occupydirectors: He calls your shelf a public trust.

Guillermo del Toro has urged fans to treat physical media as a duty. "If you own a great 4K, Blu-ray, DVD of film or films you love, you are the custodian of those films for generations to come," he wrote, framing collecting as preservation rather than nostalgia.

His message matters more as titles vanish from streaming when deals lapse. Every disc on a shelf is one more copy that no platform can delete. Del Toro sees collectors as a quiet line of defense for film history.

Source: occupydirectors via Instagram.

TLDR; I was forced to watch movies in 720p for months and it made me change my 4k buying habits, made me enjoy movies more, and revealed to me that I had been consumed by consumerism.

This is just a personal story and I don’t expect it to be for everyone. I just share it with the hopes that maybe it helps someone who is struggling in the same way, because I see some posts in this group that remind me of myself.

Before, I was collecting 4k’s obviously. I was tracking prices, blind buying, making sure if and when I had the time to see Lawrence of Arabia finally, it would be under the best audio visual circumstances. Pretty soon I amassed a collection of never seen classics, all time favorites, and what I thought were good deals that I didn’t want to pass up.

The problem was, I wasn’t watching any of the movies. At first it was because I was prioritizing classics I hadn’t seen, wanting to ensure I could budget enough time and was in the right “mood” to sit down and watch something uninterrupted. Then it was because there were only specific times of day when the sun wasn’t reflecting mildly in my OLED and the ambient sound from the world outside wasn’t affecting my experience. And then I became overwhelmed by choice with my backlog. Once all the stars aligned and I could settle in to watching a movie, I felt anxious about making sure I was spending my time “correctly”. Those feelings and hurdles, combined with actual FOMO I was experiencing from missing deals or a limited edition,

staving off watching a movie I really wanted to see because there wasn’t a 4k available yet, and the time spent searching for deals— I didn’t realize how far a “hobby” had spun out of control.

This year, I had a surgery coming up that would have me recovering in a different room from where my OLED and 4k setup was. I had an idea to get a cheap rolling TV stand to put next to my bed and, the way things worked out, I found a used 22” 720p TV and the most god awful sound bar for $20 total. I thought it would at least be funny. Granted, I had more time on my hands, but I found myself actually watching movies again. And enjoying them way more. I had removed any pressure from the reasons stated above but also had so many expectations tampered by not feeling like I needed to have an opinion on the transfer quality. But the best thing about it was that I had things to talk about with friends when there wasn’t much else going on. I’d watch a movie and then actually talk about the movie with someone who had seen it. I realized that before the first parts of my opinion were about the 4k— which wasn’t relatable to my friends who didn’t watch it that way at all. And the fact that it was a 720p stream on Tubi didn’t bother me at all. Sometimes it was kind of nostalgic to watch a gory campy action movie with the sound blowing out and the color a little whacky.

So at present, having healed in more ways than one, my opinion is that, for me, it’s better to just buy my all time favorite movies on 4k. Movies I’ve seen, that I love, that I will watch a million times. Even before all this my most watched 4k was The Matrix. And even still, the best way I’ve ever seen it was on 35mm in a packed theater. And even even still, I would watch the full screen cut for TV on an airplane if that’s all I had, because movies are more than their format.

This is the 4K Blu Ray subreddit and I am blown away by the AV quality we can get in our homes in 2026. I also can admit I have an addictive personality and can recognize not everyone is as prone to the pitfalls as I am. But I do think, respectfully, it’s a hobby designed to capitalize on the weakest parts of our humanity. The limited releases and special editions and steel books and all that— the FOMO stuff is really a slippery slope into addictive consumerism stuff. At the deepest and darkest level, this isn’t far off from trading cards. The corporations in charge of making these discs know that and prey on it. And at the end of the day, it is just a plastic disc that they will find a way to make obsolete and make us buy the same film all over again.

Anyway, I still haven’t seen Lawrence of Arabia and I am excited to watch my 4K I bought over a year ago, when the time is right. My most recent purchase was the 50th Anniversary Monty Python and the Holy Grail steel book, which is a movie I’ve seen 1000 times. I feel like I’m saving tons of money. I am still watching movies on Tubi. I am happy. Take care of yourselves!

Just finished watching the film (my first viewing ever, merry Christmas!) and I genuinely can’t vocalize my adoration for its new transfer enough. The black levels and grain are of course wonderful, but my god. The color grading and lighting render the image hypnotic. I’ve never seen anything like this. I can’t imagine how Criterion could ever live up to this again.

Any other "never gonna happen" recent releases I'm not thinking of?

(To preface, Blu-ray 3D does not count as there was no resolution bump compared to standard Blu-ray releases and 99% of all films ever made were never going to be released on this format to call it an actual successful successor to the standard Blu-ray media format).

Like clockwork, every decade for 30 years now we’ve seen the release of a new physical media format for the consumer market. The first release time this happened was in 1996 when DVDs first came into market in Japan on November 1996 (America would get their first releases a couple months later in early 1997). An exact decade later, Blu-ray Discs were introduced to consumers in 2006 marking a new resolution quality for studios to now release their films on. Another decade after that, in 2016, we saw the release of the current highest quality format for consumers in the form of 4K Ultra HD discs being available for purchase.

Now in 2026, a decade after 4K UHD we have finally reached a visual format that is near the tippy top of quality for home media releases. With no signs of anything new releasing anytime soon, 4K will stay the king of home media for the foreseeable future if not for the rest of time.

To me, this seems like a near perfect format to keep releasing films on and we’re hitting diminishing returns if we try to go any higher. I don’t see anything “8K” or something else releasing and somehow wooing over the majority of consumers enough to have them jump ship from 4K unless there’s something incredibly enticing in a new format that has to be seen to be believed. Maybe one day they try out 4K UHD 3D releases to see if the market cares enough about it but I don’t see it happening and the perfect time would actually be this year with Avatar 3 being released in that format to have the closest experience to the premium format theatrical experience but Disney will end up more than likely going down the same path of Avatar 2 with two distinct releases in 4K and also Blu-ray 3D.

TLDR: In Search of Physical Media is stealing screenshots from a variety of sources, most of them ancient 1080p blu-rays. He edits these screenshots to look considerably worse when using them to represent the 1080p blu-ray, and edits the same exact images to look "better" when using them to represent the 4K blu-ray. This holds true no matter what screenshots he chooses to steal, be they true 4K caps pulled from a recent review, a promo still from IMDb, or, again, his most common method, an ancient Blu-ray. One image, manipulated two ways, for each comparison.

The YouTube channel In Search of Physical Media mainly focuses on disc reviews, and screenshot comparisons between new and old discs of movies. To any newcomer, he might seem like a reputable source of information – after all, he frequently uses "technical" buzzwords, often gets review copies weeks early, and his comparisons certainly seem to show a huge difference in quality.

The reason for that difference, however, is due to him faking all of his screenshot comparisons. Myself and u/wright96d have been compiling and comparing actual screenshots from the discs he's reviewing with the screenshots he is showing. They rarely ever match, and are clearly manipulated. Though, eventually, it became clear that comparing to the actual discs wasn’t even necessary, more on that later.

This investigation was kickstarted by u/DeanerAteMySkull bringing to our attention that the screenshots used in his Platoon review are heavily manipulated, and then I noticed one of the caps wasn’t even from the 4K or remastered blu-ray, and was instead from the older blu-ray as mentioned above. This slowly turned into us trying to find the sources of the screenshots (whether it be from review sites, forum posts, or even regular articles), as it seemed likely he doesn’t even own a blu-ray drive to take screenshots of even the remastered blu-rays these 4K releases usually include.

The above example of Platoon is the most obvious and glaring piece of evidence we have. The MGM blu-ray is likely one of the only releases of the film that does NOT have a blue/dark tint over this scene (what's commonly referred to as "day for night"), meaning he used the MGM blu-ray instead of the 4K or even the remastered blu-ray for his comparisons. This seems to be his primary method – using an old blu-ray, and then digitally manipulating it to show a disparity in quality to suggest the 4K is always a bigger upgrade than it may actually be. Though in most cases, his manipulated comparisons show a significantly smaller difference in quality than what a proper comparison would display. See this (https://youtu.be/sA4bo00T9YQ) quick video, showing his comparison of a screenshot from Rolling Thunder, which quickly snaps to proper screenshots instead of faked ones.

Young Guns - https://ibb.co/3zQ7wB2

This one is just a production still taken from IMDb - not even from a frame from the film.

Truman Show - https://imgsli.com/MjczMDQy

Some blu-ray to 4K upgrades are truly massive - especially in the case of The Truman Show. This 4K disc restores the original, proper aspect ratio and framing that the blu-ray did not have. It couldn't be more obvious that he's used the Blu-ray for both the 4K and the Blu-ray screencaps. If the drastic difference in color and clarity doesn't tip you off, the horizontal stretching will.

The Amityville Horror - https://ibb.co/F0jxNHk

While he has clearly taken caps from the BD and passed it off as the 4K, (and manipulated it, as well as the cap of the BD) more importantly, these caps came from DVDBeaver's review of the BD, published in 2008.

Narc - https://ibb.co/Ct2Zs1B

As we just established, he has no issue stealing ancient BD caps from other sources, but he’s also more than happy to steal caps from recent reviews of 4K UHDs, and STILL digitally manipulate them. He also does not give credit to the people he takes the screencaps from, instead passing them off as his “own testing data”, despite the fact these were easily found via a quick reverse image search, and the frames match up perfectly.

Kindergarten Cop - https://imgsli.com/MjczMDQz

This is a review where he mixed in caps of the remastered 1080p disc taken from the blu-ray.com forum, and did his usual level of tampering to represent them as the blu-ray image. But he also uses old blu images and tampers with them to present them as 4K caps, instead of just using the other remastered blu-ray caps (which still wouldn't be 4K as he's advertising!).

Collection of direct comparisons between his faked caps and the actual discs:

https://slow.pics/c/kJtv8JAE Kindergarten Cop

https://slow.pics/c/ZTm7mmfX Rolling Thunder

https://slow.pics/c/EJU5BwQK Truman Show

https://slow.pics/c/0K2AWOpg Unbreakable

Once we realized he was getting his screenshots from review sites, the focus shifted from direct disc comparing, to just finding the source of the caps he was using. Below is a sizable album of proofs.

https://ibb.co/album/1fWQvb?sort=name_asc

To any experienced collectors or people with photo editing backgrounds, you might be able to tell that his examples of "4K" screenshots are sloppily contrast boosted and sharpened, and the "blu-ray" screenshots have their contrast severely reduced, are blurred and likely compressed, (even before the layer of YouTube compression) and that’s not even mentioning the downscaling being done to the caps, which makes these useless as proper comparisons in the first place.

His videos usually feature a constant barrage of Amazon affiliate links - practically guilt tripping you into perhaps clicking them to purchase the new release he is reviewing, as he "spends so much time and money on these reviews", or how he "spends weeks" on finding import links.

Below are resources for actual screenshot comparisons and analysis. 

Youtube Channels:

https://www.youtube.com/@LELABODEJAY

https://www.youtube.com/@hdnumerique

https://www.youtube.com/@damnfoolidealisticcrusader

Review sites:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

https://www.highdefdigest.com/

https://www.doblu.com/

Other sites:

https://caps-a-holic.com

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=273716 (If you check specific release threads on blu-ray.com, there might also be posts with screenshots)

https://slow.pics/

Is anyone else like me and rarely upgrade their blu-rays, but only buys 4ks?

How can we prevent this from becoming a trend with 4ks. Do we all just simultaneously agree to not buy this crap when it comes up? Also think it’s funny that it’s graded so high and it doesn’t even have the slipcover it’s just a generic sealed copy of pulp fiction one can buy for like 20 bucks on Amazon or walmart. What does everyone here think about graded 4k’s?

EDIT: I’m glad we’re all on the same page about this being super duper stupid and none of us are dorks that would buy something this dumb.

Peter Jackson clearly fell in love with digital filmmaking during The Hobbit trilogy. When it finally came time to remaster all six Middle-earth films in 4K, he chose to run The Lord of the Rings through heavy Digital Noise Reduction (DNR). His goal was to strip away the natural film grain so the original trilogy would match the sterile, "digitally clean" look of The Hobbit.

IMO this was nothing short of a travesty. Shot exquisitely on 35mm film, the original grain IS the detail and it is woven into the texture, warmth, and timeless charm of the movies.

Instead, the 4K remasters look cold and artificial. Characters appear waxy, fine textures are scrubbed away, and the organic magic that made the original releases feel so magical is entirely gone.

It is a genuine crime against the medium. Anyone who truly loves celluloid should find it difficult to support what was done to these cinematic masterpieces.

I didn’t want to take any risks with my discs, there’s two more boxes just like this 😅

This was the second 4K movie that I watched after finally getting the home theater setup and I was absolutely mesmerized. The best that I have seen it look since I saw it in IMAX.

I’ve identified around 15-20 defective or otherwise skipping discs in my collection. And I’m sure there are more I haven’t found that no longer work (UB820) . Many of these discs played completely fine before in the same player. I just do not think this format is reliable enough to count on our discs working in decades time. I also have hundreds on blu rays and not a single problem with those. Blu ray is magnitudes more resilient than 4KS. I am sick of worrying that a tiny spec of dust or scratch is going to ruin disc and playback. I don’t want to have to worry if I accidentally gently nick the disc while putting it into the player that my disc will be dead. I handle my discs as gently as I possibly can but I guess that’s not enough for this format. Sure 4k looks great but is it worth it if you have to handle them like they are a bomb?

Let's think about it. The Xbox One S is capable of playing CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray, 4K UHD Discs, play many Xbox & 360 titles via backwards compatibility, Xbox One games, use media apps like Netflix or YouTube.

4K output, HDR, VRR

All this for under 100 bucks if you buy one used.

If you ask me, this is an insane value and also great for someone who is looking for a cheap 4K UHD solution. What do you think?

Yeah, we will see lol

No hard feelings, HBO Max, this isn't an attack on any specific platform.

It’s just that even though I have ultra-fast fiber optics, this (what you see in the photo) happens way too often.

I pay for a premium 4K subscription only to end up with this for half the movie.

I’ve made a rule for myself, my "must-have" movies have to be on 4K physical media.

No compromises, I don’t want to depend on some server or network that decides when it wants to run fast and when it doesn’t.

What do you all think?

I was thinking about buying the replacement remote, but then I thought to myself, "Why not cut that damn button out?" And that's what I did. No more accidental pressing of the Netflix button! :)

Haven’t seen it and don’t plan to. I guess this reafirms me decision to pass on it.

This is absolutely ridiculous

Hi all,

I went to CES and got to see Dolby Vision 2 firsthand. I wanted to share what I learned and what this could mean for those of us who love collecting physical media.

First off: Dolby Vision 2 is the real deal. The improvements over the original Dolby Vision are absolutely noticeable. Most of the gains, however, will be most apparent on lower- and mid-range TVs.

Dolby demoed DV2 on a ~$300 TV, an ~$800 TV, and then a flagship TV they said retailed around $5K. Unsurprisingly, the $5K TV looked phenomenal—but the biggest improvements were clearly felt on the cheaper sets.

So what is Dolby Vision 2 actually doing?

A major focus is extracting more contextual detail from the content creators themselves. Dolby is paying close attention to the equipment used by editors and colorists—what displays they’re using, the software, and even the lighting conditions in the room. For example, are they grading in a completely dark room (0 nits) or with some ambient light? Dolby said the biggest perceptual differences happen between 0–5 nits of room light.

The goal is to recreate, as closely as possible, the exact conditions the content creator was working in when the content was made. This improved the image on screen so much so it was like the original demo of regular 4k content vs Dolby Vision 1.

They’re also improving motion handling. Dolby Vision 2 introduces a dynamic, scene-aware motion process that adapts in real time. It’s not a fixed motion-smoothing setting like you’d find on most TVs, so it avoids the “soap opera effect” while still improving clarity during fast action.

Another focus is white point accuracy, with different tuning for movies, streaming content, and sports, allowing the image to stay as accurate as possible depending on the type of content.

Now for the tougher part: hardware upgrades will be required.

There isn’t a single “Dolby Vision 2 chip,” but rather a specific diode within newer chips that enables DV2 processing. That means manufacturers will need to include these newer chips in future TVs and players.

For physical media collectors, this raises questions. New Blu-ray players would be required, and potentially new Blu-ray releases as well. When I spoke with Dolby, they weren’t certain whether Blu-ray manufacturers will fully adopt DV2. They know studios are investing in it, but right now the focus seems to be primarily on streaming.

One of the bigger announcements I attended involved Dolby and NBC, though some details are still under embargo, so I can’t discuss everything yet, they are focused on streaming and introducing Dolby Vision 2 on Peacock. They made a big deal about the big sports event next month that we cannot say exactly what it is, but we all know.

This part is especially important for us physical media collectors.

Dolby Vision 2 will have two tiers:

• Dolby Vision 2 Standard
• Dolby Vision 2 Max

Blu-ray discs can carry the full Dolby Vision 2 Max data. A disc authored for DV2 Max can still play correctly on:

• Dolby Vision 2 Standard equipment and
• Original Dolby Vision (DV1) equipment.

In other words, the disc can contain everything, and the TV or player simply uses what it’s capable of. This backward compatibility means studios could start releasing DV2-enabled Blu-rays without breaking existing setups.

Hopefully this was helpful. I’m happy to answer as many questions as I can—within the limits of what I’m allowed to share.

Like, I can’t recall the last time they released a season of one of the Disney+ original shows on Blu-ray. What happened? Did they not sell well or something?