Batman '89 regrade (old VC-1 BD source) V2 Released

[Dek Rollins]

This is a regrade I made after the colors on the 4K remaster left me disappointed. At first I spent about two weeks trying to regrade the new remaster as it is in fact a higher quality transfer than the old blu-ray, but I found it difficult to fix certain issues I have with it. Despite its blocky nature, the old blu-ray image looks more like a 35mm print to me than the new one (when given a proper contrast adjustment of course), and I also left the remaster behind entirely when I realized the credits/titles have been stabilized, which isn't the case for the old master. So, I got to work on it again and came out with something I see as being at least decently more accurate to the print run than the remaster is.

Some people have said that the remaster is much more accurate to the 35mm release than the old blu-ray, though I disagree. The 35mm frames posted as "proof" don't look anything like the remaster does. The comparison only proves that the contrast level of the remaster is more accurate, not the colors being presented. Anyway, enough rambling, here's my grade.



Presented with the film is the JP laserdisc track as synced by Bronan (synced to this BD by adding an extra four frames to the beginning of the track) in PCM, and the Tim Burton commentary from the BD. Chapters from the BD are also included.

Discussion on the new 4K release such as this thread:
https://fanrestore.com/thread-2692.html
...got me to consider releasing this, so here it is.

[crampedmisfit1990]

Sweet! Did the new color timing on the 4K make it literally impossible to fix some things or just harder as to where you'd rather not take the time?

[Dek Rollins]

Many instances of "salmon-face" were virtually impossible to fix in the remaster. For example, the entire parade/float scene is really blue in the remaster and every one of Joker's men is given pink faces. I couldn't recover they're skin. But various levels of salmon skin plagues almost every scene, and it's not something I've been able to fix to my own satisfaction. Another thing that was impossible to fix is the teal surrounding the highlights in many scenes. In a lot of these scenes, blues, cyans, and greens have all been homogenized into this greenish teal tone. I can't fix that.

[crampedmisfit1990]

Geez, That really sux. Your regrade looks good to me tho on the old BD.

[Dek Rollins]

Yeah I'm not at all broken up about having to use the old BD. I'm not too bothered by the blocking issues it has. No worse than any HDTV preservation on this site I'd imagine. And as I mentioned in the first post, I don't like that the gateweave in the titles has been stabilized in the remaster. Gotta have that accurate 35mm feel.

[crampedmisfit1990]

I get it, I am a pretty picky purist in most films/TV and get annoyed at "Fixes" usually.

[PDB]

Pics look good Dek

[Setzer]

The new remastered BD suffers from a poor down-conversion from the HDR master. The 4K BD disc is more correct than the regular remastered BD.

[applesandrice]

Looks great! Thanks for all of your hard work.

[Dek Rollins]

The new remastered BD suffers from a poor down-conversion from the HDR master. The 4K BD disc is more correct than the regular remastered BD.

I've only been referring to the 4K version in this thread, not the 1080p disc. Even so, both have very silmilar color problems, the 1080p version just has highlight artifacts and black crush to boot.