2018-01-22, 04:10 PM
Good question, I'd also like to know about the process. My lame guess would be that it depends from situation to situation.
My assumption was based on the fact that iTunes colors or general WEB-DLs usually seem to match the Blu Rays, which indicates that at least in the past with SDR, the final colored masters were already given to them. I can't quite imagine why studios who want to get out a very profitable movie would give an HDR master to iTunes and say "do whatever with it". But it's not impossible I guess. I'd take a gander that they prepare various masters for various resolutions (both SDR and HDR) and all that's left to do for the streaming company is to request the resolution they want and encode it. So for example the different framing on the IMAX shots would already be decided early in the chain, not by iTunes themselves (who likely don't even have the personnel nor time to make such artistic choices).
As for the iTunes looking worse than madVR, I would argue it perhaps depends on the scene (aside from the seemingly non-optimal black levels which can probably be improved on either way). Someone mentioned a tad more magenta and compared to your madVR shots I think that's plausible. The more reason to believe that the grading is "official", as I don't think iTunes would apply a blanket magenta tint on their streams. But I don't feel like there is generally too much magenta in most shots, many of which still are rather greenish/orangeish.
My assumption was based on the fact that iTunes colors or general WEB-DLs usually seem to match the Blu Rays, which indicates that at least in the past with SDR, the final colored masters were already given to them. I can't quite imagine why studios who want to get out a very profitable movie would give an HDR master to iTunes and say "do whatever with it". But it's not impossible I guess. I'd take a gander that they prepare various masters for various resolutions (both SDR and HDR) and all that's left to do for the streaming company is to request the resolution they want and encode it. So for example the different framing on the IMAX shots would already be decided early in the chain, not by iTunes themselves (who likely don't even have the personnel nor time to make such artistic choices).
As for the iTunes looking worse than madVR, I would argue it perhaps depends on the scene (aside from the seemingly non-optimal black levels which can probably be improved on either way). Someone mentioned a tad more magenta and compared to your madVR shots I think that's plausible. The more reason to believe that the grading is "official", as I don't think iTunes would apply a blanket magenta tint on their streams. But I don't feel like there is generally too much magenta in most shots, many of which still are rather greenish/orangeish.
