The Birds 4K UHD - Tippi Hedren

Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

1) Our weekly Newsletter sent to your Inbox every Monday morning!
2) Patron-only Silent Auctions - so far over 30 Out-of-Print titles have moved to deserved, appreciative, hands!
3) Access to over 20,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

USA 1963

Vacationing in northern California, Alfred Hitchcock was struck by a story in a Santa Cruz newspaper: "Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes." From this peculiar incident, and his memory of a short story by Daphne du Maurier, the master of suspense created one of his strangest and most terrifying films. The Birds follows a chic blonde, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), as she travels to the coastal town of Bodega Bay to hook up with a rugged fellow (Rod Taylor) she's only just met. Before long the town is attacked by marauding birds, and Hitchcock's skill at staging action is brought to the fore. Beyond the superb effects, however, The Birds is also one of Hitchcock's most psychologically complicated scenarios, a tense study of violence, loneliness, and complacency.

Excerpt from Robert Horton's review located HERE

***

The story begins as an innocuous romantic triangle involving wealthy, spoiled Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), handsome Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), and schoolteacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). The human story begins in a San Francisco pet shop and culminates at the home of Mitch's mother (Jessica Tandy) at Bodega Bay, where the characters' sense of security is slowly eroded by the curious behavior of the birds in the area. At first, it's no more than a sea gull swooping down and pecking at Melanie's head. Things take a truly ugly turn when hundreds of birds converge on a children's party. There is never an explanation as to why the birds have run amok, but once the onslaught begins, there's virtually no letup.

Excerpt from MRQE located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: March 23rd, 1963

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Review: Universal - Region FREE - 4K UHD

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Only available presently in Universals' The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection 4K Ultra HD with Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo and The Birds. Released individually on 4K Ultra HD in May 2021: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Universal - Region FREE - 4K Ultra HD
Runtime	1:59:31.497
Video	1.85:1 2060P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 93,488,114,689 bytes Feature: 62,545,499,328 bytes Video Bitrate: 62.47 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate 4K Ultra HD:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1785 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1785 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) DTS Audio French 448 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps / 24-bit DTS Audio Spanish 448 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps / 24-bit DTS Audio Japanese 448 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps / 24-bit DTS Audio Portuguese 448 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English SDH, Brazilian Portuguese, French Canadian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Universal 1.85:1 2060P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 93,488,114,689 bytes Feature: 62,545,499,328 bytes Video Bitrate: 62.47 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video Edition Details: • Deleted Scene (4:20) • Original Ending (3:40) • The Birds: Hitchcock’s Monster Movie -- New! (Blu-ray Exclusive - 14:23) • All About The Birds (1:19:49) • Storyboards (24:21) • Tippi Hedren’s Screen Test (9:57) • Hitchcock-Truffaut Interview Excerpts - In 1962, filmmaker François Truffaut, aided by his translator and associate, Helen G. Scott, spent numerous hours interviewing Alfred Hitchcock for his book, “Hitchcock.” Viewers can listen to excerpts from their discussion of The Birds. (13:58) • The Birds Is Coming (Universal International Newsreel - 1:17) • Suspense Story: National Press Club Hears Hitchcock (Universal International Newsreel 1:54) • 100 Years of Universal: Restoring the Classics (9:13) • 100 Years of Universal: The Lot (9:26) • Theatrical Trailer (5:11) 4K Ultra HD Release Date: September 8th, 2020 Custom 4K Ultra HD Case (see below) Chapters 20

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective discs.

ADDITION: Universal 4K UHD (September 2020): Universal transferred Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds to 4K UHD as part of their The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection which includes Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo and The Birds - all on separate 4K UHD discs. Four Blu-rays are included. These 4K UHD transfers feature HDR described as "4K Ultra HD is the ultimate movie watching experience. 4K Ultra HD features the combination of 4K resolution for four times sharper picture than HD, the color brilliance of High Dynamic Range (HDR) with immersive audio delivering a multidimensional sound experience."

These are all triple-layered (100 Gig) discs and the The Birds 4K UHD is double the bitrate of the last (and included) Blu-ray.

I adore The Birds but it never looked exceptional on digital. While the 4K UHD has the lowest bitrate of the four in the boxset - I don't think that is the issue in terms of the appearance. Like all digital editions it still has weaker issues lacking tightness and smoothness that stem from the source. Frankly, it has always looked 'clunky' on digital with some sequences not translating very well at all to the popular home theatre mediums. While The Birds is not dynamic on 4K UHD, it is still easily better than any previous disc versions. Colors are bolder - and this is a the key attribute. The visuals continue to look extremely thick - and this is not a bad thing. It's the way the film is. I love The Birds and this is the only way I want to re-watch it in the future. People getting hopes after seeing the impressive Vertigo 4K UHD, should temper their expectations for The Birds but be pleased in its improvement over Blu-ray.

It is likely that the monitor you are seeing this review is not an HDR-compatible display (High Dynamic Range) or Dolby Vision, where each pixel can be assigned with a wider and notably granular range of color and light. Our capture software if simulating the HDR (in a uniform manner) for standard monitors. This should make it easier for us to review more 4K UHD titles in the future and give you a decent idea of its attributes on your system. So our captures may not support the exact same colors (coolness of skin tones, brighter or darker hues etc.) as the 4K system at your home. But the framing, detail, grain texture support etc. are, generally, not effected by this simulation representation.

NOTE: 67 more more full resolution (3840 X 2160) 4K UHD captures, in lossless PNG format, for Patrons are available HERE.

We have reviewed the following 4K UHD packages to date: Spartacus (software uniformly simulated HDR), Jaws (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Invisible Man, (software uniformly simulated HDR), Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (software uniformly simulated HDR), Lucio Fulci's 1979 Zombie (software uniformly simulated HDR),, 2004's Van Helsining (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Shallows (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Bridge on the River Kwai (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Deer Hunter (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Elephant Man (software uniformly simulated HDR), A Quiet Place (software uniformly simulated HDR), Easy Rider (software uniformly simulated HDR), Suspiria (software uniformly simulated HDR), Pan's Labyrinth (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Wizard of Oz, (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Shining, (software uniformly simulated HDR), Batman Returns (software uniformly simulated HDR), Don't Look Now (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Man Who Killed Killed and then The Bigfoot (software uniformly simulated HDR),, Bram Stoker's Dracula (software uniformly simulated HDR), Lucy (software uniformly simulated HDR), They Live (software uniformly simulated HDR), Shutter Island (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Matrix (software uniformly simulated HDR), Alien (software uniformly simulated HDR), Toy Story (software uniformly simulated HDR), A Few Good Men (software uniformly simulated HDR), 2001: A Space Odyssey (HDR caps udated), Schindler's List (simulated HDR), The Neon Demon (No HDR), Dawn of the Dead (No HDR), Saving Private Ryan (simulated HDR and 'raw' captures), Suspiria (No HDR), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (No HDR), The Big Lebowski, and I Am Legend (simulated and 'raw' HDR captures).

Universal's 4K UHD offers only the exact same DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) as found on the 2012 Blu-ray (as well as some foreign language DUBs). There is no credited score (Herrmann serving as a sound consultant) but electronic music is utilized (and effects of bird cries and flapping wings.) Some will recall, sung by the schoolchildren, Rissle-dy, Rossle-dy ("I married my wife in the month of June"). It is derived from the traditional Scottish folk song "The Wee Cooper o'Fife". There is also Claude Debussy's Arabesque no. 1 in E. There are subtitle options including English SDH, Brazilian Portuguese, French Canadian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish and as with all 4K UHD discs, this Universal package is Region 'Free' (included Blu-rays too!) playable worldwide.

The included Blu-rays for Rear Window, Vertigo and The Birds are the exact same transfers as the 2012 edition - and actually have those VoB / M2TS file dates - see HERE.

Universal's 4K UHD disc has the same supplements as seen on most of the past digital discs and the last Blu-ray (see our review HERE.) The Blu-ray carries over all the extras from the 2012 edition including the Deleted Scene, Original Ending, the extensive 1 1/4 hour All About The Birds piece (still in 480i) etc. we also get a Blu-ray Exclusive; The Birds: Hitchcock’s Monster Movie is 15-minutes with comparisons to the Universal Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man etc. genre of earlier films or more aptly as a 'creature-feature' like Jaws. It has input from David Skal and many others. There are also Tippi Hedren’s 10-minute Screen Test, the Hitchcock-Truffaut Interview and two of the 100 Years of Universal videos.

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds is a favorite Hitchcock film. The deliberate, measured pace builds tension and mystery progressively in each scene. Watching it in 4K UHD adds further value to this, already essential set. The major themes include independence, loneliness, paranoia, credibility, bias... and this too, will make it's way to our Desert Island selection in the next update. The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection package is looking like the premium contender for our year end poll - despite the ever-present mono-audio issues that we will discuss in our Psycho 4K UHD review. It has too much value, and will be the most-watched set of the entire year.

Gary Tooze

Menus / Extras

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY and 4K UHD CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL RESOLUTION

Subtitle Sample - Universal - Region FREE - 4K Ultra HD

1) Universal - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP

2) Universal Masterpiece Collection - Region 1 - NTSC - SECOND

3) Universal (Masterpiece Collection) - Region FREE - Blu-ray - THIRD

Universal - Region FREE - 4K Ultra HD BOTTOM