I just came across this

Quote:Left video and audio: 1998 DVD.
Right video and audio: 2014 DVD (double feature w/The Taking of Pelham One Two Three)

Bitrate is a difficult "animal" to tame... in a perfect world, we just don't need compression for video and audio, and everything would be uncompressed (or, wisely, losslessly compressed); maybe one day it will happen, but, until then, we should rely on lossy compression to get or audio and video contents.

So, which is the "right" bitrate to use? The best answer is "it depends"! Really, there are variables that influence this data; resolution, codec, codec settings, media size (physical memory, or internet bandwidth), and final user quality expectations... I mean, I'm "expecting" higher quality from BD than from Netflix, right?

While it's normal than higher bitrate = higher quality, someone still can't believe that, given sufficient bitrate, encoders would get similar results... 

Just for fun, I made three test clips using three different encoders; I took a difficult scene, full of movement, fog, fire, to stress them; a fair figure of 20mbps bitrate average, 50mbps max; 1920x1080 23.976fps; encoders used were:

h264 - Simple X264 Launcher
Mpeg-2 - HCenc
Mpeg-1 - TMPGenc

clips are here: https://mega.nz/#F!kjo3wKJC!jxoZnkzveaP2f2zZilaXdA

Well, in motion, at the right (read: not too far, but not too close either) distance, they look really similar, and do their job; of course, frame by frame, magnified, the differences are evident, in particular with Mpeg-1; but if you think how old this codec is, result is outstanding!

Of course, nobody would use Mpeg-1 anymore - there are much better and efficient codec out there - but this little test is useful at least to understand that HDTV broadcasts and streaming services, albeit far from perfect, if well encoded could have a really high quality, and eventually be used as source for any project.

So, do not discard a video due only to its bitrate and/or codec used...

Everyone knows THX has been the go-to standard for top-quality home theater product for over 25 years. However, a glut of inferior product with THX branding is also out there, if reviews are anything to go by. My question is, which speakers should I swear by when selecting THX-certified speakers and such?

Never watched a trailer of this film before actually watching it, so I didn't know what to expect; my daughter insisted to watch it - she's a teenager, but she likes CGI cartoons - so do I, but don't tell anybody

While I was watching at the cover, I thought it was another cartoon, so I was surprised to actually discover it was a live action film indeed.

I won't tell anything about the story because I don't want to spoil it, but I can say it's a very nice movie, refreshing, fun - even if it's a bit exagerated sometimes, nothing in comparison to superheroes movies by the way... very good FX, music, acting... great show for any creature lovers as we are here!

Last thing: if Rogue One used the same CGI, we would not hate Bor Gullet so much, I think...

On BronzeTitan's recommendation, I decided to give my planned PC hunt its own thread, since it involves a certain something called Black Magic Design, or BMD for short.

Right now, I'm looking for the following specs in my next PC:

• An Intel i7 Kaby Lake processor (if I'm to future-proof for 4K Ultra HD, of course)
  
• An NVIDIA 1070 or 1080 processor
  
• At least 16 GB RAM
  
• At least 1 or 2 TB hard drive space
  

There seems to be a bug in the "thanks" system; I see some posts "thanked" twice of three times by the same user...

Feallan, may you check this? I saw the plugin has not any settings, so maybe it doesn't like the latest mybb version.

I'm also going to tackle two of the Hitchcock greats. I want to try regrade Vertigo to the information that Falcon has, posted here:

https://fanrestore.com/thread-223.html?h...=hitchcock

and regrade North By Northwest to the two laserdiscs (Criterion and MGM) which seem to match pics from an IB tech print I saw (like the crop duster scene being very brown). And of course add the mono for both.

The Blade Runner Collection

Picking up from here:

https://fanrestore.com/thread-226.html

This is a sequel to my Blade Runner International Cut regrade. Originally, the goal was to just regrade the Director's Cut BD to look like the Warner Bros DC laserdisc but now it has changed into a collection of regrades. This will form an alternative to the officially released Blu-ray boxset.

So instead the Theatrical Cut (TC), International Cut (IC), Director's Cut (DC), Workprint (WP) and Final Cut (FC) cuts of the official boxset, this project includes a newly regraded IC  that matches the colors of the Criterion Collection laserdisc and a restored TC without the happy ending graded using 35mm elements and deleted scene as a color reference. Finally, the collection will be capped off with a newly regraded Director's Cut which matches the Warner Bros Laserdisc and includes the extra violence from the IC. This will be called the Restored Director's Cut.
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1. Blade Runner Restored Director's Cut (regraded to the Warner Laserdisc - v1.0)

Project Info:

This is an attempt to both regrade the Director's Cut BD to look like the Warner Bros' DC laserdisc and also recut the DC to its intended form as it was suppose to have premiered in 1992. To further expand: the DC was basically the US theatrical cut with the additional unicorn scene added and the "happy ending" removed. As conceived, it was suppose to incorporate the more violent International Cut footage (Tyrell, Priss and nail scenes) but they were left out due being unable to find the footage in the given time constraints. This project restores those brief bits back into the DC cut, creating a "restored" Director's Cut.

Video:
Blu-Ray of the Director's Cut (DC) regraded to the Warner Bros laserdisc with footage from the IC cut.

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 (from the Warner Bros Director's Cut LD with no narration mixed with the IC's Laserdisc PCM 2.0 for the violence additions)
2. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the Warner Bros Director's Cut BD with no narration mixed with the IC's BD for the violence additions)
3. PCM 2.0 Isolated score (maybe)

Pics:
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2. Blade Runner International Cut (regraded to the Criterion Collection Laserdisc - v2.0)

Project Info:

This is an attempt to take my initial regrade here:

https://fanrestore.com/thread-226.html

and rework the overall pictures and fix some a lot of spots. I added luma (enhancing contrast, shadows and highlights) from the original BD to create picture has a little less flat-ish look which is inherited to the laserdisc.  It's a subtle change but one I feel is better. I also went through and corrected 6 scenes 456 shots to make them slightly more accurate to the LD and graded an additional 20 shots to make sure the picture "flows" better.

Video:
Blu-Ray of the International Cut (IC),  regraded to the Criterion Collection laserdisc with some luma recovered from the original BD grade

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 (from the Criterion Collection International Cut LD-Narration) (New Version)
2. Dolby Digital 5.1 (from the Warner Bros International Cut BD-Narration)
3. PCM 2.0 (from the Warner Bros Director's Cut LD-No Narration mixed with the IC's Laserdisc PCM 2.0 and parts of musical score to fill the gaps)

Pics:
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BD/Restored Theatrical Cut Regrade