[Released] Mad Max (1979) original color timing & mix

[spoRv]

UHD HDR converted to SDR regraded using DVD as color reference v2


still some small artefacts like in row7 col4 cloud, yet way closer to DVD luma than previous attempt; maybe I rised up too much the saturation...

V1 vs V2:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/135222

DVD vs V2:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/135223

Opinions needed! (and, if someone has discovered how to get rid of those nasty artefacts that happens almost always when the contrast difference is very high between sources, using different color matching software, please let me know! )

[Stamper]

Those look better, however the HDR lacks contrast. I think you should push up the contrast to get closer to the DVD rather than colors.

Looks like you done this on V2?

Beware of skin color and make sure they match. I think there is a little to much saturation on V2 and sometimes you can see the whole image is either too yellow or too red.

You still have a problem with the vegetation. In the shot where Johnny The Boy pleads for life, look at the clearer vegetation in the original, here it looks HD photographed.

[spoRv]

Yep, saturation was indeed too high. At least contrast is closer than ever before.

As the final result is a mix of various color matching, now I'm encoding the whole movie in various versions - the slower will take a week! - and, after that, mixing them will be made on the fly... let's wait for them to be encoded now.

[spoRv]

Still encoding - it will take some time...

I think - I hope - to have got rid of all the artefacts:



(we'll see at the end! )

[Stamper]

Looks fine to me, just make sure the fleshtones match. Here it looks funky! Like her face is a paste over LOL

[spoRv]

DVD vs V3: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/135273

EDIT: deleted, as it was faulty.

[Stamper]

Hmmm not enough color now. You need that technicolor look! Not natural fleshtones

[spoRv]

V3 was faulty, comparison deleted.

DVD vs V4: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/135312

I made literally hundred tests - regrading, recontrasting (a neologism?), color correcting, and V4 is the closer I ever got.
Now last two needed regrade components are encoding - "only" two days each

[spoRv]

V4 encoding - lossless version should be ready tomorrow; meanwhile, a 5m30s test clip is available (no audio) encoded in h265 @33.4mbps using AMD Vega Frontier GPU; it will be nice if someone would check it and tell me something about encoder quality:

https://fex.net/s/zb7robc

personal note: obviously the BD/UHD-BD are wrong somehow, both about color grading and contrast, while DVD/HDTV are much better, but, are they "right"? I think that they are quite close to the theatrical version, still they have some problems; after watching thousand stills of every shot, I think DVD/HDTV have sometimes wrong colors, in particular the usual magenta blanket on skies - it does not happen frequently but it happens; regraded UHD-BD of course could not be perfectly ragraded as DVD/HDTV, but it has not those problems. All in all, I'm perfectly happy to trade the less-than-identical reproduction of contrast and colors on this regrade, well paid back by colors more even between shots, a lot more details, a lot less MPEG-2 blocks, bigger frame size (in almost all shots). Hope you will agree that the fact it does not perfectly replicate contrast and colors of the DVD/HDTV is a small price to pay to get everything else - and, as regrade is nevertheless pretty accurate, it represent the spirit of the theatrical print. I think. I hope.

[Stamper]

Thanks man, watched it, it really lacks color.

You need to bump up the saturation, it really looks grey at this point.

Apart from that (and some too yellow shots) it looks nice!