Displaying items by tag: 4K Ultra HD
Paramount makes The Ten Commandments official for 4K, plus Harley Quinn on Blu-ray, new KL Studio Classics & more
We’re starting things off today with two more new Blu-ray reviews...
Tim has checked out Luigi Cozzi’s The Black Cat (1989) on BD from Severin Films.
And Dennis has shared his thoughts on Frank Darabont’s Buried Alive (1990) on BD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Enjoy!
The big announcement news today is that Paramount Home Entertainment has officially revealed the 4K Ultra HD release of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956), staring Charlton Heston, on 3/30 just as we expected. Per the studio’s press release, the original VistaVision negative was scanned in 6K as part of the 2010 restoration effort and those files were the basis for this new Dolby Vision presentation. “In addition, Paramount spent well over 150 hours doing new color work and clean-up on the scan. The move to Dolby Vision created the opportunity to further improve the look of the film: blacks are enhanced and improvements were made to smooth out special effects mattes to create the most vibrant and pristine image possible. The 4K film presentation contains an introduction by DeMille, an intermission, an overture/exit music card, and an entr’acte card, along with a DTS-HD 5.1 lossless soundtrack.” [Read on here...]
- Monster Hunter 4K
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- Tim Salmons
- The Ten Commandments 4K
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- Bluray
- 4K Ultra HD
- Super 8 4K
- My Fair Lady 4K
- Harley Quinn: Seasons 1 and 2 BD
- The Black Cat BD review
- Buried Alive BD review
- 4K Ultra HD Release List
- The Babadook 4K
- Second Sight
- Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 14 BD
- Freaky BD
- Silk Road
- Eddie
New Blu-ray reviews, Paramount+, and The State of Physical Media in 2020: The Year-End Edition
We’ve got three more reviews for you today, plus some industry news. And we’re going to give you a preview of the final home media sales numbers for 2020. But first those reviews...
Tim has posted his thoughts on William Nigh’s The Ape (1940), staring Boris Karloff, and the joint-effort comedy Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) both now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
Meanwhile, Dennis has offered up his thoughts on Cornel Wilde’s Beach Red (1967), also new on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
More reviews are on the way, so be sure to watch for them. [Read on here...]
Flintstones replacement BDs are shipping, plus a new 4K review, release news & Michael Apted RIP
Evening, folks. We’ve got a quick news update for you here today at the site.
But first, a new disc review: Tim has just posted his thoughts on William Lustig’s Vigilante (1982) on 4K Ultra HD from the good folks at Blue Underground. And it sounds like it’s a pretty terrific release if you like the film, which stars Robert Forster and Fred Williamson. Do check it out.
Also a reminder today: We posted a new History, Legacy & Showmanship column from our own Michael Coate on Friday—a piece that was delayed from the very end of 2020 due to all of the site maintenance we’ve been doing over the past several weeks. This one is a look back at the early 70mm cut of The Empire Strikes Back, featuring a new roundtable discussion with historian and soundtrack producer Mike Matessino along with director Saul Pincus. We think you’ll really enjoy it, so do give that a look here if you missed it.
Now then... there’s not a lot of release news to report today, but we do have a few things worth mentioning. [Read on here...]
- My Fair Lady 4K
- Super 8 4K
- Saul Pincus
- Mike Matessino
- Empire @ 40: Remembering the Early 70MM Cut
- The Empire Strikes Back
- History Legacy & Showmanship
- Michael Coate
- The Criterion Collection
- Santa Sangre 4K
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bluray
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- The Ten Commandments 4K
- Tim Salmons
- Vigilante 4K review
- Blue Underground
- Michael Apted RIP
- His Dark Materials: Season Two BD
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- The Good The Bad and The Ugly 4K
- The Flintstones: The Complete Series BD replacement program
- News of the World 4K
- GATTACA 4K
- World of Wong Karwai BD
- Monster Hunter 4K
Criterion’s April slate, plus new 4K catalog coming from Paramount & Severin, and new catalog Blu-ray titles too
Hey everyone! Well... another week is officially in the can and, as promised, I’ve got an update for you on some release news and whatnot.
First up, I wanted to alert you to a 4K Ultra HD deal: Amazon currently has Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite available in 4K for just $11.00 for a limited time only. So click here to order a copy if you’re interested.
Also today, we’ve got a great new History, Legacy & Showmanship column from our own Michael Coate—one that was delayed from the very end of 2020 due to all of the site maintenance we’ve been doing over the past several weeks. This one is a terrific look back at the early 70mm cut of The Empire Strikes Back, featuring a new roundtable discussion with historian and soundtrack producer Mike Matessino along with director Saul Pincus. We think you’ll really enjoy it, so do give that a look here.
Now then, in announcement news today, Severin Films has revealed that it’s working on a new 4K Ultra HD release of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Santa Sangre (1989) that’s due on 4/27. The title will also be released on Blu-ray and DVD. You can see the cover artwork for the 4K at left. Click here to pre-order on Amazon: 4K, Blu-ray, DVD.
But that’s not the only 4K catalog title we now know is coming from our retail sources... [Read on here...]
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- Bluray
- 4K Ultra HD
- Santa Sangre 4K
- Severin Films
- The Criterion Collection
- Criterion April 2021 slate
- Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment
- Parasite 4K deal
- Michael Coate
- History Legacy & Showmanship
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Empire @ 40: Remembering the Early 70MM Cut
- Mike Matessino
- Saul Pincus
- The Ten Commandments 4K
- Super 8 4K
- The Indiana Jones 4K Collection
- My Fair Lady 4K
- History Is Made at Night
- The Criterion Spines Project
- The 4K Ultra HD Release List
- The Furies
- Memories of Murder
- Bong Joonho
- Masculin féminin
- JeanLuc Godard
- Irma Vep
- Anthony Mann
- Olivier Assayas
- Frank Borzage
- The Warner Archive Collection
- Pump Up the Volume
- Imprint
- Indicator Films
- The Very Excellent Mr Dundee
- Greenland 4K
A quick Digital Bits site update: Some routine maintenance is underway (So pardon our dust!)
All right, thanks for your patience everyone. As you’ve probably noticed, news updates here at the site have been sparing over the past week or two, and there’s been a couple of reasons for that.
First, we’ve had to do a round of software updating and patching on The Bits website software—routine maintenance type of stuff, required to keep the site going—but every time we do that it inevitably breaks a couple of things that have to be hunted down and fixed. So that process has been ongoing.
Also, we’ve switched to a great new advertising network partner that we hope is going to bring in more revenue, which in turn will helps us to keep the site going indefinitely. We’re tweaking the layout on some of that, and trying to figure out the right amount and placement of ads that do what we need them to without being obtrusive. But obviously times are tight and we need to survive, so we appreciate your understanding. [Read on here...]
Stargate Universe on Blu-ray, plus Love, Weddings & Other Disasters, new KL Studio Classics, 4K titles & more
Afternoon, folks. We’ve got another new disc review for you today, and some more interesting release news as well.
First up, that review: Tim has taken a look at Henry Levin and Mario Bava’s The Wonders of Aladdin (1961), now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
In terms of announcement news, Visual Entertainment is releasing Stargate Universe: The Complete Series on Blu-ray Disc on 1/15. This includes all 40 episodes, plus over 2 hours of extras. This, by the way, follows in the wake of the company’s recent release of Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series on Blu-ray. The latter features the early seasons upscaled, while the later seasons were native HD. We believe Stargate Universe was produced in HD, so it should be of fairly good quality. [Read on here...]
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- Tim Salmons
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- Bluray
- 4K Ultra HD
- Stargate Universe: The Complete Series BD
- Love Weddings and Other Disasters
- The Wonders of Aladdin BD review
- Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks BD
- Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics BD
- Zack Snyder’s Justice League 4K
- Wonder Woman 1984 4K
- A Clockwork Orange 4K
- Gravity 4K
- The Shawshank Redemption 4K
- Space Jam: 25th Anniversary 4K
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: 50th Anniversary 4K
- Warner Bros
The Beastmaster and Mad Max reviewed in 4K, plus our review of Kino’s Mad Max Blu-ray has been updated with new image info
Afternoon, folks. And welcome to 2021!
The news in the home video industry is pretty slow this week, as we’d expect given the recent holiday and the still unfolding (and industry-slowing) pandemic.
But we do have a couple new 4K Ultra HD reviews for you all to enjoy this afternoon.
First, Tim has taken a look at Don Coscarelli’s The Beastmaster (1982), as newly-remastered in 4K by our friends over at Vinegar Syndrome. The limited release appears now to be back in stock at the Vinegar Syndrome website, and we expect it to eventually be released in more traditional Amaray packaging on Amazon at some point in the coming months. [Read on here...]
Happy New Year from all of us at The Digital Bits! (And 2020... don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.)
All right, this is our final Bits post of 2020. And it’ll be a quick one.
This has certainly been a difficult year for all of us here and no doubt it has been for all of you, our readers, as well. But a new year at least brings the hope that things can and will get better on Planet Earth going forward.
On a personal note, I’m pleased to say that—though it’s been a struggle—The Digital Bits is still here. We’ve made it through some difficult times, we’re still alive and ticking. And we intend to keep cracking on in 2021 and beyond.
I’ve also been working on a second science fiction novel, and hope to see my first actually published sometime in 2021—something I’ve had to put on the back-burner this past year in order to keep the site going. But the writing process has certainly been personally satisfying, and it’s kept me going in dark moments. That, plus having a telescope to look at the stars a few times a month, and of course great family and friends—even though we’ve only been able to see them from afar.
In any case, I know I speak for all of us here at the site when I say that we’re grateful to have each and every one of you as readers of The Digital Bits.
So with that, we’d like to wish you all a very happy and safe New Year! And together we’ll make 2021 a better time for all of us.
See you back here on Monday. Peace out!
(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)
The Digital Bits presents The Bitsy List 2020: The Best Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Titles of the Year
Well... we now have just two and a half days left in the damnable misery that has been Planet Earth in the year 2020. But we hope these last few days and weeks at least have found you all safe, well, and enjoying the holiday season as best you can. And to those of you who have lost friends, family members, and other loved ones to COVID this year (and we here at The Bits are among you), we send out our love and support. We certainly wish each and every one of you better times ahead in 2021.
Around this time, of course, seemingly every website and media outlet on the planet starts to roll out their annual “Best of” lists for the previous year. At one time, many years ago, The Digital Bits even held its own Bitsy Awards to honor the best DVD and Blu-ray titles of the previous year. But the home video industry became so inconsistent with its product—and streaming delivery so dominant—that we finally stopped doing it. It was just too frustrating to try to organize and coordinate.
Still, if this pandemic has had any silver lining at all, it’s that the industry as a whole has been reminded that there is yet some profit to be made in the minting of 5-inch silver discs with movies and TV shows on them. The 4K Ultra HD format in particular has benefitted from this trend. And as a number of Bits readers have asked us for our thoughts on the best titles of our collective pandemic year, we decided to put our heads together to compile a list of those we found most notable.
In fact, we’ve decided to revive our old friend Bitsy! So today we’re happy to present The Bitsy List for 2020, honoring the best Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD titles of the year. [Read on here...]
KL Studio Classics bows Good, Bad and Ugly in 4K, plus Stargate SG1 on BD, Akira 4K exchange program, MGM open to sale & more
Hey, looks like we do have a little bit of new announcement news for you today...
First up though, we’ve got a quick Amazon Deal of the Day to report: Network’s Monty Python’s Flying Circus: The Complete Series Blu-ray is just $75 for today only on Amazon (42% off). It’s the same 7 discs found the Deluxe Edition (reviewed here on The Bits), just without the books and deluxe packaging. So strike fast if you’re interested. Here’s the Amazon link.
Also today, we have word that FUNimation’s Akira 4K Ultra HD release doesn’t have HDR. The version released in Japan does, but apparently the discs released in the US and the UK do not. FUNimation has now established an exchange program to get a proper 4K with HDR disc sometime in February via the mail. You can find those details here and here (below):
“For those of you who would like to request the 4K HDR version of AKIRA, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (US/CA) or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (UK/IRE) with “AKIRA 4K” as the subject, and provide your name, mailing address, email address and proof of purchase (receipt or confirmation email and photo of the disc).”
Okay, now for that announcement news: Kino Lorber Studio Classics has just officially set Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly for release on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray combo on 4/27. You can see the cover artwork above left. [Read on here...]
- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- Mill Creek Entertainment
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bluray
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- Sergio Leone
- The Good The Bad and The Ugly 4K
- Stargate SG1: The Complete Series BD
- FUNimation Akira 4K exchange program
- MGM
- Network
- Monty Python's Flying Circus: 50th Anniversary BD sale
- Amazon Deal of the Day