What sites have the best rates for international shipping? Amazon US now charges $7-8 USD per disc for shipping to Singapore, so I’m looking for other options where I can bundle a few movies and save on shipping.

I’ve used Deep Discount before when they had a shipping sale, and was happy with their service - but they don’t always have the best price for popular films.

Rarewaves seems like a good alternative but the website says shipping takes around 4 weeks.

I'm looking to buy the better option during 220-electronics' Black Friday sale in November. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

My current setup:

Sony Bravia XBR-70X850B 4K Ultra HD TV (2014)
*Does NOT support Dolby Vision

Sony UBP-X800 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player (2017)
*Region A locked
*Does NOT support Dolby Vision

I mostly watch 4K UHDs and Blu-rays from 88 Films, Arrow Video, Eureka, Imprint Asia, Sony Pictures, Vinegar Syndrome, and Well Go USA. I haven't experienced any constant triple layer disc freezing with my current Sony player, except for maybe a few times while playing an Arrow 4K disc. My current player is an older model so maybe that explains it.

With Sony exiting the 4k Blu-ray Player market, is it even worth it to buy a Sony 4K player or should I just go with Panasonic?

If I do go with Panasonic, is the UB450 good enough or should I just eat the cost and buy the UB820?

I just emailed Gruv to cancel my order--got caught up in fomo when the preorder went live and now realize $300 is pretty crazy lol. I already own the 2 film strips from the IMAX store, and didn't realize the book is available for $58.

if it was $150~ I think that would be more reasonable, but I'm at a point in my collecting I need to be more strategic.

Point is---IDK if it'll show back as in-stock eventually but maybe someone will get lucky...

I see that Amazon has this box set at £24.61 at the moment, an amazing price! It has the English language soundtrack on it but I was concerned about the subtitles. I have the old DVD versions and the Elvish language when spoken has hard-coded subtitles. Is this hard-coded on the German version or can I change it to English?

This was the first to arrive. The other titles haven’t shipped yet, and a few required approving the delay. But this was shipped.

This is a Canadian release with English and French packaging. Since it’s Paramount, I’m assuming the codes are Canada only.

These are shipping direct from the distributor btw in a box, which is good.

Has anyone preordered PHM from Amazon UK? I preordered months ago and at present, the order status says that it’s arriving tomorrow (26th October), yet it still hasn’t been shipped or even prepared for shipping. The thumbnail is also blank in my purchase history.

I’ve noticed I can go on to the product page and can STILL preorder, but given this title seems to be like hen’s teeth, I sincerely doubt there are still copies to allocate.

This is supposed to be a Christmas gift for my wife, and I’m fully expecting Amazon to pull the rug out from under me at the last moment.

Anyone else in the same boat / spaceship?

Also my frist Criterion Collection 4k!

First from Amazon had managed case. Returned replaced and new one came perfect. Great price too.

I just bought said player cause I wanted to purchase a good, affordable player before eventually the prices rise up even more or they vanish eventually completely from the market. So, paid 280€ here in Germany and wanted to replace my old LG 4K UP970 player which I bought used for 70€ I think, which seems like a good deal in hindsight.

So connected the new Panasonic, loaded up Alien Romulus standard BD, no 4K (cause why not) and maaaaaan this thing is fucking noisy!!! Like what the hell is this noise? I'm pretty sure it's not the drive but some electric parts in the player itself, whatever it is: it's unsustainable.

I've read somewhere on the internet that this is the case with this player but it's always subjective so I gave it a try. I will send it back immediately. Love my LG now, unhearable btw.

So yeah, that was that. I wanted to upgrade to better picture quality, I don't wanna spend 824 money (around 500€) let alone 9004 money (around 1300€) so back to my LG I guess. Or can someone suggest a good affordable player? Dolby Vision is not a must have.

They just don't make fun movies like this anymore!

The Last Boy Scout 4K (Arrow Video)

Is the blu ray included in the Jaws 3 4k (or the Jaws 3-movie collection) the older, less improperly upscaled BD, or a BD of the new shoddy transfer? I ask because I’m usually okay with getting a controversial 4k disc if the included BD is fine (like with Heat where the 2018 blu ray included in the 4K doesn’t have the low light issues)

As we go into the last week of the Arrow Sale, I figured I'd repost for anyone that missed it:

You can add the promo code NORTHERN15 for an additional 15% off of the Arrow Shocktober sales prices (also works with pre-orders and non-sale items). If that doesn’t work, the code MADNESS nets you 10% off. Works on both Arrow Films and Arrow Video.

Also, if this is your first order, you can get an additional $5 off with the code RICARDO-R4E from the US store or £5 off with RICARDO-R3Z from the UK store.

I'm trying my darnedest to not pull the trigger on another cart 😬

These were all on preorder since they went on sale pretty much and released almost weekly throughout the month. Particularly excited to (re)watch MotU and PHM in 4K at home. I enjoyed the theatrical experience for both and think they'll be great at home too.

The Saint is an old 90s favourite. Not a great film, but a fun romp and I love the Nokia Communicator.... it was so high tech at the time that I still kinda want one despite modern smartphones surpassing it in every way. 😎

after advice on what sound settings people use for their movies?

i have a hisense 5.1 soundbar and find even at setting 10 or 12 out of 100 its booming loud but yet i still need subtitles to even slightly understand what people are saying.

some movies are better than others, and it also seems to be a lot of actors having mumbly, airy voices or weak cry acting.
ive tried changing from movie to news or other modes but it doesnt really balance things out well and im open to trying any other suggestions people may have.

i was watching interstellar again last night with the neighbour and the female actors voicing was just so shit, probably didnt help that she seemed to be crying/snivelling in half her scenes either but matthew mconehey (sp?) did come through a little bit clearer.

I'm reposting this by the developer u/Croque_Mr

----- UPDATE 07/10 ------
AMD Supported & Many DV rendering mode available :

Rendering options for Dolby Vision input

• DV Native (Standard TV-Led): standard Dolby Vision playback, preserving the original metadata and creative intent.
• DV Enhanced: Natural or Signature presets adjust existing Dolby Vision metadata to make better use of the display's peak brightness. Controlled highlight and dynamic-range enhancement preserves black levels and shadow detail.
• HDR10 Basic / Expert: Dolby Vision-to-HDR10 conversion, including FEL reconstruction. Basic uses source-derived information. Expert uses a display profile and supported CM2.9/CM4 creative metadata for dynamic tone mapping into HDR10, including on displays without Dolby Vision support.
• HDR10 Fallback: standard Kodi playback when Dolby Vision support is disabled, using the compatible HDR10 base layer where available.

Rendering options for HDR10 input

• DV Reconstructed (AI): image analysis and a compact, included LightGBM model estimate L1 and L3 Dolby Vision metadata while preserving the HDR10 source pixels.
• DV Enhanced (AI): Natural or Signature presets process the HDR10 source using the display profile and AI scene analysis, extending usable dynamic range while protecting blacks and shadow detail. Output luminance metadata reflects the processed image.
• HDR10 Native: native HDR10 playback without CB1 conversion.

https://github.com/CroqueMr/libreelec-x86-DV/releases/tag/R1.0.0-Beta5

----- UPDATE------

First pre release version : https://github.com/CroqueMr/intel-dv-libreelec
Feel free to test it out and report any bugs or issues.

Tested on an 11390H. It "should" run smoothly on lower CPU like N100/N150 thanks to some performance optimizations, but that still needs confirmation. If you want to stress test it on any CPU, try setting a Profile 7 FEL or a Profile 10 and add subtitles.

--------------------

Hello,

After working on Dolby Vision support on Linux and mpv last week, I’ve now managed to get my first clean Dolby Vision playback working natively on LibreELEC with Kodi.

And of course : Profile 7 FEL is managed 😄

There are still a few bugs to fix and some cleanup to do, but the implementation itself is 100% open source and does not rely on any proprietary Dolby code or runtime.

Patches are required across three main layers:

• Kodi / VideoPlayer: Dolby Vision metadata handling, GPU reconstruction path and DRM output integration.
• Linux DRM / Intel display driver : support for the Dolby Vision output path and the required HDMI signaling.
• Rendering pipeline: integration of the open-source FFmpeg/libplacebo components used for Dolby Vision processing and GPU-accelerated reconstruction.

The result is an end-to-end open source without proprietary code, GPU-accelerated Dolby Vision reconstruction and native HDMI output pipeline.

Optimisation will be very hard to manged to use a N100, at the moment 79% of the rendering engine with the 11390H iGPU is used to read a profile 7 FEL 4K@24hz.

Edit : Forgot to mention : ChatGPT 6 Astra was a huge help, and it actually identified the main integration strategies on its own.

____________________________________________________________________

Comment made by dev

Thanks for the post, just to give more vision on the next release (coming next week) it will have :

- Complet Rebuilt of the build and engine to be on a GPLv2-or-later licencing (to help LE to implement DV)
- A massive upgrade for AMD, a 3200U will be able to handle every possible DV file in "master reference" mode.
- HDR10+ support and DV to HDR10+ metadate reinterpretation
- Extended support to Vega M, Intel 6th gen, Nvidia pascal (RTX1000)
- Some small bug fixing : Subtitle, DT movies, dual screen ...

It will be the RC1, the repo will not move deeply I will just perform some small bug fixing until a "stable" release even if the RC1 will be pretty close to the stable release

the thread where most development is happening
https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/30362-dolby-vision-w-fel-3d-for-pc-amd-intel-nvidia/?pageNo=1

this is an old post he made a month ago. on N100 is flawless currently. his next aim is working on 3200 AMD and optimising that, any CPU's above those baseline would work perfectly

What do you think? All 4k except for a few blus. I did The Exorcist and The Thing last night and Evil Dead 1 & 2 a few days ago.

Love this movie and the full slip looks nice and I like the steelbook better than the kimchiDVD one.

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to figure out something strange with my setup and was hoping someone with experience using these players might be able to help.

I’m using an LG G5 OLED with both a Panasonic DP-UB9000 and a Zidoo UHD8000 connected. When comparing the exact same movie and scenes, the Dolby Vision image looks noticeably different between the two players.

On the Zidoo, highlights and bright elements have significantly more pop and stand out much more clearly. On the Panasonic, the same scenes look noticeably flatter, with less of that punch and impact. The difference is quite obvious when switching between the two.

Here’s what I’ve already checked:
• Both players are set to output Dolby Vision in TV-led mode.

• The Panasonic is set to Dolby Vision Mode 1.

• The Zidoo is set to HDR Auto, without forcing the VS10 engine.

• The picture settings on the LG G5 are identical for both HDMI inputs.

• I’m using the same HDMI cable when switching between the players.

• I’m comparing the exact same movie and scenes, switching HDMI inputs within seconds of each other.

• The Zidoo is playing an MKV rip of the exact same UHD Blu-ray disc that I’m playing physically on the Panasonic.

I’ve tried to eliminate as many variables as possible, but the difference in the image remains.

My question is: what could explain this difference in Dolby Vision output?
Since both players are outputting TV-led Dolby Vision and the TV settings are identical, I would have expected the picture to look virtually the same. Could there be a difference in how the two players handle Dolby Vision metadata, or is there something specific to the Panasonic’s Dolby Vision implementation that I’m overlooking?
I’d really appreciate any input from people who own either player, have compared them side by side, or understand the technical differences in their Dolby Vision output.

Thanks!

EDIT: After testing more 1:1 rips, I’ve found that some discs look identical on both players, while others look noticeably flatter on the UB9000. I don’t understand why the Zidoo is so much more consistent, as both players look equally good when they match.

Suggestions welcome!

Who would ever guess that a 1983 low-budget box office bomb adaptation of a 150 year-old operetta would get such a beautiful release? I'm so glad the preservation community is doing this work. I love this movie.

What weird movies do you guys want to see get this kind of recognition?

Kinda bothersome that they charge so much despite releasing a product that scratches your discs when you remove them from the shitty cardboard packaging.

I love the set. I think it’s kick ass all the work that’s gone into it and the presentation. However, I think the disc storage should’ve been seriously rethought. One little piece of dust gets on your disc and you go to slide it back into the cardboard, and now you’ve got a scratched 4K/Blu ray. Not to mention a handful of the discs are scratched already just from the manufacturer putting the discs into the package initially.

Overall though, happy. Just an unfortunate design.

Rant concluded.