Ultra HD Blu-ray 💿

'Predator: Badlands' Tops February Disc Sales, 'Wicked: For Good' Remains No. 1 for 2026 - Media Play News Disney-owned 20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands was No. 1 on the top 10 list of physical-media sales for February 2026, according to Circana’s VideoScan tracking service that compiles DVD and Bl...

‘Predator: Badlands’ tops February disc sales, ‘Wicked: for Good’ remains #1 for 2026:
www.mediaplaynews.com/predator-bad...

'Predator: Badlands' Tops Disc Sales Chart for Second Week - Media Play News Disney-owned 20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands remained No. 1 on the Circana VideoScan chart, which tracks combined sales of all disc formats, and the dedicated sales chart for Blu-ray formats ...

‘Predator: Badlands’ tops US disc sales chart for 2nd week; sells 44% on DVD, 34% on BD, 22% on UHD BD.
'Excalibur' ranks #3 overall, #2 on BD, and #1 on UHD BD, selling 84% in 4K, 15.8% in HD and 0.2% in SD.
More details here:
www.mediaplaynews.com/predator-bad...

Best-selling Ultra HD Blu-ray the past week was Excalibur.
'Predator: Badlands', #1 on DVD, BD and overall, ranked #2 in the 4K chart.
Also charting: Westworld, Constantine, Network.
Full top 20 here:
www.mediaplaynews.com/research/top...

Ultra HD Blu-ray US market share in units for the week ended February 28th: 21.4%
2 new titles in the top 20, both reissues with a 4K release:
💿 #3, Excalibaur, sold 84% on UHD BD
💿 #11, Westworld, did 88%
More details and full top 20 here:
mediaplaynews.com/research/top...

LOL

The First Compact Disc Player: How Sony’s 1982 CDP-101 Launched the CD Era A deep look at the machine, engineers, and technology that introduced digital music to the home

by @obsoletesony.com:
obsoletesony.substack.com/p/sony-cdp-1...

We look back at the very first CD players tested by What Hi-Fi? and the advent of this innovative digital format From the early Philips prototype to the eleven inaugural CD players we reviewed in 1983

Two articles looking back at the starting days of 12cm discs, on the same day!
1️⃣ A look back at the first CD players, including the Philips CD100, by @kashfiakabir.bsky.social, @whathifi.com.web.brid.gy
www.whathifi.com/hi-fi/cd-pla...
2️⃣ A piece about Sony's launch CD player, the CDP101 >

We need to talk about HDR

Indeed, it is. You may find this an interesting read also:
www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.php?su...

It’s not communicated transparently what you get when you buy a title, so hard numbers aren't available but likely a majority are MEL, and I think only the FEL ones support 12-bit color, for what it’s worth, with 10-bit and 8-bit displays.
16/16

And when it comes to Dolby Vision on UHD BD, there are actually two variants, MEL and FEL – Minimum Enhancement Layer and Full Enhancement Layer.
15/16

As for Blade Runner 2049 (a film I love), sadly the UHD BD has no Dolby Vision; neither the American Warner Bros release nor the European Sony Pictures release.
14/16

There are actually 30 IMAX 70mm projection theaters in the world. Still very few, indeed.
19 of these are in the U.S. The rest are in Canada and the UK. Australia has one, as does continental Europe – in Czechia.
13/16

Kaleidescape copies are typically the same size as *or bigger than* the UHD BD copy, so with the same or a higher bitrate, never lower.
12/16

He takes very long to before beginning to include Ultra HD Blu-ray into the conversation. For some time I thought he'd skip it altogether.
11/16

4K DI is now (at last) quite common, at least for major Hollywood productions.
10/16

just like music albums recorded digitally [DDD] in 14-bit 44.1 kHz PCM in the 1980s, before 24-bit 96 kHz and DSD became common, so these don’t lend themselves well for reissuing in high-res audio formats. where both older (analog) and newer (high-res digital) recordings do.
9/16

All of this is a temporary ‘problem’, for films made (or scanned) in the first ~20 years of this century;
8/16

If you want to get really into the details here, check out these videos – nerdy in the best sense of the word:
7/16
x.com/UltraHDBlura...

James Cameron's Ultra HD Blu-ray reissues prove highly contentious Once upon a time, there was grain...

Perhaps even more contentious: James Cameron’s 2024 remasters of The Abyss, Aliens, and True Lies.
I wrote this piece about these:
6/16
www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?sub...

The Lord of the Rings’ remastering is particularly contentious because of the new, different color grading, but especially because of the DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) applied.
5/16

Many of these issues with 2K DI upscaling have of course been discussed at length on social media, internet forums, FilmTwitter and the community here.
4/16

Why does he bring up Rec.709 in the first place? By far, most UHD TVs *and* most streaming services can handle Rec.2020 WCG, HDR and 10-bit color. Is it because of legacy Blu-ray Disc?
3/16

Color banding is *not* about spatial resolution, and it’s not even about WCG (Rec.2020 and DCI-P3) versus Rec.709. It’s about bit color depth: 8-bit vs 10-bit or even 12-bit.
And likely, constraints in the design of his TV are the actual issue.
2/16

The Biggest Mistake in the History of Hollywood YouTube video by Slidebean

A lot of you may have seen this video. It contains a lot of interesting facts about movie production, but it gets a number of things wrong. There’s a lot to unpack here. 🧵 1/16
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN0H...

I'd still recommend a dedicated player, especially if you're after Dolby Vision. I can share a comparative review, if you're interested.

Bits #4K Review – @timsalmons.bsky.social delves into SAGA EROTICA: THE EMMANUELLE COLLECTION, an 11-Disc #4K #UltraHD #Bluray boxed set release containing four films and a mountain of extras from @severinfilms.bsky.social. @billhuntbits.bsky.social thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item...

Bits #4K Review – @sbjork.bsky.social revisits John Woo's 1991 #action #comedy ONCE A THIEF, available in a 2-Disc #4K #UltraHD #Bluray release from @shoutstudios.bsky.social as part of the Hong Kong Cinema Classics line. @billhuntbits.bsky.social thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item...

Bits #4K Review – @timsalmons.bsky.social takes in the 1935 Michael Curtiz-directed swashbuckling classic CAPTAIN BLOOD starring Errol Flynn & Olivia de Havilland, available in a 2-Disc #4K #UltraHD #Bluray set from @criterion.bsky.social. @billhuntbits.bsky.social thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item...

Bits #4K Review – @sbjork.bsky.social also revisits Dario Argento's 2001 #giallo SLEEPLESS, available in a 2-Disc #4K #UltraHD #Bluray release from @vinsyn.bsky.social. @billhuntbits.bsky.social thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item...

Today on @thedigitalbits.bsky.social website – Arrow’s May has Blue Thunder 4K & more, plus new Shout, a Zootopia 2 4K update & the latest on Paramount’s Warner takeover win vs Netflix
thedigitalbits.com/columns/bill...