4k and upscaling

[radmanhs]

I've started looking around and noticed there are a lot of 4k movies out there now, including older movies.  These are obviously upscaled and wanted to know if its worth getting the uhd versions of these movies, or get the normal blu-ray?

[Sack]

It's gonna be like old movies that were upscaled to 1080p I think, it's never gonna look as gorgeous as a movie filmed in 4k, but at least it'll fit the 4k tv and look pretty good compared to VHS or DVD.

[Thinkfreely]

You need a tv or monitor capable of showing the 4k image in the first place, So if you don't have those then its definitely not worth it.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Movies are mastered in higher resolutions most of the time than what you get at home. And it's likely movies made in the past few years were mastered in 4K or higher.

 

So it might be better quality than 1080p. Assuming you have the proper display to show it.

[radmanhs]

I have the 4k tv to run it, just trying to figure out if its worth to get an uhd blu ray drive or not

[AshleyAshes]

18 minutes ago, Sack said:

It's gonna be like old movies that were upscaled to 1080p I think, it's never gonna look as gorgeous as a movie filmed in 4k, but at least it'll fit the 4k tv and look pretty good compared to VHS or DVD.

35mm film actually stores visual information with tremendously high resolution (You can't really quantify it in pixels, since it's analog) and 13-16 stops of dynamic range depending the stock used.

[Stagea]

17 minutes ago, radmanhs said:

I have the 4k tv to run it, just trying to figure out if its worth to get an uhd blu ray drive or not

Most older movies are shot in film. Film to UHD transfers can be quite good.

[ono]

The cost difference of buying 4K vs HD isn't much so I usually go for 4K. However, I can really only tell the difference on my 55" and with my visual acuity (admittedly, I need to update my glasses) when viewed side-by-side. When watching a regular blu-ray, I'm never thinking I wished I had a 4K or HDR copy. Maybe it makes a bigger diff if with a larger TV. I'm not sure what I'll think when I update my prescription.

 

Also bear in mind that 4K content is pretty frequently just upscaled. Consult something like http://realorfake4k.com/ to get info on what is truly in 4K before judging the quality of 4K vs HD... because yeah, it could just be a 2K movie upscaled with HDR and so not much of a difference vs 1080p.

 

So in short, a UHD player is probably not worth it for me. I just so happen to have one via Xbox One S. YMMV based on your TV size, viewing distance and visual acuity.