After setting all kinds of box office records and spawning countless features, points, and counterparts online, Christopher Nolan’s epic retelling of the classic story, The Odyssey, is finally coming home. It becomes available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital on November 17, four months after it was released in theaters and enjoyed a prolonged run.
Much has been made of the technical aspects of the film, with moviegoers paying premium prices and facing extended waits to enjoy the movie in 70MM and IMAX formats, the way Nolan intended the movie to be seen. That means if you want to get the most out of the home experience of watching the film, you better have the right set up. Here’s how to prepare your home smart TV for a viewing of The Odyssey.
How The Odyssey was filmed
Massive IMAX cameras created scale
Before enjoying the film at home, it’s worth taking note of the lengths and efforts Nolan and his crew went to while filming The Odyssey in order to make it such an authentic and visceral experience. It is the first film to be shot entirely in IMAX, which is an incredibly tedious process considering the immense size and weight of the IMAX camera and the limitations it has when it comes to shooting length. The IMAX camera was not viable for The Odyssey, so Nolan and cinematographerHoytevan Hoytema altered it in order to make it quieter so that more intimate scenes of the film could be shot and heard.Each frame of the film is70 by 48.5 mm, allowing for more detail and a sharper image. The ideal theater format was1.43:1, which created a taller image than most people are used to, adding more shots vertically instead of just horizontally.Nolan has always been a meticulous director, and his technical prowess and storytelling skills often make up for rather clunky dialogue and simple messages. That’s why so many screenings at IMAX and 70MM theaters around the world were sold out.It also means that if you want to get close to the theater experience at home, you’re going to have to be mindful of some settings and create the ideal environment.
Find the best possible version
4K Blu-ray discs offer ideal quality
This is not a film you want to download from a random website or stream on your phone. You want the largest, most faithful file possible at your disposal. And that’s going to be with the 4K Blu-ray disc. The higher resolution than standard 1080p Blu-ray and DVD will provide greater detail, better color accuracy and improved sharpness and brightness. Chances are you alreayd have a 4K TV at home, so you want to make sure the version you’re watching is also 4K. You TV is going to be able to upscale the title if its only FHD, but that quality will still be lesser.Your 4K Blu-ray will also have HDR10, which provides a wider color range and increased brightness than SDR. Subsequently, most Blu-rays will offer HDR10+ or Dolby Vision, the two high-end dynamic video formats that changes settings scene by scene in order to improve the image on screen as opposed to basic HDR10, which is a static process.
Avoid waiting for streaming availability
Don’t hold out for The Odyssey to hit Peacock
Surely people will get excited when The Odyssey comes to streaming, but you’ll want to avoid that if you’re seeking the best possible version of it. That’s because streaming services heavily compress files in order to get them to you over the internet as fast and conveniently as possible. Details are stripped away; boundaries and edges are less clear and there may be more blurring or shadowing in the background, especially in darker scenes. Using Wi-Fi can be a problem when it comes to buffering. Streaming services prefer to stream anything rather than stop a stream due to a poor signal, which is why sometimes you’ll want something that temporarily loses its quality. Netflix and others will reduce the quality of a stream in order to keep it going as long as possible. Even if you hook up a LAN connection instead of using Wi-Fi, you’re still not going to get the best movie experience possible due to bandwidth limits.The Odyssey will eventually stream on Peacock, probably not until early 2027, and while that service will have better compression than your average free streamer like Tubi, that compression is still going to set a hard limit on the quality of the movie. Streaming simply delivers less data per second than a Blu-ray disc.
Consider your entertainment accessories
Blu-ray player, soundbar, and HDMI cable are essential
The two main things you want to have on hand to enjoy The Odyssey at home are a 4K Blu-ray player and a quality sound system. In order to enjoy a title in 4K and with a specific HDR format, you need a player or console that matches those capabilities. While your PlayStation 5 is a 4K Blu-ray player, it does not allow for the top HDR formats. So if you’re going to use your gaming console, you’ll miss out on that feature.You’ll need an HDMI 2.1 cable as well, which will allow the transfer of 4K resolution and HDR between the source and your TV. Make sure you connect the cable to the right port on your smart TV.Concerning sound, I recommend investing in a soundbar that has at least three channels: right, left, and center. It’s absolutely worth the price to jump from only having a right and left channel to getting that central one as well. You can then choose to blow out your set-up and invest in compatible side, rear, or ceiling speakers in order to create a system with five, seven, or nine channels. The more you have, the better the experience will be considering all the effort and technical accent that went into making The Odyssey an immersive, often overwhelming, audio experience.
Double-check your TV settings
Turn on Filmmaker Mode and turn off AI boosters
You want to make sure your TV is set up for success as well. If you have Filmmaker Mode, make sure it’s enabled to automatically turn on when you are watching compatible content. Filmmaker Mode turns off all the extra processes and additional features your TV uses to improve older or inferior titles. The Odyssey is not one of those titles; everything was filmed and mastered with a purpose, and you want to make sure your TV isn’t trying to override any of that.If you don’t have Filmmaker Mode, you’ll have to manually toggle some settings. Turn off motion smoothing, noise reduction, dynamic contrast, and get rid of any AI enhancements. Your picture setting should be either Natural, Movie, or Cinema, or something to that effect. You don’t want any Vivid or Dynamic settings that will lower the color temperature and boost color saturation. The image will not look good.The color temperature should be warm and most simple picture settings should be kept in the middle or at their default.
Mind your viewing environment
Block out ambient light and get comfy
Lastly, check your space and aim to create an environment that is as close to a theater as possible. Turn off all the lights and close all the curtains. The goal is to get rid of all the ambient light if possible. This will make the image stand out and better support your TV’s color and brightness capabilities.However, I would recommend adding a bit of bias lighting in order to better adjust your eyes to the move. Bias lighting is basically a small soft glow somewhere in your periphery that will balance out the brightness of your TV screen. I generally like a TV backlight, but for a movie like The Odyssey, where there is a lot of grays and blacks and blues, I would opt for a small lamp at the side of the room.With that in mind, you can grab your favorite snack and drink and then press play. Enjoy the show.
