What’s more, unlike some 4,000 nit transfers, the authenticity of the colors seems enhanced rather than diminished by having so much light behind them. Skin tones illuminated by stage lights Ally’s bright orange hair towards the end caught by sunlight the LEDs shining out from the darkness of recording studio/mixing vans neon bar signs… Everything just looks more vibrant, more dynamic and more compelling on the 4K Blu-ray than it does on the HD one. But actually, maybe I would.Ĭolors, finally, are gorgeously enriched compared with the HD, SDR Blu-ray. I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say you haven’t really seen what HDR can do until you’ve seen A Star Is Born on a TV able to do justice to a healthy amount of the transfer’s 4,000 nits. But no other Warners title I’ve seen has not only made such consistently great use of all those nits, but also delivered them in a picture that looks so scintillatingly natural and lifelike - regardless of whether you’re watching a dimly lit interior, a sun-drenched exterior, or, best of all, one of the film’s stage performances.īrotherly love. By which I mean that the film feels much more than most do as if it was planned, lit, shot and staged with high dynamic range in mind.Īs usual with Warner Bros 4K Blu-rays, A Star Is Born has been mastered for 4K Blu-ray to a high maximum luminance of 4000 nits. The use of HDR is also both exceptionally aggressive but also fantastically ‘baked in’. But you’d never guess that for a second from the stunning combination of sharpness and detail that packs pretty much every frame. Astonishingly it appears that the film was only finished in a 2K Digital Intermediate for its cinema release (despite being largely filmed at between 2.8K and 3.4K).

Certainly for the first half hour or so, until I’d got used to the visual splendor, I found myself uttering involuntary ‘wows’ that had nothing to do with the power of the music or performances.ĭetail levels, for starters, are immense.

The picture’s so good, in fact, that it’s almost distracting. One of A Star Is Born's stunningly staged concerts.

A star is born soundtrack covert art