I’m from James Cameron’s home town, Niagara Falls. He’s a local legend, theatres here are always packed for his films. I’m upset that my copy is caught in transit right now, damn Canada Post strike!
I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this magnificent film in most of the home theater formats…plus during the original theatrical run. I own the VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and now…the 4K Blu-ray release. Looking forward to playing the latest format on my Oppo UDP-203 and my LG 65” OLED. From this and other reviews, I hear The Terminator has never looked so good.
I like this release a lot, it looks very well for a mid-low budget 1984, movie, I wish studios would put more love to the menus, but oh well, it is what it is
How doesn't skynet have a visual of Sarah o conner for the terminator? Arnold using the yellow pages to eliminate every Sarah o Connor doesn't seem futuristic to me LOL
Luckily in Ireland 🇮🇪 Adam our release included the blu ray also. I was very pleased with this transfer and makes me wonder why we got such an awful transfer for Terminator 2 ! Maybe they'll redo it someday ! Thanks for posting. Regards Alan
How it is an upscale from 2K as MGM and Fox did a 4K transfer in 2013? I have read review from Digitalbits, but I honestly believe that this is a native 4K presentation
The detail increase is too great for me to believe that it's not a native 4K transfer. Also, all these people saying "AI", there's no real signs of it that I can tell.
@TannerBartko It has ai upscale but it's a proper native 4k because the terminator had a 4k scan done for the last blu ray, but this also has ai upsclaling
Still seething after my steelbook was left on my porch smashed from the carrier. Case looked like it was put through a hydraulic press coincidentally. So much for that. I had to return it with no replacement to be had.
About the film stock used it's been described as "color rendition is pretty poor in shadows and pastel tones. And the whole thing is very grainy" If you see good shadows and pastel tones and very little grain you know a bunch of tinkering occurred in this release that are not what the film shows even in its most pristine condition and minimal tools to enhance.
It does not look like film in those screenshots. It looks enhanced. I wonder why they would not bother to give popular movies like this a fresh 4K scan.
Thank you. I’m surprised people are okay with this look. AI being used for The Beatles Get Back I understood because of what they were working with, but it’s not exactly 4K sharp. The smaller the detail the more uncanny it looks, like hair strands or face wrinkles
Good to know Cameron didn't do anything crazy with the AI on The Terminator. I just wished Cameron would put the elongated blue smurfs to rest and make an amazing movie like The Terminator, Aliens or True Lies again...
Got mine in from Amazon yesterday watched it immediately. It looked absolutely fantastic. Great transfer and superior to the 1080 Blu Ray version. They did a much better upgrade than Terminator 2. And yes I noticed a great difference in detail.
Great review Adam! I was pleasantly surprised by this transfer and the option of having the original theatrical audio is a plus. While this is Schwarzeneggar's movie, I'm always surprised that Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn didn't become big stars as well. They are the emotional depth of the movie and they are both great in this film (and others I've seen them in). Thanks again Adam!
I give this an A, maybe even A+ if you consider the detail increase from the blu-ray. I've paused and looked at many scenes, sitting close to my OLED TV, there's no way that AI came up with all the details I see.
How could it have more actual detail if it’s a 2K scan that is upscaled?? The only additional detail from a blue-ray would be AI. Maybe the Do,by Vision grading enhances some contrast but it doesn’t have more detail than what the scan contains.
Very fair, honest, and thorough review 😁 Certainly a great transfer, all things considered! Regarding said considerations, though… while I totally accept this great disc, I still must admit that I don’t quite get why Cameron insists on this whole “circle the block just to cross the street” method of only taking old 2K DIs of his films and going through all the trouble/effort/money of polishing them up with Park Road Post’s AI + various other artificial means, just to get it to merely *look* [somewhat] like a legitimate/straight up 4K transfer… to me, that just seems like extra work for a lesser (albeit in this case still excellent!] result!😅 Especially when the alternative is to just take the “straight across the street” path, put in the (arguably less/easier) work by just doing the industry standard treatment that all other classic films tend to receive: original camera negative, scanned at 4K-or even 6K (or *really* future proof it with 8K, like The Fugitive!) then slap it onto a 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc at a native/true 4K presentation👍 Cheaper, easier, better-wins all around! But hey, all my moping aside, and for whatever JC’s reasons are, there’s still no denying that this truly is the absolute best The Terminator has *ever* looked!! My only hope is that (if only for historical/preservation purposes) this won’t end up being the best it ever *will* look… because, again, while it *is* superb, we’ve all seen just how great things *can* look on this format when done straight up!! And in my opinion, JC’s films deserve that level of quality-at least eventually! So if nothing else, here’s hoping this isn’t the last iteration/transfer/release to ever be released🤞 And if it is? Well hey, not bad. Not bad at all🫡
I can't comment on the visuals as I have no eyesight I'm totally blind, but the Atmos mix is IMHO a bit of a mess. Gunshots are now more muffled/quieter, some audio cues have been removed, the whole mix sounds thin. Which is to say there is bass and there is top end, but middle punch is really lacking. They have also done that horrible thing which was done in Aliens 4k, where in certain loud bangs and gunshots have had a bass boom put over the top of them. Often one which is not in sync. You can hear this when he fires the larger single shot weapons, it's most notable when Rease shoots the terminator in the night club multiple times in rapid succession. There are also at least to my ears, some true audio mistakes in the mix. For example the coughing in the shelter in the future now has a weird echo delay on it for no reason. It should not be there. Some of the music cues are a mix of UK and US audio, by which I mean some parts of the music drones are pitched lower or higher than the music they lead into. This seems to be the case in the 1st dream future war scene near the start. It's not holy bad, it's just also not very good. My impression is they worked hard on the opening future war scene which does IMHO sound really good,, they added the sliding metal sound back into the credits which people complained about when it was removed for the DVD/blu ray, but the rest feels a bit slapdash. if they took as much time on the audio as I guess they did on the visuals, they could have done a lot more with it.
My understanding is that it’s based on the 2012/2013 blu ray master, which was a 4k scan, but finished at 2k. So instead of rescanning the negative, or taking the older scan, but now presenting it in native 4k, they just took the old 2k master and upscaled that.
@@williamdriver1959 Because using the 4K scan would have produced even better results and the fact that a 4K scan was available and they didn't use it it such a waste!
The atmos is good but not better than the very first blu rays LPCM uncompressed 5.1 . That audrio track is still one of the best on the old first blu ray
To my eyes, this looked too clean and overly sharpened, with little if any grain. It reminded me of Titanic, but this is supposed to be a dark gritty movie so it feels out of place here. I’m glad you mentioned it’s a 2K upscale, many reviewers are getting that wrong. 🍻
@@FastEddie86regarding Usual Suspects, any review by Svet Atanasov on the website can be ignored imo. They’re the main guy who reviews Criterions on the site, and a lot of the time they just whine about how ”it doesn’t look like how i remember it” or ”it doesn’t look like my old blu ray”. Like he did that with Mean Streets criterion, saying it doesn’t look like how he remembered it, Mean Streets came out 50 years ago btw, no way he would remember the color timing on it, if he even saw in 1973. So if you see a review by him, i’d say look elsewhere.
Because the video is revisionist pretending to be not and people who originally saw this in theatre know this is not how this film looks on film with minimal manipulation instead it's been processed beyond its original form which is a serious offense to proper restoration work/preservation.
You are saying this 4K UHD Blu-ray is a 2K upgraded to 4K but every other reviewer of this 4K blu-ray of this movie say this is a 4K scan of the original 35mm negative.
Adam, you are one of the very few bluray reviewers I watch, but you are way wrong with this one. This is yet another terrible James Cameron disc. AI upscale dnr with fake grain and wrong colors. It's awful, sorry folks. I want this to be a beautiful transfer like everyone, but reality is that this is an awful transfer. That's just reality. Sometimes bluray collectors want a transfer to be good so badly that we overlook bad transfers. This is a bad transfer. Objectively trash. I know it has the mono, but I'm taking picture. I love you, Adam, but we diagree on this.
@busuncle2006 "2013 AI upscale with dnr, fake grain, wrong colors. Could have been a native 4K with original film grain, original colors and no AI tinkering, but at least it doesn't have any of those. Good enough." -- Most people. I'm sure glad I don't think like everyone else then.
This has no business being an A, or an A-, for that matter, in my opinion (unless you're comparing this to previous Cameron releases). Nowhere close. Get ready for more AI upscaled fake-detail-driven 'remasters'
Amazon Affiliate Link:
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This link works, but the link in your video description does not, so you might want to fix the description.
I’m from James Cameron’s home town, Niagara Falls. He’s a local legend, theatres here are always packed for his films.
I’m upset that my copy is caught in transit right now, damn Canada Post strike!
Great 4k transfer!! I also loved that the original sound effects were included. Love this movie!!
I agree. This is what True Lies should’ve looked like
I just watched it last night and wow, very impressed. I love that it was full screen too!
It's second to only Titanic's transfer.
Always liked the mono gun sounds!
Only took 20+ years to get them again, but at least they're here again on this 4K release
The scene when Sarah rolls up in the scooter was actually amazing! 1:59
I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this magnificent film in most of the home theater formats…plus during the original theatrical run. I own the VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and now…the 4K Blu-ray release. Looking forward to playing the latest format on my Oppo UDP-203 and my LG 65” OLED. From this and other reviews, I hear The Terminator has never looked so good.
Good transfer and audio is really good
"You can't do that*."
"Wrong!"
BANG!
*A.I. upscaling
My copy came today can't wait to watch it on my day off work but great review ☺️
Love your reviewa on blurays thanks for the videos and time
I like this release a lot, it looks very well for a mid-low budget 1984, movie, I wish studios would put more love to the menus, but oh well, it is what it is
Introducing my son to this movie with this release. Can’t wait to watch it.
Mine just came yesterday. looking forward to it
Already have it in my house. Cant wait to watch it Saturday.
Hey Adam 👋 The Terminator looks and sounds spectacular on 4k 👌
We need a new transfer of T2 and art that matches this steelbook, this way, it’s a matching set. The rest of the sequels don’t need them, just T2.
Love the transfer on this 4k
How doesn't skynet have a visual of Sarah o conner for the terminator? Arnold using the yellow pages to eliminate every Sarah o Connor doesn't seem futuristic to me LOL
All the records were destroyed in the war…
amazing transfer, a must own release
Have the UK release which doesn't get a digital code (that stopped here years back) but we do get a blu ray in the steelbook. No extra extras though.
That's where I got mine. For some reason it was the UK 4K and the steelbook. Definitely bare Bones though but that's okay.
Luckily in Ireland 🇮🇪 Adam our release included the blu ray also. I was very pleased with this transfer and makes me wonder why we got such an awful transfer for Terminator 2 ! Maybe they'll redo it someday ! Thanks for posting. Regards Alan
I cant wait to get this timeless classic for Christmas
How it is an upscale from 2K as MGM and Fox did a 4K transfer in 2013? I have read review from Digitalbits, but I honestly believe that this is a native 4K presentation
It is a native 4K . It's not upscale like Aliens because as you stated also , the remastered blu ray was sourced from a new 4K scan
No. It is an upscale.
The detail increase is too great for me to believe that it's not a native 4K transfer. Also, all these people saying "AI", there's no real signs of it that I can tell.
@Bigtymer781 it is an upscale of the 2013 master with the same revisionist colour grade
@TannerBartko It has ai upscale but it's a proper native 4k because the terminator had a 4k scan done for the last blu ray, but this also has ai upsclaling
Still seething after my steelbook was left on my porch smashed from the carrier. Case looked like it was put through a hydraulic press coincidentally. So much for that. I had to return it with no replacement to be had.
I think Arrow would have done a better job with the 4k of The Terminator, we might have got more extras and a box set?.
Saw this new version at the cinema a couple of months ago. I thought it looked fantastic and sounded good too.
Black Friday purchase, I can wait.
About the film stock used it's been described as "color rendition is pretty poor in shadows and pastel tones. And the whole thing is very grainy" If you see good shadows and pastel tones and very little grain you know a bunch of tinkering occurred in this release that are not what the film shows even in its most pristine condition and minimal tools to enhance.
Killer 4k.
I'll be back.
It does not look like film in those screenshots. It looks enhanced. I wonder why they would not bother to give popular movies like this a fresh 4K scan.
Thank you. I’m surprised people are okay with this look. AI being used for The Beatles Get Back I understood because of what they were working with, but it’s not exactly 4K sharp. The smaller the detail the more uncanny it looks, like hair strands or face wrinkles
Good to know Cameron didn't do anything crazy with the AI on The Terminator. I just wished Cameron would put the elongated blue smurfs to rest and make an amazing movie like The Terminator, Aliens or True Lies again...
Got mine in from Amazon yesterday watched it immediately. It looked absolutely fantastic. Great transfer and superior to the 1080 Blu Ray version. They did a much better upgrade than Terminator 2. And yes I noticed a great difference in detail.
Its too clean looking with no film grain which I thought it gave the movie a grittier. look.
Does it also contain a normal Blu-ray Disc non 4K does anyone know?
It doesn't
@ thank you
Great review Adam! I was pleasantly surprised by this transfer and the option of having the original theatrical audio is a plus. While this is Schwarzeneggar's movie, I'm always surprised that Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn didn't become big stars as well. They are the emotional depth of the movie and they are both great in this film (and others I've seen them in). Thanks again Adam!
diggin the outro video scene with you placing it on your shelf
I give this an A, maybe even A+ if you consider the detail increase from the blu-ray. I've paused and looked at many scenes, sitting close to my OLED TV, there's no way that AI came up with all the details I see.
How could it have more actual detail if it’s a 2K scan that is upscaled?? The only additional detail from a blue-ray would be AI. Maybe the Do,by Vision grading enhances some contrast but it doesn’t have more detail than what the scan contains.
@@DarkKnight-gw4gw I don't think it's actually a 2K scan.
Very fair, honest, and thorough review 😁 Certainly a great transfer, all things considered!
Regarding said considerations, though… while I totally accept this great disc, I still must admit that I don’t quite get why Cameron insists on this whole “circle the block just to cross the street” method of only taking old 2K DIs of his films and going through all the trouble/effort/money of polishing them up with Park Road Post’s AI + various other artificial means, just to get it to merely *look* [somewhat] like a legitimate/straight up 4K transfer… to me, that just seems like extra work for a lesser (albeit in this case still excellent!] result!😅
Especially when the alternative is to just take the “straight across the street” path, put in the (arguably less/easier) work by just doing the industry standard treatment that all other classic films tend to receive: original camera negative, scanned at 4K-or even 6K (or *really* future proof it with 8K, like The Fugitive!) then slap it onto a 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc at a native/true 4K presentation👍 Cheaper, easier, better-wins all around!
But hey, all my moping aside, and for whatever JC’s reasons are, there’s still no denying that this truly is the absolute best The Terminator has *ever* looked!! My only hope is that (if only for historical/preservation purposes) this won’t end up being the best it ever *will* look… because, again, while it *is* superb, we’ve all seen just how great things *can* look on this format when done straight up!! And in my opinion, JC’s films deserve that level of quality-at least eventually! So if nothing else, here’s hoping this isn’t the last iteration/transfer/release to ever be released🤞
And if it is? Well hey, not bad. Not bad at all🫡
2:33 “2.0 mono track” That would be called stereo.
Nope, split mono.
I bought The Terminator 4K UHD from Amazon
Just got mine in the mail today from orbit.
I got my movie The Terminator 4K
This OG 4k was a serious relief, then I watched the T2 4k and... bleh! Honestly if I was not looking for it I may have missed most of the AI smearing.
I just wish they'd redo the horrible looking 4K release of T2. Having the uncut Ultimate Edition in 4K has been #1 on my 4K wish list from the start.
I can't comment on the visuals as I have no eyesight I'm totally blind, but the Atmos mix is IMHO a bit of a mess. Gunshots are now more muffled/quieter, some audio cues have been removed, the whole mix sounds thin. Which is to say there is bass and there is top end, but middle punch is really lacking. They have also done that horrible thing which was done in Aliens 4k, where in certain loud bangs and gunshots have had a bass boom put over the top of them. Often one which is not in sync. You can hear this when he fires the larger single shot weapons, it's most notable when Rease shoots the terminator in the night club multiple times in rapid succession.
There are also at least to my ears, some true audio mistakes in the mix. For example the coughing in the shelter in the future now has a weird echo delay on it for no reason. It should not be there. Some of the music cues are a mix of UK and US audio, by which I mean some parts of the music drones are pitched lower or higher than the music they lead into. This seems to be the case in the 1st dream future war scene near the start.
It's not holy bad, it's just also not very good. My impression is they worked hard on the opening future war scene which does IMHO sound really good,, they added the sliding metal sound back into the credits which people complained about when it was removed for the DVD/blu ray, but the rest feels a bit slapdash. if they took as much time on the audio as I guess they did on the visuals, they could have done a lot more with it.
Watched it last night one of the best transfers I’ve seen in a while sound was awesome too
I'm hyped for mine when it comes
Is it fair to call it a transfer?
Oh it's a 2K master, I thought it was an old 4K scan!
My understanding is that it’s based on the 2012/2013 blu ray master, which was a 4k scan, but finished at 2k. So instead of rescanning the negative, or taking the older scan, but now presenting it in native 4k, they just took the old 2k master and upscaled that.
@@ShiftyMarmot That's disappointing they had a perfectly good 4K scan and didn't use it!
@@entertainmentwizard2703it looks amazing. Why does it matter.
@@williamdriver1959 Because using the 4K scan would have produced even better results and the fact that a 4K scan was available and they didn't use it it such a waste!
@ I don’t know. It looks pretty damn good imo.
I can’t believe this is t a criterion title
Can you make out Arnie's hog when he walks up to those punkers?
“washing day, nothing clean, right? “
You’re popping your p’s , ie Paint, Impactful. You should get a microphone screen
Great, detailed but thankfully succinct review of this film. The best review of this disc on YT yet. Thank you!
They had me at Atmos. I thought the Blu Ray 5.1 remix was active
¡100 Dollasrs! Holy cow!
The atmos is good but not better than the very first blu rays LPCM uncompressed 5.1 . That audrio track is still one of the best on the old first blu ray
To my eyes, this looked too clean and overly sharpened, with little if any grain. It reminded me of Titanic, but this is supposed to be a dark gritty movie so it feels out of place here. I’m glad you mentioned it’s a 2K upscale, many reviewers are getting that wrong. 🍻
Almost perfect if not for an upscaled 2K scan. Why not a 4K scan for this one as so many other older and less impactful movies have had? 🤦♂️
I wonder why blue-ray site only gave it a 3.5 on the visual
They’re no.1 but not 💯 right all the time
I watched usual suspects 4k and it was a very rewarding viewing.
@@FastEddie86regarding Usual Suspects, any review by Svet Atanasov on the website can be ignored imo. They’re the main guy who reviews Criterions on the site, and a lot of the time they just whine about how ”it doesn’t look like how i remember it” or ”it doesn’t look like my old blu ray”. Like he did that with Mean Streets criterion, saying it doesn’t look like how he remembered it, Mean Streets came out 50 years ago btw, no way he would remember the color timing on it, if he even saw in 1973.
So if you see a review by him, i’d say look elsewhere.
@@ShiftyMarmot yes I’ve criticised him in the comments before. He’s getting a bad rep. Not good for a Dr.
Because the video is revisionist pretending to be not and people who originally saw this in theatre know this is not how this film looks on film with minimal manipulation instead it's been processed beyond its original form which is a serious offense to proper restoration work/preservation.
You are saying this 4K UHD Blu-ray is a 2K upgraded to 4K but every other reviewer of this 4K blu-ray of this movie say this is a 4K scan of the original 35mm negative.
Arnold's sausage !
now Reese too 🌭
Hey buddy you got a dead cat in there or what
An informative, but unenthusiastic (sounded bored) review. Thanks 👍
On second thought it’s not bad. Pretty decent job reading the script with some inflection. That and I appreciate all the screenshots.
Interesting. Better than Cameron's horseshit transfers from recent
Its minor upgrade ive check both blu and 4k .its a con
Ugly steelbook.
Adam, you are one of the very few bluray reviewers I watch, but you are way wrong with this one. This is yet another terrible James Cameron disc. AI upscale dnr with fake grain and wrong colors. It's awful, sorry folks. I want this to be a beautiful transfer like everyone, but reality is that this is an awful transfer. That's just reality. Sometimes bluray collectors want a transfer to be good so badly that we overlook bad transfers. This is a bad transfer. Objectively trash. I know it has the mono, but I'm taking picture. I love you, Adam, but we diagree on this.
Well that’s your opinion not other people.
@busuncle2006 "2013 AI upscale with dnr, fake grain, wrong colors. Could have been a native 4K with original film grain, original colors and no AI tinkering, but at least it doesn't have any of those. Good enough." -- Most people. I'm sure glad I don't think like everyone else then.
This has no business being an A, or an A-, for that matter, in my opinion (unless you're comparing this to previous Cameron releases). Nowhere close. Get ready for more AI upscaled fake-detail-driven 'remasters'