personal favourite version on the 4K disc is the JP 2.0 mix, which is only on the JP disc - again, why? My favourite version overall is the JP/UK BD 192kHz which is obviously not available with a 4K HDR picture.

God's honest truth, I was much happier before this whole 4K debacle. Knowing that the best picture and best audio are on two different versions of the film has pretty much killed my enthusiasm to watch it again at this point.

After a bit of research and personal listening, I've come to pretty much the same conclusion as you.

There are only actually 2 5.1 JP mixes, (2009 BD and 2019 UHD), however they've made their way out to the mass market in 3 iterations here.

The issue with the UK/US UHD JP track is it was sampled down (for what reason I couldn't tell you) to 48khz from the 192khz original. This has somehow totally screwed with it and it sounds awful. The JP UHD is the same 2019 JP mix, but it hasn't been f**ked about with and sounds much better.

I'm not 100% on this, but I think the JP track on the new BD (that's included with the UHD) is actually the 2019 mix, and therefore the same track that's on the JP UHD.

To my ears the 2009 mix on the old BD sounds the best, and that's probably the best overall disc to watch, but I'm yet to try the Geman UHD.

The German UHD disc does have a 192khz 5.1 JP track in a DTS HD MA container. So that should atleast put it on par with the JP UHD. From the track stats on bdchecker it appears to have more in common with the older 2009 mix than the newer one though, but I haven't bought it yet to confirm.

The 48khz JP track on the UK/US UHD is awful.
The 192khz JP track on the JP UHD is better.
The 192khz JP on the old BD is easily the best.
The 192kHz JP on the DE UHD - unconfirmed.

 

[Marlew]

After a bit of research and personal listening, I've come to pretty much the same conclusion as you.

The 48khz JP track on the UK/US UHD is awful.
The 192khz JP track on the JP UHD is better.
The 192khz JP on the old BD is easily the best.

Totally agree. Cheers for the extra info there, that clears up the gaps in my knowledge.

 

[samdavies]

Totally agree. Cheers for the extra info there, that clears up the gaps in my knowledge.

It's a mess really. Ideal world I'd take the UHD video and mux the old BD audio, plex has issues playing 192khz audio though so that's unfortunately not an option for me.

I'll be trying the German UHD at some point, as that's got a full untampered 192khz 5.1 JP track. I'm not sure whether it's the 2009 or 2019 mix though. So it'll either equal the JP UHD, or best it.

Have you got both the old BD and the new BD (that's in the UHD set) by any chance? Have you compared the JP 5.1 track on each? I have a suspicion that the new BD has the newer track that's on the JP UHD.

 

[Marlew]

Have you got both the old BD and the new BD (that's in the UHD set) by any chance? Have you compared the JP 5.1 track on each? I have a suspicion that the new BD has the newer track that's on the JP UHD.

I have, yep, got some stuff on this evening but I'll check it out tomorrow and get back to you.

I've seen the German set is going for £27 on amazon.de so I'm very tempted to gamble on it at that price. I'm not hopeful it will keep the '09 mix but worst case, I'll give it to a mate or something.

Edit: Just seen that one of the extras on the German release is' Sound Making 2019' which suggests that it'll be the recent remix. Nevertheless, worth a punt.

 

[samdavies]

I have, yep, got some stuff on this evening but I'll check it out tomorrow and get back to you.

I've seen the German set is going for £27 on amazon.de so I'm very tempted to gamble on it at that price. I'm not hopeful it will keep the '09 mix but worst case, I'll give it to a mate or something.

Edit: Just seen that one of the extras on the German release is' Sound Making 2019' which suggests that it'll be the recent remix. Nevertheless, worth a punt.

That'd be great if you could, thanks!

Yes the extras do talk about the 2019 mix, so I do expect it is probably that mix. Atleast it's the same full 192khz audio the JP UHD has, but at a third of the price!

Only downfall of the German UHD is there are no English subs. Which is okay for me, as my player can load external subs, but not many UHD players have that functionality.

 

[Marlew]

That'd be great if you could, thanks!

Yes the extras do talk about the 2019 mix, so I do expect it is probably that mix. Atleast it's the same full 192khz audio the JP UHD has, but at a third of the price!

Only downfall of the German UHD is there are no English subs. Which is okay for me, as my player can load external subs, but not many UHD players have that functionality.

I'm not sure if mine can (UB820) but I think I would have gone for the German release anyway if I'd known sooner. I know the film well enough not to really need subs at this point!

To confirm, as well, the 192kHz mix on the new BD is the 2019 mix, same as on the 4K disc, for both the JP and UK releases.

There are three JP options on both the JP 4K and BD: TrueHD 192kHz, a DD 5.1 (which is the worst of the lot), the 2.0 track (my favourite, sounds great, the main reason to get the JP release), and the English TrueHD (OK, but as you know it, same as the 4K, and old BD).

Having done a fair bit of back and forth this afternoon, I'm actually very happy with the 2.0 JP audio and the 4K HDR picture. I wish they'd used or included the 2009 192kHz mix, but in some respects I do actually prefer the stereo mix, so I can dry my tears a bit!

 

[samdavies]

I'm not sure if mine can (UB820) but I think I would have gone for the German release anyway if I'd known sooner. I know the film well enough not to really need subs at this point!

To confirm, as well, the 192kHz mix on the new BD is the 2019 mix, same as on the 4K disc, for both the JP and UK releases.

There are three JP options on both the JP 4K and BD: TrueHD 192kHz, a DD 5.1 (which is the worst of the lot), the 2.0 track (my favourite, sounds great, the main reason to get the JP release), and the English TrueHD (OK, but as you know it, same as the 4K, and old BD).

Having done a fair bit of back and forth this afternoon, I'm actually very happy with the 2.0 JP audio and the 4K HDR picture. I wish they'd used or included the 2009 192kHz mix, but in some respects I do actually prefer the stereo mix, so I can dry my tears a bit!

Thanks for checking for the 2 different BD audio tracks for me, appreciated. That's what I suspected, new BD came with the 2019 JP mix. It does mean I can't let go of my old blu-ray now though, which is fine I guess. I'll probably pick up the German UHD soon enough, i've got 10euro credit to use at amazon.de but I'm waiting on a bit of a price drop first.

I've got the UB820 as well, as since it's built on the same architecture as the more expensive UB9000 it does actually have the ability to load external subs. Panasonic have locked the feature though, so it's an exclusive selling point for the UB9000 (sneaky). You can get modified firmware to unlock it though, which I installed last week. Works without a hitch and makes your player region free as well.