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Author
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Topic: Blu- Ray picture quality - Old & New
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
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Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 12-05-2009 02:20 PM
I have the Blu-ray version of The Searchers. I think the color quality and pretty much everything else about its imagery is very good. The movie isn't as razor sharp as modern releases on Blu-ray, and there is a good amount of visible grain. Still, I think The Searchers on Blu-ray looks great for a 50+ year old movie and better than any other way I've seen it on home video.
Claude, are you saying the entire movie has shifted color or is there a particular scene or scenes where it is visibly shifting? What chapters (or specific time points) are affected?
quote: Claude S. Ayakawa I may be wrong and probably is but I just cannot imagine a Blu-Ray disc would be replicated from a sub standard element such as a soft telecine master.
It happens all the time. This is the business-minded, profit protecting "let's do as little as we have to and just make it good enough" ethic at work.
Movie studio executives are finding out the hard way they cannot dust off some 10 year old HD telecine master originally used to author an old DVD and dupe it for Blu-ray. The results get trashed by critics and consumers alike.
In some cases we get lucky and the studio goes back and fixes the problem. Sony did that with The Fifth Element after its first try was unanimously savaged. The "fixed" version was sourced from a newer film scan and AVC encoded in a more careful manner.
Still, some studio heads insist on doing things to screw up a Blu-ray release. Gladiator is one of the latest examples. Over zealous use of "dynamic noise reduction" along with too much edge enhancement have ruined that high definition release. That Blu-ray has to be redone before I'll be willing to upgrade from the old DVD I have.
It's definitely worth it to check out lots of reviews of any movie on Blu-ray you're looking at buying, especially if you already own the movie on DVD and are looking to upgrade it to high definition.
quote: Claude S. Ayakawa As far as WOLF is concerned, I can see no reason why the beginning of the movie would be gorgeous and fall apart at about the forty minute point. It just does not make any sense.
If the cinematography is inconsistent the results on any presentation are going to be just as inconsistent. The DP has to get the shot correct in the camera. If he doesn't it won't matter how much you try to polish it up in post. This is especially true for soft focus or focus that is completely missed altogether.
I've seen a lot of movies where outdoor, daylight shots look colorful and highly detailed while the interior scenes look less than ideal. The DP's choices of camera, lens and film stock, along with the exposure and aperture settings, will all impact the image. A lot of shooting situations are going to involve compromise, with rushed schedules being a big factor.
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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God
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Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 12-06-2009 12:51 PM
I had my HDTV for four months when I inquired how I can get a deeper black background on my HDTV when watching 'scope' movies on my set and Bobby had suggested I adjust my TV by turning down the backlight. When I did that, I did get a deeper black background and had corrected the problem. I just learned last night it had done something else. I had not yet adjusted my TV when I had purchased and watched THE SEARCHERS and was very disappointed with the color. After how Booby, Mark and several Blu-Ray online reviewers had said the color on THE SEARCHERS is great, I could not understand why I could not agree with all of you. After watching a football game last night when our University of Hawaii Warriors got slaughtered by Wisconsin 51/10, I decided to check the BD of THE SEARCHERS and I could not believe what I saw. Instead of the pale faded looking image, I was watching scenes that had very good color and the outdoor scenes looked spectacular. I suspect, adjusting my backlight on my HDTV was the reason for the improved image. I did however notice traces of color fading in the movie that had indicated that the transfer element that was used for the replication of the Blu-Ray disc was made from the original Eastmancolor negatives rather than the three strip separation elements.
In a way, this situation reminds me of the time when Mark had complained that the BD of GRAND TORINO was bad when some of us found there was nothing wrong with our copies. As it turned out, it was an incorrect setting on his playback system that was causing the problem.
-Claude
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