Home media has come a long way since the days of VHS. In those days, quality at home was practically terrible, with small TV screens and low resolutions. As we’ve moved forward, the resolution of these movies has gotten higher, and since film is capable of extremely high resolution — even higher than what our TVs offer — it’s no surprise that a lot of things look great today.

However, there’s a strange middle ground that happens with movies filmed digitally and mastered in 2K. This resolution was perfect for 1080p TVs, but the problem is that the era of 1080p TVs is pretty much over. They’re out there, but we’ve largely moved on to 4K displays. Blu-ray is still around, but 4K Blu-ray is now the newest format available, and if you’re looking for the best quality possible, that’s the disc you need to pick up. The problem is that even if you’re watching a 4K disc, the 4K version isn’t always a massive upgrade over the regular Blu-ray, and that’s because many movies were mastered in that 2K quality.

Sometimes a 4K disc isn’t a massive upgrade

It still looks better, but not by a ton

Two major culprits of a 1080p scan receiving a 4K upgrade that’s underwhelming are the latter two entries in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith are some of the earliest digital films in existence, and they were shot on at-the-time cutting-edge cameras and finished at 1080p. I have a fondness for these movies since I grew up with them, but it’s clear that they are quite aged visually. These CGI effects don’t really hold up anymore, and a 4K release hasn’t fixed that.

In fact, a 4K release of these two Star Wars films resulted in very little more than an HDR scan slapped on top of the image. The Blu-ray.com review of Attack of the Clones essentially says it’s hardly an upgrade. A lot of movies are like this, and you’ll find it’s very common with digitally shot movies finished in 2K. It’s a problem that can plague future movies too, if we ever move on to a new format. The Dune movies are all shot digitally, albeit at a resolution much higher than 1080p. If 8K TVs ever become the norm, and we get 8K Blu-rays, those will look dated as well.

Ultimately, I do think a 4K upgrade is still worth it for a lot of Blu-ray movies just for the HDR implementation. Even if it’s a small upgrade, it’s an upgrade nonetheless. Sometimes, there can be a massive upgrade. Pacific Rim’s 4K is arguably one of the best out there, and it’s based on a 2K master. Now, would I run out to replace a Blu-ray of a movie mastered in 1080p to get the 4K? No, I wouldn’t. If I find a good price or get a nice box set, as I did with the Star Wars franchise, then I’d go for it.

Another issue is that you really don’t know how underwhelming these upgrades will be unless you know how something was filmed. Older movies like Lawrence of Arabia look fantastic on 4K, while Revenge of the Sith just looks okay. I don’t think many people know what cameras are used to shoot specific movies; all they know is that a 4K disc looks better than a Blu-ray one. Thankfully, that’s almost always the case.

You don’t usually have to think hard about it

4K is typically better

If you don’t want to research the technical specs of a movie before you buy it, you certainly don’t have to. I know that’s not something I like doing. The reality is that most 4K versions are the best version available of a movie. You’ll find exceptions, like Terminator 2 or Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Flag, but those outliers stand out in a sea of movies that look the best they’ve ever looked on the 4K format.

I would say the vast majority of discs just look better on 4K, so if you don’t want to think about it, you don’t have to. Who knows, maybe you won’t even notice the issues with 4K discs that look inferior, so it could be a total non-issue. While these 2K scans going to 4K isn’t a transformative upgrade, they are still upgrades thanks to HDR alone. No, it’s not as large as you’ll see in other movies, but it’s not like I’m upset each time I pop in my Attack of the Clones 4K. Ever since getting it, I haven’t even thought about going back to my regular Blu-ray copy, so that’s good news.

A 4K copy being available should take out a lot of the guesswork. If you go by the rule of thumb of 4K being better than Blu-ray, you’ll be right far more times than you’re wrong. The real thing you need to take into consideration is which 4K version is the best. Many movies have multiple versions on 4K — Jurassic Park and 1978’s Halloween are some examples that come to mind. It’s more complicated than it needs to be, but that’s a discussion for another time.