Yaaay, finally my UHD copy arrived!
Only watched one episode so far as this is my first UHD and HDR content on XB1 so I was mostly testing and comparing to set everything up.
Luckily I already have spent a LOT of time with PS4 games to configure my custom SDR and HDR modes on my TV, so it was mostly fine-tuning for the XB1S / a new HDMI input (btw most important setting is to set the blacks to high for XB1S as otherwise there will be blackcrush).
Like all UHD Blu-rays, PE2 comes with the standard Blu-ray version included.
That allowed me to play the Blu-ray version via PS4 and the UHD version via XB1S and then just switch between the channels back and forth.
Thoughts:
- The higher resolution is probably the smallest noticeable difference. This is similar to games I guess, it's just diminishing returns at this point. Still, I can appreciate that everything just looks a bit sharper and crisp, even so when you get close to the TV. You won't really see more details suddenly but the Blu-ray is noticeably more blurry for stuff like fur etc.
The difference in resolution/sharpness from DVD to BD was definitely more noticeable back then. I should also mention that image quality in PE2 varies even in 4K a bit depending on the scene and lighting, some scenes you know they had their best cameras set up perfectly and that footage just really pops.
- The HDR is sooooo good. Even on my non-OLED with mediocre HDR capabilities. I think I will upgrade my TV sooner this time, maybe in a few years when those peak-brightness models are standard.
Sidenote: My TV has 3 HDR preset modes and the standard/bright ones are pretty good with natural colors, but still required some calibration to disable some smoothing post-processing etc. Also, unlike SDR the warm presets look really bad so I definitely left it at neutral in HDR to get natural looking colors.
Switching back and forth between the UHD and Blu-ray version made the BR look so bland in comparison haha. You simply cannot reach that pop/contrast of HDR without sacrificing image quality and natural look in SDR.
For gaming folks: it's basically on the same level as switching HDR and SDR in FFXV.
- The UHD image gets rid of virtually all artifacts you can detect in the Blu-ray.
Right in the intro the cgi sun will produce some heavy color banding BR but in 4K with the wider color space there is literally no color banding, just a perfect gradient.
Other things noticeable are flickering/noisy shadows on BR while the UHD image in those scenes is crystal clear. I wonder if that's actually an artifact from the codec though (H.264 vs HEVC).
There are 3x 60 min episodes on one 50 GB Blu-ray disc each, with a bit of extras. Each 1080i episode is ca. 12.7 GB big (H.264). Obviously I can't check that for UHD but as the discs are 66 GB UHD BRs I would estimate each 2160p episode to be ca. 20+ GB - and that's without extras, 10 min shorter (the making of part is not available in 4K) and in HEVC codec.
Once my curiosity was satisfied, I could really enjoy watching the episode in the highest quality possible (and FINALLY, maxing out my TV). I'm glad I waited with my first watch for this experience. As it was already said constantly in this thread, the actual content is amazing of course.
Bonus: I really, really like getting the standard Blu-ray included. I'm currently ripping them onto my Plex server for convenience / having a digital copy that is better than streaming versions.
Edit: Oh wow, there are differences in the actual episodes between the Blu-ray and the UHD version!
Seems to only affect the start and end of the episodes, but e.g. in the Cities episode the 4K version starts with Singapore's Gardens by the Bay at night (which looks fantastic) and then goes to the Hong Kong scene. That night scene seems to be completely missing in the 1080p version from what I can tell. Then at the end, the voice-over monologue within the same scene is different. Probably to account for the missing transition into the David Attenborough scenes.
Maybe the UHD is some kind of international edition?