This reminds me of Back to the Future, where Universal seems to have either taken a perfectly good scan, or rescanned an element that had already gotten a very good scan (as seen on HDTV) and FUBAR'ed the BD version with edge enhancement and pink shifting. (I thought red boosting went out of style when flatscreen TVs supplanted CRTs? I guess not...)

I would love to see a regraded version of the best 2D source. It'd be the best possible presentation, until poita's long-gestating 35mm scan project is finished.

(2015-05-21, 11:04 AM)spoRv Wrote: The HDTV seems very good, and not so far from the BD, talking about resolution; now, if you can make the same comparison using the 3D BD for just these three frames, I'll try to test my color grading script to see if it's able to get good results...

Here are some comparisons with the 3DBD. Forgive me if they're not the exact same frame; it's difficult to judge with the 3D version. Even though the 3DBD is supposedly based on a new remaster, it still has the over-sharpened look of the 2DBD. Again, the HDTV looks the most natural. Would you agree that the HDTV colours are similar to the LD?
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/128094/

I have some other observations about the HDTV version vs. the BD releases but I'll save them for another post when I have time to take some more screenshots. Suffice to say it does seem like the best theatrical preservation would be the HDTV video graded to the 3DBD colours and with the audio track from the original DTS CDs that was posted on OT some time ago (I have it if needed).

If there is a wowow capture with higher quality then obviously this would be great but only if it were possible to remove the subtitles and logos. Personally, I'd much prefer the lower bitrate video if the logos etc. could not be removed.

(2015-05-21, 08:10 PM)Turisu Wrote:

(2015-05-21, 11:04 AM)spoRv Wrote: The HDTV seems very good, and not so far from the BD, talking about resolution; now, if you can make the same comparison using the 3D BD for just these three frames, I'll try to test my color grading script to see if it's able to get good results...

Here are some comparisons with the 3DBD. Forgive me if they're not the exact same frame; it's difficult to judge with the 3D version. Even though the 3DBD is supposedly based on a new remaster, it still has the over-sharpened look of the 2DBD. Again, the HDTV looks the most natural. Would you agree that the HDTV colours are similar to the LD?
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/128094/
I have some other observations about the HDTV version vs. the BD releases but I'll save them for another post when I have time to take some more screenshots. Suffice to say it does seem like the best theatrical preservation would be the HDTV video graded to the 3DBD colours and with the audio track from the original DTS CDs that was posted on OT some time ago (I have it if needed).
If there is a wowow capture with higher quality then obviously this would be great but only if it were possible to remove the subtitles and logos. Personally, I'd much prefer the lower bitrate video if the logos etc. could not be removed.

There are no normal subtitles as the film is dubbed, they are only shown during onscreen graphics. The logo only comes onscreen a couple of times for a few seconds. All of this can easily be replaced with video from the Sky Hd cap also on Usenet. The Wowow is the best source bar none at this point. The cap is similar to the Wowow captures of the Indiana Jones Trilogy which were the ones to have before the Blurays came along and some people still prefer the original color timing of the Wowow Raiders.

When looking at that comparison that Turisu posted between the 3DBD and the HDTV, the first thing that stands out is the atrocious quality of the 3DBD. WOW, what a difference! Aside from the fact that the HDTV copy appears to have a slight blue-tint to it, I actually prefer the colors on it, as IMHO they appear to look a lot more natural. I'm not saying they are theatrically accurate, just that it's pleasant to look at.

Is the HDTV copy a re-encode of the WOWOW source (which has a much higher bitrate) or is it from the SkyHD cap?

More than likely the Sky HD cap, Canal plus cap with logo removed or a Russian Hd station. Don't think it's the Wowow.

Here you a quick'n'dirt regrade: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/128115

@ X5gb - thanx for the answer. FYI, most (but no all) Russian HDTV sourced footage that I've seen always has a tv-logo and no English audio track so I wouldn't be surprised if that's not one of the sources in this case.

@ Andrea - For a quick-n-dirt comparison that result looks rather nice, although in image #3 it looks like there is a little detail lost in some of the shadow areas (most noticeable around the letters on the banner) I know if you were giving this the SpoRv "treatment," the final result would be much better

(2015-05-22, 07:05 AM)jerryshadoe Wrote: @ X5gb - thanx for the answer. FYI, most (but no all) Russian HDTV sourced footage that I've seen always has a tv-logo and no English audio track so I wouldn't be surprised if that's not one of the sources in this case.
@ Andrea - For a quick-n-dirt comparison that result looks rather nice, although in image #3 it looks like there is a little detail lost in some of the shadow areas (most noticeable around the letters on the banner) I know if you were giving this the SpoRv "treatment," the final result would be much better

The Wowow is much better than the Rutracker encode as I have already said. The only thing that needs to be fixed is a few seconds of subtitles for onscreen graphics (which cause interlacing artifacts when they are on due to Wowow encoder) and a few flashes of the logo and obviously color timing. Hopefully spoRv should be able to deal with these using his amazing skills. The syncing of both the Dts laserdisc (available on Usenet) and Dts-hdma will make this amazing.

Andrea, those regraded shots are wonderful to see . Thank you.

Here are some more observations about the Sky HD version. I can't comment on the wowow version as I can't find a download for it and I don't have access to usenet.

Firstly, the Universal logo is missing which is a shame since it does form part of the opening title sequence. But this could always be taken from the 2DBD and de-sharpened.

Secondly, the captions in the opening scene of the movie have a definite blue glow around them that is not present in either the 2DBD or 3DBD:

2DBD
[Image: 2ngs85d.png]

HDTV
[Image: 2qmp5yq.png]


Thirdly, as I've mentioned before is the cropping. The HDTV is open-matte 1.78:1 and has more image information on all sides. The BD has the theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 but appears to have been cropped poorly as viable parts of the image at the top of the screen are frequently cut off. This is true of both the 2DBD and 3DBD:

2DBD
[Image: 2621ser.png]

HDTV
[Image: zme7wi.png]


2DBD
[Image: 280s1mw.png]

HDTV
[Image: 2s14odx.png]