I’ve had a 4K television for about a year and a half. While the picture is great, the challenge has been finding 4K content–there just hasn’t been much. But recently, studios have started releasing movies in 4K Ultra HD, which includes High Dynamic Range (HDR) for the picture and Dolby Atmos 7.1 for the sound. Among the titles releasing, two really stand out; not just because they are great geeky movies, but also because they are in the news a lot because of the upcoming remake. As of this past week, both Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II are available in 4K Ultra HD and the picture is absolutely amazing.
You know that 4K is four times the resolution of 1080p, but HDR gives your television’s luminosity a kick to the head with darker blacks, brighter whites, and colors so vibrant it feels more real than anything you’ve seen on a monitor before. Grain has been left in to make these films seem like the feature presentations you’d see in a theater and I appreciate that because there’s something about movies without grain that just feels weird to me. I don’t have an Atmos system yet, I’m still a step behind there. Still, in my 7.1 setup, it still sounded great. I also tried the movie at a friend’s house who has a full 4K HDR/Dolby Atmos setup and WOW! The picture felt twice as good and the sound was spectacular, even for movies that came out about three decades ago. Makes me want to upgrade my setup. I hate that feeling; it feels like… my wallet getting lighter.
On the 4k UHD disks, only the movies can be found, with an audio commentary. But the boxes also include a standard Blu-ray of each film, along with a ton of extra features. Spanning both movies, there are extra features including a couple of Q&As with actors and crew, deleted scenes, extra audio, a feature on Ecto-1, a couple of music videos from Ghostbusters-related songs from the MTV days, trailers from films, and a lot more. It really is a treat for Ghostbusters fans. (I should add that the Digibook edition that came out about a year or so ago does include a lot of the content in this new edition.)
Still, if you have 4K UHD capabilities (requires a UHD player and a TV that supports HDMI 2.0, although the picture is also improved with 4K HDR capable monitors, which are relatively new), these are well worth the upgrade. It’s fantastic to finally have content coming out and it’s great that Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II are some of the first films to get the 4k UHD treatment.
Disclosure: GeekDad was sent a sample of these movies for review purposes.
