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[Currygan]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy also looks magnificent on br

 

[berzeli]

I guess I was mistaken. Nonetheless, they still have a tendency to use DNR way too frequently for my taste. Sounds like an interesting article though.

They are super protective about the exact details of the process, so it's hard to tell.

"Is all grain sacred?" he asks. "I appreciate grain, but sometimes it’s a limitation. If I’m handed something three generations old, it’s silly to preserve that level of grain. We should get back to the quality analogous to the show print seen by the director and cinematographer." But, he notes, the decision to restore the Lowry Digital way is made by clients. Lowry Digital Image is betting that those images will open up a new market for them in DIs. "The images people will see will, pleasantly, cause waves," predicts Lowry.​

From this 2004 interview.

This audio interview from 2012 is probably the best one about the Lowry process, but it mainly talks about how it applies to digital photography.

Yeah, I still remember the uproar his comments caused. After hearing "got rid of the grain", everyone panicked like we were going to have another Predator: UHE on our hands. Fortunately that was not the case. To tell you the truth, I didn't think Aliens could ever look as good as it did with even the best transfer and mastering. What we ended up with did look incredible. It's just that I still can't help but wonder if it could have been even better.

I also wonder what this might look like released on a 4K format. If it's like the transition from DVD to BD, then the old master's flaws might stand out more.

Good restoration work can make even the shittiest of materials look good. Or at least not awful. But I don't actually know exactly how bad the negatives were so whether this is the best Aliens will ever look or not is dependent on that.

Of course 4K alone won't solve all of your problems, but it certainly helps. I really don't know if there are hard and fast rules to use for film restoration. If we go by the standard of a film looking just like it was projected during its first theatrical release, the bar is surprisingly low in some ways--especially with older films. Enough generations of film through the photo chemical process and poor exhibition habits could really degrade the quality. It one of the advantages for everything shifting to digital these days.

We could also go with the director's preference, but then there's the madness of Lucas and Friedkin. Maybe it could be their intent at the time the film was made, but that can be difficult to determine. The film itself could have degraded and changed in color over the years, so sometimes you have to rely on memory (which isn't always reliable on older films) or other released versions. I know for the Jaws BD, they checked previous home releases to ensure the color was consistent. It certainly can get tricky.

It really is a case by case basis, and then there is the photochemical restoration side of it as well. 4K is mostly useful for grain management, the additional detail isn't that much more useful useful for things like debris and tears. But that could change depending on how the tools develop. A 4K scan of something like mini-DV isn't really going to help much compared to a 2K one.

Yeah, it really depends on what the goals of a restoration is, to restore it to its original theatrical presentation or listen to the cinematographer/director and their will. The example of the original transfer of The French Connection has already been brought up; but then there is e.g. Time Bandits where they cleaned out some special effects goofs under the supervision of Gilliam. Which isn't "faithful" restoration as such, but does offer a better viewing experience.

 

[kerotan_eater]

Okay, but what about the numerous amount of people that can't/won't go to a theater to see the movie?

I think this is one of the reasons that video games>movies. They're made for shit consumers actually own. It sucks that movies have to essentially be compromised to watch them at home, and that bad transfers are one of many things that can go wrong.

Why don't you just get a bigger tv ....?

I hope people here have at least had a calibration disc, because it's hard to really judge these blu-rays if people haven't done at least some objectively standardized calibration.

 

[Raptomex]

The first Lethal Weapon 1 and 2 blu-ray releases. When they released the box set a few years ago, they redid them and the entire collection looked amazing.

 

[Johnny Ryall]

Thankfully, Friedkin came to his senses later and we got a strong new Blu out of it. Still, from what I read about the original Blu, it's about the only time Popeye is ever going to look like an angel!

I was pretty bummed when I bought the wrong version. This video shows it all in its demented glory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZcxdmCreWY

 

[danielcw]

An upscale is when a SD picture is blown up to HD with proper HD elements.

I think you meant to say "without proper HD elements".

In the context of DVDs, Blu-rays and other home media is when a video is presented at a higher resolution, than the source material allows. Instead of replacing it with a better source, it is just scaled up.

How do film companies fuck up something so easy as an HD transfer? I just don't get it. DVD had it's size limitations so sometimes they chose the cheap option of having a low bitrate, but that shouldn't be an issue anymore.

Most Blu-rays don't use the maximum bitrate. A 2 hour movie would barely fit on a BD-50 at maximum bitrate. If you have longer movies, or many audio tracks, or a few high-bitrate audio tracks or extras you have to compromise bitrate.

Even more baffling is the visual difference between different release regions. We're way past the days of PAL/NTSC conversions where you had different resolutions, framerates, colour processing. You literally use the same transfer worldwide and they still fuck it up.

There are many possible reasons for not using the same transfer worldwide.
- Different encodes
- a better transfer may not exist, yet
- a better transfer may exist, but can't be licensed
- different picture-languages
- different cuts
- Lower bitrate, because you want to fit on a BD-25
- publisher wants extra steps like more DNR
- or a low-pass filter (both may be to mask lower bit-rates)

If a modern movie is released by one major studio across the world, then the chance of the video-stream being identical down to the bit is high, but when different studios in different markets come into play, that may change.

 

[mrklaw]

Have to admit I'm in the camp that hates black bars. I'd rather films just be made for displays that most consumers actually own, not 21:9 displays that most do not.

Also what's good about film grain?

so buy a projector and a masking setup so you can get rid of the black bars. The solution isn't to stop directors making movies in whatever aspect ratio they feel suits the movie, the solution is to adapt your home viewing to accommodate that.

 

[Gattsu25]

The people who want film grain eliminated are the same ones who want aspect ratios altered to fit their TV screen. They are the scourge of the Earth.

Why the hell would someone want to get rid of film grain?

 

[Takao]

were those issues present in the japan home video release?

Yeah.

I'd rather sit on sidelines and wait for a proper HD Z release.

 

[TheGamingBox]

Yeah.

I'd rather sit on sidelines and wait for a proper HD Z release.

that's disappointing, i wonder if funimation could fix the green tint issue whenever they release it on homevideo

 

[TAJ]

Hey if Universal can (allegedly) fix Spartacus, then everything is possible.

It's not tough to do better than a '90s transfer that wasn't even good for the time.

 

[JigglesBunny]

Jurassic Park blu-ray is not very good quality.

I'd pay all the monies for a good transfer.

The Blu-Ray 3D transfer is one of the best looking and sounding Blu-Rays I've ever seen!

On topic, Halloween 4 (apart of the Halloween collection) is awful. The sound is desynced for the entire latter half of the film.

 

[berzeli]

It's not tough to do better than a '90s transfer that wasn't even good for the time.

Of course not, it's more the fact that they're actually doing it. Most major studios have been pretty awful when it comes to how they've treated their back catalogue.

 

[Femmeworth]

There's more than one version of Spartacus? Wonder which version I watched.

Edit: Oh, I see that they are going to possibly release it again this year.

 

[berzeli]

There's more than one version of Spartacus? Wonder which version I watched.

There only is the awful, awful, awful one so far, but there has been a recent 4K restoration that supposedly is terrific and is getting a release "soon".

 

[panty]

If anyone is interested Amazon has Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Series blu-ray box for $24.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NP06DJE/?tag=neogaf0e-20

English/japanese voices + eng subs.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Cowboy-Bebop-The-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/81540/

 

[Fox Mulder]

Blurays can be annoying with shit transfers, goddamn dnr, and multiple versions still being sold.

Best buy sells a neat steelbook for the fifth element, but it's an old version disc and not the remastered. The current version of predator is shit with dnr compared to the old out of print one.

Shit DNR use isnt going away as the average moron thinks dnr is great. I've seen numerous people say they don't want to see grain.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

If anyone is interested Amazon has Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Series blu-ray box for $24.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NP06DJE/?tag=neogaf0e-20

English/japanese voices + eng subs.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Cowboy-Bebop-The-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/81540/

Holy hell, thanks to your heads up I just impulsively ordered the series for $24 and the movie for $7 on Bluray. Its a steal!

 

[SolidChamp]

The Departed was a pretty piss-poor transfer.

Also, I wasted good money on the premium edition blu-ray of A Bittersweet Life:

Shit is just AWFUL.

Lastly, although I'm happy to own the complete Breaking Bad series in that collector's rendition of the barrel, the PQ on those discs should be way, WAY better. It's actually pretty lousy, to be honest.

 

[glaurung]

I know it's been mentioned already, but the first attempt at a Gladiator blu-ray was an utter disaster.

Their over-aggressive digital noise removal also removed various movie elements from the scenes. Suddenly there were no arrows in the air during a battle. Snowflakes disappeared.

I own both the first pressing shit Gladiator blu-ray as well as the proper second release. If you could watch them side by side on big screens, the difference is baffling.

 

[Slime Scholar]

the fucking worst.

almost unwatchable.

Reminds me of the overly-photshopped Adam Sandler.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

The worst one is easily edward scissorhands, avoid that BD like the plague.

 

[JoeNut]

one of the godfathers is horrific, there's a bit where you can see the film come off the reel.

 

[Madness]

Patton Blu-ray had a good time early transfer that was polarizing because the image was scrubbed clean and heavy DNR was applied. For some, the movie never looked better, but for purists, it was unbearable. I personally didn't mind as much but the remastered version with the full film grain does look better, more natural, and shows why DNR, smoothing, and heavy cleaning of old movies doesn't need to happen. You just cannot make old movies feel new. This is something Lucas tried to do with the Phantom Menace Blu-ray as well, wanting it to seem digital like Attack or Renege as opposed to film like it was shot.

 

[afternoon delight]

Why the hell would someone want to get rid of film grain?

The road to hell is paved with terrible opinions.

one of the godfathers is horrific, there's a bit where you can see the film come off the reel.

Really? I thought the first two were pristine. You must be mentioning that weird 90s one off they did, I blotted it from my memory.

 

[MrChom]

Quite surprised no one has mentioned the complete garbage that was the Stargate Blu Ray. The film itself is an awful blurry mess, and the special features are damn near VHS quality in places.

 

[captive]

ITT every bluray ever released is crap.

 

[MrChom]

ITT every bluray ever released is crap.

Oh I dunno, most of the anime ones I've picked up (from HD originals, or from film) have looked phenomenal in HD. Basically anything by Anime Limited for a start!

 

[SKINNER!]

Old encode or waxy faces? Not an easy choice for most.

I'd like to cite GoldenEye as an example of egregious DNR, especially since it seems to be the only Bond movie that has had this process done.

It's the only reason I never bothered getting the steelbook. One of my favourite 007 movies but I ain't gonna swap my Ultimate Edition DVD for a bad blu ray.

 

[Zelenogorsk]

Pretty much any anime from the early 2000s.

 

[jmdajr]

Pretty much any anime from the early 2000s.

Those early anime DVDs were a compressed mess.

DVDs!