This is exactly how I feel. I want the highest possible original quality, without upscaling. There are a ton of 1080p Blu-rays out there that probably won’t get real 4K scans because of lack of demand or being niche content, and that’s totally fine. Just leave it at 1080p, which is still pretty solid for movies made more than 5 or 10 years ago. But if the movie was shot on film, there’s really no excuse for not rescanning it at 4K imo. I’m sure studios/distributors would continue to cry poverty, but screw that. I’m even okay with them leaving any original special effects untouched, especially if redoing them is what hikes up the cost. It can be distracting, but I care more about live action quality.
I go back and forth on animation, it’s the one time I feel kind of okay with upscaling. But I recently compared an upscaled 4K Blu-ray anime with a subsequently released native 4K scan Blu-ray, and the increase in quality was quite obvious.
I suspect if something was shot on film for distribution in theaters any special effects will look just fine in the scan. If it was shot on film for SD TV the effects probably won’t hold up, but hopefully it’s nothing critical enough to be a big deal!
I’m sure you know this, but as an addendum, the majority of films shot digitally have been filmed with 2K/1080p cameras. Obviously there are exceptions and also modern, effects-heavy films might have their compositing done in 4K, so I’m not saying there’s no benefit to going over 2K. However, in many cases you’re already getting the intended picture at 2K and upscaling is not bringing you any closer to the filmmakers’ ideal presentation.
This is exactly how I feel. I want the highest possible original quality, without upscaling. There are a ton of 1080p Blu-rays out there that probably won’t get real 4K scans because of lack of demand or being niche content, and that’s totally fine. Just leave it at 1080p, which is still pretty solid for movies made more than 5 or 10 years ago. But if the movie was shot on film, there’s really no excuse for not rescanning it at 4K imo. I’m sure studios/distributors would continue to cry poverty, but screw that. I’m even okay with them leaving any original special effects untouched, especially if redoing them is what hikes up the cost. It can be distracting, but I care more about live action quality.
I go back and forth on animation, it’s the one time I feel kind of okay with upscaling. But I recently compared an upscaled 4K Blu-ray anime with a subsequently released native 4K scan Blu-ray, and the increase in quality was quite obvious.
I suspect if something was shot on film for distribution in theaters any special effects will look just fine in the scan. If it was shot on film for SD TV the effects probably won’t hold up, but hopefully it’s nothing critical enough to be a big deal!
I’m sure you know this, but as an addendum, the majority of films shot digitally have been filmed with 2K/1080p cameras. Obviously there are exceptions and also modern, effects-heavy films might have their compositing done in 4K, so I’m not saying there’s no benefit to going over 2K. However, in many cases you’re already getting the intended picture at 2K and upscaling is not bringing you any closer to the filmmakers’ ideal presentation.