For a long time I have bought the digital versions of movies off of iTunes and have more recently been expanding my physical collection. I’m curious, how big is the difference between the 4K digital version of a movie compared to the actual 4K disc? If I own the 4K digital version of a movie is there any reason to also pick up the disc version?
I found this album while I was trying to make my decision.
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone: iTunes 4K vs 4K Blu-Ray - Imgur
4K Blu Ray vs 4K Itunes : hometheater (reddit.com)
As you can see, there’s a clear increase in detail - especially with low light images. To me though, the differences weren’t big enough. Even from Blu-Ray to 4k, the difference in detail is often negligible when they’re created from the same master. Of course, streaming can vary a lot more and I’m sure there are worse examples from iTunes.
I decided to use the money I was going to spend on a standalone 4k player on more movies.