4k verse 2k

George Ebersole · December 10, 2017

Sorry if this isn't the appropriate area to post this question, but I recently got my bluray special edition of "Streets of Fire", and the image looks a little grainy, though still very clear. The back of the slip cover said the film was transferred at 2k resolution.

I thought all films were scanned at 4k, released with a lower resolution for the DVD market, and then re-released at full 4k for the bluray market. I actually thought I read that here on this forum.

Can someone clarify? Am I not remembering this correctly?

Stuart Brereton · December 10, 2017

It depends on when the transfer was done. If it wasn't done recently, then it would have been a 2k transfer, as there was no 4k market to satisfy.

Tyler Purcell · December 10, 2017

The vast majority of BluRay releases are from 2k or 1080p sources. This is partially because 2k finishing was and still is common practice. It also costs A LOT less money to do a 2k telecine, than a 4k scan. So if the title isn't earning the license holder much money, they'll just do a very basic 2k telecine just to get it up to snuff on BluRay.

The only time you'll see 4k masters of movies that were finished on film is if there was a restoration effort put in by the current license holders. So you do see movies like T2 and Close Encounters getting the "royal" 4k treatment, but the amount of UHD titles which are mastered from 4k sources, is around 50. The rest are all 2k upresed to 4k, including NEW movies.

This isn't just an issue with home video. The current 3D theatrical market is all 2k, there is NO 4k 3D. So most special effects heavy movies that are distributed in 3D, don't even bother rendering out 4k images. So even the 2D versions are made from the same 2k renderings and released in 2k. Blade Runner 2049 was an all 4k finish and that is "rare" for the theatrical market.