Blu-ray vs 4K UltraHD: What’s The Difference & Should You Upgrade?

What’s the difference between 4K UltraHD Blu-ray and regular Blu-ray Discs? It’s more than just an increase in resolution. Let’s dive into that topic here in this video.

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#Bluray
#4K
#HomeTheater

[TooBokoo]

My rule of thumb is, if I already own a movie on Bluray and it received a quality transfer with good bonus features, I don't worry much about getting a 4k copy (Unless it's one of my favorites). If it's a movie I don't own yet, then I go for the 4k version, if available. The resolution bump definitely makes a difference. But, the biggest leap is having the HDR. You will see details and other things that you never even noticed in your movies, especially if you have a larger display.

[bigalanthewasp]

Also 4k being region free is a big selling point you can buy a disc from any country and you know it’s going to play on my set up

[retromediaguy]

Im happy with Blu-Ray. The main reason being that the cost to upgrade would be way to much for what I can afford.

[ryanhansen]

I own thousands of blu rays and I feel like the jump from blu to 4K isn’t as dramatic as the jump from dvd to blu was. There’s also no way I’m updating all of those blu rays I own to 4K for marginal improvement for some of them.

[davidharding]

I collected movies and t.v. shows on VHS for years.

When DVDs became affordable, I switched over and upgraded my VHS collection to DVD. No more rewinding tapes for me... and the picture was better too.

Then Blu-ray's came along and the picture quality went up again. I started out by buying only movies that I didn't already own on DVD... but as time went on, I began the expensive task of upgrading my DVD collection to Blu-ray. That upgrade is still going on.

Then 4K started up... and while the picture quality did go up again, I don't find the difference to be quite as pronounced. Some movies will never look all that good on 4K... or on Blu-ray either.

In the end, I have decided that Blu-ray is good enough for me. If a 4K version of a film comes out that also has the Blu-ray at a reasonable price, I have no problem with that. My xBox One will play 4K discs even though my T.V. is not 4K.

If Blu-ray ever goes away, I think I would probably look more to some sort of streaming alternative... rather than undertake a third massive and expensive platform upgrade. I have more than 6, 000 films and television season sets in my collection. It would just be too time-consuming and expensive to do it again.

Blu-ray is good enough for my needs.

[jhustler]

I just started going into 4k as of today. I got a 4k TV, Ultra HD blu ray player, and started my collection with Top Gun: Maverick, Harry Potter Eight Film Collection, and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. I didn't realize there was HDR and SDR, but I was lucky enough to get a TV with HDR. I watched Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets for the first demonstration of my TV and player, and I'm blown away at the quality of 4k. Makes watching all my favorite movies even more awesome!!! Very informative video and I subscribed. Thank you for sharing your insight!!!

[craziieitallian]

correct me if I'm wrong but to my eye, we've hit a threshold for movie quality. I've seen some 4k movies before and I'm always blown away by how great it looks. But I usually have a similar reaction to 1080, it still looks amazing. i cant even imagine anything greater than 4k and by then it probably would look artificial.

[CatManDoom]

started watching your stuff since i got my PS5. Already started my 4k movie collection. Great videos my dude

[Danny-xmpe]

I've tried watching 3 highly rated 4K discs back-to-back with their Blu-ray counterparts on my 65" 4K OLED TV and I could barely notice any difference even when I was seriously trying to find the difference. Furthermore, on 2 of the 3, I actually felt that I was slightly liking the look of the Blu-ray more than the 4K disc as the 4K image looked a little bit more artificial to me.

[Alex-pmje]

My still upgrading my movies from DVD to Blu Ray, I still have a long way to go, as far as 4k goes not there yet I'm happy with my blu- rays, but Im thankful for this channel and others like it I have learned alot over a year span. Thank you again for the information.let's watch some

[ml]

I just upgraded to 4k. Its worth every penny. Ive heard alot of people say its not worth it to them but everything is so much more lifelike, im sold. Im also an audio guy so having the better soundtrack was selling point enough for me even before i saw the difference between hd and 4k video

[rutgerbauer]

Upgrading from SD to HD makes a world of difference on screens as small as 32", but the upgrade from HD to UHD is rather underwhelming on my 49" display from a normal viewing distance. I also have a 1080p projector with a screen of about 80" and I'm very happy with regular old HD even at that size.

[tomeklecocq]

The DCPs (Digital Cinema Package) for most movies delivered to theaters are between 150 GB and 300 GB for a 4K movie. The way they are encoded makes it possible to play the same DCP in 2K if your theater doesn't have a 4K projector.
(the image is encoded using 12 bits per color JPEG2000 for the picture and each frame is encoded as a separate picture instead of using frame interpolation with key frames like we have in home formats such as H264 and H265/HEVC, sound is Atmos or 24bit/48KHz uncompressed PCM).
If the film is easy to compress like 2D animation, it can be less than that. I remember a projectionist mentioning that he received a 60 GB DCP once.
Most CGI heavy movies are released in theaters only in 2K.
All 3D movies are projected only in 2K, as the digital cinema norms cannot handle 4K and 3D at the same time (as you need twice the framerate in 3D, because of 24 fps for each eye).
One of the ways used for reducing the size of the files for Blu-rays (both HD or 4K) is chroma subsampling. A DCP, 2K or 4K, will always be in 4:4:4 but a 1080p Blu-ray will always be encoded in 4:2:2 or 4:2:0, and a 4K one in 4:2:0. This is the other reason why, additionally to the bigger color space / HDR, the image of a 4K Blu-ray can look sharper than a 1080p Blu-ray of the same movie, even if the movie only has a 2K master.

[grayaquatics]

I was gifted a few months ago with a only one year old 50 inch Samsung 4K tv. I bought a 4K player soon after. Started buying 4K blu-rays and they are amazing. That being said, I still own some regular blu-rays and will still purchase both as one thing I also like about the 4K player is it also seems to make regular blu-ray discs look even better.

[ElliotCoen]

Wait, so 4K isn't a scam?! Why do so many people feel the need to say so on my videos about 4K 😅 Great video pal

[andrewvasquez]

I'm glad you mentioned how some people may not like the HDR or film grian reduction, it's important to mention for people who aren't sure what to buy I'd say get the 4k combo, most 4k films I've seen usually have the standard blu ray disc as well and digital codes so if anything the 4k combo is the way to go. I've also noticed expired digital codes in films at Walmart for the films priced at 14.99 and when I tried to redeem them they still worked.

[frankcatania]

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the differences between Blu Ray and 4K Blu Ray. Very helpful. And the 3 shot picture showing the difference between 4K, 1080P and 720P images, makes the difference in quality between the 3 formats crystal clear for me as I consider upgrading to a 4K TV.

[tony_sosa_]

I like watching nature videos to test for 4K. Like snow, trees, and especially water.

Great video like always man

[LILGHETTI]

Some early 4K discs need to be redone like T2, the first 3 bourne movies, Gremlins, Goodfellas!!

[GOLFADDICT]

good i started watching your channel 6 weeks ago i have added about 4K card will never be the same..lol...cheers from Canada and be safe all