Planes, trains & automobiles UK Blu-Ray vs HDTV

[Evit]

BR / HDTV


Thanks to X5gb I made some quick comparison between the UK Blu-Ray and the HDTV version that X5gb has and here's some images. Now, they might not be the same exact frame but near enough.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/129572

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/129573

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/129574

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/129575

HDTV seems dirtier, with less details and a bit yellow. Less crop though!
UK Blu-Ray is more cropped but with less dirt, more details than HDTV and what appears to be the correct colors. DNR'ed though, as many fans of this film know.

Another film that Paramount didn't bother give a modern and better treatment. At the moment, the DNR version on Blu-Ray is still the version with better colors, more details and what appears to be a better framing (at least to my eye).

[crampedmisfit1990]

It really saddens me this film has been neglected so much. DNR is a disaster. I really hope one day we get a 4K restoration without DNR and other mess ups. One of my favorite films. One can only dream.

[X5gb]

Outside of the color timing, prefer my hdtv, no dnr and less crop (never noticed it until you pointed out with the screen comparisons). A digital clean up of the dirt and color timing to match the bluray should help bring out the best in the hdtv. Like crampedmisfit1990 says above the dnr is a disaster and the extra detail could be down to EE.

[Evit]

HDTV must be an upscaled version, probably from the DVD era, if you look at the words on the ticket, some details are just not there on the HDTV (gone is also the mole on Candy's face in the TV version). As much DNRed the Blu-Ray is, it still retains more details. I don't see EE and other tweaks transforming the HDTV version into anything better (or even close) to the BR. We're kinda stuck with what we've got at the moment, sadly.

[X5gb]

Definitely not an upscale, maybe compression filtering on the HDTV and ill take slight loss of detail, dirt and specks over the bluray anyday, can't stand that electronic DNR look. Was really hoping you would be able to apply your magic digital clean up to get rid of them specks though, ah well, I will at least try to fix the color timing myself. What tool do you use to get rid of the dirt snd specks, is it a plug in for Premiere, something like Bullet.

[Evit]

Definitely not an upscale, maybe compression filtering on the HDTV and ill take slight loss of detail, dirt and specks over the bluray anyday, can't stand that electronic DNR look. Was really hoping you would be able to apply your magic digital clean up to get rid of them specks though, ah well, I will at least try to fix the color timing myself. What tool do you use to get rid of the dirt snd specks, is it a plug in for Premiere, something like Bullet.

It was worth taking a look at it but honestly I wouldn't invest time to clean up a filtered version. Color timing you can try for sure.

And if you want to tackle cleaning the dirt, best way to clean something like that is using After Effects, making "patches" that you take from one frame after or before, that works for steady shots and backgrounds (they are aplenty in Hughes' films), it becomes a bit more tricky with moving objects and faces, where you might have to work by hand, probably on Photoshop. At the time of Buck I worked on CS6 and I've only recently stepped up to CC 2018 so I don't know my way around it entirely just yet, there might be something useful in the new tools on Premiere that maybe can help you accomplish that but I haven't checked them out yet.

A more advanced method would be to allign the two sources properly (Blu-Ray and HDTV), change the color grade of one to match the other, place the clean one on a layer under the dirty one and use the clean one as source for these patches to cover up the spots. This, in theory, is fine and dandy, but in practice it's easy to get poor results and visible patches.

[DoomBot]

How large a file is that HDTV cap and does it have the very end credits or did it get cut off?

[X5gb]

Full original normal speed end credits including boss looking at posters right at the end. Overall file size was 11.89gb, direct ts stream capture from Sky Anytime HD so bitrate is pretty good.

[DoomBot]

Ah ok then i don't have the same file, what you have sounds so much better.