The original Top Gun (1986) was the movie that started it all for me and my family. We went to town and found out about Dolby Stereo on VHS tapes. I had no idea that you could get Surround Sound from just a stereo left and right signal. So, we went to demo Top Gun on VHS. Me and my dad were amazed at the sound quality. I thought VHS was bad because it was tape, (from an audio point of view) but it was very good. Brand new tapes were nice quality. If I recorded something on VHS that's where the quality was poor. Anyway, we were so blown away by Top Gun we bought our first Surround Sound system. Just a simple 5.1 setup with a subwoofer. So Top Gun has a special place in our hearts because it was the movie that started our journey into Home Theater. Then through the LaserDisc days, the Video CD days, the DVD Days, The Blu-ray days, and now to my true love, the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray days! I've bought Top Gun on every system I've owned. Now we have 11 speakers and 2 subwoofers with Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and ISF professionally calibrated screens. I love this, this is my passion. So, how does Top Gun Maverick look on a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc?
It looks excellent! I was worried because this is a Paramount release, and I don't rate Paramount at all for their transfer quality. However, there's a few things that they've done with this transfer that shows they know what they're doing. The biggest thing is lowering the bit-rate of anything that isn't the main movie. The menus for example. The video that plays in the background is low-bit-rate, and the extras that play in the disc are relatively low-bit-rate. This is called bit-rate optimization. They've optimized the bit-rate for the movie itself and it looks incredible! I will say though, it's been filmed in a way that is easy to transfer to 4K Disc anyway. The movie is pretty much grainless. If you really look, there's a super minor filmic film grain look underneath the image, but it's so faint. Also, many shots are just focused on the characters themselves, and the backgrounds are out of focus. This is good for Paramount because they don't have to waste bits on encoding film grain or extra things. All the bits go directly to the image. This is similar to The Matrix: Resurrections, which had zero film grain and it looked superb. I personally love film grain, I love the look. However, when it comes to quality you need so much bit-rate to make film grain look good, and only a few companies can do it well. You can get reference quality video at 70 Mbps when there is no film grain and that's exactly what we have here.
-- Edited by juliezhou on Tuesday 1st of November 2022 06:02:18 PM
The resolution is super sharp, and the facial detail is among the highest I've seen.
Color grading is 100% perfect. No bit-depth errors. Facial tones are excellent, and black-level detail is perfect. Not an ounce of black crush, it really is perfect. The colors are bold, and rich, and look great in Dolby Vision.
The movie has a filmic look to it even with no grain, I really like it. The IMAX scenes look absolutely gorgeous, and I commend Paramount for including them on this 4K release. It really is a game changer and hopefully, other studios take note (Disney Cough!).
So, how is it? Overall, it's a wonderful release. It has everything that I want in good picture quality. It looks 4K, it has that 4K POP! It's highly detailed, it has great color. There's no visible noise or artifacts. For a modern movie release, this is as good as it gets. This is the movie that you buy a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player for. This is the movie that you buy a brand-new display for. Highly, Highly Highly Recommended!
I strongly recommend, ( if you can) buying both the standard release and the SteelBook release of this 4K disc. As a community, we need to show companies that this is the standard that we expect from BIG companies! We want Dolby Vision, We want full IMAX scenes, and we want BIG, FULL uncompressed audio. This is how it's done, please support this release. Tell friends, buy them a 4K Player for Christmas with Top Gun Maverick. Do whatever you can to promote this movie and Physical Media! This is the release worth buying into Physical Media for. LET'S GO! Start your Home Theater journey with this release. It feels good. I'm happy, nothing more to say. Enjoy this release, and enjoy Physical Media.
I explained in the video part of this review about my history with Top Gun and our movie theater adventure. But, how does Top Gun Maverick sound in the home? As good as the movie theater? Does "specifically mixed for the home" mean anything? Let's see.
Dialog quality is mixed perfectly and balanced well. The quality of the recording is as good as it gets. I found the movie to be around -2db low, which puts it around the same level as Dune (2021) for volume. I normally listen to movies at -10 on the reference scale. The first night I watched it I set the volume to -8, but the second time I watched it at -6. This is a fun movie to do that with!
The surround sound is not styled to have the pin-prick precision like Dune. It's more of a supportive mix and uses Atmos height and Surround Sound as needed. I think it sounds excellent. When Maverick is demonstrating that he can fly through the canyon, every time the plane spins to the left and to the right, you can hear that in the height and surround speakers. Ohhh, this is good!
Unquestionably, the strongest part of this mix is the bass. If you're like me and have 2x subs and have them fully calibrated with REW with a measuring microphone then you'll know that this bass is the real deal. It goes hard! And it goes down deep! The bass reminds me of a Christopher Nolan movie, he uses crazy deep and heavy bass, this is just like Maverick. There's zero compression here. This is what discs are made for. Big-sounding movies like this need a disc. Streaming just isn't going to do when watching movies like Top Gun Maverick. It's an injustice to stream a movie like this. This is why I love Physical Media. The bass completely shakes my room. If you've got a soundbar subwoofer it might be time to upgrade or get a 2nd subwoofer. Even for me, it might be worth upgrading to 4 subwoofers for movies like this to get the most out of it. This is reference bass levels all the way, amazing!
Overall? An incredible experience that sounds better at home than it did in my local IMAX theater. Mixed specifically for the home? Yeah, I believe it. I think think the bass is tuned to absolute perfection for this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release. It's how I want all movies to sound. I don't know who mixed it specifically for the home, but they've mixed it in a way I want everything to sound. This is a reference audio experience, and I highly recommend it!
Please support this release. It's a great movie and I couldn't ask for more. Paramount! I salute you. Well done! Respect! You're now on my good books:)
MOVIE THOUGHTS:WOW! What a great movie. I think it's my favorite movie of 2022. While close or joint first is Dune and The Batman. Top Gun Maverick feels special. It makes me feel good watching it. It makes you feel that something amazing has happened. What more is there to say? A passion project for Tom Cruise, and what a great job he and the team did on this movie. Also, shout to the director, Joseph Kosinski, this guy really got it, and many people would fail to make this movie. What more is there to say? Go, Go, buy this movie right now!
