There definitely seems to be something up with this disc in a couple of places at least as regards the HDR version, as previously reported on other sites. I’m watching in HDR rather than DV (on a JVC N5) and I wouldn’t normally pause a film to comment like this but I know people may be interested in the HDR/DV differences. At 43.10 when the shuttle lands on Mars, the video bitrate drops to an unbelievable 1.2Mbps at one point! Even the audio is 2.5Mbps at the same moment. For a good few seconds it’s well under 2Mbps and the macroblocking is really obvious so I don’t know how that got through QC to be honest. When we get to the wide shot of the planet with the workers in the foreground it jumps up to 22Mbps again. It’s probably 20 seconds so far in total that looks very poor. There’s a similar drop to about 3.5Mbps briefly, although it’s nowhere near as bad at around 48 minutes in when Quaid looks out of the train window and there’s a swooping aerial shot of Mars.
Overall, so far aside from such annoying moments it’s actually a nice presentation with some absolutely terrific detail on close-ups, but given its age the usual understandable caveats re. softness in shots mixing live action and special effects (eg people walking in the frame with views of Mars outside windows). However it’s definitely not one for the grain haters (I’ve never really understood why people are bothered by grain, to remove it robs texture) although in HDR some of the grain seems to exacerbate a slightly strange colour mix of green and red to it, especially with skin tones if that makes sense - not sure if that’s a chroma issue, but someone more technically minded will no doubt be able to explain and so far I’ve only really noticed it in the early scenes in Quaid’s apartment and when he arrives at the Rekall building. But that may be something most people wouldn’t notice or be bothered by. In terms of audio the Atmos remix is fine albeit very bass-light so far.
Edit - I got to the end and it’s really annoying that the bit rate plunges again right in the second or two before - and then during - the final white-out shot. So it’s down again here to under 2.0Mbps which ruins this final few seconds for me as it becomes really obviously blocky and soft (literally sub-DVD soft). So frustrating, as the rest of the film is generally really nice, but I don’t understand how such errors get in. The final shot is the most annoying for me out of all of them, as it visually spoils a great last scene, and obviously so. Instead of thinking “what a great ending” as I always have before, I thought “what a terrible quality image” at that point. I imagine this is another shot that is rescued by the Dolby Vision layer, but certainly not the HDR from my viewpoint.
Cheers