Battlestar Galactica 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Battlestar Galactica 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Universal has released the 1978 film Battlestar Galactica to the UHD format. New specifications include 2160p/HDR video. The UHD disc carries over the same '2.1 Sensurround' audio track from the original 2013 Blu-ray, which is also included in this package. Like the 2013 Blu-ray the new UHD is absent any special features.

Battlestar Galactica 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

Universal's 2160p/HDR UHD presentation of Battlestar Galactica is very impressive, both texturally and in terms of the HDR color grading. The latter adds a significant sense of color depth, improved vividness, and nuance to the proceedings. The colorful opening titles offer a substantial gain to depth, vibrance, and pop compared to the previous Blu-ray. The brown fighter crew jackets are presented with a much more durable, deep, and detailed color compared to the flatter old Blu-ray, while various red accents on ships, explosions in space, laser blasts, the running red Cylon lights over the eyes, various examples of clothes, and so many other colors enjoy notable improvements to punch, accuracy, and overall stability and vividness. Whites are more intense, too, especially in some of the white garb some of the characters wear. Black levels are stupendous, greatly boosted for accuracy and depth form the Blu-ray, whether low light interiors, dark attire, or the space star fields. Skin tones are likewise healthy and full.

The image has been further revitalized in terms of its textural elegance. The picture can be described as "beautifully filmic." It is finely grainy and consistently so, capturing the essential look of its inherent film medium with agreeable precision. The image is organically detailed and naturally sharp, boosted well above the now-antiquated Blu-ray for image stability, natural format sharpness, and overall clarity. The image sees ample gain for clothing and skin details while various ship interiors present with added definition beyond the Blu-ray's ability. The picture is nearly perfect in terms of its textural elegance and cinematic appeal. There are no real print flaws of which to speak and the encode work is excellent. This is great!

Battlestar Galactica 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Universal's new UHD release of Battlestar Galactica merely repurposes the existing "2.1 Sensurround" audio track. Michael Reuben, in his review of the 2013 Blu-ray issue, offers an in-depth exploration of the format at large and this track in particular. I can add nothing of substance to his work, so I will repost his thoughts below:

"Battlestar Galactica was one of four films released theatrically in "Sensurround", a short-lived venture between Universal and speaker manufacturer Cerwin-Vega that attempted to enhance the theatrical experience by adding low frequency effects that were intended to be felt more than heard. The process premiered with Earthquake in 1974 and was used on only three more films, of which Galactica was the last. The format was abandoned for a variety of reasons, including the cost to theater owners and the tendency for the Sensurround vibrations to damage ceilings, especially in older structures, and cause fragments of plaster to fall on patrons' heads.

According to the Blu-ray cover, the main audio track is "2.1 with Sensurround" in lossless DTS-HD MA. In fact, the track is formatted as regular 5.1, but three of the channels are not used. The original mono track is routed equally to the front left and right mains, with additional support at key moments from the LFE channel.

I never experienced Sensurround in a properly equipped theater, but those who did have been disappointed with the home theater equivalent, which uses the system's low-frequency "control tones" to indicate a deep bass presence but doesn't vibrate the environment as the original system was intended to do. (For that, one would have to install additional equipment such as a tactile transducer or d-Box system.) In any case, the additional bass extension certainly does add impact to key scenes, especially battles and moments of planetary destruction. But today's audiences, especially those with even medium-quality home theater systems, are less easily wowed by LFE than were audiences of the Seventies. It's a pleasant change to have a soundtrack from that era with deep bass extension, but it's nothing we haven't heard before in a contemporary track.

Otherwise, the dialogue is clear, and the sound effects are sufficient for their purpose. Like the visual effects, their dated quality is part of their charm. The series' signature theme and incidental music by Stu Phillips, who would go on to compose for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, sounds just fine, although a stereo presentation would have been better."

Battlestar Galactica 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Like the previous Blu-ray, no extras are included. No digital copy code is included, either. The UHD main menu screen offers only options for "Play," "Chapters," "Setup," and a link to switch languages apart from the "Setup" menu heading.

Battlestar Galactica 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With this new UHD release of Battlestar Galactica, Universal has done nothing but bolster the video presentation; audio remains the same, and the UHD disc is just as featureless as the previous Blu-ray. Fortunately, that is enough. The picture looks wonderful and fans will find it to be well worth the upgrade cost. Highly recommended, and fans should be sure to check out the concurrently released UHD SteelBook.