2017-11-18, 12:37 AM
That looks fantastic, man! Yes, it seems that the church really is an exception. I guess one could live with it. Though, if an HDTV were to appear where they are not clipped, one could take those shots from there. In the rest of the movie it almost appears like the DVDs clip a tiny bit more, so the regrade works fantastically.
It's probably not the "right" grading. The Blu Ray claims that the new transfer was supervised by the director and the French DVD also looks a bit bluish. But personally, I simply like the DVD DE more. I would kill to see the movie like that in its entirety.
And I totally agree about the English track. Even if it was from VHS or so, it still would be worth having. It's really curious how all the other languages have dubs, but no English.
Another thing: I read on rutracker (but haven't verified) that some of the Blu Ray audio tracks may have issues with clipping. From what I gathered, the French Blu Ray has about double the audio bitrate of the German Blu Ray, despite both being 16 bit 48 kHz. If it was severely compressed/made louder, that would be an explanation (higher overall volume combined with dithering creates more data to compress). At least worth looking into I think. Someone on that forum mentioned that one of the DVDs has the best audio, but obviously it won't be lossless. Maybe the best lossless and the best overall track could be included. Plus an English track if it turns up. Plus, the German lossless appears to be very good (even 7.1) and I've read people say it's even better than the French one. Though I'm personally a fan of original language, it can't hurt to have that one too I guess.
Edit: Your regrade also fixes the main issue the DVD had - the mediocre black levels. Despite being darker on the Blu Ray regrade (which is a good thing imo!), they actually have more detail, like with that guy standing in the van.
Edit 2: You mentioned the JPN Blu Ray having better bitrate. Do you have that one? Can that one be used as a base for regrading too? And another idea: Since the German Blu Ray and the French Blu Ray have identical masters with only minute differences in color, what would you think about overlaying the two Blu Rays (or even the three, with JPN) and creating an average or even Median for better source quality for the regrade and re-encode?
It's probably not the "right" grading. The Blu Ray claims that the new transfer was supervised by the director and the French DVD also looks a bit bluish. But personally, I simply like the DVD DE more. I would kill to see the movie like that in its entirety.
And I totally agree about the English track. Even if it was from VHS or so, it still would be worth having. It's really curious how all the other languages have dubs, but no English.
Another thing: I read on rutracker (but haven't verified) that some of the Blu Ray audio tracks may have issues with clipping. From what I gathered, the French Blu Ray has about double the audio bitrate of the German Blu Ray, despite both being 16 bit 48 kHz. If it was severely compressed/made louder, that would be an explanation (higher overall volume combined with dithering creates more data to compress). At least worth looking into I think. Someone on that forum mentioned that one of the DVDs has the best audio, but obviously it won't be lossless. Maybe the best lossless and the best overall track could be included. Plus an English track if it turns up. Plus, the German lossless appears to be very good (even 7.1) and I've read people say it's even better than the French one. Though I'm personally a fan of original language, it can't hurt to have that one too I guess.
Edit: Your regrade also fixes the main issue the DVD had - the mediocre black levels. Despite being darker on the Blu Ray regrade (which is a good thing imo!), they actually have more detail, like with that guy standing in the van.
Edit 2: You mentioned the JPN Blu Ray having better bitrate. Do you have that one? Can that one be used as a base for regrading too? And another idea: Since the German Blu Ray and the French Blu Ray have identical masters with only minute differences in color, what would you think about overlaying the two Blu Rays (or even the three, with JPN) and creating an average or even Median for better source quality for the regrade and re-encode?