Alien 4K Blu-ray Review & Comments

I purchased this on iTunes today in 4k Dolby vision. I must say the image & audio quality is superb.

10/10 for me.

Is it actually playing with DV? The listing on iTunes says 4K HDR. Without purchasing it I cannot check that

Side Note: Got caught out with version differences - as most ATV owners know, if a film you've bought in HD gets upgraded to 4K, your version on ATV gets upgraded as well for free. I was hoping my copy would get upgraded, but I have "The Directors Cut" & this is the "40th Anniversary Edition".
NO UPGRADE FOR ME! :nono:

Fox Studio are supporting HDR-10+,whereas Apple Support DV,but its the Apple 4K TV box that does the DV conversion,so i would say Fox supplied Apple with an HDR-10+,then the Apple box would then convert to DV.
:)

That's interesting - I thought HDR-10+ & DV were very different, so that the ATV would just default to showing the core HDR-10 4K version
 
when he over saw the remaster for Aliens surely that was a 4k master they used for the HD BLU so hopefully it wont need his consent. Could be grain fest though as the stock used to film Aliens was a bit of a dog.

Back in the day ('86) I saw Aliens in 70mm at the Odeon in Marble Arch. It was so good I went back the next day and watched it again. Best cinema visit ever - I'll not forget what an incredible experience it was......

It was the 80's version of iMax.

Aliens in 4K would be a treat!
 
Is it actually playing with DV? The listing on iTunes says 4K HDR. Without purchasing it I cannot check that

It was definitely only HDR for me last week on iTunes as I checked to see if the disc came with DV and was surprised to read it was HDR10+ only.
It also states on iTunes HDR and not DV.
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Got caught out with version differences - as most ATV owners know, if a film you've bought in HD gets upgraded to 4K, your version on ATV gets upgraded as well for free. I was hoping my copy would get upgraded, but I have "The Directors Cut" & this is the "40th Anniversary Edition".
NO UPGRADE FOR ME! :nono:

I feel you brother. Alien is my favourite film of all time and a bit of an obsession with me. Having ordered the steelbook of the 4K disc, I smugly thought that my trusty iTunes version would upgrade a couple of weeks early. Sadly, no. A few folk have pointed out that Sony's Spider-man 2 did a similar thing, only for all the version to upgrade to 4K at a later date.

Given that the current cost of the 4K iTunes version is less than the cost of a kebab, I might be tempted just to get it anyway. Sad git that I am.
 
Back in the day ('86) I saw Aliens in 70mm at the Odeon in Marble Arch. It was so good I went back the next day and watched it again. Best cinema visit ever - I'll not forget what an incredible experience it was......

It was the 80's version of iMax.
That screen was huge back in the day before they turned it into a multiplex.
 
I feel you brother. Alien is my favourite film of all time and a bit of an obsession with me. Having ordered the steelbook of the 4K disc, I smugly thought that my trusty iTunes version would upgrade a couple of weeks early. Sadly, no. A few folk have pointed out that Sony's Spider-man 2 did a similar thing, only for all the version to upgrade to 4K at a later date.

Given that the current cost of the 4K iTunes version is less than the cost of a kebab, I might be tempted just to get it anyway. Sad git that I am.

Yep, similar for me
I think it might be a matter of grab the iTunes version first, the steel book a little down the line when the "just out" price has dropped.

...And then hope that they DON'T upgrade the "Directors Cut" to 4K
That would "Cut" Deeply (Pun intended) :)
 
Having ordered the steelbook of the 4K disc, I smugly thought that my trusty iTunes version would upgrade a couple of weeks early. Sadly, no.

I just looked closer at the iTunes (US) offering, & they don't offer the Theatrical & Directors Cut versions separately in the store any longer. There is just the 40th Anniversary offering, which has both versions according to the Blurb. As they are doing a special on it right now, it could be they'll wait until that is done, hoping to lure double dippers like us in, & then upgrade both stand alone versions.
Just a theory, but....;)
 
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Excellent review of my favourite film.

This is a great 4K disc, only downside is no Dolby Vision... having said that it's stunning with "only" HDR.
 
Never liked this as much as Aliens, so this may be one of the major releases I skip on 4k

Asabove will unfortunately be quite a while before Aliens is released on 4k - this and The Abyss are two of my all time favourite films (along with Star Wars....and yes Im old enough to have seen it before they started renaming it lol)
 
Thank you for the review it was when the Alien Anthology came out that i finally went from DVD to Blu it may be the case that this film now out may take me to 4K but may wait for the anthology in 4K.
 
The blu ray disc set a high standard. I'm still not on the 4K train but if I ever made the jump, this (and The Matrix) will be my first two purchases.
 
The blu ray disc set a high standard. I'm still not on the 4K train but if I ever made the jump, this (and The Matrix) will be my first two purchases.

Make sure you add Blade Runner to that list, it's outstanding.
 
Thank you for the review it was when the Alien Anthology came out that i finally went from DVD to Blu it may be the case that this film now out may take me to 4K but may wait for the anthology in 4K.

You might be waiting a while. Cameron will take an age to approve an HDR pass at Aliens and I can't imagine the new Weyland Yutani - Disney overlords will want to splash out on 4K versions of Alien 3 or Resurrection.

I still love the story the Alien anthology blu-ray producer told on a podcast about emailing David Fincher's agent to ask for him to come to give his blessing on the re-edit. Fincher sent him a box of matches and told him to burn the prints and camera negative.
 
You might be waiting a while. Cameron will take an age to approve an HDR pass at Aliens and I can't imagine the new Weyland Yutani - Disney overlords will want to splash out on 4K versions of Alien 3 or Resurrection.

I still love the story the Alien anthology blu-ray producer told on a podcast about emailing David Fincher's agent to ask for him to come to give his blessing on the re-edit. Fincher sent him a box of matches and told him to burn the prints and camera negative.
You know i complete forgot about the Disney overlords, there are very good reason's why I like Fincher (besides his excellent movies) & that classic is one of them :smashin:
 
Got my copy, had to be disk over streaming for me on this one. Looking forward to this.
 
Back in the day ('86) I saw Aliens in 70mm at the Odeon in Marble Arch. It was so good I went back the next day and watched it again. Best cinema visit ever - I'll not forget what an incredible experience it was......

It was the 80's version of iMax.
Extremely jealous!
So far my best 70mm experience has been Dunkirk, also a select few scenes during Interstellar, at the Printworks in Manchester. You know it's somethingspecial when you're making the 2 hour drive for the third time.
 
So I've inevitably purchased Alien again. For the fourth time. Superb quality picture and sound. I actually prefer Aliens but in terms of atmosphere, Alien is difficult to beat. I watched this the other night, in the dark and it's still a thrilling experience.
 
For me the Alien and Aliens are the best, the rest were crap.

Does anyone know can you watch both of these movies on ATV on 4k HDR?
 
Probably the best 4k release so far for me - it looks stunning. I am one of the few who it seems is able to watch in HDR 10+. Not sure how much difference it makes but it does look incredible.

Was never as much a fan of Aliens - compared to Alien it always came off as a big, dumb shoot 'em up which substituted brains for action. But hey, that's just me :D
 
Was never as much a fan of Aliens
Provided a great line that is forever being repeated though when picture of spiders are put on the web....

(I see what I did there....)
 
For me the Alien and Aliens are the best, the rest were crap.

Does anyone know can you watch both of these movies on ATV on 4k HDR?

Watched Alien in 4K HDR on ATV very impressive picture quality & sound & a free upgrade from the HD version :thumbsup:

Will pick the disc up once it’s had a price cut. Aliens is only in HD on iTunes @ the moment.
 
Nice review Simon. I must be the only one here who hasn't bought it yet but I will be - just waiting to see if there is anything else on the (very remote) horizon!

Greatest sci-fi film of all time? Second greatest for me. And second greatest Ridley Scott film as well come to that!
 
Nah. I’ve not got it yet either, since i watched it at the flicks recently.

Never doubted for 1 second that it wouldn't look anything but superb though as it looked pretty amazing on the big screen.

I’ll pick it up sooner or later for a tenner.
 

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