Harry Potter and the Jump to UHD (also Disney?)

The Harry Potter series has seen numerous re-releases in various home video formats, however earlier this year the final four films made their debut on UHD courtesy of Warner Home Video, complete with 4K upscales of their 2K digital intermediates, object-based DTS:X audio and an encode in HDR10 to boot. Despite the initial buzz and wishful thinking that these would be the first Dolby Vision UHD discs released, this honor goes to the first two Despicable Me films from Universal, which I will look at separately.

I must say, Dolby Vision would have greatly helped in further clarifying each individual shade of black during some of the (very) physically dark scenes that litter the final films. The scene-specific 12 bit color mapping would have provided a level of acute detail that the generic 10 bit mapping of HDR10 could never do, but the current HDR is still the best part of these releases visually; the uptick in actual detail from the boosted resolution is honestly negligible from the supplemental 1080p Blu-ray's.

The DTS:X audio is almost worth the price of admission, however. There is nothing quite like hearing death eaters fly above you or listening to the fireworks in the exam room in movie 5 explode so sonically directly above the TV. Sticking to the formula they introduced with the UHD release of Goodfellas, Warner has also included the special features Blu-ray disc along with the feature Blu-ray, and a digital HD copy to boot, streamable through the hit or miss Ultraviolet retailers.

However, the UHD of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is almost perfect. While I have heard issues regarding the murky or even gray black levels in the disc, to my eyes and display this made-from-4K disc has a beautiful HDR10 encode from start to finish, from brightest white to darkest black. There are some scenes featuring sunlight or fluorescent blue lights that simply radiate from the screen and into the room, while scenes such as the climax before it heads into the subway look so richly detailed it leaves me disappointed that they didn't try harder with the Harry Potter UHD releases. The (oddly not default) Dolby Atmos track is also so amazingly stunning that almost for that reason alone, I am glad I purchased the UHD over the 3D disc (which includes DTS-HD MA 5.1 only).

Fantastic Beasts does not have a slim case like the others

With Dolby Vision discs officially out, there are some stirrings that perhaps Disney is finally going to enter the UHD market. There was always unofficial speculation that they were waiting for Dolby Vision to hit the physical disc market, and since the director of Guardians 2 has stated he will push for UHD release, there is certainly hope that Disney is getting on board at long last. This would also most likely include several re-releases of older films, even their animated classics: for example, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has been said to have been scanned in 4K with 10 bit color in recent years. We can only hope to see some official news soon.

Phil
audiovisualcave@gmail.com

sharkspotting blog: sharkspotting.blogspot.com.au