Pan's Labyrinth 4K Blu-ray Review & Comments

Was disappointed with this one personally. Did at least fix the awful milky black levels of the UK Blu, and doesn't have the sloppy encoding on the Criterion release, but I'm not seeing any real uptick in detail, and the caps comparisons I've looked at seem to back that up; if anything the UK Blu-ray has a smidgen more definition (wouldn't say detail specifically, and I don't think the UK Blu was artificially sharpened either).

For me it just didn't look like a 4K UHD Blu-ray. Decent Blu-ray? Sure, but nothing more than that.
 
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I love this movie (my avatar says it all really), but I would not pay the imported price for something that is not getting better reviews than it is. £15.00 would be fine perhaps, but not the £25+ being asked for. I'll stick to my BR and hope for another 4k release in the future.
Someone else will sell on the forums at some point.
I got mine for a reasonable price.
 
Was disappointed with this one personally. Did at least fix the awful milky black levels of the UK Blu, and doesn't have the sloppy encoding on the Criterion release, but I'm not seeing any real uptick in detail, and the caps comparisons I've looked at seem to back that up; if anything the UK Blu-ray has a smidgen more definition (wouldn't say detail specifically, and I don't think the UK Blu was artificially sharpened either).

For me it just didn't look like a 4K UHD Blu-ray. Decent Blu-ray? Sure, but nothing more than that.
Yeah that about covers it. For me it is a minor improvement from poor Blu Ray to good Blu Ray.
 
Was disappointed with this one personally. Did at least fix the awful milky black levels of the UK Blu, and doesn't have the sloppy encoding on the Criterion release, but I'm not seeing any real uptick in detail, and the caps comparisons I've looked at seem to back that up; if anything the UK Blu-ray has a smidgen more definition (wouldn't say detail specifically, and I don't think the UK Blu was artificially sharpened either).

For me it just didn't look like a 4K UHD Blu-ray. Decent Blu-ray? Sure, but nothing more than that.
Interesting. I sold my UK steelbook a while back but I seem to remember the black levels being very good. Was there two UK blu-ray releases maybe? I'm pretty sure the UK blu-ray was the one to buy until the 4K.
 
So I've read a few more reviews and it's a little confusing. It seems like all 3 versions might have been taken from the same original 2K DI. The colour timing of all 3 versions might also be different. This might be slightly sharper than the Criterion or about the same. This also applies to the original Blu Ray lol.

So the only conclusion I can come to is at some point to pull out my original Blu and have a look or can I assume that the Blu in this package is the same?

Glad I could clear this up for you all.
 
Someone else will sell on the forums at some point.
I got mine for a reasonable price.

When you sell for £15, let me know ;)

It would be great if you could do a side by side, I would be very interested in the result...
 
Interesting. I sold my UK steelbook a while back but I seem to remember the black levels being very good. Was there two UK blu-ray releases maybe? I'm pretty sure the UK blu-ray was the one to buy until the 4K.

Both UK releases have same video, just lossless audio in SE/SB. This is the intro on the left, you can see black is elevated, although it's probably not apparent unless you're in dark room conditions.

pl.jpg


Criterion release fixed this, but then as soon as the camera pans over Ofelia, the blacks go back to UK's levels, and adds the even more distracting macroblocking. The 4K fixes all of this, blacks are inky throughout, no macroblocking, just feels like an underwhelming release personally.
 
I’d also be very interested in a HD BD to UHD BD comparision. I have the US BD & thought it looked good 🤔 Been years since I’ve watched it though (& that was on a 1080p screen).
 
Feel pretty much the same.

The film is an absolute masterpiece, imo. Del Toro's finest hour. Top 50 of all time etc etc.

Was expecting (or hoping) that they would go back to scratch and do a new 4K scan. Especially for a film of this magnitude. Commercially I guess the powers that be don't want to do that.

I read the VFX would suffer with a 4K scan. I didn't think they looked too bad on the BR. They may look a bit iffy with a revealing 4K transfer but hey ho. At least we would have true 4K for most of the movie.

Sony gave Air Force 1 a 4K release and some of the effect shots in that movie are hideous. Most of the movie looks great though.

I’d like to buy it but i’m not going to support studios for a lame effort.
 
I don't think anyone is arguing here that it looks bad, just that they wish a new DI was produced. But that's like the audio issue to me. Yes it would be nice to produce a new object based track, but the current track sounds great. I like the film a lot but I suppose I'm not a "fan". Which is probably why I can't see how making the film look prettier while revealing the joins and seams (so to speak) is a benefit. So if this 4k is the best it can look without showing up lower res SFX then I'm OK with that too.
 
Feel pretty much the same.

The film is an absolute masterpiece, imo. Del Toro's finest hour. Top 50 of all time etc etc.

Was expecting (or hoping) that they would go back to scratch and do a new 4K scan. Especially for a film of this magnitude. Commercially I guess the powers that be don't want to do that.

I read the VFX would suffer with a 4K scan. I didn't think they looked too bad on the BR. They may look a bit iffy with a revealing 4K transfer but hey ho. At least we would have true 4K for most of the movie.

Sony gave Air Force 1 a 4K release and some of the effect shots in that movie are hideous. Most of the movie looks great though.

I’d like to buy it but i’m not going to support studios for a lame effort.

It will almost certainly have gone right through post in 2K, not just VFX, but also all of the grading and editing. Re-doing all that at 4K would be a gigantic amount of work for what is, let's face it. a fairly obscure movie in Spanish to be released on a format so niche it makes laserdisc look mainstream.
 
what is, let's face it. a fairly obscure movie in Spanish.......

What? That's like saying Oldboy and Parasite are barely known Korean movies :)

Accolades and awards the world over and a box office smash.

If 'How the grinch stole Christmas' gets the treatment then so should this:(
 
What? That's like saying Oldboy and Parasite are barely known Korean movies :)

Accolades and awards the world over and a box office smash.

If 'How the grinch stole Christmas' gets the treatment then so should this:(
Parasite is a phenomenon which marries an almost perfect film coming out at the perfect time. To be fair Pans Labyrinth lasted about 6+ months in the US box office with very healthy figures. But I doubt this film, as great as it is, is as well known to the masses today. I would argue that the OldBoy remake being recent makes it better known as well.
 
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So no Christopher Nolan in 4K movies for you then ;)

I need to know what I'm getting is worth upgrading in 4K. If there is a big enough picture upgrade, like the Dark Knight IMAX scenes, I can overlook the lack of a sound upgrade. I love this film but the current copy I have has the same sound that will be upmixed, the picture really doesn't sound like a big upgrade. When there IS a 7.1 option out there, for this to remain with the 5.1 just doesn't make it worth seeking out for me.
 
I need to know what I'm getting is worth upgrading in 4K. If there is a big enough picture upgrade, like the Dark Knight IMAX scenes, I can overlook the lack of a sound upgrade. I love this film but the current copy I have has the same sound that will be upmixed, the picture really doesn't sound like a big upgrade. When there IS a 7.1 option out there, for this to remain with the 5.1 just doesn't make it worth seeking out for me.
Apparently there isn't much difference between the 5.1 and 7.1 mixes. Listening to the mix I can believe that. If you are happy with your current disc then you probably don't need to upgrade or you can wait for a reasonable price.
 
Apparently there isn't much difference between the 5.1 and 7.1 mixes. Listening to the mix I can believe that. If you are happy with your current disc then you probably don't need to upgrade or you can wait for a reasonable price.
My thoughts exactly but an object based remix would probably have sealed the deal.
 
Yes, thanks, I had seen that previously but never used them as a company so was unsure.

Any reason as to why this was a US only release seeing as Warner Bros is such a huge company?

It was the FilmsAtHome review on You Tube that really put me off. He kinda panned it when comparing to the Criterion release. I'm not sure how respected he is as a reviewer around these parts, but he certainly made me re-think what was an almost certain purchase up to that point.
Yes, I watch him also. After that I was not sure if I wanted to get the 4K or the criterion release. I am still not sure which one to get. I still have the old DVD release of it.
 
Dolby Atmos Subtitles?
Just Joking! ;)
Seriously, as Simon pointed out, this was a "passion project for writer/director Guillermo del Toro, so much so that he reportedly took no remuneration just to see it completed". He is definitely a strong believer in Surround Sound (See the link to an interview with him below) so I am sure he would have pushed for a new Surround Sound mix if he felt it would improve the experience enough to justify the work. But the Soundtrack is amazing as it is, so I personally don't know if a change from this would really have added anything



As much as del Toro can make a push for Atmos / DTS X, the studio makes the call at the end of the day.

I think this can be summed up where releases like this happened where the studio just doesn't see the $$$ upside of pouring significant effort and money into modernizing this release.

As for the PQ, the increase in dynamic range and black levels already make a world of difference for me compared to the subpar black levels on the BD. Even watching on an Epson projector, the upgrades to HDR are still noticeable.

some day all del Toro's movies will receive a 4K DI and get proper UHD releases. but this is a long way off from that.
 
I presume this means no iTunes 4k hdr upgrade as it's a US only release... Is that the norm?
 
The Spanish remastered blu-ray has 7.1

Format : DTS XLL
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Commercial name : DTS-HD Master Audio
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 5 175 kb/s
Channel(s) : 8 channels
Channel layout : C L R LFE Lb Rb Lss Rss
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless
Language : Spanish
Default : Yes
Forced : No
 
Was thinking of getting this on 4K since it is one of my favourites, but doesn't seem to be for sale on any of my usual online sites and only on stupid prices import on Amazon... and after reading review and comments, I don't think its worth the bother of upgrade.... sounds like they did a quick no-work upscale and cheap cash grab effort. Pity.
 

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