Die Hard - New HD Master on Netflix?

[zoidberg]

Hi guys hope everyone's enjoying their weekend. Whenever an old, 'catalogue' title shows up on netflix I always have a look to see if the master they are using is the same as the Blu ray. Usually it's the same (save compression/filtering), sometimes it isn't. Sure enough the versions of Die Hard they are streaming right now is different. Obviously there's been talk of a 4K restoration of Die Hard that has yet to materialise on Blu ray- could this be from that master? Unfortunately being on netflix means that it is somewhat bitstarved but sure enough there seems to be more detail, especially in static shots and close ups. Also the transfer seems to be rock solid in terms of telecine wobble and there are scenes which have been timed differently with some teal grading here and there.

I've trawled the net for more info but no-one else seems to be discussing this. Am I barking up the wrong tree? In any case I have captured the film to my hard drive and perhaps there's a project to be had from this. All I know from the past is that the 4k master for Robocop showed up on Netflix before the blu ray... I should also note that I'm in the UK and I don't know if it's the same across Europe/The States.

I should mention that there is a different, possibly 4k master of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China on netflix too but trust me, that deserves it's own thread.

[Feallan]

Could you post screenshots?

[PDB]

I'm interested in both . There could be a Die Hard project with some of the LD tracks

[nafroe]

Always interested in anything Die Hard!

[zoidberg]

Hi again here's a view screenshots taken from VLC:

http://www.imagebam.com/image/9be576519681474
http://www.imagebam.com/image/974102519681483
http://www.imagebam.com/image/1c7481519681493
http://www.imagebam.com/image/246209519681502

Like I said being netflix it is somewhat compressed and it is a 80s anamorphic feature so some shots are inherently soft due to the optics and film stock of the era, but I hope these give some indication. Just doing a basic comparison to the blu shows slight variations in framing and more of a red push in a lot of shots. What grain there is seems more like o-neg grain. I just wish there was a less compressed version out there (ideally a blu ray obviously), perhaps itunes?

[jerryshadoe]

Itunes compresses even more than netflix so that wouldn't be a viable option

[FrankT]

Could you do what you did with The Sword in the Stone? Would that help?

[jerryshadoe]

Yes it would, assuming that both sources are from the same transfer. With SitS, I got lucky, but I have other projects I'm working on where there is an issue with sources not aligning properly on screen due to coming from different transfers and they are a pain to match up. But when they do, this can help improve the overall resolution substantially

[zoidberg]

I guess iTunes was a long shot, I had heard that some of their newer encodes were better but who's to say they're even running this version? I was tempted to try a second cap to see if the two would generate an average but I don't think Netflix encodes that way, I think the streams are pre-rendered. A 35mm grain plate overlay would probably achieve a better result. I watched some more of this stream this evening on my front projector and it is really quite impressive in motion, when the focus is sharp the detail is great. Hopefully I'll get a chance to upload a short sample tomorrow. Any scene suggestions?

[zoidberg]

What are people's thought about the soundtrack? Obviously the mighty PCM laserdisc track is the one to go for but I don't have that. I used to own that disc but I sold my laserdiscs* before I knew about ripping and muxing... my shame! I've got the original non-anamorphic DVD which has, to my knowledge, the laserdisc 5.1 AC3 mix which is closest to the 70mm track (but not identical) and a 2.0 matrix surround track.

*I kept a few but not the blockbusters. Or the player. Oh the grief