Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002 4K REMUX Ultra HD 2160p

Remux 4k UHD movie of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002. Harry returns for his second year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry along with his best friends Hermione and Ron. He ignores warnings not to go back to Hogwarts by a mysterious house elf named Dobby. Soon into the school year strange things start happening. Students are found in a petrified state, messages written in blood appear on the walls and Harry starts to hear voices in his head. It becomes apparent that someone has opened The Chamber of Secrets... but who is responsible and can the dark forces that lurk there be stopped?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002 Review 4K
Warner's 2160p, HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is derived from a new 4K scan of the film's original camera negative, followed by extensive color correction and HDR encoding. The result is an image of exceptional detail and clarity, with new intensity in the many shadings of color in the environs in and around Hogwarts. The early entries in Harry's series are set primarily in dormitories, halls, classrooms and grounds of the now-famous school of wizardry, where sedate English tradition has been reimagined by M.C. Escher and H.R. Giger. Perhaps the most noteworthy effect of the UHD's increased detail and enhanced contrast is the visual balance in the many scenes of students and teachers bustling to and fro; individuals remain distinct, even as eccentric details in Hogwarts' often dim halls are clearly revealed. The long shots of the cavernous dining hall with its vast tables crowded with budding wizards and witches are particularly impressive. Closeups pick up tiny variations in skin texture, fabric details and individual strands of hair (check out Hagrid's unkempt mane). All of this fine detail is presented discreetly, without overemphasis or digital harshness. Distant figures in darkened halls remain visible for just as long, and to precisely the extent, as intended by director Chris Columbus (Home Alone) and cinematographer Roger Pratt (Tim Burton's Batman). Even effects-heavy sequences like the many appearances of house-elf Dobby or Harry's flying battle with Draco Malfoy benefit from the UHD's more vibrant colors and refined definition (although some of the effects shots can't help but look dated compared to the more sophisticated efforts of the series' later entries). Although they were shot by different cinematographers, both Chamber of Secrets and Sorcerer's Stone share a common visual style as the brightest entries in the series, before the darkness of Voldemort begins to spread. Even the underground passages leading to the fearsome Chamber of Secrets are brightly lit, as is the Chamber itself.

Switching to the old Blu-ray after watching the UHD makes you realize just how badly dated it is, with its soft image and murky textures. The 4K presentation of Chamber of Secrets instantly supplants the Blu-ray as the definitive visual presentation of the film that confirmed the franchise's continuing vitality.

[System calibrated for UHD using a Klein K10-A Colorimeter with a custom profile created with a Colorimetry Research CR250 Spectraradiometer, powered by SpectracCal CalMAN 2016 5.7, using the Samsung Reference 2016 UHD HDR Blu-ray test disc authored by Florian Friedrich from AV Top in Munich, Germany. Calibration performed by Kevin Miller of ISFTV.]

The initial Blu-ray release of Chamber of Secrets featured a PCM 5.1 soundtrack, and the "Ultimate Edition" offered a 6.1 remix in DTS-HD MA that Ken Brown praised as "fantastic". But these prior audio presentations have been superseded by the new DTS:X track provided on the UHD. While DTS:X has been criticized in technical circles for failing to provide a true "object-based" sound format à la Dolby Atmos, there's no disputing the exceptional power and precision of the audio engineers' achievement with this track. The attack of Aragog and his huge family of deadly spiders surrounds the viewer with creepy-crawlers. A particularly impressive display of sonic dexterity occurs during the Quidditch match, as Harry pursues a Golden Snitch while under attack by both Draco Malfoy and a sabotaged Bludger. All four objects—Harry, Draco, Snitch and Bludger—whip past the wooden beams undergirding the stadium, and the DTS:X mix localizes the movements of each element in the scene. The boys on their broom sticks whoosh through the structure, while Snitch and Bludger charge around the room, each pursuing its own path. The previous DTS-HD MA track, though still impressive, sounds muddy by comparison. (It doesn't hurt that the DTS:X version has been mixed at a higher volume.) The track's bass extension is deep and sonorous; when Harry and Ron finally locate the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, its opening reverberates through the room, and the attack of the Basilisk is equally thunderous. In short, the UHD of Sorcerer's Stone provides a sonic upgrade worthy of its visual enhancements. Here Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 2001 REMUX 4K UHD 2160p