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Movie Updates

KDeering said:
If Sony is literally doing these box sets of catalog titles for 4K, there is a reason THOSE titles are picked specifically. No one has better sales numbers than the studio itself when it comes to popularity of a title, so I can't help but think these curate box sets are a pretty decent indication of what catalog titles they have that seem to sell pretty well to justify the new 4K version and inclusion in the set.
Click to expand...
I am still wondering if the missing Columbia Classics titles are some how connected to Bravia Core and Sony wanting to maintain some kind of exclusivity for the highest quality digital versions of these titles. It seems a little conspicous that there is usually only one title missing 4K HDR/DV for each of these box sets (2 in the case of Vol 4) and they are usually what I would consider to be the marquee titles for any given set.

Lawrence of Arabia
Taxi Driver
It Happened One Night
Punch Drunk Love / Starman
On The Waterfront


Four out of the missing six are AFI top 100 films. I can’t see K intentionally passing on these for 4K HDR/DV.
 
Batman (1989) in HD from Warner Bros. updated to Dolby TrueHD Atmos from Dolby TrueHD 5.1
www.kaleidescape.com

Batman

A brooding hero and a mad villain, having made each other what they are, face off in Gotham City's dark streets. Action, Crime, Drama. Directed by Tim Burton. Starring Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, and Robert Wuhl. Purchase and download today in 4K HDR10 with Dolby Atmos audio.
www.kaleidescape.com www.kaleidescape.com
 
mariyoshikong said:
The only other way I can see this happening is that Sony is asking for an exorbitant amount of money for these titles. Either way, it is no wonder Hollywood is in such a bad place financially right now. Can’t make money if the products aren’t on the shelf.
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This isn’t Hollywood, this is K. You’re looking at a handful of examples and saying “There’s no way anyone could make these decisions” and I’m telling you I could list at least a hundred similar decisions from the last few years. Baffling. Perplexing. Sometimes stunning. There’s so much evidence of this across studios, titles, and genres that I find it much easier to believe these are choices on K’s part and not some behind the scenes machinations by studios to single out one digital store whose sales figures are a drop in the bucket of its competitors.

It’s also worth pointing out that every time there has been a response from K about, um, interesting decisions it has always taken the form of “We have limited resources and must make decisions based upon anticipated sales.” The only time we’ve ever heard there are issues with a studio/distributor is PBS who appear to only give K access to assets available physically rather than the superior digital assets.

Anyway, until we hear otherwise, I’ll continue to believe that the product is on the shelf and K can get it but sometimes chooses not to. That’s where our requests and purchases come into play, those are our votes.

P.S. It must also be called out that K is a terribly small niche product with a fantastically diverse customer base of movie lovers. I do not envy the content team’s job in managing resources and trying to satisfy everyone and fully recognize that every time I think “WTF?” there is likely someone saying “YES! Finally!”
 
mariyoshikong said:
Lawrence of Arabia
Taxi Driver
It Happened One Night
Punch Drunk Love / Starman
On The Waterfront
Click to expand...
Beyond my opinion post above, this is actually an issue I've been tracking for a few years and can offer some addition background on these specific titles:

Kaleidescape was early in the 4K digital movie market and their earliest batches of 4K titles were provided by Sony. This was well before many (any?) of these titles found their way to 4K UHD Blu-ray, and all titles were strictly 4K SDR. From your list, these titles were in these early releases: Lawrence of Arabia, Taxi Driver, and It Happened One Night. (There are at least 7 other early releases missing HDR as well.) Sony later revisited these titles, often producing new masters with new color grading, releasing to both disc and digital. K never updated.

On The Waterfront 4K was added later, but this was during a time that K was routinely opting for SDR instead of HDR. It is believed that this was due to the increased cost of HDR and most of these decisions occurred during what we now know was the E/M/V player development. We may not agree with these decisions, nor the titles affected, but with this perspective I believe we can understand them.

In regards to Punch Drunk Love and Starman missing... drunk and seeing stars... I mean, baffling choices. :)

Anyway, where are we now? Again, I believe K absolutely has the ability to update all of these titles, but they have limited resources. If they get a new DV of Lawrence of Arabia, they'll need to buy a new license and spend just as much time with encoding and QA as a brand new title. Will they sell any more copies? Maybe, with the new influx of E/M/V users. But, in general, they've received the money they will and these updates likely represent new spending without a lot of new income. In contrast to this, a new Direct-to-Video title that may not seem as popular could be a great source of rental income with the same amount of cost/effort. This is how we end up with AfrAId in 4K Dolby Vision but not Taxi Driver.

I have my own issues with every title in the K Store needing to justify its existence, but I'll leave the soapbox for now.
 
I'll say it again, THE ULTIMATE MOVIE PLATFORM is the moniker for the business. There is an expectation that comes with that and the prices people are paying for this platform. If that means they have to spend a bit more to get the titles, get the titles. When your quarterly "special" for the month is a $28,000 option of your entry level base player, a server and like 200 movies, I don't want to hear excuses about licensing costs. Think about the type of equipment that could be added into a home theater build for $28K and then tell me why this even makes sense. If you want to be a movie platform, own it and knock it out of the park. Otherwise people can save the thousands of dollars and equip every room in their house with something like an ATV and every movie they've ever even heard of while also having tons of money left over for other HT gear or vacations to Europe. At these kind of prices, excuses are extremely hard to justify IMHO.
 
What kind of "Ultimate Movie Platform" doesn't have "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Taxi Driver" in the highest quality available?
Why on earth would they go to the trouble of adding Dolby Atmos to "Lawrence of Arabia" while leaving the video in SDR?
I believe "Spider-Man" was one of the older 4K Sony titles on the store and that one got updated.
I do believe there is an aspect of this that is studio related. Are there any Disney/Fox quality holes on the store? I can't think of any off the top of my head, but if there are they definitely aren't on the level of the missing Sony titles. I did a cursory glance down the AFI Top 100 list and the only titles I spotted that didn't match the quality that iTunes offers were the Sony titles I mentioned.
 
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) from Warner Bros.in HD updated to DTS-HD Master 5.1 from DTS-HD Master Stereo
www.kaleidescape.com

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

An uncouth cousin and snotty neighbors disturb the Griswold family's attempt at an old-fashioned Yule. Holiday, Comedy. Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. Starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, and Juliette Lewis. Purchase and download today in 4K HDR10.
www.kaleidescape.com www.kaleidescape.com
 
mariyoshikong said:
What kind of "Ultimate Movie Platform" doesn't have "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Taxi Driver" in the highest quality available?
Click to expand...
Facts. They actually used to use Lawrence of Arabia in their advertising and would talk about how large the download file is, ignoring that the disc version splits the movie over a BD-100 and BD-66. This title, in 4K with Dolby Vision, is so popular that it has received four pressings/releases. Taxi Driver has received two, so far.
mariyoshikong said:
Why on earth would they go to the trouble of adding Dolby Atmos to "Lawrence of Arabia" while leaving the video in SDR?
Click to expand...
No studio-related costs associated with adding an audio track and no need to do any video encoding.
mariyoshikong said:
I believe "Spider-Man" was one of the older 4K Sony titles on the store and that one got updated.
Click to expand...
Yes, a very small handful of titles have been updated over the years.
mariyoshikong said:
I do believe there is an aspect of this that is studio related. Are there any Disney/Fox quality holes on the store?
Click to expand...
No, K loves Disney. Having said that, K is missing Disney titles including two "Disney Classic Animation" titles. :(

But, yes, we'd all love it if K was as up-to-date with other studios as they are with Disney. Who knows exactly why this is, whether it's proven track record, favorable licensing terms, etc.
mariyoshikong said:
I did a cursory glance down the AFI Top 100 list and the only titles I spotted that didn't match the quality that iTunes offers were the Sony titles I mentioned.
Click to expand...
While I was tracking "Missing HDR" titles (you can find my thread in this forum), I counted these totals by studio:

1753980649806.png

That single title from A24* is Under The Skin which never received a 4K disc but is available digitally in 4K SDR/HDR/Dolby Vision. Unfortunately K opted for 4K SDR only, removing the chance to own a disc-quality version of this film with HDR color grading. SO CLOSE! Why? Why??? (Don't worry, I have no feelings about this at all.)

*It should be noted that there's another A24 tile: Nosferatu. Although the theatrical release has HDR on K, the Director's Cut does not (unlike other digital stores).
 
Last edited:
KDeering said:
Weird. I believe it is streaming on HBO in 4K HDR.
Click to expand...
Yup, confirmed 4K Dolby Vision streaming on HBO. Weird. Digital sales appear to max at HD. Maybe we'll see an update at some point?
 
LoveCinema said:
From your list, these titles were in these early releases: Lawrence of Arabia, Taxi Driver, and It Happened One Night. (There are at least 7 other early releases missing HDR as well.) Sony later revisited these titles, often producing new masters with new color grading, releasing to both disc and digital. K never updated.
Click to expand...
For what it’s worth, Lawrence of Arabia got an update in 2020 coinciding with the release of the Columbia Classics set. That release included improved video quality and added a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. As far as I know, no new masters have been produced since then, but I haven’t been closely tracking it.

Post in thread 'Movie Updates'
Movie Updates
 
The Parent Trap (1998) in HD from Disney updated to Dolby TrueHD Atmos from DTS-HD Master 5.1
www.kaleidescape.com

The Parent Trap

Twin girls meet for the first time at summer camp and switch places to learn about their divorced parents. Directed by Nancy Meyers. Starring Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson, and Elaine Hendrix. Purchase and download today in 4K Dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos audio.
www.kaleidescape.com www.kaleidescape.com
 
Looks like the theatrical cut of LW is now available in 4k (previously just the directors cut in 4k).

Super excited about that as it’s my preferred version. Thank you KScape!
 
Not sure this is the correct thread to ask but anyone know what this means? I have two movies that were added on my account that I didn't purchase. The order indicates as "Preloaded". Have no idea what this is.

PreLoaded.jpg
 
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LoveCinema said:
No, K loves Disney.
Click to expand...
Given the history of the companies, that is rather difficult to believe. At least from a business perspective.

That said, if it costs the same to package two movies, and one studio strongly suggests you sell it for a higher price, then your resource prioritization efforts may lean in their direction.
 
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