Should you WAIT FOR 4K or buy the BLU-RAY? - Physical Media / Criterion Collection

Is it worth waiting for a movie to come to 4K UHD or should you just buy the Blu-ray disc? It's a hot question among physical media collectors.

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[SamDavies]

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I still love Blu Ray as a format. The leap from SD to HD was massive. I'm a filmmaker/videographer myself, who shoots in 4K but I don't think it's 'necessary' for me to start upgrading and collecting in 4K Blu. The difference is noticeable but not big enough for me to throw money at it. A lot of blu rays look great and the surplus of different labels and the popularity of boutique has allowed very good restorations and releases, 2K scans/4K scans of classic films and early cinema has been wonderful within the Blu Ray format. I also feel that the difference between HD and 4K is near negligible if viewed on a smaller screen.

I own a 4K player but I love my Blu ray collection of around 1100 titles, they're all very watchable, and I feel no need to upgrade.

[leiasleeping]

For me blu-ray is good enough. 4k is technically better but I don’t feel the need to have all of my movie in the highest quality format possible. I think maybe just keep upgrating a few of your favorites and the rest just let them be.

[SamLovesMovies]

Yeah, that's one reason why I have held off on buying the Criterion Blu Ray of Solaris (Tarkovsky 1972), because I think it could look absolutely STUNNING in 4K, and the film probably gets enough attention/popularity (relatively speaking) to potentially make sense business-wise to put out a 4K version.

[twcc]

If there is one film that Criterion should issue on 4K UHD it's 'Barry Lyndon'. They did a fantastic job with the 4K scan and packaging in 2017 but have still to announce a 4K upgrade.
Kino are doing some great work filling the gaps with the early Stanley Kubrick catalogue but we are still missing a 4K UHD for 'Lolita', 'Barry Lyndon' and 'Eyes Wide Shut'.

[nonsuch]

I kind of think this is a problem only for the compulsive collector. The simple rule is simply to never buy a movie only because it has just become available, instead wait until you want to actually watch it ( if a movie was released years ago and you managed to go this long without seeing it, can it be that important to you ? ), then buy the best version available at the time.

[tompoynton]

Well given that Criterion don’t release their 4Ks in the UK, I’ll be sticking with their blu-rays for the foreseeable future. A good 4K scan in 1080p upscaled on a 4K telly looks absolutely fine anyway. I’m getting quite tired of everyone treating Criterion as the gold standard, when other distributors are making just as good as (if not superior) releases, such as Indicator. I’m super excited to see what their first 4Ks are going to be, for me they’re the best around these days.

[MrRutty]

If I really want to see the film I'll buy it on blu-ray and then after it gets an upgrade depending on how much I enjoyed the film will dictate weather I upgrade, but most of the time I just like to have the film I don't chase formats.

[jerrycalva]

Bro why did you post this
I just bought every single movie on the thumbnail

[chroma]

I'm focused on 4k releases lately. Once I got a oled TV I could appreciate the HDR grade and finer resolution better.

[kjetilfrugard]

Luckily for me, most of my favorite movies are well known blockbusters, critically acclaimed movies or cult movies anyways. So they have a high possibility of getting a 4K release anyways, if the haven't already. Nor do I want thousands upon thousand of movies. I rather have 3-400+ ones I know I will watch again and again. Streaming and digital purchases and renting is good enough for the rest imo. And I simply don't have the time I use to to watch as many movies these days. So by the time I get around to buy it, the movies I want already have been through the blu-ray and then 4K-release anyways.

[MyFireVideos]

Great video. This is always the question. I addressed it a little in my last criterion haul video when talking about The New World. Keep it up! I enjoy these kinds of videos. I'm still waiting for an update from you on how your collection curating is going.

[joshabdill]

great video as always, although important to keep in mind for Kurosawa specifically that most of his films are owned by that one Japanese company (forget the name) who won't let those films get released on any format until its been released in Japan for a while, so for most of his we would likely know well ahead of time if they were coming down the pipeline

[Celestialrob]

Yup, impacts us collectors. I’ve stopped buying Blus of popular films from some companies as I know a 4K will happen eventually.

[juanaltredo]

to me there should be laws against the same company releasing a BR and a few months later a 4k. They should either warn the consumer or give around 2 years between releases, but as it is, this is killing the collectors market. I've stopped buying plenty of things Id bought just for this.

[dravenlee]

Gotta say, I'm a bit of a 4K snob now. To me, getting a 4K is like getting the ultimate copy of a film. I'm happy with Blu-ray but knowing I'm missing out on an even better version with HDR stinks. I'm being very selective on my Blu-ray purchases and only getting movies that I don't think that have a chance of getting UHD releases and going out of my way to import UHD versions not available in the States. Blu-ray is fine and I still get them but 4K is the final physical media format and knowing that you have the best it can get on your shelf is a nice feeling.

[RenePeraza]

Don't get me started about Criterion. I bought Blue Velvet and Mullholland Drive based on their new 4K scans but were only 1080P at the time. AND, was told by them they were not going UHD media, which of course they did just two years later. Frankly, left a bad taste and have been really careful now.

[Gregbaltzer]

The third option is buy the DVD if it's cheaper. I will still buy DVD if it's the cheaper option. I'm still happy with the image quality of DVD. I don't get the point of 4k? Nothing in real life looks that sharp, so why would I want my movies to be? I prefer the natural look to real life in movies and I think 4k goes too beyond that

[EverettDudgeon]

I think it boils down to being realistic on the title in question. Is Plan 9 From Outer Space going to get an UHD 4K release ever?

[SgtGnome]

Most of my bluray collection was formed well before 4k was even a thing. So now when any new movie comes out, I get the 4k version. I have slowly started upgrading some of my blurays to 4k, but that is a slow burn. I can wait for a lot of those to be heavily discounted, and I only buy the new ones if I want to watch them immediately. Tis the season, so I picked up Elf and Christmas Story on 4k cause I wanted to see them now. I have a ton of others I can upgrade, but dont see a need right now and can just wait for a big sale to do some upgrades. Especially on entire series like Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc, as those box sets tend to be pretty pricey. Though some new movies, at times won't have a 4k release at launch which is frustrating. Like the 1st Downton Abbey film. Game Night never got a 4k release, even though it came out when 4k was a thing. Another movie was SPLIT, I at least waited on that and sure enough they ended up releasing a 4k version months later. TV series is a whole other thing. I don't see full TV series on 4k really at all, only Game of Thrones and movie a few others? I would love all of Walking Dead on 4k or The Office.

[MagnitudeReviews]

I will only wait for a 4K release if I’ve heard rumors of a 4K restoration currently floating around in some theatrical previews.

Like rn I wouldn’t buy The 400 Blows, Godzilla (individual release… not the boxset), and Three Colors Trilogy.