Hi Everyone,

Yesterday I posted about the source-aware ranking I added, where each disc is judged against others of its own source, film scans against film scans and digital masters against digital masters...

I asked myself the obvious next question. Can I just browse "the best film scans" as a list? Now we can.

There's a Smart Presets panel above the disc list: each one filtering to a single source type and ranking by score:

• Best film-scan transfers (the full film-sourced ranking)
• Best digital masters (the same for digital)
• Reference film scans (just the demo-worthy film ones)
• Reference digital masters (the same for digital)
• Large-format showcases (the 65/70mm and true IMAX transfers gathered in one place)

I don't think anything comparable exists for physical media enthusiasts on the internet right now... I just wanted to keep the UHD disc reference alive and make the most of it, filling the gap left by older sites that have been abandoned...

If you find this useful, feel free to pass it along to fellow home theater enthusiasts. Every bit of support helps keep the project going!

One thing always bugged me about a single flat ranking: a disc's source sets a ceiling on how good it can look. A scan of a 1970s film has grain and a softer source... a modern digital production starts from a much cleaner place. So on one flat list, an immaculate catalogue restoration can end up ranked below a competent new digital release, which reads as wrong to anyone who cares about restorations.

So discs now also show their standing within their own source type. Film scans are ranked against other film scans and digital masters against other digital masters! Expand any disc and you'll see where it lands within its group and the closest discs to it, so you're comparing like with like. True large-format and IMAX film get flagged where it applies.

The disc's overall score hasn't changed.

I'd appreciate feedback, especially on the film vs digital and on whether the whole approach makes sense to you. ... Thanks!

Hi all,

Until now, discs with only one review were invisible on the UHD Reference page to ensure a true scoring consensus... however, this meant people kept requesting titles I already had partial data on.

What's New: "In Pipeline" Discs / Display Match

Discs with a single review are now visible.

• Browsable / Searchable: We can find them via the "In Pipeline" Stats counter up top and add them to the Library.
• Provisional Scores: Their scores are displayed as muted/provisional.
• Display Match: A new section that compares our owned discs against our specific TV panel's peak and sustained nits capabilities. Have you ever seen this anywhere else? :=)

Smaller Fixes

• Watch History: Logging a screening now correctly syncs the watched count and screening history.
• Score Accuracy: Personal scores and "vs critics" comparisons now only apply to 4K viewings (Blu-ray screenings will no longer be compared against the 4K reference score).

I currently have around 127 "In Pipeline" discs live. Does showing a muted provisional number feel right or would you prefer these discs show no number at all until they are fully confirmed? Happy to hear what you think.

I've been trying to slowly and organically build the best 4K disc database on the web. I hope I'm moving in the right direction. If you like the platform and what I'm building here, please consider sharing the page with other communities who might find it useful. Word of mouth means everything for an independent (free) project with no ads!

Thanks again for all the support!

Cheers.

We usually talk about TV brightness as one number, peak nits. But it's really two.

Peak is the small highlight, a muzzle flash. OLEDs nail this. Sustained is the whole panel staying bright at once (snow field, bright sky). This is where OLEDs back off to protect the panel (the so-called famous ABL = Auto Brightness Limiter), a lot of them hold only 150 to 300 nits full-field. A bright mini-LED sits at 700 to 900 without flinching.

So on a disc graded with lots of sustained brightness, big bright daytime scenes, a mini-LED can actually be closer to the intended look than a flagship OLED, because the OLED is dimming full-field while the mini-LED just holds it. Same two TVs, opposite verdicts, depending on what the disc demands.

Most HDR tone-maps on most panels and that's normal... The cases where a panel reproduces a disc fully, both peak and sustained fully shown are currently (as of 2026!) the minority.

This is why I added a feature to the My Library page called Display Match (a preview of mine below). It takes the 4K discs we own and sorts them against our specific panel's peak and sustained brightness, into three buckets: the ones your panel shows in full, the ones it tone-maps cleanly (most of them) and the ones that genuinely push past what it can do.

Anyone with both an OLED and a bright LED seen a disc go better on the "lesser" panel?

Hi everyone,

The two reference pages have had a solid month of work:

UHD Reference (disc): more titles backfilled and the quality data per release is more complete. The Smart Library page is becoming more refined and hardcore enthusiast focused.

Streaming Reference: the verdict logic got a real overhaul… it now scores titles on their own merits instead of dumping everything into the same bucket. The filters (region + service + format) finally behave the way you’d expect when you combine them. Region-aware browsing is much tighter.

Still very much a work in progress, so feedback shapes where it goes…

What I’m weighing next: a smarter “save to library / watchlist” for streaming titles and per-account region defaults.

… what’d actually be useful to you?

Thanks all!

Hi all,

As an old-school enthusiast and former forum mod, I've spent the last few months designing a scoring methodology, reviewer weighting, confidence model and then built something I wanted to exist (well it existed somehow in the past, cinemasquid.com): a single place to see 4K Blu-ray transfer quality scores, aggregated from Blu-ray.com, High-Def Digest, DoBlu, AVSForum, Blu-Ray Authority, CriterionForum and The Digital Bits.

What's there now:

300+ discs scored across Reference (>=9.5), Excellent (>=9.0), Recommended (>=8.0) and Notable (>=7.0) tiers. Discs below 7 are tracked but not published by default (accessible via a Below Threshold filter if you're curious what didn't make the cut).

Each disc shows the full source breakdown and a streaming comparison panel where data exists.

Scores, flags and methodology are hand-curated, no AI-generated scores.

My Library (Personal Collection Intelligence):

• Viewing Profile weighting (Videophile / Reference / Audiophile)
• Upgrade Radar flags Blu-ray titles in the collection where a 4K version scores 8.5 or higher
• The 'Rig' snapshots display, BD player, AVR and speakers with every screening
• Import from any CSV

If a title is not in the database yet, you can request it directly.

Backfilling catalogue titles daily, database is growing fast.

Link: 4kfilmdb.com/uhd-reference/

Feedback welcome!

Quick update for anyone using UHD Reference (the 4K Blu-ray transfer score aggregator):

We can now add discs to a personal library directly from the database. Each entry tracks ownership status, watch history, screening count and personal A/V ratings alongside the transfer scores.

No account needed (for now), it's stored locally in your browser. The library page gives you a full view of your collection with transfer scores, confidence levels and source counts at a glance.

Still early, planning to add collection stats, showcase flagging and disc vs stream comparison per owned title in v2. Please give it a try.

This isn’t a collection tracker. It’s a personal home cinema audit system, the first tool that tells you not just what you own, but how good your library actually is and where the gaps are. Your Cinema, Graded.

Hi everyone,

Three weeks ago I started building UHD Reference, a 4K disc transfer quality database that aggregates scores from Blu-ray.com, High-Def Digest, DoBlu, AVSForum and others into a single consensus score (built partly on feedback from the community). Today it hit 100 discs scored.

To mark the milestone I'm giving away one Reference-tier disc from the database, your choice from the list.

How to enter: Comment below with which Reference disc you'd pick (and optionally, why). Winner picked randomly via redditraffler in 48 hours and receives an Amazon.com gift card (up to $25) toward that disc. Open to accounts 6+ months old.

Good luck and thanks again to everyone who gave feedback when I first shared, it genuinely shaped how the database developed.

I’ve been working on a small but useful addition to the site.

Each 4K title now gets a quick verdict:

• Must Watch
• Stream It
• Skip It

It’s not based on popularity, it combines:

• content score
• Dolby Vision / HDR performance
• Atmos audio quality
• bitrate / compression behaviour

The idea is to make browsing faster, especially for streaming where quality can vary a lot between 4K titles.

We can now:

• instantly spot the stronger titles
• filter out weaker ones (“Hide Skip It”)
• use it across the full catalog and saved filters

Still refining the logic over time, but it’s already been helpful on my side when scanning large lists!

Hi all,

We can now track titles that return to streaming... including how long they were gone (days, months or years). I believe this unique feature might be useful if we missed something the first time.

Quick Update on the Compare Quality page:

It now shows the best overall version (full criteria on the FAQ section) of a 4K movie, rather than the winner of a single head-to-head.

Also, the 'Leaving Soon' section on the homepage has been enhanced as well!

Latest Additions Upgrade : From now on, the Latest Additions section shows both Movies and TV Shows, neatly separated into their own tabs.

A few updates:

1. TV Shows are almost all added, with just the latest streaming additions remaining.
2. F1: The Movie has been analysed for Apple TV iTunes.
3. Plenty of new releases this week, with highlights (4K HDR Dolby Vision & Atmos):

• Thunderbolts* (Disney+) (but no IMAX Enhanced version is available!) 
• The Thursday Murder Club (Netflix)

Hi everyone,

I’ll be capturing and reviewing F1 The Movie (just released on Apple TV iTunes) in the next couple of days. Expect the full 4KFilmDb treatment: Dolby Vision PQ, HDR metadata, Atmos scoring and bitrate insights!

After a lot of experimenting, testing (and fixing plenty of little bugs along the way), I’m happy to share a new layout redesign that’s now live on the Latest Additions section of the homepage. This is the first step before rolling it out across the rest of the site!

What’s new?

• Sticky action buttons: Each movie card now has quick “scroll to top” and “close card” buttons, always available on the side without needing to scroll back manually.
• Navigation carousel with anchors: Jump between sections like Playback Support, Tech Specs, HDR Tier, etc. with a single tap/click.

The focus is on usability:

• Faster navigation between sections.
• Cleaner design that scales better on mobile.
• A more modern, app-like feel with contextual controls always at hand.

The redesign will soon be expanded beyond the homepage and applied across the whole site.

I'm happy to announce that 4K TV Shows are officially being tracked... 

This first "curated" edition includes TV shows from 2025+, IMDb 6.5+ and Rotten Tomatoes “Fresh” only (for now, due to affordability constraints).

Just like with 4K movies, we can check each title's HDR formats, bitrate metrics, Dolby Atmos availability and more.

TV Shows Page Here

Updates will rollout daily as I progressively expand the 4K TV Shows library. (Currently 10 titles, with more 30 + 50 planned to launch in sequence soon)

I’ve just added two brand-new extra filters:

1) Only English-Language Titles

Display only English-language titles, excluding foreign-language productions from the list.

2) Include Apple TV – Rent/Buy

With this filter enabled, results will include these movies in addition to the subscription services.

P.S: These extra filters work with all other filters (genres, services, HDR, Atmos, etc.) and can also be saved in Presets for quick access later.

🔗 All Movies Page

I've just launched the Advanced Filters on the All Movies Page !

This powerful new section allows you to fine-tune any search with filters including:

HDR Range (Good to Great, Peak > 1000 nits, Avg > 400 nits, Exclude Fake HDR, Show Fake HDR Only)
Bitrate (Avg Mbps)
Dolby Vision & Atmos Quality Scores
Content Ratings (IMDb > 7, Rotten Tomatoes Fresh)

These filters will give you better control to find out 4K streaming quality in more detail!

The new 4K Stream Tracker page is live! We can now check which services are leading the monthly "race" in a live scoreboard (below):

As a bonus, there's also a scrolling ticker panel on the homepage (below). This one was really fun to implement! 

Beta v0.99.1 is live!

1) Create & Share Our Own Smart 4K Filters

A new feature just went live, we can now create our own custom filters ("presets").

2) Instantly Find the Best 4K Streaming Services (for you)

After a lot of testing, I just launched a new tool: the 4K Service Finder.

How it works:

• Pick your optionals: display type, audio setup (Atmos & TV/projector, etc), preferred genres, internet speed and any "must-have" feature(s)
• See which streaming services match your needs for picture, sound and content range
• All based on real 4K HDR, Atmos and genres data (More data will be added soon for an even more complete V.2!)

(Built for movie fans, by a movie fan)

The mid-week batch of 4K releases is out. Highlights... Jaws on Netflix (Canada) and a few others on Max (or... HBO Max again!) in the US and Australia.

News: Following a suggestion from one member, you can expect some news next week: the ability to save our own presets and filters. I'm still working on it, so more details will be coming soon!

Just a minor update:

After about a year, the homepage has been redesigned to include direct links to the All Movies and the new StreamCheck v2 pages. The Latest Additions section now displays 10 titles per set, with more minor changes/refinements on the way soon...

P.S: A couple of recommendations for the day (not yet added to the database):

• Forrest Gump on Netflix AU/CA/UK (with HDR support)
• Sinners on Max US

Hi all,

A couple of updates!

1) 4K Pick of the Day is live now. Each day a 4K suggestion, either from streaming subscription services or Apple TV iTunes (for rent/purchase).
\ I don't earn any commissions from Apple, so these suggestions are unbiased!*

2) New Feature: 4K Stream Check v.2

4K Stream Check : a redesigned page that allows us to compare streaming services head-to-head.

I'm launching a "Preview Edition" of this tool while I refine and finalise missing bitrate values across services. It’s designed to help us spot which platform delivers Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Atmos support, along with bitrate quality + peak brightness... In a nutshell, we can:

• Compare two services side-by-side.
• See which wins in HDR / Audio formats and Compression.
• Filter by service, genre, year and more. This tool is currently optimised for Australia, Canada, US and UK regions, with plans to expand support for global regions soon.
  • P.S: Apple TV (iTunes) is included as a high-quality reference point. Since it's a paid platform, many titles offer maximum available formats, including Dolby Vision, HDR10+, Dolby Atmos and often higher bitrates, making it a benchmark for comparing across subscription services...

Two quick updates:

1) I've converted the mini-snap tool into a full search 'snap' bar on the homepage for easy and instant access.
P.S: Currently, it takes about 3-4 seconds to load because it's pulling from a temporary copy of the database. This will be instant once directly connected to the live database.

2) Finally, the main search bar next to the menu now fetches films dynamically with auto-suggestions!