Looking for the "right" Terminator 2 color grading...

[PDB]

That russian tracker just upped a new open matte version of T2.

It's not genuine, it's made by combining the 4/3 open matte russian DVD with the 2015 Lionsgate master.

- The hybrid is obtained by automatically matching the widescreen (2.35: 1) New Lionsgate Bluray (best unmastered transfer) and full-screen (4: 3) DVD Twister with the goal of getting an open matte (16: 9) version.
- The frame composition was calculated automatically, starting from the intersection of two sources. If there is once an official open matte version, the frame filling will be about the same.
- The vast majority of scenes have a larger frame filling than a widescreen version.
- Both sources are as close as possible to each other in color using automatic color correction.
- Empty areas in the corners of the frame after combining the two sources are filled with a stretched and smeared widescreen.

That sounds interesting, can you post pics?

[spoRv]

Sample: http://sendfile.su/1384068

The author is now also a FanRes member!

[zoidberg]

I managed to bag a cheap copy of the full frame theatrical laserdisc (it's rare as hen's teeth in the UK) but it's gone missing in the post. Grrrrrrrrrrrr

[Stamper]

Oh, man too bad!

[Beber]

OK, so I just watched the 3D Blu-ray but in 2D. It's an even better match to the 35mm print I saw in September 2014. It's less saturated, not as green (Sarah's review by Silberman) and the steel factory is less orange, more yellow, way closer to my memories of the 35mm. Now there's still one catch: it needs to be seen on the warmest setting of the white color balance of your TV. Thus the blues turn into cyan, as they should be, and the yellow push that comes with the warm setting makes the steel factory even closer to its proper yellow look.

So, if a project maker is on board, I'd say:
- color match the 2D remaster to the 3D.
- add some yellow into it so that we wouldn't have to tamper with our white balance individually.
- delete 4 frames at the end of that specific shot of Arnie on his bike that cuts to Sarah's video talking about her dream (in order to use Chewie's CDS mix resynchronized track)
- use the 2015 Blu-ray to replace the digitally tampered shots or part of said shots (Arnie's face pasted onto the stunt guy, T-1000 genitals getting covered with extra digital concrete, truck windshield getting off, etc.).
- probably change the blue color to pink in the first laser blasts fired in the future war opening.
- regrain the whole thing so it would look more like film.
- if the regraining doesn't do a good enough job in scenes with waxy faces, then use the 2015 Blu-ray as replacement.
- get rid of the extra beginning logos and 3D credits to start with the Carolco logo.
- use Chewie's CDS mix resynchronized track.

And that's it, you're golden!

[Stamper]

Yes! Actually I think using the HDR 4K source could be better as it's not "one eye" of the 3D thus the image as it was shot.
I was contemplating myself just reencoding the 4K with a grain plate like Film Convert (which would do the same your TV setting) and cutting off the 4 frames to match to Chewie's CDS mix. (also deleting the logos at the beginning to be in sync with the old master).
Color matching the 2D won't bring back the clipped highlights. The 2D Blu is botched beyond repair. 4K is perfect, no clipped highlights anywhere.

[deleted user]

Yes! Actually I think using the HDR 4K source could be better as it's not "one eye" of the 3D thus the image as it was shot.
I was contemplating myself just reencoding the 4K with a grain plate like Film Convert (which would do the same your TV setting) and cutting off the 4 frames to match to Chewie's CDS mix. (also deleting the logos at the beginning to be in sync with the old master).
Color matching the 2D won't bring back the clipped highlights. The 2D Blu is botched beyond repair. 4K is perfect, no clipped highlights anywhere.

I agree with this. With a bit of luck a simple 3D LUT like with DrDre's tool may be enough to match the HDR to the 3D Blu. Add some curve adjustments pre-LUT in the highlights and shadows to recover highlights and blacks, and you should be getting a pretty awesome image.

And if the regraining does not work, you can always try out my crazy suggestion from the other thread ... after all, we now have a source aligning plugin for AviSynth.

There's one thing I wonder: Whether the 4K is a "true" 2D. Who is to say they didn't do that one 3D remaster in 4K and then simply used the left or right eye? Producing an extra 2D version would only increase production cost with possibly not much palpable benefit.

[Stamper]

Well comparisons shots matches between the 2D and 4K but they don't with 3D one eye and 2D, so I think it's fair to say the 4K is the full image (also it has better framing than the 2D in some places). I have no idea what happened to the 2D to be botched that way.
The 4K also have zero clipping "raw", not in any place, anywhere. I checked the worst moments and they look OK.

[Beber]

There's one thing I wonder: Whether the 4K is a "true" 2D. Who is to say they didn't do that one 3D remaster in 4K and then simply used the left or right eye? Producing an extra 2D version would only increase production cost with possibly not much palpable benefit.

The left eye from 3D and the 2D have different framings. Now there possibly are digital tamperings such as haircuts that were made for the 3D conversion that could have come out also in the 2D version; that I don't know.

[deleted user]

Ah, interesting to know.